The Mystery of Meerly

“Gosh Jessi! I still don’t understand why you had to agree to this! Your parents are out of town! We could have had a party or something!” Chelsea whined.
“What would you have done Chelsea?” Jessi growled “, It was stay here for a night or get my hair ripped out by Bianca and her friends.”
“So you agreed to spend a night in Meerly Manor. Couldn’t you have just grown new hair? This place gives me the creeps. Ah! What was that?” Chelsea screamed. She ran behind Jessi and grabbed onto her sleeve as they made their way up the long, winding driveway.
“Calm down Chelsea, it was just a bird. You are so paranoid! We will be fine! Anyways Gerard is coming, and he would fight anything that tried to get us. This house is just old and rundown, that’s all.” Jessi answered.
“Alright, I’ll stay, but if anything scary happens, I’m leaving right away!” Chelsea informed her.
“Fine by me. Want to shake on it?” The two dropped their bags, and shook hands, making their agreement final. Then they picked up their bags and continued to make their way up to Meerly Manor.1

Jessi and Chelsea had just settled in when they began to wonder where Gerard was.
“Maybe he got lost. “ Chelsea suggested.
“How could he possibly get lost?” Jessi asked “, This town is too small to get lost in. He probably just forgot to come.” The two pondered the whereabouts of Gerard for a while more before they decided to go looking for him. They had just made it a third of the way down the driveway when they heard a noise coming from the bushes aside them. They both heard it but did not say anything to the other fro fear of creeping each other out. When Jessi heard at again she calmly looked at Chelsea and asked if she had heard the noise. Jessi turned pale and answered that she had. The two of them clung to each other and continued their way slowly down the driveway. As soon as they had walk another ten feet, an ominous figure jumped out from behind the bushes and covered Jessi’s eyes.
“Oh my god! Chelsea help me! Help! Chelsea help!” she screamed. Chelsea stood in horror as Jessi continued to scream.
“Gosh, ” exclaimed the seemingly male voice coming from the shadows “, you guys are such wimps!” Jessi immediately recognized the voice and furiously pulled his fingers from over her eyes.
“I’m going to kill you Gerard! That was not funny!” she shrieked.
“It was just a joke! I’m sorry! Let’s go inside now. I want to get a good look around before it gets too dark. Come on!” he coaxed. After a few moments of hesitation, the three of them headed back up the driveway and went back inside the decaying, decrepit house. It was the last time they would ever see daylight. 2

As they toured the house, Chelsea became even wearier of Meerly Manor. She felt as if someone was watching her from afar but did not want to say anything. At just about midnight, the three of them went downstairs to eat some cold McDonalds hamburgers. As they were finishing, the front door slammed and a figure walked in, grumbling and shaking his fist.
“What have I told you damn kids? Stay out of my house! What are you doing here?” the figure boomed. He was slightly hunched over, his beady eyes fixed right on the three of them.
“Sir, we’re sorry. We did not know that anyone lived here anymore. We were looking to spend the night in a truly haunted house.” Gerard coyly exclaimed.
“Don’t try to butter me up you little hooligan! You’re looking to steal my furniture! You no good dirty rotten thief! What was that?” he demanded. He had heard a noise in the far off kitchen, just to the left of the back door. They had all heard it in fact, and they were positively terrified.
“Gerard, where’s Chelsea?” Jessi asked.
“She’s right next to me, “ exclaimed Gerard “, or so I thought she was.”
“What are you up to? Are you trying to scare this old man to death?” queried the still unknown figure.
“No sir, we’re not. We can’t find our friend. She was here a minute ago when you walked in the door but now she’s gone! Did you see anyone leave the room?” Gerard stuttered.
“Stop calling me sir you little thief. My name’s Judas Jardin and I have been a groundskeeper here since my father passed. The Meerly family was my second family and I promised Mr. Meerly that I would look after his house after he died. And no, I haven’t seen any of your little ruffian friends.” Judas informed them. Gerard and Jessi looked at each other worriedly and decided to go search for Chelsea, even though they were already sure something in the house had taken her. Judas suggested that they split up into two different search parties to search the house quickly seeing as to how the house was one of the biggest on the street.
“Jessi, come with me. We’ll go up the left staircase and Gerard; you can go up the right. We can meet in the center of the hallway all the way in the back.” Judas commanded. With that being said, the two parties went their separate ways.3

As soon as the night had begun, it seemed to have been over to Jessi. She had planned to spend some time with her friends, but with the disappearance of Chelsea, Jessi had been very scared. Being alone with a somewhat creepy groundskeeper wasn’t helping her nerves either.
“So Mr. Jardin,” asked Jessi “, do you know anything about this house being haunted? You must have heard something. Nothing strange has happened? Nothing paranormal?” Jessi was trying to figure out exactly what had happened to Chelsea without actually accusing anyone of anything.
“Not since I’ve been here. Except there was something strange about the Meerly family’s death. Each one of them was found in the attic. They were kept there until a coroner could come and determine their cause of death. However, when the coroner came to see them, they were all gone. Stay here a minute, I think I saw something in that room there.” Judas muttered. After a few seconds, Jessi heard a scream and a shot. Suddenly Judas came out of the room to the left of her and heaved on the floor.
“What was it Judas? What happened?” Jessi probed.
“I’m so sorry Jessi. It’s Chelsea. I’ve found her,” he said.
“Is she okay?”
“Far from,” he replied. Jessi asked what he meant. He told her to go look. She entered the room and saw Chelsea hanging from the ceiling. She felt so sick she ran back into the hallway, and she too heaved. After being comforted by Judas, they continued on to find Gerard and tell him what they had seen. As they neared the agreed upon meeting point, they began to wonder where Gerard was. Surely had would have been there by now. Then they heard a crash that seemed to come from the stairs. They approached and looked around but found nothing. Judas suggested that they had best go back downstairs but Jessi was not listening. She was intently staring over the rail at Gerard’s mangled body.
“Why is this happening?” she asked. Suddenly, Judas’ face seemed to turn into an evil smile and he laughed like a hyena.
“You stupid little girl. These weren’t suicides, they were murders. I’ve been watching you three for over a year now. You know what I did to the Meerly’s and I couldn’t risk you letting it slip. It was so simple so convince that little Bianca brat to get you to spend a night here.” Judas bragged.
“What are you talking about? I don’t even know you! I’m calling the police!” Jessi cried. She pulled out her cell phone but as she did, Judas smacked it out of her hand and broke it into pieces.
“You’re not going anywhere Jessica. Even if you did escape, I know where you live. I could just get you then. You will never escape me!” Judas cackled. Jessi ran down the stairs screaming for help and Judas seemed to fly down behind her as if hovering like a ghost. She reached the front door and yanked it open, only to find Judas standing on the other side.
“I told you, you couldn’t escape me!” Judas laughed. She turned pale in horror and as soon as Jessi’s night had begun it ended forever.