Weird Halloween
DOOR TO
CASTLE
DRACULA

Autumn Rose
HELLO FRIENDS OF
THE ORANGE MOON

[First Published: October 25, 2021]

It’s your friend of frights, champion of chills here, the precocious Autumn Rose. And I just wanted to stop on by and welcome y’all back to another Halloween season. And, I know, what you’re gonna say, “Wait, a sec, didn’t spooky season start weeks ago?” Well, you ain’t wrong. And it does seem a bit like we’re runnin’ fashionably late this time of year. But y’know what the raven says? “Better late than nevermore!” *cough*

And so while there is but little over a week what we got left, it just wouldn’t be neighborly if’n we didn’t pop in for a spell. So here tonight is a story, a creepy kind of story, the kind of story to make your teeth go clicky-clacky and hairs ’bout near shoot off your head. So get yourself situated, nice and all cozy warm by the ol’ campfire here for a tale I like to call “Door to Castle Dracula.”
* * *
So I had this friend, used to have this friend, still have this friend? Not sure, really. We used to talk but haven’t really spoken in years. See, one night me and this friend we’re up in New England, travelin’ down from Boston to Long Island, and got a great deal on a retreat, knee deep in the sticks, I mean, like, way far, further than you could walk on foot, real backwoods, y’know?

Anyway, like I was sayin’, one night we’re up there, nice size cabin too, y’see, just chillin’ out with a few other buddies, havin’ a nice time. Well, fire starts gettin’ kind of low in the chimney there, and George asks if I could go out to the storage shed, what they had set up out back, grab a couple of logs for the fire.

Now, the whole area we were in, I ain’t gonna lie, was pretty creepy out in the night and that shed was a good stretch down from the cabin, still not too far off. But I ain’t no chicken, and certainly didn’t want to look scared.

As it were, I say “sure” and next thing I knew I was up out on the trail towards the shed.

But I’m gonna be real with you, it all seemed pretty creepy to me. Shadows of the trees fallin’ all about me under the full moon light, the cold chill of the night air just enough to give you a little pinch along the back of the neck.

Funny thing it is that distances always seem farther at night, but there I was walkin’ under the moon like, rubbin’ my hands together tryin’ to keep warm. All along, I get this feelin’ like I was bein’ watch.

Well, I shrug it off like it ain’t no big thing, and I get to the shed. Ugliest lookin’ thing I ever did see. You could just tell it was pieced together from any available bit of timber they could find, lookin’ like six different sheds in one.

And, of course, there ain’t no light. Well, I get out my phone and turn on my torch light and see an obsessive amount of junk. I mean shelf after shelf stacked with an endless assortment of anything and everything you could possibly imagine.

“Can’t hardly find nothin’ in here,” I though to myself.

Still, I wasn’t gonna come back empty handed, no sir. So I work myself through the maze and figure the logs must be in the back somewhere abouts. Well, I finally get to the back and I see another door.

Now, this door was awfully strange lookin’, an antique really, and about as out-of-place as you ever did see. A little worse for the wear, too. But, y’know, I says to myself “whatever,” and I opened it. And, boy, if there weren’t what looked to be a cave right through to the other side!

Well, that certainly was a mighty strange thing to find, but, hey, maybe the shed was built over a cellar or somethin’. So I step on through, gettin’ pretty curious, just me by myself, and I keep on. Before long I start gettin’ real anxious like. Like this ain’t no cellar but maybe like an old mine shaft or somethin’ like that.

Just then I was ready to head back, y’know? Call me a chicken at that point, I didn’t care one way or another. But right there what looked to be about fifteen feet ahead of me there was a figure, like someone standin’ right there.

At that moment, I just about jumped right outta my skin. So I gets to sayin’:

“HEY! Stranger! You stay right where you are! Don’t you come no further!”

Then I heard a laugh, a deep laugh with an echo that seemed to go on forever. Again, I was already nervous and had absolutely no clue who this guy was, maybe George playin’ a prank on me, I don’t know. Wasn’t gonna take any chances, y’see?

“My friend,” a voice called out sendin’ chills right up my arm.

“Don’t you friend me! George is that you?!”

“Do not be alarmed, friend. I bid you welcome, you must be tired, traveler, quite tired. Is it not so?” the stranger said, as he begun to shine some lights in my direction.

“Ha! Shows what you know, I ain’t tir—” But it’s the craziest thing, the second I tried to say “tired” I could feel my body goin’ kind of faint, like a weight had been pressin’ down on me.

“There my friend, save your strength,” sounded the voice as the figure drew nearer and nearer, “We have much to discuss.”

As the stranger, came closer I struggled to move back, but it was like my legs were goin’ limp, like I was sloshin’ through a swamp or somethin’. The figure moved silently but swiftly without the sound of footsteps, as if he was just glidin’ right above the floor there. Than that’s when I saw him.

Tall guy, all dressed in black from head to toe, and he had like a large mustache but the kind you don’t hardly ever see no more. He seemed to be halfway obscured by a cloud of mist. And then that’s when I noticed the lights, the lights, they were his eyes!

And then I bolted. I don’t know where I found the strength, but I got a second wind. Just had about all I could take, I guess. I rushed to the door, nearly slippin’ on the rocky floor, as I attempted to dodge long, pale fingers barely visible from the corner of my eye.

To be honest, I didn’t think I make it. Thought myself a goner for sure. But as soon as I grabbed the door handle, I closed my eyes, swung it open and slammed the door as hard as I could.

A little too hard it would seem.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the wood of the door, rotted with age. I had hit it hard enough to where it just split smack down the middle. A few large pieces and fragments had fallen off and lay there on the floor around me.

But instead of bein’ attacked, I stood in silence. I looked closer at the door and noticed that it looked as if it had just been propped up. And behind it lay the bare wall of the shed, just as if the door itself never had went to anywhere.

Well, confused, I headed back. By this time, George had found a portable heater and had forgotten all about the timber. I didn’t talk about what happened just headed to bed kind of early.

It’s been years since this all happened. And ever since I had been searchin’ for answers, tryin’ to make sense of it all. The guy who rented the property was happy to answer any questions although I don’t think he understood my curiosity. He said the shed was pieced together partly from another structure, a house that used to sit on the property. The house had been long gone, largely destroyed by fire over a hundred years ago.

So I did some research, finally came across an article about the incident, from the local paper, dated May 26, 1897:

LAKESIDE ESTATE BURNS
Origin of the Fire is Unknown but Arson is Suspected

EXETER, RI - Tuesday, a private residence adjacent to Boone Lake was reduced to ashes, as authorities continued to scourer the rubble for any clues to the source. Eight members of the household are suspected dead in the wake of the deadly inferno, though no bodies have yet been found. No definite cause of the fire has been determined, thus far, but a local resident was detained as a person of interest. The suspected arsonist, of Greek personage, was a logger, who has since passed. He was believed to have held a bitter grudge against the estate’s proprietors. However, the suspected arsonist was quite mad after suffering the loss of his wife and child, stricken as they were with an unknown ailment, and suspected the household of foul play. Upon questioning, the resident only stated the term "vorvolakas" over and over. He past during the night quite likely of the same ailment suffered by his family.

The resident’s mind was apparently entrenched in a definite bit of superstition, as the phrase "vorvolakas" alludes to much feared, undead creatures of Greek folk-lore. With little evidence and few other leads, authorities are expected to close the case.

Along with the tragic loss of life, our fair county loses a cardinal example of classical architecture. The edifice, of the gothic arrangement, had been shipped over from the Carpathians and reassembled stone-by-stone by the family, of some note, who held a great reverence for the old school of design. As well, so we are told, they even went at length to import plants and soil from the old country.

Lastly, our paper wishes to impart our deepest condolences to the surviving members of the family Dracula of whom the victims belonged.
* * *
Yikes! Boy if that tale don’t give one the shivers. Might need a good distraction to take a mind off a tale such as that one there. Well, this concludes our story for the evenin’. Be sure to check out our other tales of the frightful and strange. As always, this is your pal, Autumn Rose sayin’
’Til we meet again—stay together... keep nigh unto the fire.
Copyright © 2021 Thrill Land

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