All Hallows, Eve

By Miro Antonio White and Lillian de Jong

A.k.a. Miro and Lillian2Yung

October 17th 1876

Shadows, oppressive and cold, hung over the large estate of Mr Willard Perkins. Mr Perkins, a cold and shadowy figure himself, was used to them and indeed enjoyed them very much. He didn't live with people and seeing as his estate, The Wildemere Estate, was surrounded by a large imposing fence with spikes at the top, he didn't get many visitors.

The front gate, a large brass contraption with winged brass demons lurking on every available surface, was Mr Perkins' pride and joy. Children of the nearby Little Wilbury village were always curious as to who lived in the large estate, for Mr Perkins never went out during the day time. The grown-ups, especially the elderly, of Little Wilbury encouraged the children strongly to stay away from that dreadful Wildemere Estate. They said it was haunted by the Devil himself.

Mr Perkins always chuckled sinisterly whenever he thought of that little tale. If they only knew the truth.

That night Mr Perkins had a problem; some irritating pesky children had found their way into the grounds. He sent Harald, his trusty butler and only employee, to sort them out. The children never again left the grounds.

The rotting bodies of Mr Perkins and Harald were found twelve days later hanging from a large yew tree in the grounds right over the lake. Their remains were buried at the base of the same tree two days later.

The entire estate was said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children, Perkins and indeed most sightings were of Harald the butler. A few attempts were made by the county to sell the estate or level the house but odd things seemed to happen to the people and machines that tried that. One entire team of engineers went missing during the summer of 1934 never to be seen again. To this day the people of Little Wilbury avoid the place whenever they can.

August 25th Present day

"Come on Eve! Get in the car already! We're going to be late," Andrea Hallows said to her eighteen year old slightly estranged daughter.

"Yeah yeah hold your friggin horses! I'm just trying to take my luggage down the stairs. By the way thanks for the help dickwad," Eve grumbled to her older brother Charlie.

Charlie, who, like Eve, had long jet black hair, was sitting comfortably on the front steps.

"Oh come on Eve we'd like to get there before Christmas," a grinning Mr Anthony Hallows said as his youngest finally managed to get her suitcase into the car.

"Why are we moving again?" Eve growled at her father. She hadn't wanted to move. Moving meant having to make new friends, go to a new school and basically being miserable for the first year that you lived there. If you lived there that long.

"You know perfectly well that your father and I have bought the Wildemere Estate and that we're going to convert it into a hotel," her mother said huffily.

It was this sort of attitude that made Eve dislike her mother most of the time. Andrea Hallows was not her biological mother but Eve considered her her mother anyway. Eve's biological mother had died when Eve was born and her father had married Andrea about seven months later. Eve couldn't see why these days.

With the luggage in the car, Andrea behind the wheel, Charlie getting in his own little red sports car, and Mr Hallows driving the moving truck himself, they finally set off.

"We're already an hour late you know," Andrea said to Eve as she climbed into the car next to her. Eve was glad she'd brought a book and her Ipod for the journey. Andrea sighed as she watched her adopted daughter plug the earpieces into her ear and disappear behind her book. Eve hadn't always been like this around her. Lately though, for the past year (ever since Eve had learned about the move) Eve had become the moody, grouchy and sometimes exasperating girl.

Eve, who these days dressed like she'd blown up a homeless person and then sewn his clothes back together. Eve was a Goth. Not a real one seeing as she'd had only started dressing and wearing the dark make-up to make a serious statement to her mother. The nine hour long drive had been a nightmare as far as Andrea and Eve were concerned. Following the large blue moving truck was annoying seeing as it only went about 50 miles per hour at maximum. Charlie, who of course had been driving his little red sports car, had disappeared from sight as soon as they'd left the street they'd lived on for the past four years.

Eve received a text message on her cell during their seventh hour in the car saying that Charlie was already in the Little Wilbury pub.

***

Stiff and hungry Eve exited the car for the last time that day and looked up. A rare smile cracked her face as she beheld the front gate of Wildemere Estate. It was still as imposing as ever. The brass demons in various shapes and sizes leered at her and her family. Charlie had just called to say that he would be staying in the pub for the night with some local girl. Anthony Hallows proclaimed that Charlie had inherited his superb genes.

"Looks like something right out of hell," Eve remarked with a grin at her mother.

Andrea frowned. She'd been afraid of this. "Wait till you see the actual house," Andrea said pleasantly, making an attempt once again to close the gap between them.

Eve pushed against the gate and with a loud groaning creak the gate swung open to admit them. First thing Eve saw when she looked to the left was the large yew tree overhanging the lake. It was most definitely the most gorgeous tree she'd ever seen. Evening light filtered through the tree and seemed to be enhanced by the reflections coming off the lake. The house itself looked as though a hundred plus years of neglect had hardly done it any damage. Sure there was a broken window here or there and the roof had quite a few tiles missing but other than that it was nothing a lick of paint wouldn't fix.

As Anthony drove the moving truck up the drive, Andrea and Eve made their way across the large drive on foot. It really was a beautiful place, Eve had to admit that. She could see why her father had liked it from the get go.

Whoosh! A large gust of wind nearly knocked Eve off her feet, only by grabbing onto her mother was she spared the fate of being dumped in the lake. As she looked up she saw two silvery, glowing eyes looking at her with great sorrow through a second floor window. The moment she blinked the eyes had gone; she dismissed them as her over-active imagination, which admittedly she did have.

Although in this instance she wasn't imagining them. The room behind the second story window in question was Harald's old bedroom and that was where he now spent most of his lonely days ... the nights were another matter altogether.

***

"Dad I'm gonna look for a room," Eve said from the top of the stairs as her father and mother started unloading the truck.

"Sure hon but be careful there might be some loose floor boards on the third floor and don't for any reason use the bathroom until I have the water up and running. You don't want to stink up the place now do you?" her father joked as he set the large trunk marked 'Charlie's stuff' next to the door.

Eve nodded and switched on the flashlight she'd brought. Careful not to slip through any holes in the floor she kept her eyes fixed on the floor. If she hadn't she might've noticed the large shadows the light was casting. Shadows that were not from anything the light hit. Dark oppressive shadows.

The walls were lined with fading paintings that were so dusty it was hard to see what they were representations of. Eve stopped at one of them and brushed some of the dust away. Frowning at the picture she turned her head this way and then the other to understand what on earth this was. She couldn't tell. Maybe it was the lack of light in this dusty corridor. As she shone her flashlight at the painting she suddenly understood what she was seeing and immediately she started blushing furiously.

A picture had appeared and not the sort of picture that she would've expected in a hundred year old mansion like this. It was a picture of a woman sucking a man's cock- very well painted. Eve stood nailed to the spot for a few moments, staring open-mouthed at the painting and then resolved to clean the rest of the paintings as soon as she'd found herself a room.

***

Harald sat or rather floated in his chair next to the grand piano in his quarters. He longed to play but unfortunately he had never really gotten the knack for touching solid objects ever since his rather violent and, to him, unexpected death. The other spirits in the manor were of a more talented nature when it came to touching the living world. He had during the 130 years since his death touched the living world exactly three times. Each time when he was furiously angry.

Once when the county had dispatched a wrecking crew to demolish his home he had somehow opened the ground beneath the team and it had swallowed them whole. Once not seventy years ago when a pair of arsonists had attempted to burn the place down he had become so furiously angry that they'd somehow ended up setting themselves on fire. And the last time was just five years ago.

Harald smiled to himself. That was when he had learned that his anger was something he could control and thereby touch the living world. A real-estate agent had placed a sign on Harald's formerly beautiful front lawn. Harald had become so very angry then that the sign had hit the estate agent over the head so many times that he'd been forced to run into the lake and wait there until Harald's fury had subsided.

Ever since that day Harald had been endeavouring to become more skilled at touching the living world. And seeing as there was not much else for him to do, he had practised every hour of every day since. He could now clean cobwebs from the house, move some basic items like coffee and tea cups and his proudest achievement he could make the lights come on. He had come to hate the dark over the years and his hatred seemed to be an asset.

Just as he placed his transparent fingers on the keys the door to his room swung open and the girl he had viewed earlier came in. He was so startled that he tumbled right through the floor.

***

Eve saw the piano and knew at once that this was her room. It was marvellous. Cleaner than any room she'd seen so far, a magnificent kingsized fourposter bed and her own adjoining bathroom complete with a large bathtub.

"DAD I found my room!" she yelled downwards. "That's great honey I'll come check it out later," came the call from the downstairs hall.

Eve grinned again at the room she had chosen for herself. She was just itching to play the piano. "Just hope you're tuned mister," she muttered as she sat down behind it.

Just as she started playing a basic scale to test the tuning a disembodied transparent head came floating up through the piano. Eve screamed and fell over backwards, then shuffled away from it towards the door as fast as she possibly could. The head too had let out a bloodcurdling screech and disappeared again the way it had come. At the door Eve looked back.

Nothing there.

Her overactive imagination again probably. Eve went downstairs anyway because her imagination was always somewhat less with her mother around.

***

That night the invisible Harald sat in the corner of his room. On the ceiling but in the corner none the less. He watched the girl gazing out of the window from her position his bed.

Something very odd was going on. The girl was pale as a sheet but her dark brown eyes looked as though she had applied a generous amount of boot polish to the eyelids.

Harald had observed her throughout the evening as she cleaned his bedroom with an attractive woman who was undoubtedly the girl's mother. The girl, whom he now knew was called Eve Hallows, was unfashionably rude to her mother at some occasions. She didn't seem to like her very much. The mother, as far as Harald could tell, went out of her way to be nice to Eve but that only seemed to make her even ruder.

For such an attractive girl to be this ... antisocial was unheard of in Harald's opinion.

What could the mother have done to provoke such hostility in the lovely young girl?

Harald shrugged his transparent shoulders and decided to take a look at what the mother was doing. He flipped upright and floated through the ceiling to the third floor and floated along the corridor to the door of the master bedroom.

Thank god Mr Perkins was no longer around or these people would've been dead the moment they stepped into his house. Where Mr Perkins was though, Harald had no idea. He hadn't seen him in about twenty years. He supposed Mr Perkins had moved on to wherever there was to move on. Mr Perkins had simply vanished in a cloud of brimstone with a loud, rather ominous cackle one morning and that was that.

Harald pushed his head through the door and quickly retracted it, feeling compelled to utter an apology. Blinking, Harald paused for a moment, wondering what to do next. Then a loud slapping noise sounded in the master bedroom followed by a very pleasurable moan.

Harald couldn't resist himself. He had to take in something he hadn't observed in nearly 131 years. There on the bed was a very sweaty Mrs Hallows. She was bouncing on top of Mr Hallows. Both Mr and Mrs Hallows were completely naked and by the looks of things both were having a great time.

"Oh yes Tony faster. Fuck my ass honey," Mrs Hallows grunted, a look of either intense pain or pleasure on her face. Given the situation Harald guessed the latter. Mr Hallows, Tony ... Harald corrected himself, grabbed hold of Mrs Hallows' shiny buttocks and plunged his stiff and apparently well lubricated member back into Mrs Hallows backdoor.

Faster and harder Tony entered his wife's backdoor. "Rub your clit my filthy little bitch!" Tony Hallows groaned at his wife. Mrs Hallows at once started rubbing it and then screamed and moaned with apparent delight. Wet squelching sounds filled the bedroom as Mrs Hallows rubbed her clit and bounced faster and harder on top of her husband. Her bosom was heaving tremendously and swinging backward and forward as Tony's member entered her again and again at greater pace.

"Oh yeah Andrea fuck me harder my little bitch!" Tony grunted to his wife.

Harald paused again. He had not had a great amount of sexual experience when he was alive. Having been only twenty two at the time of his death he just hadn't had the time to look for a wife. He'd been busy tending to Mr Perkins' needs. Now though looking upon this rather exciting new development Harald wished he had taken the time to experiment more fully.

As he leaned in to see better what Tony was doing to Mrs Hallows ... Andrea, he corrected himself ... he experienced something that he hadn't experienced in 130 years. He smelled something. Something enticing too. It was the smell of great sex. Harald actually laughed out loud and bent down again to sniff. Yes there it was again. Oh how wonderful. He could actually smell. Maybe that meant that he could taste as well. He didn't know a lot but he knew that smell and taste were very well connected.

Of course, tasting something would mean that he would have to touch the living world. Which of course he hadn't done very much.

Harald inhaled once again and then stuck out his tongue. Unfortunately for all parties involved this was exactly the moment that Andrea chose to fall onto her husband. Harald experienced something of a shock when he suddenly experienced everything going on in Andrea's body as his head floated right through her. All her sensations were forced into his system. From the sexual sensations to her mental state of thought to her bloodflow from adrenaline to intestinal track. It was the most disorientating and sickening experience since his gruesome and violent death.

Tony Hallows now started pumping his wife in earnest and although Harald was still feeling slightly queasy he found that his desire to taste something was overwhelming.

He bent close again and stuck out his tongue, inhaled and concentrated. The sweat running off Andrea's body was in his transparent nostrils and then he felt it. One drop of sweat fell upon his tongue and a few seconds later through his tongue and he tasted it. It was slightly musky but he tasted it none the less.

He let out a whoop of joy, leaped into the air and a few seconds later tumbled through the floor again. Neither Mr Tony or Mrs Andrea Hallows had any idea Harald had been there.

October 30th, about Two Months Later.

Wildemere Estate was shaping up nicely. One day after their arrival a work crew had started on clearing the rotten floorboards, rooftiles, etc. Running water and the plumbing were already taken care of. A gardening team had taken the garden to new heights. Flowers, grasslands and the dead leaves were no longer an issue. The lawn looked as though it had been manicured. True, a workforce of about 150 people were working on and around the house but the work was progressing steadily. Tony Hallows had been given a deadline for Christmas but the way things looked now they would be ready to open tomorrow, on Halloween night.

The guest quarters were already done due to the superb efforts of Andrea Hallows and her interior design team. The main lobby was done, the stairs were polished all over the house. All paintings and tapestries had been restored to perfection. Flowering plants stood on tiny tables or hung from ceilings. Now it was time to get the Hallows family sorted.

That morning two workmen had started ripping up the floorboards on the second floor, Eve's bathroom to be precise. Just as they ripped two tiles out, a huge spout of water ripped past them with the sound of a maniacal cry of glee.

***

Eve came home from college every day seeing as it was only a one hour drive. Charlie however lived in an apartment off campus and didn't come home till weekends. Seeing as this happened on a Monday he had just left.

The workmen's cars and trucks had clogged up the drive so it was difficult for Eve to get the car onto the property. With some manoeuvring she finally managed to get the car into the newly constructed garage.

Eve had gotten used to smiling when she saw the manor. The manor that now looked even more impressive than the day she'd first seen it. The white walls, the black shutters at the windows, the flower boxes out side each window and the significant growth of ivy along the south wall. She loved this house.

She didn't know why but she'd been sleeping more peacefully here than anywhere else ever before. Also her dreams, both vivid and erotic in nature, had become something of an obsession for her. Just last night she'd dreamt of the handsome young man again whom she'd met in her dreams before. Last night she dreamt that he had entered her room and they'd had such great hot and sweaty sex that Eve had woken to find that her clothes had been ripped and her panties were missing.

She longed to have that dream again. She'd never felt that fulfilled during or after sex. She wanted the young handsome and entirely sensual man to have her again.

Although she'd never actually met him she was certain she knew his face from somewhere.

Eve walked into the house and felt at once that she was being watched. She glanced around but saw no one actually looking at her. Shrugging she went up to her room, weaving her way through the various workmen.

As she got there it was to find several confused builders grouping in her bathroom with her father.

"... couldn't have been the pressure? I mean water makes some funny noises sometimes right?" Tony Hallows said confidently to the contractor.

"Well I suppose but it was a very specific noise and I've never heard of water that could cackle really," the builder on the floor said, scratching his head.