In the late hours of the night, Hannah floated through the house. She liked this family and was sad to see them in such sorrow. Hannah sang sweet lullabies to Rosie as she slept. The soothing touch of her century-old hand comforted the child as she lay there dreaming sweetly of flowers in the garden. Hannah remembered her children and the innocence they had lost. She had written the stories of their lives and that innocents lost among them. She had written of their accomplishments, and how their fortunes were made. She had also written of their sins and schemes. And still, no one knew the stories, no one knew of the terrible crimes. She wondered where they had been hidden, she had sent the girl’s Mother to find them. But they had been moved. She hopes that this young child grew into a life less complicated than that of her children.

Down the hall stretched out upon her bed,  Kay drifted into a relaxing sleep.  

“Kay, wake up and play with me”. The voice would not stop she was insistent.

“What do you want?” Kay asked.

“I want you to play with me, “Winnie said to her.

“But I want to sleep, leave me alone”.

“Then I will not tell you where it is” Kay could hear a teasing in her voice.

“Tell me where what is?”

“Mamma’s diary”.  The girl giggled.

Kay sat up; the girl was sitting on the bed looking at her.

“What was that? A diary?” Kay wanted to know more.

“Mamma wrote it all down and hid the book before she died. I hid the book after that so the boys wouldn’t burn it. if the boys found it, they would be awful mad”.

The girl faded away and Kay found herself sitting up in bed.  Laying back down she tried to get back to sleep.

Deep in a solid sleep, Alex found himself fishing with Grandpa. Peaceful and quiet is how he liked it out there by the river.

Jessie stretched and opened her eyes she was in a room full of Victorian furniture and lace curtains blowing in the breeze. She sat up to see through a window a group of men talking, maybe even arguing. They all had guns and she recognized at least two of them. James and the older man they called William. Soon a wagon pulled into the yard and a body wrapped in a cloth was carried into the house. She was curious, so she tiptoed down the stairs. Hearing voices, she ducked into a closet. She noticed a crack along the wall and tried to look through it. She could make out enough to know they were taking the body to the basement. She waited and listened.

“You should have let the Police take care of it Bill, now they will be after us again”.

“If they come looking, we will just lock them up too”. Bill sounded like he was a man of his word.

“Pa come quickly” shouted a man in the yard.

A man was riding in on a horse. “Mr. Zepher, to what do we owe the pleasure? “

“Ain’t no pleasure of mine, where is my brother?” The man shouted back.

“Well, I am not sure, why don’t you come in and talk about it?” Bill said.

“Boy’s, you stay out and watch for his brother. We have business to discuss. “

The men walked into the house; Jessie could hear their boots walking across the wooden floor. “Come out here to the porch and we can talk, you have got to see this view“, he waved his hand to show the massive pasture. “A view to die for, don’t Ya think?” He slapped the man hard on the back.

“Uhm, sure but what does this have to do with my brother?”

“Well, Ya see, I have a family too. And I happen to know that your brother was one of the hooded murdering bastards who killed my son-in-law”. His voice was growing louder, like thunder. The smaller man was sweating and shaking now. “You wouldn’t know who the others were would Ya?”

“No, no sir I know nothing about its sir”. The man started to cry.

“Please don’t kill me, Mr. Dalton?” He begged.

With a loud crash, the floor gave way under the man’s feet and he went crashing into a padded room below.

“Close it up” Bellowed Bill Dalton.

Jessie stood frozen in the closet until she heard the men leave the house. She then tiptoed up the stairs and walked right through a young woman. It felt strange, the other girls shuttered and walked on saying. “Must be Mama making herself known”.

Jessie sat up in bed. Her heart was beating fast and she could feel adrenaline running through her body. The sun was cresting the horizon, she decided to get up.

Jessie had called her friend Lynette and asked her to come to the house and feed the animals. They had met through work and had quickly made friends. Lynette had been raised in the area and said her Aunt Ethel had married Bill Dalton and had lived in the house. She had talked about coming to see the house but had never done so. She agreed to watch the house and pets without thinking about the haunted reputation it had. The day after Jessie and the kids left, Lynette went to the house for the first time. As she pulled into the driveway, she felt panic rise in her. “Don’t be a baby, it is just a house.” She told herself.  As she walked towards the house the air turned cold and the wind started to blow. She could almost feel resistance as she got closer to the house. She unlocked the door and walked into the kitchen, her eyes fell to the floor and the bullet hole. Not knowing the story behind it, she wondered how it had gotten there. She walked to the pantry to get food for the pets. Picking up a large bag of dried dog food, she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around to see a tall dark shadow of a man wearing a long leather duster and hat, with a shotgun in his hand.

“What are you doing in my house?” Bill bellowed. No Hinkle are welcome on this property! Leave now or you will be buried with the rest of them!”

Lynette dropped the bag of dog food and ran from the house. She drove home as fast as she could and called Jessie, leaving a message that she would never return to that house again.