Tales from the Beaumont House (Supernatural short stories)
By D.F. Holland
()
About this ebook
What do a psychic, a family of four and a computer programmer have in common? Unfortunately for them, they reside in the Beaumont House apartments. What appears to be a serene, picturesque apartment complex is actually an otherworldly reality consisting of the supernatural, the strange and the unimaginable.
In “MoonGlow” ~ A computer programmer, developing an online vampire game, is haunted by a powerful, centuries-old spirit who desperately wants to take physical form once again.
In “Gathering of souls” ~ An interior decorator buys an antique painting with a heartbreaking, supernatural history that will turn her world upside down - as well as anyone else who takes possession of it.
In “Heir to a new world” ~ A child is missing and it’s the family’s worst nightmare. Or so they thought. When the child is mysteriously returned the nightmare REALLY begins. The terrifying events that unfold affect not only the family, but the entire planet.
These and other stories await. From horror and sci-fi toTwilight Zone-type fiction, TALES FROM THE BEAUMONT HOUSE invites you in to stay for awhile. However, it is not advisable to move in anytime soon.
CHAPTERS ~
1). INTRO
2). MOONGLOW (Apt. 7B)
3). AWAKEN TO THE NIGHTMARE (Apt. 4E)
4). GATHERING OF SOULS (Apt. 17D)
5). THE 1940’ s (Apt. 6C)
6). CYBERSPACE (Apt. 11B)
7). HEIR TO A NEW WORLD (Apt. 11A)
8). OUTRO
In the grand tradition of THE TWILIGHT ZONE! The stories collected in TALES FROM THE BEAUMONT HOUSE will simultaneously stimulate the mind as well as freeze the blood. D.F. Holland is an exciting new voice in fantasy fiction.
~ Joseph F. Parda, Author of BEAVERS!
I was riveted to each page, wondering what was going to happen next and how each story would end. The twists, turns and surprise endings take the reader on a wild and exciting ride.The stories, as well as the novella HEIR TO A NEW WORLD, are prime material for a cable TV series or motion picture.
~ Mary VanMeer, VirtualAssistantGazette
D.F. Holland
D.F. Holland is a longtime admirer of the Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, the works of Ira Levin and other works of fantasy, sci-fi and horror. TALES FROM THE BEAUMONT HOUSE is the author's first novel. Holland was born and resides in New York and is currently working on a new project.
Read more from D.F. Holland
The Promise of a New Tomorrow (A supernatural short story) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Beast Within (A Supernatural Romance Horror Short Story) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPods! And Other Supernatural Tales (Horror Short Stories) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Tales from the Beaumont House (Supernatural short stories)
Related ebooks
Spook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCircling the Turtle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrick of the Light Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPenalty Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dreamers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rhumgold Sagas: The Witching Dimension Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLives: Stories and Thoughts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Resurrection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Horror in the Night: The Secrets of Whispering Willows, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Broken Harmonica Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Corner: The Dark Corner, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unexpected Unseen: Book 1: Learning the Ropes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPaper Quilt: Red, White, Blue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDrather's Story: an Expired Reality novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rhumgold Sagas: Vampires R Us Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInside the Hatboxes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExtraordinary Naked Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNick & Jenny Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCease To Exist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller Was Dad, the Apthorp Was Home, and Life Was a Catch-22 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mousehead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Visitor: The Dark Corner - Book I: The Dark Corner Archives, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Box in the Yard Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRetirement Policy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of the Firewing: Guardians of Gaea (Book I) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAftermath Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Liberty Rock: Liberty Rock Novels, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEscape From Undermind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFalse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaroons: A Grievers Novel (Grievers Trilogy, Book 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Horror Fiction For You
I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Misery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Good Indians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Sematary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hidden Pictures: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Needful Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whisper Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watchers: a spine-chilling Gothic horror novel now adapted into a major motion picture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Different Seasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brother Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Best Friend's Exorcism: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Holly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes on an Execution: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hollow Places: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Firestarter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Revival: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Tales from the Beaumont House (Supernatural short stories)
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Tales from the Beaumont House (Supernatural short stories) - D.F. Holland
Tales from
The Beaumont House
D.F. Holland
Tales from The Beaumont House
© 2014 D.F. Holland
Smashwords Edition
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
For more information please visit:
www.TheMidnightBookshop.com
And:
https://www.facebook.com/people/DF-Holland/100007499416125
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRO
MOONGLOW (Apt. 7B)
AWAKEN TO THE NIGHTMARE (Apt. 4E)
GATHERING OF SOULS (Apt. 17D)
THE 1940’s (Apt. 6C)
CYBERSPACE (Apt. 11B)
HEIR TO A NEW WORLD (Apt. 11A)
OUTRO
INTRO
The beautiful Beaumont House apartment complex was an old, well-maintained group of Tudor buildings on a large stretch of land. It was a sprawling apartment complex with jewel-colored, freshly-cut grass. There were old, tall shady trees interspersed within the landscape, making it look like a picture postcard.
Seasonal flowers were always planted in circles around the trees, in the pathways and around the perimeter of each of the Tudor buildings adding a touch of delicate color, like lace on a beautiful dress.
The grounds had small hills which looked beautiful all year round. In the winter the children would sled down them, screaming and laughing. The apartments themselves were well cared for inside and out, from top to bottom. Despite its age the apartment complex looked brand new. The Beaumont House was located in a sleepy suburb thirty-five minutes from the city. It was it an ideal place to live for those who worked in the city.
The first smaller building was the rental office. This was where people inquired about rentals or apartments to purchase. There was often a waiting list as the apartment complex was not only pleasing to the eye, but was one of the few pet-friendly apartments in the area.
There was an elderly gentleman who had worked in the rental office for many decades. There wasn’t a tenant who could recall a time when he was not there. He could remember the names and faces of the many people and families who had lived there throughout the decades as well as details about their lives. The old man was extremely thin and pale with a strange twinkle in his eye. What little white hair he had left was standing up in every direction. His suit was sharp and well-pressed but seemed to be from another century. The office had wall to wall bookshelves filled with mostly very old leather-bound books. The old man would often read, sit at his desk and look at his old-fashioned pocket watch.
Sometimes he looked out of the windows to watch the goings-on. People moving in or out, dogs being walked, children playing, residents sitting on their porches, driving to work, walking along the scenic paths and sitting under the large shady trees. The birds were singing, the neighbors were friendly and the lawns were always well-manicured. It was a very nice place to live. An ideal place, or so they thought.
MOONGLOW
The spirit had been resigned to eternal loneliness. He had been cursed to remain on a particular area of land to roam for all of time as an apparition, alone. He attempted to communicate with people but rarely did anyone sense his presence. When they did, they were often frightened of the feeling and would shut themselves off from him. He watched the beautiful, natural landscape begin to fill over time as people began to build. Eventually the Beaumont House apartments were built which covered the entire area that he was condemned to. At first he resented the disruption but soon found that he could learn from the residents who lived there.
The spirit tried not to allow his thoughts to wander into the past but it was impossible. The memories haunted him just as he haunted this land endlessly. He had been a mortal in the 1700’s and had been an average man of his time. One ordinary day he witnessed a woman from afar performing some kind of ritual. He was not aware that he was witnessing witchcraft. The woman spoke in a language unlike any other he had heard, and he had heard many. She motioned with her hands and her body seemed to contort in an inhuman manner. The trees around her swayed in the wind which appeared to only surround the area in which she was standing. She stopped as if she felt his eyes upon her and indeed she did. She turned and warned him that if he spoke of her witchery that he would pay the ultimate price. At that time he did not believe in witchcraft so he did tell others, which was his fatal error.
The people believed him and proceeded to bring her to trial. Eventually they burned her to death in the very field where he now roamed. She spoke wildly and in a high-pitched tone as she burned about the great punishment which would come upon each person responsible for her physical death. Her spells were formidable. Just after the burning, one by one, each person involved in the trial passed away mysteriously; slowly and painfully. But their punishment was only beginning in death. It was in the afterlife that her spells took hold, as he was to find out. He did not know exactly what caused his passing, only that he was extremely hot with a very high fever. He later attributed this symptom, or punishment, to the witch’s burning. He could not go towards the light as his body expired. He could not reach the other side. He had been cursed to remain on the land in which her life was taken. Never to arrive in Heaven or Hell but to remain in an abyss, unseen and unheard for all of eternity.
The spirit had the ability to go in and out of the apartments as he wished, undetected. He had been in spirit form for so long that he barely remembered what it was like to be a flesh and blood human being. He remembered having the name Nathaniel
while he lived but he hadn’t heard his name spoken since. Now, no one knew of him so he had no need for a name. His thoughts often fatigued him. They were hopeless, dreadful and all his own with no one to share them with. Not that anyone would necessarily want to hear them. There was no comfort available from any source.
He learned to keep track of time by visiting the tenants of the Beaumont House apartments. He could listen to their radios to keep informed of the changing times and the changing ways of humankind. They did not see or sense him.
He wondered why he craved human contact since he was no longer living, no longer human.
Time passed. The weeks, months and years blended together in a blur of darkness and doom for the spirit. He was often with people but was never acknowledged. He often wondered how long he could withstand the isolation before going mad. Why hadn’t he already gone mad? He would often moan and scream out in anguish, releasing his emotional pain but no one heard him. He discovered that he could read people’s thoughts although this usually bored him. He discovered that with much effort he could open and close doors. He could also open and close windows. People noticed this and wondered about it but he quickly became disinterested. Performing tricks for amusement was beneath him.
He found that sometimes he could implant a thought in a person’s mind and they would think it was their own. He could only penetrate the minds of a few for a short period of time. He experimented with this until he grew tired of it. The spirit realized that what he needed was a way out, an escape. He wished to free himself of this place, of this curse, and regain some kind of form. A body in which to live freely, as he once did.
He tried harder to communicate with the residents but the best he could do was to create a chilled breeze that would brush past a tenant. He wandered the halls and apartments in despair. He walked the grounds in the pouring rain and freezing cold, oblivious, and unable to feel any of it. How long must I endure this eternal damnation? he wondered.
He saw people moving in and out of their apartments often. He wondered if anyone could help him, if such a person existed. Many years passed and he witnessed technology advancing. People watched televisions then used computers, phones, tablets and other devices. He thought that perhaps his escape would somehow lie within this technology. He waited patiently while apartment 7B was painted and prepared for its new tenant. He watched and saw the young male tenant bringing in boxes of belongings. Many of his belongings were computers, computer parts and what the spirit heard referred to as programs.
The spirit was extremely interested in the new tenant because he had sensed his presence. While bringing in boxes the tenant stopped in his tracks and felt the spirit in the room with him. The young man put the boxes down and searched the apartment, of course finding no one. The spirit felt something he had not felt for centuries – hope. This hope allowed him to feel longing. A longing for a bearable existence and a longing to live. He implanted a few thoughts into the tenant’s mind and the tenant, named Shane, received them immediately and easily. The situation was promising indeed.
The programmer:
The moon glowing behind the Beaumont House apartments gave it a horror film feel. Horror films were familiar to Shane, so it probably appealed to him when he decided to take the place, his first apartment. Shane was parked in his car that evening looking up at the huge buildings lit from behind by moonlight.
You’ve heard all the rumors about this place, haven’t you?
asked his friend Joe on the phone.
It doesn’t bother me. Maybe it will inspire me. I have that vampire game to finish by the deadline.
I can’t wait to test it out in beta.
Thanks. I have to bring some boxes upstairs and find the super. Talk to you later.
The super was a nervous, older man who looked like he’d seen a few ghosts in his time. I have all the keys for you right here,
the super said as he handed him an envelope with several keys inside. He took Shane upstairs down an unusually dark corridor to the empty apartment’s door. So, are all the rumors true about this place being haunted?
he asked. Shane turned around but the super had gone. No sound of footsteps – just gone,
muttered Shane to himself. Some welcoming, he thought as he brought in the boxes. He later collapsed onto his bed which was the only piece of furniture in the place.
The shadeless windows were letting the moonlight in, bathing the bare rooms in blue light. Shane woke up groggily at 2:45 AM thinking that he heard someone speaking softly. He listened closely. It sounded like whispering and the sound of faint music from long ago. Shane was too tired to get up and investigate. The spirit whispered, Give me form.
Shane decided to remain perfectly still pretending that he was asleep. Who am I pretending for? he wondered. Another whisper, Create me.
He remained still until he was sleeping again, until the rooms changed from blue to