In just about any neighborhood, one can be told about the local “haunted house” and Everton wasn’t any exception. The “old timers” enjoy scaring the children with tales of terror and fright.
What makes Everton’s haunted house
so different than most others is the fact that it still has a living resident
as well. That curious element doesn’t make it any less frightening
to the local kids. They always pick up their pace as they walk by....
on the opposite side of the street.
Naturally the sole resident of the house; an elderly man in
his seventies; was regarded as strange because he generally kept to himself
and little was know about him. Dark rumors even went so far as to imply
he was “in cahoots with the Devil”.
Many generations of Hawthorne’s had lived in the house but now Eliphas Hawthorne is the only one left; only venturing out of the ominous confines of it’s four walls to get groceries and to pay bills. Late one night many years ago three boys crept out of their homes and met at a prearranged place. Being out late at night and daring each others to do “forbidden” things was; and always will be part of the growing up ritual for mischievous boys. They each thought the other two would “chicken out” and prevent them all from having to go through with the dare they had imposed upon themselves. Unfortunately, mutual peer pressure always forced them to continue. It wasn’t long before the only dare left for the rambunctious boys to try was what they secretly dreaded the most.... the Hawthorne house! As they reached the house they discovered the sinister stories of eternal illumination were true. Every single room in the house was lighted and the contrast between the dark walls and flickering candlelit windows was chilling. It had been claimed by the “old timers” that the reason was Mr. Hawthorne was afraid to sleep with in the dark.
To the three boys who thought that he might just be the Devil himself; the thought that Mr. Hawthorne was afraid of anything ELSE inside was just to frightening to think about. They each swallowed hard as they approached the house.Tom and Don were both eleven years old but Mike was only nine and was always tricked into being the first to go through with everything. Such was the price to tag along. Poor Mike accepted happily even though he always drew the “shortest straw”; so to speak. As usual Mike was the one dared into going all the way up to the window to prove he wasn’t a “chicken”. Like a trooper he courageously marched up to the house and began looking for all the things that nightmares are made of. Little did he know! Being almost surprised not to see anything terrifying immediately, he motioned the older boys over to the kitchen window. It was dimly lit due to lack of electricity but the boys could see Mr. Hawthorne in the shadowy world of candlelight. He was talking to someone but there wasn’t anyone else in the room! There were two plates on the table and both were had a large slice of cake on them. Mr. Hawthorne continued to eat his cake and kept talking to the empty chair as if it was occupied.
Both the thin curtain and the
dimly lit room hindered their vision but there was no doubt about what
they were seeing. To their horror, the cake on the vacant place setting
was disappearing as they watched! They instantly decided that it was high
time they were leaving. Needless to say, none of them slept that night.The
next day at school the three boys discussed what they had seen, or rather
what they had NOT seen the previous night. Time has a way of dissipating
memories and casting doubts on the minds of boys who would have preferred
to forget the supernatural scene they had witnessed anyway so they all
gave different accounts of their adventure.
Regardless; all three versions were a far cry from the actual fear
they had experienced the night before and each painted themselves as the
“hero” while the other two fell apart in a panic. After Tom and Don heard
they were “cowards” from Mike’s version, they had no choice but to
defend their honor by revisiting the Hawthorne house at midnight.
As thunder clouds rolled in around 9 PM it became apparent that they had failed to consider the unexpected into their plans. Don called Tom and they agreed to postpone their dark adventure until a night when it wasn’t raining. Both were secretly relieved that their confrontation with evil was delayed. Don grinned and said: “Lets not tell Mike it’s off and he will go to the house all by himself. That will teach him to call us cowards!”Mike raised up from his pillow and realized he had fallen asleep while waiting for midnight. To his alarm the clock read 12:13! He was 13 minutes late and the guys would think that he was a “chicken”. He wanted desperately to be accepted so he climbed out his window and hurried into the night.
The next morning Don and Tom got up from a restful night and thought what a “good one” they had pulled on Mike. It was Saturday and Tom went over to Don’s house for the afternoon like he usually did. Around lunchtime Don’s mother returned from her trip to the grocery store. She had a worried look on her face and she asked the boys if they had seen Mike that morning. “Why”; they asked as they looked at each other rememberingtheir broken pact. She said that she had been called by his mother who was frantic after Mike’s father had discovered him missing during the night. They each swallowed hard in unison. “No, we haven’t seen him this morning”; they confessed in halftruth. The sin of omission filled their stomachs with guilt. Don’s mother eyed them suspiciously to determine why they looked like they knew more than they admitted. Finally she accepted their response and went back to putting away the groceries. As night rolled around he was still missing and all the search parties had failed to turn up any clues to his whereabouts. Don and Tom were not surprised. They knew where he was at and they knew it was their responsibility to save him. No adults would ever take them seriously if they tried to tell them where he had went, and besides they would get in trouble for sneaking out anyway. As they met in front of the house of their worst fears, both boys bravely crept up to the kitchen window.
As usual all rooms were lit by candlelight but there wasn’t any sign of Eliphas Hawthorne in the kitchen or their friend Mike. After summoning the greatest bravery of their eleven year old lives they tried the door. They were not surprised to find the door unlocked. “What human in his right mind would set foot in the house anyway?”; they reasoned. Yet with shaky knees they “entered the incubus”. The inside was just as they had feared; dark and dingy; where even a thousand candles wouldn’t have been bright enough to take away the evil secrets lurking in the shadows. They heard talking coming from a remote corner of the house where they were sure Mr. Hawthorne was describing in graphic detail the inhuman torture that he was going to use on Mike. It didn’t matter what he intended to do, they were going to overpower him and save their friend from the clutches of evil. Hopefully they weren’t too late. The fearless rescuers followed Mr. Hawthorne’s voice as it got stronger until they knew he was beyond the walls before them in the next room. It was then that they began to hear the other side of the conversation. It was a ghastly hissing but they couldn’t understand what was being said. Assuming Mike was bound and gagged they counted to three in unison and burst into the room.
If they had only known....It
has been over twenty years since the three boys disappeared from the small
town of Everton and many things have changed. Still, other things will
never change. Old Mr. Hawthorne still lives in the house and kids still
sneak out at midnight to peer into his kitchen window and watch him talk
to himself as he puts four extra settings at the table.....
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