No One Visited 27 Estwood Drive Anymore

--- This piece is an excerpt from our Short Story Anthology. We'll be posting pieces from our short story anthology in the coming weeks ---

No one visited 27 Estwood Drive anymore.

It was a huge, elegant mansion with all the amenities. A pool, a speaker system, more rooms than a family could ever need. It was widely contested by people all around the state. People were putting down their entire life savings on it. It was like something was calling to them.

All that stopped when four were found dead in the pool.

The Graystones had moved in at the end of April. They were a family of four, six including their grandparents. The father and mother, Thomas and Alexa, had two beautiful children. One was a boy, and one was a girl. There was a rumor that the girl, Eliza, wasn’t Thomas’, but investigators dismissed that as small town gossip once the accident happened. The other child, Elias, always brushed off those rumors. He would protect Eliza so she wouldn’t have to be aware and question herself. The parents of Alexa lived with them, and they had moved in recently. It had been the reason they had moved into the bigger house in the first place.

It was a late June afternoon according to the maid they had hired. The children had wanted to go out in the pool as it was sweltering. Their mother obliged, and decided to go out with them. Their grandmother, Elise, had joined them later in the day, dipping her feet in the water to cool off.

People questioned if it was a maintenance accident. That something had happened with the electricity, yet the electrician and plumber had been by a couple of days ago, as well as some people for pool maintenance. Everything seemed to be in excellent shape.

Until the screams happened.

The maid heard it at first, having settled in the house a bit later, she said. She immediately called the police and explained the situation. She had heard screams, but it seemed that doors had been locked from the outside and she couldn’t get out.

The police did not come right away, however. It took them hours after the call, at first not believing it, but the call had come again after the maid had realized no one had come. They grudgingly went all the way up to Graystones drive.

There, Elias, Eliza, Alexa and Elise were all declared deceased at the scene. Thomas and Alexa’s father, Alfred, were notified immediately. Alfred was out doing errands, and Thomas was at work; he was a contractor. They were horrified to learn that their family had been floating in the pool, hearts still, for hours. The maid locked inside and the butler knocked out.

The police found a gun in the pocket of the knocked out butler. He had no explanation, staying silent. He was found dead in the holding cell three days later. Apparently, it was a suicide.

What was strange is that there was nothing on the bodies. There was no blood. Only some marks on Eliza’s neck that were unexplained.

A few years after that, Thomas died. Some people say it was of grief, some believed it was the same person who had killed the family.

Whether or not the butler had done it, no one was ever convicted. Or questioned after the butler was dead The butler was posthumously labelled the killer to appease the town.

People stopped visiting. People stopped bidding. The value of the house went down. No more maintenance came, no more bids came in. It was empty and silent, collecting dust, for years.

Until five years later when the Becketts moved in.

They had no idea of the local history. They were new to the state and the town. No one informed them either; the locals didn’t talk to new folk much, nor did they ever discuss the accident.

They were astounded by the cheap price of the magnificent house. It was amazing to them. It happened to be close to Mr. Beckett’s new job as well. It was a perfect place to raise a family. Everything seemed to be in perfect condition as well, it was odd.

After a few months, they got accustomed to the sounds. In the beginning, the children had all thought they had heard someone in the walls, whispering to them at night. The parents thought they heard it, too, but it stopped a few months in. They dismissed it as the house settling.

It wasn’t until Mr. Beckett was going through the attic. He was throwing away old things to make room for their new things. That was life, wasn’t it? He found a large briefcase, full of papers and documents. Something possessed him to go through some. He found a birth certificate for an Elizabeth Graystone. On it, the father was listed as Thomas Graystone. What struck him as strange was that in the plastic sleeve the certificate in, there was another.

It had the exact same name, birth date, time, gender and doctor’s signature. Everything was the same except for the father’s name: Brian Hull.

Who could that be, he wondered to himself, running a hand through his hair.

He thought he saw something in the corner of his eye, but when he turned around, all there was was dust.

The next day, Mr. Beckett took a trip to the library. He asked the librarian if they had records for houses, specifically 27 Estwood Drive.

The librarian gave him a strange look as she handed over the records, as there weren’t usually such a heavy record for a house. He looked over it and found there was a Thomas, Alex, Elizabeth and an Elias listed as family. Two grandparents were mentioned, as well as a list of the staff.

Mary Wood— Maid

Brian Hull— Butler

Brian Hull...Brian Hull, why was that name familiar to him. He pondered for a few moments before it hit him. The father of the child. An affair, he thought.

His eyes widened and he went back to the librarian.

As he passed the file back, he asked, “Was the family a… happy one?”

The librarian shrugged and took it back. “I suppose so. There were always rumors about the daughter being illegitimate, but I don’t think anyone ever believed it. I’m surprised you and your family moved up there.”

“Why?”

The librarian raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you know? Why it’s so cheap— half the family died in the pool. The butler had killed them all, even though there wasn’t a mark on them. The maid heard screams inside and was locked in, the butler was found on the ground unconscious, but with a gun in his pocket. He died in holding, and was written down as a murderer, despite the...odd circumstances.”

“Oh.” Mr. Beckett was speechless. “Well, er, thank you. Have a nice day.”

Mr. Beckett thought about it all the way home. The illegitimate child, the unconscious butler with the gun, the way the house moved at night...the things in the corner of his eye.

He shook it off as he entered the key in the keyhole of his home. “Abigail?” he called out to his wife.

“She’s in the pool,” he heard a female voice from behind him. “With your children.”

He turned around and was shocked to see a short woman. She was in a maid’s outfit, the half apron and black dress extremely dusty. Parts of it were torn. Her face was scratched up in old scars.

“You,” he said. “You’ve been in my—”

“It’s my house,” she said and came closer. There was a pistol in her hands. “Have you ever wondered why it was dustless…”

“But the butler...Brian Hull— she was his daughter.”

The maid twirled the gun in her hands. “Brian and I were supposed to pull it off together. He was supposed to shoot them with gloves, leave the gun. It would be such an easy way to get the house. No one would want to live here...but then he discovered that precious Eliza was his daughter. He didn’t want to go through with it, so I did.”

“Locked maid...knocked out butler with the gun, but no shot.” It clicked. “You fixed it.”

“I know all the ins and outs. I fiddled with the electricity easily, locked the doors from inside, and waited. Once they started to scream, I called the police. Fools, they didn’t come until hours later. I got rid of Brian, easy. Meant to kill him, but he ended up killing himself once he realized he would be done for his daughter’s murder. Then it was just a matter of time.”

“But how did you get inside?” asked Mr. Beckett, slowly coming closer with his hands almost up.

She laughed, a spider crawled out of her apron. It had a red hourglass on its back. “The same way I’ve been hiding in my house for the past months; the internal tunnels.”

Mr. Beckett edged closer. “Put the gun down.”

“No,” she said simply and cackled, twirling it around even more.

He stopped. “If you want to keep living here, then why did you tell me everything? You’ve killed my family, and others. I could—” He stopped short as the maid hit him with the butt of the gun.

“Because,” she said and smiled thinly. “No one will ever know. Have fun in the pool, dearie.” The spider crawled down her leg and onto Mr. Beckett as she took him outside.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Written By: Iman Khan

Date Published: 02/05/2023

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Have a question or comment? Be sure to email ebwriterscoalition@gmail.com with any inquiries.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------