The Hidden Manor

This is a tale about fantasies involving the past and the mysterious creatures in the forest, who roamed the ranges of a sparsely populated region. The myths about wolves and werewolves are always linked to the shadowy forests. The historical background of the German nation building and the drive for wolf extinction is following facts rather closely.

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Chapter 1

Maria-Eva had been trying to pay a surprise visit to her twin sister. Her parents had been enamored with the names of Eva and Maria. And they had not wanted to favor either of the born siblings. So her twin sister had been named Eva-Maria. Her twin had written a letter to her home in Basel, informing her that she had become engaged in 2018. This came as an utter surprise. Nothing had indicated that her sister ever intended to get engaged. Eva-Maria had always wanted to wait for her 'prince' - but that prince had never shown up. In the meantime, Maria had assumed that her sister Eva-Maria would never marry. And now this!

Maria-Eva had not received an invitation for the engagement itself. Of course this was quite romantic, a secret engagement always possessed that charm of hidden passion and love. But she was annoyed that her twin sister had hidden all from her. And she had been more annoyed, when she learned that her husband and she were not even invited to get to know that mysterious new fiancé. Her sister claimed to be on an extended sort of vacation trip with a sailing yacht on the Baltic Sea. And soon Maria-Eva became worried as well, as she had not been able to contact her sister by phone. Finally she had picked up that letter and identified the origin of that letter from the postal stamp as coming from a small village in the vicinity of one of the larger forests in Mecklenburg, the northeastern part of Germany.

That was peculiar, too. Her sister was not at all interested being in a flat landscape, where practically no mountains existed, only ant hills at best. Eva-Maria just loved the sight of rugged rocks on mountaintops and steep valleys with rushing rivers and lived in Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Harz Mountains. When she tried to call the flat in that town, she received the message that the phone had been disconnected. After inquiring she learned that the apartment had been rented out to a new tenant and that her sister had given up residency...

That made her decision. Maria-Eva was going to visit the small village in the very north of Germany on this Monday. Her husband Siegfried had once again scheduled a weekly stay for research in Davos, so it was convenient enough. He did not worry at all. For him, her sister had always been somewhat erratic and weird with her love for nobility, even if they did get along very well. Her sister always told her how fortunate she was to have him as her husband, whenever Maria complained that he tried to convince her to locate to Davos into the mountainous area. Only slowly he adapted to love the comfort of Basel at home for the weekends, while enjoying the splendor of the higher mountains during the week for his research. After their seven years of marriage Basel had become a nice compromise between the two of them - far enough from higher mountains to be comfortable for her and close enough to the Alps for her husband. The only drawback of that compromise being the missing suitability for building a family and now she was already well above thirty...

Maria-Eva prepared the trip very well. She tried to learn as much as possible about the neighborhood of that village. Her curiosity had been peaked when she read some adventurous stories about an old manor, which had been close to the village. It had been abandoned in late 1918, after the former Baron as owner had abdicated and escaped to Russia just in the same way as Emperor Wilhelm II had escaped to the Netherlands. The buildings had fallen in disarray, as nobody had wanted that place for unknown reasons.

However, the stables and the outlines of the moats were still intact, and the stables had been converted into a small chalet. Maria-Eva was very curious to learn about that hidden place.

That Monday evening as she arrived in the village at the only inn, she learned even more about it. But she did not learn anything about the stay of her sister. It was as if she had been swallowed by the earth. The restaurant chief stated simply that her sister had claimed to be going on a longer trip. Indeed the border police confirmed that she had been leaving Germany by boat from the Harbor of Wismar, so Maria-Eva could not declare her as missing at the police. She was annoyed and did not believe that for a second, but could not find any argument to change the opinion of the police.

She was determined to find out where she had been staying. At least the postal stamp proved to be the right one - so she must have passed through the village. She tried to inquire about houses being located outside of the village center, where her sister might have stayed. However, the only house of a bigger size seemed to be that hidden chalet in the woods.

Unfortunately that forest was private property. The villagers were convinced that the owner was a wealthy man, apparently heir to the former baron, who had resided here many years ago. The owner seemed to be very distant and rather mysterious, he rarely ventured into the village. Even his staff was not coming at all into the village; apparently their contract did not allow that. He now enjoyed the pleasures of local hunting in the forest. It was rumored that he had been hunting in Africa, and that he had wild animals from Africa living at his site.

Next morning she was buying some cake at the bakery, when the baker's wife looked so surprised staring into the street that she had to look as well. On the street there was a man, who looked a bit out of place. It was partly his clothing which seemed a bit odd and partly his sun-burned skin, which was unusual here in Northern Germany. His dark skin made him look older than his years, she guessed he was in his early twenties.

As she turned again to the young woman in her apron in order to ask for the price of the strawberry tart, she heard the door being opened after some moments and that sun-burned man came in. This man was attractive! He was moving to a place where he could watch her from the side. She could see him from the angle of her eyes. He didn't say a word, but his eyes roamed over her entire body - it felt as if he would undress her right in this shop. She could not help blushing. Then he left the shop again.

The baker's wife giggled: "That guy was from the manor - he is rather strange, but quite attractive. What do you think?"

She gathered all her wit in order to be able to reply at all, evading that question: "Oh that was the owner?" As she glanced rapidly back out again, he had already disappeared from her view.

She was very much intrigued, to say the least. In fact, she had thought before that the villagers were exaggerating when they had called him 'strange', but she was baffled. She just had to learn more about this unconventional man. She did ask whether the castle could be visited.

The Bakers wife giggled again: "Oh, so you do find him attractive... Well, he doesn't accept visitors. Even important parts of the forest are nowadays only with limited access for the villagers. Trespassing is no longer allowed for those parts he has fenced off as forest cultures - and those surround the manor almost completely. And then..."

Her voice trailed off. Maria-Eva looked questioningly.

The woman continued: "You know, they say that very strange creatures roam in that forest, as soon as dusk approaches. A pack of giant wolves had been seen. Even brave hunters have qualms about it, when they did hear a wolf howl out aloud and others chimed in. It was said that it had the size of a fully grown deer!"

Maria-Eva was laughing: "A wolf with such a giant size? Come on, that is certainly not true and quite exaggerated."

The wife was offended: "You may ask anybody at the hunter club in the village. Anyhow, nowadays no villager in his right mind is venturing into this forest after sunset or entering it before sunrise. Just that you know..."

She did not learn any more from that woman. Being back at the inn she wanted to discuss that with her best friend and called Gertrud by phone. Her friend was not open for it: "Maria-Eva, don't be such a romantic fool to want to talk about castles and exotic creatures. You do have a nice husband and you don't need a prince. Leave that kind of talk better to your sister, who loves nobility."

That was the end of that discussion - and maybe she was right, but she couldn't get that thought out of her head.

Chapter 2

Maria-Eva was determined to learn more about that mysterious man and his house, as she felt that this was somehow related to the disappearance of her sister. She rented a bike and tried the forest roads. However, she could only get a glimpse from afar of that Manor. It did really look derelict, and most of the Manor itself did show fallen walls and a rather destroyed roof. There was no way to get closer with that bike, as there was no apparent path to the buildings from that forest road. She got back to the inn. She had to find a walking path to it, if she wanted to learn more.

On the way back she chose a different route and encountered at a small creek the ruins of an ancient water mill. Only the stumps of the walls existed and what probably had been the casing for the millwheel. It was romantic and told a story of the past with the status of Mecklenburg as something akin to a breadbasket for northern Germany.

The very same day she excused herself for a longer walk and walked through the fields of wheat and rye, approaching the forest. The big signaling 'Forestation zones - don't disturb the wildlife' made her think twice, as she reached the grass meadow that followed the forest outline as far as she could see. It was perhaps 20 yards width covered by wild herbs and typical grass varieties found in forests. Additionally the fence protected the first zone of the forest, consisting of a plantation of young trees. But soon she found a section of the fence that had been torn down by some event. There again a pictorial did show a warning hand as warning against intrusion.

But then again, to venture a small distance into the forest could certainly not be very dangerous. So she chose a small path for entering it. The tall grass made it difficult to enter, and it felt as if she had to push through a curtain. After she had advanced into the forest for a minute and gotten into the part with taller full-grown trees, the oppressing silence was suddenly to be felt. She could not shake off the feeling that someone or something was watching her, and again, she felt almost as though she were being undressed by the penetrating gaze of somebody. She shuddered and she thought that this forest was indeed special. She decided to turn back.

As she turned around to head back, there was suddenly a rather big grey dog, apparently something like an overgrown shepherd, standing in the way. She was shocked, but somehow his stance was not really menacing. So she tried some small steps to sidestep him, but as she did he started to growl and to show his teeth - maybe this was a wolf after all? At least she could not recognize any trace of a collar or similar attire fit for an owned dog.

Terrified, she stopped immediately and retreated. As soon as she did, he stopped growling and started to wave his tail. A wolf would not do so and she did no longer feel that threatened. So she took another step back and then she turned to go the next crossing in order to turn left, but as soon as she tried that, he blocked her way. And that continued for all other directions, except for the one deeper into the forest. He was behaving like a shepherd who had found a lost sheep and he was leading her back to the flock.

Maria-Eva wondered if it had been the grey shepherd's eyes she had felt on her. But she had felt so exposed. Surely, it was not this great, grey dog, so much larger than any dog she was used to, that had made her feel as though she were naked in the forest.

Suddenly the ears of the dog (or wolf?) oriented themselves to the source of some whistle-like sounds coming from a distance some hundred yards away. The dog seemed focused to identify this new source of motion of noise. She decided to take this opportunity and take a turn left in direction of the meadow. Indeed he did not follow her, but sniffed into the direction of that new noise.

When he finally decided to catch up with her again, she was already at the border to the meadow. For a moment she was afraid, as the close meshed fence made it impossible for her to pass, but then she tried to squeeze herself through a rather small gap between an older oak tree and a wooden post of the fence.

Then she became scared, as she believed to be trapped. She had the absurd impression that the tree had swayed closer to the post making the gap smaller. Her back was rubbing against the rough bark of the oak tree, whilst her legs and arms seemed to embrace the wooden post. She was caught and tried in vain to get her left thigh through. It felt as if the post would split her body vertically in two while pinning her against the tree. The grey animal approached in giant leaps. In panic she let her handbag glide from her arm and tried to push with both hands the wooden post back. Suddenly she heard voices from the corn field adjacent to the meadow. The dog stopped dead in his tracks. Seconds later she was free. The giant dog did not follow her. He stared at her for a moment, then turned and disappeared in the forest.

Had it been the rush of fear or the disorientation caused by the trap? Somehow she felt a sudden change. The sky seemed to be less luminous, as if she was going to faint. Then she perceived a sudden pang of hunger and the equally unsettling feeling of an overfull bladder. She knew that people were probably close, only hidden by the tall corn plants and maybe emerging any moment, but she could not help it. Her bladder was close to bursting. She just had to squat down and relieve herself. She had barely finished, when she perceived some movements in the cornfield. Hastily she pulled her panties up and rushed to smooth her summer dress. Two villagers appeared and called out to her. She shouted back, that she needed to retrieve her handbag before meeting them, but she could not see it.

As she met them, they asked her why she was still close to the forest at that time. She did not quite understand the question, but then she perceived the sun being close to the horizon. It had to be rather late. She was puzzled. Could it be that she had been more than four hours in the forest? She accepted the offer to ride back to town on the tractor.

Back in the rented inn room, she did find a letter waiting for her on the wooden table. Immediately she recognized the handwriting of her sister, even though she had used the letters of Suetterlin, which she had learned during her studies of German literature:

My dear darling,

Do not look for me, if you want to escape your destiny. Don't try to find out where I have been travelling to or when I did so. It may already be too late to avoid your destiny, but you should try it. Your destiny will change your life more than you could ever imagine. I am not able to tell you more, as this letter may be intercepted.

If you manage to escape your destiny, then I will be happily accepting to miss my destiny and thus avoid the guilt already lacing my dreams. Travel back home and be assured that I am being taking care of in an old-fashioned manner befitting nobility, as I do have two attendants to serve me and all the standing in society, which I always wished to achieve.

So, please follow my advice to travel back straightaway. Even more important, if you can't go back immediately, do not use anything else than closed limousines outside of the village!

This was unsettling. Never before had her sister written to her in such a warning style, and certainly she always signed her letters! Something was definitely wrong. But much more was wrong. The letter did not have any postal stamp. The paper was looking quite odd, and it was thicker than any letter she had ever seen.

She wished she could have reached her husband, but he was having a conference meeting and had turned off his mobile for two days. She decided to involve a specialist as of tomorrow.

Chapter 3

On Wednesday, the next morning she headed to Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg. She had an appointment with a private investigation service. She left the letter for investigation and was told to come back in the afternoon. When she arrived at 3 pm, the detective looked at her with an odd expression on his face:

"Mrs. Gruber, you have been trying to pull my leg! But I am puzzled why you do this when you are paying for it?"

Maria-Eva did not understand why he said that: "Pardon me?"

"Mrs. Gruber, you have claimed to have received that letter yesterday from your sister, right? Well, we have been trying to start by locating the manufacturer of the paper of the letter and to date the time the ink has been put on paper. The hired expert declared that both had an age of more than 150 years. He had been adamant about the age, claiming it was more the lower limit of age for this letter. I do see some problems with your sister writing a letter to you 150 years ago..."

Maria-Eva was dumbfounded. She stared at the detective in utter disbelief. This could not be true! The detective realized that too.

"Okay. Mrs. Gruber, it looks as if somebody pulled your leg, too! Why do you assume it is your sister writing you this? It does not contain her name or your name. Handwritings in old letters are easy to be mistaken, since your experience in identifying is certainly limited, as you admitted yourself."

Maria-Eva had to admit that she had no other proof than the knowledge that the handwriting looked similar to Eva-Maria's, when she had demonstrated her knowledge some years ago. She had to admit as well that she had not seen other handwritings. She agreed to pay the fee and agreed that it was best to abandon any other investigation. She could not prove it at all, but she had the feeling that it had been her sister, who had written her this. But she could not explain at all why this letter was dated with an age of at least 150 years.

She travelled back. She slept in the inn, but it was not a calm and relaxing night. She tossed and turned in her bed. She had weird dreams and woke up several times feeling hot and bothered.

On Thursday, the next morning she was determined to get at least her handbag back and to find out who had wanted her not to venture into the forest. She was no longer sure that her sister had written that letter to her, but she had to know for sure. She was going to let the letter be examined by a detective agency in Basel, when travelling back.

After breakfast she decided to fly back via Hamburg to Basel with the late afternoon flight in Hamburg. She was impatient to find out who had an interest to confuse her with such a letter. She chose attire which would be appropriate for meeting with the detective agency in Basel. She was in a hurry to have that issue clarified and had scheduled the meeting for the same evening.

She wanted to look serious, when she presented that hoax letter. In consequence she slipped into the grey pencil skirt and the white blouse with the matching grey jacket. She called a taxi service to bring her to the train station Ludwigslust in order to continue by train to Hamburg Airport. When the driver arrived, she asked him to make a detour via the forest edge close to that big corn field.