Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Heather's Haunted House
    Heather's Haunted House
    Heather's Haunted House
    Ebook92 pages1 hour

    Heather's Haunted House

    By Sasha St. Clair

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Do you believe in ghosts? Heather Black doesn't. She is a lonely but brave orphan who has runaway from Snowden's Home for Children. The year is 1911, and Heather has taken just about as much as she can take from the cruel headmaster. Despite repeated warnings about the "Haunted House" beyond the woods, Heather takes off in search of the mysterious dwelling; knowing full well that no one will follow.

    A lonely but brave orphan has runaway from Snowdon's Home for Children. The year is 1911, and Heather has taken just about as much as she can take from the cruel headmaster. Despite repeated warnings about the "Haunted House" beyond the woods, Heather takes off in search of the mysterious dwelling; knowing full well that no one will follow. Along the way Heather meets a miriad of circus freaks who live in small huts and befriends an 18 year old boy who has been living in a tree house on the border of the orphanage's property ever since he was thrown out when he became of legal age.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCampfire Publishing
    Release dateNov 3, 2011
    ISBN9781465946584
    Heather's Haunted House

    Related to Heather's Haunted House

    Related ebooks

    Children's Fairy Tales & Folklore For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      79 The Terrible Grinning Men

      Sep 10, 2020

      79 The Terrible Grinning Men
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Barn Door

      Sep 2, 2021

      Dusk looms over a small meadow in middle-of-nowhere Cheshire. It’s a still summer evening, silent except for the occasional car trundling up the road that borders the farm. These fields haven’t seen livestock for years, and docks and buttercup stems

      2 min read

    • Article

      Campfire Tales…

      Jan 21, 2022

      Campfire Tales…
      3 min read

    • Article

      Spies Are Born That Way

      Mar 2, 2023

      Spies Are Born That Way
      1 min read

    • Article

      Noises In The NIGHT

      Aug 18, 2021

      Noises In The NIGHT
      3 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Jan 4, 2021

      It was Autumn 1986. I was in my mid-20s, late to leave the nest, living with my widowed father until I was in my mid-30s. We were more like flat-mates than father and son. My elder brother Paul, meanwhile, had flown the nest back in 1980 when he marr

      3 min read

    • Article

      Welcome To My Gothic House Of Horrors

      Feb 9, 2022

      An echo of Arthurian legend has visited my home – and, purely for the variety, thanks must be given for that. For so long, the literary flavour clinging to the property has tended exclusively towards the Gothic. Anyone glancing in from the street wil

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Boy Who Cried Wolf

      Jun 9, 2020

      Josh Turner from Austin, Texas The egg landed with a splat on the truck window. ‘Bullseye,’ grinned my buddy Dave*. Hiding in the shadows, as the car drove past, we could see the driver gesticulating furiously. It was 31 October 1990 – Halloween – a

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Heart Of Darkness

      Feb 12, 2020

      IN the small hours of the night, when the roads are silent and empty, a car careens down a village street. The driver’s face is dimly lit by the map light, which shines behind the windscreen. Under the single village streetlight, he pulls over, kills

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Locksmith

      Jun 1, 2022

      THE LOCKSMITH cannot speak well. He never liked school. When he was a child, the others called him Tombstone. They threw things at him. Bottles and food waste and dirt clumps studded with gravel. Though he was much larger than they were, he remained

      9 min read

    • Article

      From The Other Side

      Oct 1, 2020

      From The Other Side
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Sep 1, 2022

      First prize 10 and under Tang Li, age 9 Palmetto Bay, FL My name is Anisa. I was in Hawaii on vacation. I enjoyed sipping refreshing drinks, overlooking the turquoise ocean, and dancing with others, before I overheard that the priceless Fire Ring wa

      10 min read

    • Article

      How To Defend Against Vikings

      Aug 5, 2021

      How To Defend Against Vikings
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cast Out

      Jul 10, 2021

      Verity pushed back the quilts, rolled off her straw mattress onto the floor, felt for the poker, and stirred the ashes. The embers glowed. She wouldn’t have to go fire-borrowing again. Her chilled hands were clumsy. One glowing bit of wood rolled fro

      21 min read

    • Article

      Equinox

      May 18, 2022

      In this strange world, where identities change with the rising and setting of the sun, supernatural forces are at work – and they’re causing trouble… St Leonars prison was an appropriately imposing building. It rose out of the surrounding shacks and

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Running Away

      Feb 22, 2021

      Leaving London behind her, Millie drove faster, picturing thousands of crazed fans in pursuit, desperate for what – a lock of her hair? Or Julian; except after the last gig, somehow she knew he wouldn’t follow. She knew from bitter experience that di

      5 min read

    • Article

      The little NIGHTINGALE

      Dec 21, 2022

      The little NIGHTINGALE
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Thing That looked Like Me

      Sep 28, 2021

      The Thing That looked Like Me
      3 min read

    • Article

      Portal To Peril

      Feb 6, 2019

      Portal To Peril
      7 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Nov 4, 2021

      When my son was around one, many items of his clothing began to inexplicably disappear. I can’t over-emphasise the inexplicable nature of what occurred – all the items unquestionably disappeared in my house. The house is always secure, and there is n

      8 min read

    • Article

      My Mother’s Stalker

      Jan 16, 2024

      My Mother’s Stalker
      24 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      AN EXCERPT FROM The First Line of Dante’s ‘Inferno’

      Dec 1, 2020

      Early forties, tall, self-possessed. Hiking in the woods in search of her missing sister. A young park ranger, late twenties. Pretty. Slim. Strong. The play is formatted like prose; however, it is intended for performance. If actors simply perform th

      15 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Heather's Haunted House

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Heather's Haunted House - Sasha St. Clair

      Heather’s Haunted House

      by

      Sasha St. Clair

      Copyright 2010 Sasha St. Clair

      Smashwords Edition. License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are the product of the author’s imaginations and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      *****

      1911 Pennsylvania

      Lightning flashes and thunder crashes and rain pours down as a horse and carriage races up a dirt road which leads up to a great and stately house, with many trees close around it; so close that in some places their branches drag against the walls when the wind blows, and some hang down broken, for no one seems to take much charge of the place. The great oval driveway is covered with weeds, and trees and creepers grow over the long, many-windowed front. The house is as desolate it is certainly grand.

      Mr. Wingrave steps out of the horse and carriage. Appearing much older than he really is, it is nearly impossible to place his exact age; with a countenance embodying a strange mixture of intellect and power, but with a withal sinister and full of malignant omen. His nose is hooked, like the beak of a vulture, his eyes large, gray, prominent, cruel and cold. These features are surmounted by a crimson velvet cap, and hair that peeps from under which have a few streaks of white from age or aggravation, while the eyebrows retain their full original blackness. He unlocks and then pushes open two huge iron gates and leaves them open behind him. He crosses through a neglected garden within high towering walls. All the vegetation is dead and the grounds are covered with neglected equipment that seems leftover from a traveling circus.

      The house is dusty, dark and dank. Mr. Wingrave slams the door behind him and briskly walks across the room.

      Mr. Wingrave hollers, Prepare my grips, Rosalind. I'm leaving at the midnight hour!

      Rosalind, sixty, a tall stately housekeeper, dressed in a full-length black dress, takes her Master's cloak from his hand and rests it upon a hook by the door. Her hair is silver white.

      Rosalind looks so cold, gray and stony, as if she had never loved or cared for anyone. All things considered, she has some cause for looking as haggard as she does.

      Beg your pardon, sir, but you were not to leave till next week, she says in a low, hollow tone.

      Mr. Wingrave continues walking from her when he says, "I have no reason to stay another moment! I will leave immediately!

      Rosalind bows her head meekly. "Yes, Mr. Wingrave. Your things will be packed and ready.

      He continues to walk on into the shadows.

      Any idea where you'll be heading? Rosalind asks anxiously, with a tinge of curiosity.

      Mr. Wingrave continues to walk as he calls out, "Ask no questions and hear no lies.

      In a grave tone she assures him, "Your things will be packed and ready.

      He continues to walk deeper into the shadows of the large house.

      Any idea where you'll be heading? Rosalind asks in a low, timid voice.

      With the same words and tone as before, he replies, Ask no questions and hear no lies.

      Rosalind disappears into her own shadows. Mr. Wingrave, carrying a lantern, is approached by a group of circus sideshow freaks. They are all of various ages and sizes and proportions.

      One of the Freaks inquires, We're leaving in one hour? Where are we going?

      Did you get us a gig? another asks, and adds, Are we going back on the road?

      Mr. Wingrave's eyes are full of fire when he tells them, Freak show's over! No more touring. It's over.

      One of the Freaks jumps in front of Mr. Wingrave. Through her hair is a hideous face. The skin is shriveled to the bone; the eyes are empty black sockets, and the teeth grim though a lipless mouth. She is thin and tall, and has a face as full of fine wrinkles as if they had been drawn all over it with a needle's point

      But what about the show? the Freak demands to know.

      Mr. Wingrave lets out a mighty laugh. What show? There is no more show. What kind of circus would we be without performing animals? And they're all ... dead!

      Another Freak, a dwarf approaches, and Mr. Wingrave has to look far down to see him. He is a nervous-looking little man, with a pasty complexion, and orange-colored hair meekly plastered down each side of his face.

      But with all the insurance money you got, surely-

      Mr. Wingrave interrupts the dwarf when he screams, There is nothing! There were creditors, and back bills!

      Another freak steps forward and angrily says, And our salaries. We never did get paid for-

      Get out! , shouts Mr. Wingrave, stamping on the ground. Get out of my house, all of you!

      These words are followed by a very long silence, broken finally by one of the Freaks saying, But we have nowhere to go!

      In a voice of thunder, Mr. Wingrave shouts, Your problems are not my problems! Get out! He turns away and screams down the corridor. Rosalind, see that they are led out immediately! He takes a deep breath and then repeats, Immediately!

      Silence fills the room. After a minute one of the Freaks steps forward. In a low, trembling voice she says, Accursed be the house, and restless be the dwellers therein!

      Upon her words the pale atmosphere in the room begins to redden and the room begins to vibrate from the force of unseen pattering feet moving along the walls and ceiling. Mr. Wingrave walks away from the freaks.

      Rosalind emerges from the shadows swinging a broom at the freaks. They run for cover and then out the door. She locks the door behind them. Just then a little ten-year-old girl, dressed as a trapeze artist, emerges from a corridor, running towards the door. Rosalind opens the door and lets the little girl continue on her way, following the other freaks. She locks the door again.

      Freaks ... says Rosalind aloud, addressing nobody in particular.

      The Cellar . . .

      Mr. Wingrave moves a wall panel to the side, which reveals a series of levers and buttons. He pushes up two and pulls down three and a

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1