After Willy disappeared the fire monster transformed to a dapper elderly looking man in a black top hat and tuxedo. His black shoes were shinny. His handlebar mustache was silver. He walked and skipped in the clouds, at times with great cheer taking flying leaps. A black wand with white tips appeared in his hand. Spinning the wand as though it were a baton, on one of the clouds he spun around and did a soft shoe dance, ending by sliding to his knees. With a smile on his face and a sparkle in his blue eyes he puzzled, “I wonder what Willy’s story is. Maybe someday I should find out.” With those words the fire monster, Artorius Ramsey vanished from the cloud.
Hearthville Serial 3
What Happened To Victor:
A Paranormal Suspense Gangster Horror
By Charles Peters
Copyright 2019
All Rights Reserved
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Chapter 4
Back to the present….
Rita continued to sit at a concrete table on the patio. She stood from the table and walked to the covered swimming pool. There was sparkling clear water above the baby blue cover with no leaves or debris. Standing at the pool and seeing her own reflection in the water, Rita felt a strangeness about her. She talked to herself. She talked to the reflection. “There was a witch. I know there was a witch. There was not just a demon inside of me that caused me to become so crazy. That next day close to evening Rachel and I became lucid enough to realize that we had left Victor in the boot of a car. We were frantic. We could not remember where we had left Victor in the boot. Where was the car! It was all so strange. Rachel called Arthur. I thank God Arthur was able to find and save Victor.” Rita shook her head. “And Victor doesn’t even remember what happened. I am not sure if I remember it fully or correctly either. I know there was a witch about when the madness happened, as crazy as that sounds. I know people like to say, ‘The devil made me do it.” I know I am to blame for what I did. All of my crazy doings were not because of a witch, but there was a witch. Still, how can I tell people that, that which sounds so ridiculous. Other than Rachel, who might believe me, and she is in a mental institution. And here I am talking to myself.” Rita laughed out loud. “If you, my reflection, should talk back that would be something. My madness would be complete.”
The ghost of Willy Doomis stood at Rita’s side. He looked around. “Why am I here? I don’t want to be here.” His eyes focused on Rita. “Oh dear.” A look of true fright appeared on Willy’s face. “Oh dear. This is not good. I have felt that force before.” He whispered in Rita’s ear, “There is a force here. It is a dangerous force. It summons your words. It controls your reflection. Leave. Leave now. It is waking and it is growing more powerful. Leave!”
Rita felt a chill. She looked around but she saw no one. She had not heard Willy’s voice to heed his warning. Still on some level she seemed to have some sense of what he had said.
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The water began to move. The reflection began to ripple. Rita’s hand was still but the hand reflected in the water began to move. It began to reach.
“Whoever you are, you don’t scare me. I will not be scared. If I ever face the witch I will face him or her down. I will not be scared. Cool the air to even ice and still I will not be spooked. Cause those moving hands in the water to spring forth to strangle me and I will not be phased. I know how to fight.”
The water stilled. The reflection sprung to dive through the cover down into the pool. Rita smiled. She lied. “I am not scared. You do not scare me.”
Willy Doomis nervously laughed with a horrified look on his ghostly face. “I am scared enough for the both of us. I am getting out of here.” Puzzled to even why he had appeared next to her, he vanished from her side. As Willy flew through the air as only a ghost can fly he pondered what he had seen. “What the fuck was that in the pool?”
Suddenly a fiery blast blew like an explosion and rolled into a fireball. The fireball had a face that was cartoon like. The fireball had a thunderous and monstrous voice. “Willy Doomis, have you ever had your ass spanked and pounded by a great ball of fire?”
Willy screamed like a girl. “Stay away from me.” Willy managed to vanish from the ghostly fire monster.
After Willy disappeared the fire monster transformed to a dapper elderly looking man in a black top hat and tuxedo. His black shoes were shinny. His handlebar mustache was silver. He walked and skipped in the clouds, at times with great cheer taking flying leaps. A black wand with white tips appeared in his hand. Spinning the wand as though it were a baton, on one of the clouds he spun around and did a soft shoe dance, ending by sliding to his knees. With a smile on his face and a sparkle in his blue eyes he puzzled, “I wonder what Willy’s story is. Maybe someday I should find out.” With those words the fire monster, Artorius Ramsey vanished from the cloud.
Rita took a deep breath with no sense that Artorius was at her side. “You always were a silly girl. Not scared. Indeed.”
Rita walked toward the West Wing of the Ramsey Mansion. Arthur drove up and blew his horn at Rita.
Artorius moaned. “Oh fuck. That damn grandson of mine is going to spoil all of my fun.”
Arthur got out of his car and walked up to Rita while she waited. Arthur said, “Mark called me and said that what had been planned had been called off. Since I was in the area I thought I would come by and check on the place before going back to Atlanta.”
Rita stared at Arthur. She put her hand on his shoulder. “I didn’t know about Jossette. I don’t know why Tabitha or Sam didn’t mention it to me. I am sorry that Jossette’s death pushed Rachel over the edge.”
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Artorius listened carefully to the words being spoken.
“The entire family took Jossette’s death hard. None of us like to talk about it because talking about it makes it feel real and we don’t want it to feel real.”
Artorius rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you tell her the truth about Jossette? Why don’t you tell me the truth about Jossette? If only I could muster the power to pull those words from you.”
“I understand.” Rita nodded. “By the way, have I ever thanked you for saving Victor?”
“Yes. You thanked me.”
“Does Mark know?”
“About the boot of the car and the shape Victor was in? No. About the witch? No.”
“You know about the witch?”
Artorius laughed. “He is as much a witch as I am.”
“Rachel believes there was a witch. She told me that you believe there was a witch. I don’t know.”
Artorius said, “You liar. Of course you know. You just don’t know which witch or why.”
Rita said, “I loved the time that Mark and I spent with Victor and Jossette. Regardless of what I told Mark, I will cry tonight over Jossette in private.”
Solemnly Artorius looked at Rita. With sadness in his eyes, he touched her hair. “You would cry over my Jossette.”
“It is the tears we cry in private that are the most heart felt.”
“I honestly loved Victor and Jossette and Mark. Then something happened. My thoughts became so weird. I can’t explain it. Maybe I did become that evil all on my own and I used the witch as an excuse, but our minds were affected during those days and that night when murder was in my heart. It was not just Rachel and me acting weird. Jossette and Mark were affected. At one point they were frozen in place and then they left the attic room in such a strange way, like they were sleep walking. Even if the evil was of my own doing, there was a witch.”
Artorius said, “Indeed. Victor should have stayed the fuck away from my Jossette. I was not wrong to use my magic.”
Arthur said, “There are witches. I don’t argue against what you and Rachel say on that subject.”
Artorius said, “Be careful not to tell her too much.”
Rita asked, “Do you have any idea who the witch is that would want Rachel and myself to kill Victor?”
Arthur said, “Not a clue.”
Artorius left their side.
Rita said, “But there has to be a clue. The answer might be in the West Wing.”
“Is that where you were going? Were you going to search the West Wing for answers?”
“I guess it was a silly notion.” Rita thought a second. “I guess it was a strange inclination that does not make sense. I suppose I should be leaving before, before, I don’t know what. Anyway. Before I go, may I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Would it be wrong if I were to try to visit Rachel at the Mental Institution?”
“Your visiting her might do her good, but I will have to talk to Mark about it.”
“Okay. Tabitha has my number.”
Rita said goodbye and walked to her small baby blue Volkswagen. She got in and drove off.
Arthur went inside the West Wing of his mansion, the Ramsey Mansion. He turned the lights on and peeped around. He guessed things seemed normal enough. He was getting ready to leave when he heard footsteps up in the attic room. The piano began to play.
“Who is up there?” Arthur called out. No one answered.
A door to beneath the staircase and to the basement squeaked as it slowly opened. A lit candle came through the door but no visible person was holding the candle. It appeared to be floating in the air.
The ghostly voice of a woman whispered, “Jossette is not on this side. Where is Jossette?”
Arthur asked, “Who are you?”
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“I am Jossette’s Nanny Ogleby. Where is my granddaughter? I was at the hospital when she was announced dead, but I can’t find her. Where have you hidden her?”
Arthur said, “I have not hidden her. It grieves me to say this but she is dead. I’ve been told there are lots of places on your side. I don’t know where she went after she died. I am sure her soul is okay.”
“I need to find my granddaughter before he finds her.”
“Who?”
The music of the piano stopped. Nanny Ogleby whispered, “I must leave before he comes down stairs. He is a troubled soul he is.”
The lit candle vanished as though it had never been there. Arthur heard loud footsteps. He looked toward the top of the stairs and there he saw Artorius Ramsey, his grandfather. Arthur remembered the beatings he had received at the hands of Artorius.
Artorius asked, “Why did you give my mansion to that awful woman Rachel?”
Arthur said, “You asshole, why did you lose the mansion in a poker game?”
“I did not know everyone in the game was a witch and I wouldn’t be allowed to cheat.”
“You left father and me without a dime to our name.”
“Oh, poor pitiful you. I feel so sorry for you. I guess that you have forgotten how the damn evil Space Alien Witch Council had me burned at the stake.”
“I have not forgotten. Though all the beatings you gave me, I still love you. Though you left father and me poor as dirt, I still love you.”
“Well my bad luck at poker aside, it is not like you remained poor. You are rich as fuck now.”
“Indeed. I made my own fortune and I bought the mansion with my own money. It was my right to give the mansion to whoever the hell I wanted. I am not ashamed to say I loved Rachel. Hell. There is part of me who still loves her.”
Artorius laughed. “I made a man out of you. That is more than you have done for your son.”
“My son is more man than you think, though no thanks to you or me.” Arthur asked, “Why are you here? Is death not treating you right?”
“What did you do to Jossette?”
“Jossette is nothing to you. Why do you care? You were already dead before she was even born.”
“She was the reincarnation of your grandmother who I dearly loved.”
“The two of you barely even spoke as far as I can remember.”
“We said plenty in the bedroom. Now I repeat, where is Jossette? Where is my Sette?”
Arthur said, “Wait. So you are the witch…”
“I prefer warlock.”
“Who caused Rita and Rachel to try to kill Victor. It was you?”
“I deny that. Don’t you dare tell Jossette that. I will declare you to be the liar that you are. Besides, Victor did not die. Nanny Ogleby convinced me to spare him. The bitch.”
“You are unbelievable.”
“You used magic to bring Jossette back from the dead. Didn’t you?”
“No. You know that I am not that powerful. The Witches Council has my powers partially locked.”
“So you got someone to help you to bring her back from the dead?”
“I know death is not the end. You are not the first ghost who I have had a conversation with. Too many people saw her die.”
“I can’t find her on this side. I should be able to find her.”
“She is probably hiding from you. You were an abusive husband.”
“I never hit my wife.”
“The hell you didn’t. You would hit her just like you would hit me.”
“Maybe I should hit you now. Maybe I should make you tell me where Jossette is.
“I don’t know where she is. I would guess at times she checks on Victor and her brother Roger and her parents and the other people she loves. I am sure if you watch them she will show up.”
“I have watched them. She hasn’t visited them to check on them.”
“That is odd. That is troubling.”