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Things That Go Bump [MultiFormat]
eBook by Angeline Hawkes
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eBook Category: Horror
eBook Description: Lord Victor sets out to discover the source of the mysterious hauntings that have plagued his family castle for centuries. He finds something entirely unexpected.
eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Simulacrum: The Magazine of Speculative Transformation, 2003
Fictionwise Release Date: March 2008
Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [170 KB], eReader (PDB) [30 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [17 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [16 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [77 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [88 KB], hiebook (KML) [66 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [41 KB], iSilo (PDB) [14 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [18 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [45 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [27 KB]
Words: 5036
Reading time: 14-20 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
 
It was an ordinary castle surrounded by an overgrown garden of ivy and climbing roses with prickly thorns and fragrant blossoms. Towers perched on four corners. A tangle of a hedge maze sprouted unruly and chaotically looking for lost souls to embrace with twisted, flyaway shoots. Well, perhaps it wasn't an ordinary castle. In fact, the castle had been nothing but trouble ever since Lord Victor put it on the real estate market. Looking at it, one would think the buyers would be beating down the solid English Oak door to get inside. It looked every inch the fairytale castle of Camelot or some such knight-in-shining-armor type rot. The real estate agency Victor listed the property with had sold it twice only to have both buyers back out of the sale after a few weeks in the castle. Something had the buyers absolutely terrified and they didn't want any part of the obviously cursed property. One potential buyer, found through a close friend who happened to also be a real estate agent, only stayed in the castle twenty-four hours before hitting the road. Seems he picked the most haunted room in the castle to settle into a chair for his nightly reading. After that episode, the real estate agent also friend got an earful of cursing and threats. Needless to say, the would-be buyer vacated the premises immediately and Victor's friend decided to make it a policy not to do anymore friend's house-selling favors on the sly.
Now, Lord Victor was back in one wing of the place trying to sell the castle through this paper or that. He even listed it as a Haunted Castle hoping to interest morbid buyers who'd appreciate a ghastly abode. So far all that had achieved were calls from a few psychics and some screwball television producer looking for an interesting locale. None of them were interested in monetarily compensating Victor, so he, in turn, wasn't interested in their proposals.
The property was in prime condition, with the exception of the garden. Victor had kept promising himself that he'd call a professional gardener to come whip the place back into shape, but when it came down to him choosing a service, the rates all seemed extraordinarily high. So, he'd do the only sensible thing and get out the clippers and go hack away at the most overgrown of the lot. Sometimes his endeavors looked impressive; more often than not the garden took on a child let loose with some scissors kind of look to it. Most of his friends were jolly sports about it and kept the ribbing to a minimum. The occasional snob amongst them did have a few jabs to get in, all spoken in that down the nose fashion that only the truly out of touch with the real world, trust fund type of person could do. Victor tended to both abhor and ignore, in equal parts, those types of shallow chaps.
The castle had been in the possession of just two families throughout the centuries. The wonderful gray stone gave the castle a picturesque look found in travel brochures or fantasy films. More than a dozen painters had used the castle in portraits, some of which hung in the gallery in the North wing. Lord Victor hated to part with his home as it had been in his family's possession for three hundred years; but the taxes were killing him.
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