The Sanderson House

The Robertson’s black cat sat on the tree branch staring at the Sanderson house. Mr. Robertson found the cat 10 years ago wandering around this same old tree. The cat never dared to venture any closer than this tree. Animals have a keen sense for evil, they know when there is an evil dwelling nearby. Some cultures believe if a dog sits barking at a house, the spirit of death will soon be visiting, like an unwelcome relative. Cats will start to hiss, the hairs on their back stand on end for no perceptible reason. The only animals which do not seem to fear evil are the crows. They flock to it like vultures to a carcass and the Sanderson house seemed to draw more than any place else in Fairview here in upstate New York.1

On this night, two brave young souls dared to approach this foreboding structure. Antony Dent and Tom Robertson, whose cat had followed him for as far as the feline dared, nervously walked down the neglected overgrown driveway leading to the house. If only they had not bragged about their fearlessness of the dark legends they heard growing up about the house that stains the minds of all the neighbors and passer-bys, perhaps they could have avoided this night that would too soon rob them of their sanity. But when Jimmy Sanders challenged Tony about staying at this old house overnight right in front of Cindy Carver, well there was just nothing else to say. 2

The house itself sat encircled by a corn field, the stalks standing guard as if to keep something out or was it to keep something in. A man could get rich growing and selling corn. Tom’s father had a plan on growing this crop until they were wealthy enough, then fix up the old place and hire a family to take over. The house and field was bought by the Robertson family, three years after the Sanderson family mysteriously disappeared 10 years ago. 3

The townsfolk all had their theories as to what became of the Sanderson family. Some believed they owed a fortune to some mafia types and are now residing at the bottom of Lake Tonaka along with seaweed and old car tires. Others believed they were in a witness protection program and had to be whisked away to safer places. The most popular theory was that the family was taken by demons during one of their legendary séances. Whatever the reason, no trace of the family was ever found.4

As Tony and Tom neared the house, they started to joke and talk a little louder in a macho effort to show they weren’t scared. But in their hearts, they were secretly praying the other would chicken out. 5

Tom looked at the house and had the uneasy feeling they were being watched by someone or something. 6

“What was that?” Tony whispered. 7

“What!” Tom exclaimed. His heart almost stopped when he saw the look on Tony’s face. In the bright moon light, Tom could tell that Tony’s face was as pale as bleached bone.8

“Gotcha.” Tony said less than convincingly. 9

Tom slugged Tony on the arm, “You jerk.”10

As they climbed the old wooden porch, Tom reached into his front pocket and took out the key he had swiped from his father’s desk drawer. With his hands shaking slightly, Tom slid the key into the hole and turned. He had to turn a little harder than he expected, the lock resisted as if to give the young adventurers one last warning before succumbing to Tom’s efforts. Finally a loud click could be heard echoing into the night air. Slowly Tom pushed the door open wider the creaking noise was loud as it echoed inside the large empty old house threatening to disturb those things best left alone.11

Peering inside, Tom and Tony could only see an unnaturally short distance before the house devoured the moonlight that spilled in through the doorway, as if to keep hidden the secrets within. Turning on their flashlights, they hesitantly started to advance into the darkness as their ears strained to hear any sound and squinting their eyes to see further than their flashlights would illuminate. 12

They had made it five feet inside the entrance when a sudden gust threatened to knock them off their feet, the door behind them slammed shut with such force that Tom just knew it had to have been split. Both boys jumped their hearts pounding within their chests. 13

“It’s just the wind Tom.” Tony said in a weak unsteady voice. 14

“Yeah, it’s just the wind.” Tom agreed, equally unconvinced.15

Tom swung his flashlight around the room. In every corner large cobwebs could be seen. Tony gave an involuntary shutter as he thought of the size of these eight legged residences, wondering what they may be thinking of their uninvited guests. Dust lay on the furniture as thick as new fallen snow after a heavy storm. 16

“How about if we set-up right over there” Tony suggested pointing to the living room to their right. This room had more light due to the drape less windows facing the moon. They quickly walked over to the large room and proceeded to take off the sleeping bags they had strapped to their backs. 17

Five minutes later everything was positioned to their liking, it was ten till midnight. Clouds had started to pass in front of the moon causing the light to dim. Both boys had set their bags close together - to stay warm was their official excuse, even though it was a warm night. 18

They had just started to drift off to sleep when the noise started. 19

At first it was almost too faint to be heard, but quickly became louder. Foot steps. The sound was of hard soled shoes clumping against the floor. Tony held his breath. Clump. Clump.20

“Did you hear that?” Tom asked.21

“Hear what?” Tony responded.22

Clump. Clump. 23

“I’ll bet its Jimmy trying to scare us.” Tom said a little louder than he intended. 24

“Let’s scare him instead. Why don’t you sneak up on him and jump out. Unless you’re too scared” Tony said.25

“Me? Why not you!” Tom said.26

“Ok, we will both go.”27

Both boys stood up and slowly crept down the hallway located to the left of the stairs. The foot steps grew louder as they approached a door on the right. Tony reached out and carefully turned the knob. 28

“Boo!” they both shouted as they burst into the room.29

They both caught a glimpse of something as it scurried into a walk-in closet on their left.30

“We saw you Jimmy. Come on out you can’t scare us!” Tony said in as loud and bold voice as he could muster, while his heart beat faster and his hands hung trembling. 31

They walked over to the closet shining their lights inside. It was empty. Stepping further into the closet they searched the small space swinging their lights quickly from side to side.32

“Where did he go?” Tony asked.33

“Maybe it was just our shadows we saw.” Tom offered knowing that was impossible.34

The footsteps could be heard again, this time in the hallway heading towards the living room where the boys had their stuff. The boys rushed out of the room still hoping to catch Jimmy in the act. The hallway was as empty as the closet had been.35

“I want to get out of here, like right now!” Tony exclaimed, the fear no longer hidden in his voice. 36

“Let’s just grab our stuff. We’ll tell Jimmy we stayed here all night, he’ll never know.” Tom said.37

As they rounded the corner leading back to the living room they saw it. There standing before them was a man holding a machete. He had the blue gray look of death about him. They could tell it was old man Sanderson by the pictures they had seen hanging on the walls. As it looked up from the floor where it was examining the boy’s stuff, their blood froze in their veins. The look on that face was not human. The eyes, or at least where the eyes should have been were vacant holes. They could detect the pungent odor of decomposed meat. 38

The boys screamed and turned to run for the door. They stopped dead in their tracks. Standing before them was a little girl. This was Sara Sanderson, Mr. Sanderson’s five year old daughter. She too had the same smell of decay as the man. She reached for them as she struggled to say something. A great gash across her throat made her words weak and unclear. Tom could see the flesh around the cut moving as she struggled to speak. “Help me!” was the garbled words she fought to say.39

The foot steps started again, this time from behind them, old man Sanderson, or whatever he had become, was coming after them. They turned and ran down the hallway towards the kitchen. 40

On the far side of the kitchen they saw a door leading to a small laundry room and a screen door leading to the backyard just beyond that. As they rushed through the kitchen, Mrs. Sanderson crossed their path; her flesh hacked to an almost unrecognizable state.41

Bursting through the doors they found themselves back outside, maniacal laughter following them. The clouds drifted clear of the moon bathing the surrounding area in bright moonlight again as if a dark and evil presence had left. 42

Tom and Tony ran full speed down the driveway and away from this house. As they past the old oak tree at the end of the driveway, Robertson’s cat was still watching the show with increasing interest. 43

The cat looked at the house one last time and gave a wink before setting off after Tom and Tony. 44

They both ran to Tom’s house, too terrified to be alone after what they experienced. They lay trembling in their beds refusing to turn off the light in Tom’s room. They eventually fell into a restless exhausted sleep.45

The next morning, while eating breakfast, Tom asked his dad. “What happened at the Sanderson place?”46

“No one really knows, son. Some think old man Sanderson went nuts one night and brutally murdered his whole family and then buried them in the cellar. But I don’t believe that“.47

“Oh yeah. How come”? 48

“Well, you know, the Sanderson’s had a son. He was not right in the head. He was heavy into witchcraft, voodoo all that dark crap. If old man Sanderson wanted to kill anybody, it was his own boy. He chased him out of the house one night and threatened to kill him if he ever came back. You know Aunt Susan said she saw the Sanderson kid one night…and he, well…transformed into some kind of animal, you know, like a shape-shifter. They say he knew spells that could make people do things. I know strange things seemed to happen when he was around. I kind of believe he bewitched his father to kill them and then he burned the bodies as some kind of satanic sacrifice, the bodies never have been found. For a while some thought they saw the boy hanging around that old oak tree. If I’m not mistaken, his name was Victor.”49

With that the cat looked up as if he had been called by name and winked.50