The Haunted House

From behind the thick panes of glass, the misty day outside was quiet and still. There didn’t appear to be any winds tugging at the thick pine branches surrounding the property, giving the feeling that the forest was holding its breath, or was frozen in some sort of suspense. The pale clouds above did not let loose their rain, only kept the air damp with an obnoxious foggy blanket.

Outside the shield of the protective windows, noise was rampant. As soon as one stepped outside, any fragile illusion of peace was shattered. The racket of heavy machinery whirring and click-clacking filled the misty space. Muffled shouting of instructions over the noise added layers to the din.

In front of the impressive manor, a beastly contraption was at play. Its massive, sludge slicked hose was dipped in the slim-surfaced pond that blemished the face of the House. The head-aching sound was coming from the effort of sucking up that brackish water through the wide hose, and containing it in the machine. Slowly but surely, the level of the rotting liquid was decreasing and exposing weedy banks oiled with grime.

Beside the hellish contraption, Carrie Mae stood with an arm raised to her pretty face, pressing the sleeve of her black, Burberry trench coat to her button nose. The sour expression twisting her features was enough to describe the stink permeating the gravel lot. Festering decay, layers of rotting filth…

Carrie was struggling to keep her breakfast smoothie down while blinking tears from her watery eyes. ’I swear, I can’t even hear what they’re saying over this stench!’ she dramatically thought, attempting to decipher what Sebastian and the men running the machinery were yelling at each other.

Her gaze slipped to the opaque remnants of the tarn, watching bubbles rise to the surface as the giant hose snuffed up the thick liquid. There wasn’t too much longer to go, she guessed. She could see the rocks lining the bottom beginning to have their tops revealed, along with an antler rack fuzzy with algae and…

The blonde tilted her head to the side, a frown dipping across her face as she tried to makeout what was appearing from the black ooze. At first, she’d thought it was another small boulder but as the water continued to drain, the hollowed eye sockets were exposed.

“Oh!” Carrie cried, her voice shrill and alarmed. “Oh, God!” She clasped her rosy cheeks in her palms, forgetting all about the horrible smell.

The house's old, heavy walls and labyrinthine depths could easily keep even the hellish, mechanical cacophony of the industrial pump outside from reaching most people's ears, even when close to the outside. That sound blocking is a desirable trait for the wealthy and discerning types who had purchased the place over the years, and likely a contributing factor to how thoroughly it isolated its unfortunate inhabitants from the outside, letting it become their entire world.

Unfortunately for Vivienne, she is not most people.

For the past hour or more, that rumble of a fuel-burning engine powering a heavy pump had been grinding against her ears. She could focus through it, but it was an extra bit of mental effort beyond the mix of positioning small devices in very particular ways to cover points of interest efficiently, making specific notes to check for tampering and make a good log of any findings later, and subtly scratching or sketching small, exact symbols in sneaky places around the rooms she had been able to get to so far for the more exotic and less discussed parts of her work. Just more sensors, really, but for things other than light, sound, and pressure. Meticulous work which does not benefit from that steady auditory unpleasantness.

Now she walks outside, eyes narrowed and body language giving the impression of an animal with its ears back in aggravation. She stalks out toward the pond and the ongoing work. "Hose, pond, big tank. Right, that swampy pond," she mutters to herself, no less annoyed now that she knows the cause of the disturbance. If anything, she's annoyed that it's been going on for so long. With that heavy a machine they should have been done by now, right? How sludge-like could the stuff be?

As she gets closer, the stench starts to hit her and the sounds starts to get painful. She reacts without thinking, drawing energy to her fingers and making a few sharp gestures in front of her as she walks. Over the course of a few seconds the sound fades to mere loudness and the rank odor of old, freshly-disturbed rot stops crossing into her nose.

Noticing Carrie Mae, and Sebastian but he's busy, Vivienne strides briskly toward her. She has... quite the hip-sway when she's annoyed, much more than her normal gait carries. "They clog the pump or something?" she calls, voice straining to be heard over whatever engine is powering the pump, "This thing isn't so big it should take--" she cuts off, noticing that Carrie looks shocked stiff, frozen at some sight within the mostly emptied pond. Her pace changes, slower, more controlled, almost a quick creeping toward the edge to see what's going on. At the edge she stops and crosses her arms as she looks down. Seeing the skull she tenses her jaw and mutters, "uh huh... yeah, that's gonna make things complicated."

Although she mostly wandered the woods beyond the estate, Sindy occassionally came back to haunt those either came or resided in the Manor and it didn't matter if it was temporary or permanent. The Manor was her Haunt and it was unlikely she'd be put to rest anytime soon, not with the grusome way she died with her children, who passed before either of them could draw their first breaths of life. Her remains were never found or properly buried, all the more reason for her to be hateful and vengeful towards the living. Not like she knew where they were either, so that was all a lost cause. Who knows what it would take for her to finally be put to rest.

Attracted to the sounds of the industrial pump, Sindy started to wander towards the pond that was being drained, unaware of the accompanying stench that filled the air. Hearing voices, she wandered closer until she saw two women. One looked horrified, the other looked disgusted. Sindy would stop short at the edge of the pond, standing on the opposide side of the two women now in her view. She placed both her hands on her lower back, making the belly billowing beneath her pitch-black dress a bit more apparent as the wind blew against it. Coldly, she starred at the other two, her expression blank.

Sebastian barely heard Carrie’s pathetic wail over the gravelly din of the machinery, but he had, and he hustled over to see what the fuss was about. God forbid she’d gotten muck splattered on the Burberry coat.

He’d saddled up beside Carrie and the ghostbuster, about to ask Carrie what in the hell her issue was when he followed her horrified gaze instead. Skulls, maybe a small handful of them, becoming more and more revealed. “Fuck,” Bastian cursed, then waved his arms at the man running the equipment. It shut down with a wavering racket.

Carrie was gasping, fanning her face as heat flushed it pink.

Sebastian stuck his hands on his hips, irritated. “Son of a bitch, we’re gonna have to call the cops up here!” He’d said it like it was an incredible inconvenience to have unearthed bodies. A few of the working men meandered over to peer into the pond. “Someone grab Fischer.”

Carrie had to step away from the scene, shivering under the trench coat. It felt like something hateful was watching them, like they were doing something they shouldn’t be doing. It was all too much in the moment, and she felt faint.

Vivienne's expression turns to one of concentration and her eyes turn to Carrie, trying to decide if she should engage or not. They knew there had historically been unresolved deaths and disappearances on the property, and in the end, it was just a skull, right? Maybe she was just too comfortable around this kind of thing, though at least she had an excuse to be less bothered than most. When the HR rep steps away, Vivienne's starts to turn to watch her and contemplate following, taking her on their planned walk early, but stops as something catches her senses. She stares across the pond, squinting, hoping that being near the edge meant that nobody, or at least nobody living, would catch the change in her eyes...

Victi's eyes settle on Sindy's in a predator's glare, focusing on her in a way that says that she not only sees her, but understand what she is. Her head tilts slowly and her eyes narrow further as thoughts race. She holds that look for three, maybe five seconds, then her expression relaxes, her eyes return to their more human look, and she turns away to follow Carrie. Internally there's a small panic... not about herself, she has no doubts about her own ability to keep safe, but for the Tran family. She imagined that an unfriendly looking apparition of a mother-to-never-be like that could wind up... envious of their continued survival. Sure, also a non-zero chance that she might be protective of them instead, but Victi didn't get that vibe. She'd have to keep an eye on them...

After looking to be deeply concentrated on her own thoughts for twenty seconds or so, Vivienne turns away from the pond and takes bounding steps to come up beside Carrie. After a short, awkward silence she says, "you know, this mostly just means that a family somewhere will finally get some answers about a missing relative. That find is a good thing. A bit unsettling for some people, apparently, but a good thing once you put some context around it. You know the history this place has stuck to it. Anyway, the smell here makes me want to vomit, that pumping system's noise was keeping me from working, and you probably need a distraction. Wanna take that walk a bit early to get away from this mess? I wanna put some reflective stakes in at the spots with the crosses on the map... not, not digging anything up today, don't worry about.. you know what I mean."

Sindy locked her eyes with Victi as the other woman noticed her. After a few minutes, the two women on the other side of the pond turn around to walk away, much to her own chagrin. She proceeded to look at the Mansion. Given that there were already a couple of guests staying there, she wanted to go inside, lurk in the shadows, watching the living with envy, malice and hate, perhaps scare them up close. Sindy then looked down at her baby belly, frowning beneath the terrifying face paint. Gently, she embraced it, pondering on what could have been...and how it was all taken away becauase of a dark ritual gone wrong and it claimed both her and her babies. But somehow it tethered her to the world of the living, something she greatly resented.

Once the women were far enough away, Sindy turned around and walked away, hoping to tail both Victi and Carrie at a distance, wondering where they will go. If not for the Maitenance Workers, she'd investigate the uncovered skulls from the drained pond.

Carrie still looked pale by the time Vivienne had joined her about 20 yards away, but was thankfully upright and on her feet. For once, she didn’t have the words, and it had been up to Vivienne to find them.

“Thanks for the reassurance,” Carrie murmured, bringing the sleeve of her expensive jacket to her nose again. “I, apparently, am one of those people who find unearthed human remains a tad unsettling…” Her expression looked sour, and she denied herself the urge to glance over her shoulder in the direction of the pond.

“I guess, reading about the stories,” - the police reports, “and seeing the actual evidence of the history, are just a lot different than I had expected.” The southern belle seemed embarrassed, and still a pinch disturbed. “I’d love to take ya up on that stroll!” Carrie decided, relief and gratitude in her voice and all over her face.

She snuggled deeper into her jacket, golden strands of gossamer hair tumbling around the collar. “A-are ya ready now, or do ya need t’get your materials from your room?”

"You're welcome, you needed it," Vivienne replies, slight clipping of her words betraying her awkwardness with this kind of thing, "I always figure it's a thing with people who actually do empathy well and who aren't used to it. That's the pattern I've seen, at least. Also it's both a personal stress," she puts one hand out to the side, palm up, then does the same with the other hand and side as she adds, "and a professional stress."

She nods thoughtfully at the differentiation between stories and seeing. It made sense. A layer of abstraction could keep out a lot of dangerous understanding, after all, and that included thinking too hard about mortality and related consequences. "Well, I hope you won't have to get too used to it," she says after listening, "So sure, let's go breathe nicer air. We can head out now, I can always go back over to the points of interest later, or mark them with sticks or whatever. C'mon, I have the images of the map and trails here...."

Vivienne leads on, heading to the paths working through the forest around the property. After some distance she makes an effort to walk beside Carrie, or half a pace behind, if she can. If that lost soul decides to keep following, that next intersection could be an interesting spot to learn something...