The Estate's Awakening

The grandfather clock struck midnight like an angry gong. Lily awoke with a start. It would take time to get used to this Victorian house that her grandmother left behind. She wasn’t accustomed to living with antiques, but it was better than living in her previous studio apartment.

A knock echoed through the house, and she winced. There’s no way. Not at this hour. The house is old. It was just a loud creak or groan from the wind, that’s all. Right?

Lily checked the mantel clock on the dresser next to her bed. It read midnight as well but fortunately had a silence option on it for when she slept. The constant tick from the pendulum was one thing, but the chime every fifteen minutes would keep her up. Lily would turn on the Westminster chime function back on in the morning however, as she liked hearing it in the daytime.

A knock sounded through the house again ten minutes later, startling her. She grabbed a revolver from underneath her pillow and reluctantly made her way downstairs.

The front door creaked as Lily pushed it open with her right hand, while keeping the revolver in her left. She would need to clean the peephole asap.

“Didn’t want to wake ya.” Her neighbor spoke.

“Sorry.” Lily spoke, quickly placing her revolver on a nearby table.

“Don’t be. It ain’t normal for someone to knock at this ungodly hour, unless somethin’s amiss.” Her neighbor replied.

“What seems to be amiss?” Lily asked.

“Could be my ol’ peepers playin’ tricks on me. But I got a feelin’ those eBayers that paid ya a visit earlier were scopin’ out your property just now. Heard somethin’ dash for the woods when I made my way over as well.” Her neighbor replied.

Lily gulped.

“They might see ya as a target bein’ all out here by your lonesome. Must be a fortune in there with all them clocks your Gram was collectin’ and tinkerin’ with.” Her neighbor said.

“I guess I better draw the shades in the ballroom then. Thank you for the heads up.” Lily said.

“She used to scope them out in thrift stores and fix em’ up before sellin’ em’ on eBay. After her death, word must’ve gotten out that you’re sittin’ on a gold mine.” Her neighbor said.

Lily could smell the whisky now. That explained how he was still quite chatty at this hour. She wasn’t complaining though. A vigilant neighbor that drank on their porch helped keep her aware of possible danger.

“I know what you mean, some of those clocks are made of marble, others gold.” Lily replied.

“I would keep that Louis XIV clock upstairs with ya, especially. Pure twenty-five carat gold and shaped like a little cathedral. Got to be worth more than a shiny penny.” Her neighbor said.

“I think Grammama said it might be worth $30,000 or more. But I appreciate what she has, I don’t want to sell it.” Lily spoke.

“That’s refreshin’ to hear. Most of your generation would pawn it all so they don’t have to work another day in their life.” Her neighbor said.

“Thanks. Not me though. I miss Grammama too much to get rid of her things.” Lily said.

“Gram-mama? How cute.” Her neighbor teased, making her face flush.

“It’s what I used to call her as a kid, don’t judge me.” Lily replied with an awkward chuckle.

“Well, get yourself some sleep. Them bags under your eyes make ya look like a coon.” Her neighbor replied.

“Gee…thanks. I’ll try, but there’s one grandfather clock inside that still wakes me up a lot.” Lily replied.

“That ol’ German one from the 1800’s I suppose. I think that one used to belong to your great uncle.” Her neighbor said.

“Yes, that’s the one. It makes the house sound haunted. But I’ll get used to it.” Lily chuckled.

“You can always move it to the ballroom and swap it with one of the triple chime grandfather clocks your Gram has in there. Chimes are a lil’ easier to sleep through than loud gongs.” Her neighbor said.

“Noted, whenever I find a way to move it. It would probably crush me for defying it.” Lily chuckled.

“Ol’ thing gives you the heebie geebies, don’t it? Well, maybe I’ll bring a hand truck over one of these days. In the meantime, I’ll give the sheriff a holler in the morning if you’d like.” Her neighbor said.

“Thanks, I would appreciate that.” Lily replied.

“Goodnight Lily, and if you want to upgrade in artillery, let me know.” Her neighbor said.

“Thank you, I will. Goodnight Wyatt.”

2

Lily flicked on the lights in the ballroom, and five chandeliers sluggishly buzzed to life. She drew the shades, then carefully took the pendulum out of her Louis XIV mantel clock, before carrying the clock upstairs with her. She placed it on a table, underneath a portrait of her grandmother, then went back to sleep.

Around four in the morning, the loud strike of the grandfather clock in the living room awoke her again. She looked at her mantel clock and her phone, which both read 4:22am. That didn’t make sense. Lily remembered winding it yesterday, there was no way it had fallen this far behind in four hours. Something was up.

Then she heard it…muffled voices. She was no longer alone in the darkness of this large estate. Lily whimpered and reached for her phone with a trembling hand, then reluctantly opted for her revolver instead. She remembered how those men eyed her when they inquired about selling her grandmother’s things. Lily wasn’t about to let herself be taken advantage of.

She carefully crept down the stairs and saw moving lights coming from the ballroom. Flashlights. Lily swallowed hard, trembling as if she contracted Parkinson’s. The door was slightly ajar, and Lily crept in.

In the darkness, she was invisible to the three of them. She took a deep breath, remembering what her father taught her as a child. Her heart redlined in her chest and Lily fired. Two of them dropped, but Lily missed the third target when the shaky adrenaline threw off her aim. The masked burglar purposely switched off his flashlight and disappeared in the darkness. Lily gasped and blindly searched for the light switch.

When she found the switch and flicked it on, the masked burglar grabbed her left wrist. The revolver fired at the ceiling as they wrestled over it. Lily yelped when her wrist cracked, and the revolver dropped from her grasp. She punched him in the face with her right hand, before having the wind knocked out of her when she was punched back in the ribs. Lily collapsed to the floor, then quickly grabbed the revolver and aimed it at him. It only clicked harmlessly in her hand.

“Aww…forget how to count?” The burglar mocked.

Lily giggled in disbelief, on the verge of hysterics. The burglar had yellow contacts in his eyes, that gave him an unsettling appearance of a Sith lord. Her heart seized in her chest when he approached, and she hit his shin with the butt of the revolver.

The burglar cried out and Lily stumbled for balance but fell when she took an uppercut to the face. Lily groaned and felt the room spin around her. She tasted blood in her mouth and saw a tooth on the ground a few feet away.

He dragged her across the room by her ankles. She was like a bird that flew straight into a window, too stunned to react. All Lily could do was whimper for mercy as he dragged her behind the bar. He opened the door to the wine cellar, then lifted her up to a seated position by her arm pits.

“Oh God.” Lily uttered helplessly.

“He can’t save you now.” The burglar said, then shoved her in.

Lily tumbled down the stairs into the darkness and landed on her back. The cellar door slammed shut, and she heard a bar stool being slid over it. She lost consciousness soon after.

3

Lily awoke with a start and spat out some blood. She groaned and stumbled on her feet as she tried to stand and caught herself on the steps. Pain radiated all over, but Lily fought through it as she finally stood up. Lily pulled down on a light chain, and an incandescent bulb struggled to illuminate the gloomy space.

Dusty wine bottles filled the walls, and Lily spotted a cane, resting against the wall. It had a silver wolf head on it, like the Alpaca Wolf Head cane from the show, Dark Shadows. Underneath the wolf head Lily read the inscription, Property of Sir William McCarthy.

Lily heard the German grandfather clock strike from the living room, when she felt something tug against the cane. She screamed and dropped it immediately. Lily ran up the steps and pushed the cellar door with her right hand. The door barely budged.

When Lily looked down the stairwell her skin went pale, and her adrenaline spiked. Lily lowered her right shoulder and rammed into the door several times until the bar stool tipped over and the door gave way. She crawled out and ran to the ballroom entrance. When she tried opening it, the door met resistance from her grandmother’s bookshelf.

“He’s blocked you in, I’m afraid.” A voice spoke from behind the bar.

Lily screamed and whirled around.

“A pleasure to finally meet you.” The man spoke, his cane echoing on the marble floor.

Lily’s eyes darted from a large portrait that hung on the wall, then back to the man. The resemblance to her great uncle was uncanny. All the clocks in the ballroom suddenly struck and chimed all at once in unison. A frightened moan escaped Lily’s mouth, and she sank to floor in disbelief.

“You need not be frightened my dear.” The late William McCarthy spoke, with a voice that carried such charm and power, much like the late actor Christopher Lee.

Lily quickly stood and rammed her right shoulder into the bookshelf. She cried out as pain shot through her shoulder at an instant, and the bookshelf landed with a loud crash. Lily hobbled through the opening into the hallway but was hoisted off her feet within seconds.

“No! N-no! No!” Lily cried.

“Leaving the party so soon?” The burglar mocked.

“Y-y-you don’t understand!” Lily began, then her words died in her mouth.

She clung to the burglar as the phantom emerged from the ballroom entrance.

“Your desecration of my estate has disturbed us from our sleep.” The phantom of William McCarthy spoke.

“Us?” Lily squeaked.

The German grandfather clock from the living room struck and echoed through the house menacingly, making Lily and the burglar flinch. William pressed a button on his cane, and the blade of a sword unsheathed before their eyes. The burglar dropped Lily to the floor with a thud, then fired a shot from his Glock at William.

A cloud of mist expelled from William’s chest, then regenerated into his physical form.

“My boy…you cannot kill what’s already dead.” He mocked.

The burglar was paralyzed in disbelief, and Lily shoved him towards William. The blade pierced through the burglar as if he were butter, and William plunged the sword into the wall. Lily’s hand clamped over her mouth, and she gulped down a scream. The burglar hung there like a trophy, with his blood painting the wall like a spur of the moment canvas. When her great uncle turned to face her, Lily’s eyes rolled to the back of her skull, and she fainted.

4

Lily whimpered and pulled the bedsheets over her face to shield herself from the sun, then she sat up with a start. She was in bed, which meant all this madness had to be a nightmare. Lily breathed a shaky sigh of relief, then winced when she felt pain in her mouth. Her tongue found the gap, and she winced again.

“My toof??” Lily spoke aloud, then sheepishly covered her mouth.

It’s just a coincidence, that’s all. But her tremoring demeanor said otherwise. Lily swallowed hard as she made her way down the steps, hearing flies buzzing about.

She stopped cold in her tracks, as frigid and still as the corpse on the wall, like a taxidermist’s work of art. A nuclear reaction brewed in her stomach, and she yelped when there was a sudden knock at the door.

“Now’s noth a good thyme!” Lily spoke with a slight lisp from her missing tooth, making her sound as if she were making a pun about a culinary herb.

“It’s the Sheriff.” A voice replied through the door.

Lily swallowed her fear and cracked the door open and stuck her head out.

“Lily, is it? Your neighbor asked me to check on you.” The sheriff spoke.

“Excuse me for a momenth please.” Lily spoke, carefully shutting the door behind her.

She rushed over to the porch railing and vomited all over the bushes.

“Get a lil’ carried away last night?” The sheriff chuckled.

“Noth in the way you’re thinking.” Lily spoke glumly.

The sheriff’s expression darkened.

“What you mean by that?” He asked.

“You might wanth to sith down for this.” Lily replied, sauntering over to the porch bench.

“What happened to your tooth?” The sheriff asked.

They heard the German grandfather clock strike from the living room, and felt the temperature drop twenty degrees.