"I have no idea what I'm going to do with all this," she whispered to herself as she sat her luggage down at the locked iron gate in front of her.
The brisk Fall breeze bristled through the dark red leaves of the maple trees as far as her eyes could see, making the whole forest behind the ominous large house look ablaze as the sun began to set in the distance. She shivered hard as her dark hair brushed gently across her reddened cheeks, her steel gray eyes stinging momentarily with the cold. The house was daunting in and of itself as it sat just beyond the gates like a hooded watchman. Her Uncle had been mostly reclusive from her family her whole life and she never imagined that her Mother's stories of the old Victorian, towered mansion would actually be real. Yet when she got the phone call from her late Mother's lawyers in April that she was coming into an inheritance as her Mother's only living heir, the stories became all too true all to suddenly.
Rue's Uncle had left her his sprawling 12 acre estate and a large inheritance in the millions. She knew from the paperwork that there was the one large house on the main portion of the property that housed all of her Uncle's worldly possessions and one smaller guest house far back into the woods almost at the property line. There were no neighbors for miles in any one direction and the iron gates surrounded the entirety of the property well past the top of her head. There were staff that cared for the grounds and one tenant at the other house that paid a small amount of rent to come and go as he pleased. The lawyer had stated simply "I was given express instructions to inform you that your tenant expects you to provide him with the utmost in privacy, as your Uncle did as well" with no real information on who the person was or why they were there.
Fair enough.
Rue pulled the large, heavy iron key out of her jacket pocket and inspected the lock on the gate carefully for a few seconds, noticing that the light was fading fast from the sky.
"Now or never, Rue, we can't turn back now," she whispered to herself again, fighting the butterflies in her stomach that danced around as if to say that her life would never be the same as soon as the key turned. One breath...then another...eyes closed as she drank in the cold air into her lungs and inserted the key into the lock, giving it a sharp turn. There was an unceremonious click as it fell open in front of her. She pulled the chain free from the gates slowly, her eyes drifting up to the faded white of the house in front of her, and the gates drifted open with a loud creak to welcome her to her new home.
The whole vibe of the house was completely creepy as she entered the front door, though she had to admit that it was in pristine condition. The front foyer was draped in dark hues of red - cherry on the walls, crimson on the rugs as you walked down the hallway, and the same color carpet going up the large staircase to her left. The furniture appeared to be in almost perfect condition with knick-knacks on every surface that she could find. Even the mirrors seemed to whisper her name as if they'd been waiting for her. She shook her head, rubbing her eyes with a loud sigh. It's just a new place, she consoled herself, and took the sharp turn up the staircase to what she knew was going to be her new bedroom.
Her exhaustion from driving for two days up to Vermont forced her straight into the California king bed waiting on the other side of the master bedroom door almost instantly. She didn't even notice the full moon rising through the large windows or the distant howling of a wolf as she very quickly drifted off into the deepest sleep of her life.
Rue woke up the next morning as the sun lit her room with it's soft pink, purple, and yellow hues. She hadn't even thought to shut any of the curtains before she fell asleep. With a slight annoyed groan, she exited the large bed, admiring several strange symbol carvings that she found on each poster of the bed. She knew from studying with her Mother that these were protection and barrier sigils, meant to bar evil from entering a space. She frowned slightly, wondering what her Uncle had been protecting himself from.
"Nightmares, maybe...," she whispered to herself as her fingers traced the symbols. She'd struggled with those for most of her life, as had most of the females in her family line. Her Mother had almost been driven mad with them before she died.
She was startled from her reverie, jumping back and looking quickly to the large windows as a loud scream erupted from outside. She raced to the window across the room that gave her the view of the entire estate. Through the thick fog that danced across the ground, Rue caught a glimpse of a man crawling in the mud, naked, covered in blood, and screaming in pain. Never one to run from danger, Rue quickly grabbed a robe to throw around her from the end of the bed and raced outside. The screaming continued but got farther away as she got to the front door and ran down the stairs, noting that the ground was slightly frozen under her bare feet as she ran toward the side of the house. She could tell from the sound of the screams that the man was moving toward where she knew the other house was on the property, but she could also tell that he was in severe distress.
"JUST STOP MOVING! I'M COMING TO GET YOU!," she cried out, her chest burning as she sucked in the cold morning air, thinking to herself that it was odd someone would be crawling AWAY from help when the house was literally right there.
Another scream pierced the air as she got to where she had seen the man. Just as she got there, however, the screaming suddenly stopped. She turned around sharply in all directions around her.
"Where are you, where are you, where are you," she quietly chanted, ducking lower below the fog to try to get a better view of a blood trial or foot prints. But nothing. No sound, no blood, no prints, no evidence that anything she'd seen was real. She stood up, trying to catch her breath as the confusion and frustration hit her all at once. She looked again in the direction of the house at the edge of the woods, wondering if she should go, but remembering that she'd been asked to not. With that, she turned back to the house and very slowly went back the way she came, turning back only once when she heard what she could swear was growling and panting from a large animal. She felt a pull back toward it that she couldn't explain and very quickly shook off.
The next several days were long and painful as Rue began the process of unpacking her things and cataloging everything in the house at the same time. Several of the staff had said hello briefly but most went about their daily jobs, only occasionally giving her untrusting glances as she noted items on her tablet. She'd almost forgotten about the encounter with the man in the yard until one morning, while exiting her room upstairs, she heard an unfamiliar male voice coming from the downstairs sitting room. She stayed still, a dark red shawl wrapped around her upper arms and around her chest to cover herself. She hadn't been expecting company this morning and had, as usual, fallen asleep in a long sleeved but very thin cream chemise she'd taken a fondness to. She could feel the goosebumps on her skin as her nipples hardened with the cold drafts in the house and knew they would be instantly visible if she dropped the shawl. Though from listening...she wasn't sure if it was the draft or the man's voice causing the reaction. It was almost melodic, speaking in hushed tones but loud enough that she could make out the conversation.
"I think that I may have scared her the other morning and I want to make sure she's okay. I didn't realize she had moved in already or I would have taken...more precaution."
The hesitation in his voice caught her attention almost instantly. This was the guy! She wasn't crazy! That realization had her walking down the stairs to meet this man, to make sure for herself that she wasn't just hearing things as well. She creeped around the banister to the door of the study, not realizing that the shawl had slipped down her arms slightly or that her heart was beating so fast it might burst out of her chest. There in the center of the room, with who she now knew was the grounds keeper, was a man of about her age - darkerish hair, taller than her by several inches at least, broad shouldered, and a voice that could turn her to a puddle just from listening to it. His stance was closed off and tense as he talked rapidly with the grounds keeper, stating several times that he had to see her at once.
"So, you're the gentleman who was outside my window the other morning," she said softly, not wanting to cause any further discomfort in the situation. If she'd thought he was tense before, her voice instantly caused him to straighten his back hard, taking a deep breath as he slowly turned toward her. The sharp contrast of his eyes almost made her gasp. Hazel, for sure, but with mostly yellow and orange undertones. Like a predator. And she realized he was staring at her for an almost uncomfortable amount of time before he finally spoke.