Chapter 12— The Dark House

    Though, Rye town was a little one, it had everything it needed. A beautiful place to live in. A town with busy people and busy lives-- Rye only knew peace and quiet during the weekends.

     One of the hospitals in Rye, needed a doctor not just any doctor, an eye doctor, An optometrist! Dr Joe was summoned from one of the cities in London. He was to fly in on Monday and travel down to Rye. He would save the eyes of many patients. He would also teach other young Doctors of his practice and when they were ready for the task, the Doctor would return home. Arrangements had been made for him in respect of his accommodation. A letter had been sent to one of the families on Mermaid street asking for their permission to allow Dr Joe live as a guest in their home only for a few weeks until he's found a place of his own; the kind family agreed to this!

     For the first time in his life, Joe laid down his feet on Rye's soil. A beautiful place, he thought to himself. I think I'll like it here!

    Mermaid Str, block 2, William .A. Johnson house (The 2nd). Those were the words on the address card in Joe's hand-- the address to his arranged accommodation. He walked briskly following the directions he got from people, not taking note of the end part of the address.

     At last, his search came to an end! Joe was most happy to have found the house with a bold inscription William .A. Johnson keep out! He walked right up to the front door with the aim of knocking on the door, surprisingly to him, the door opened up freely without any assistance. Of course Joe had a pinch of fear and doubt in his heart but he was a young man, a curious one too. The open arms of the door, led him to a large, dark Hall.

     "Why's the room so dark?" He whispered.

    Joe tiptoed on wanting to be sure of the novel house, when suddenly, a big, black rat came running down at him and squeaking so loudly. He frozed! A few more came squeaking down at him, filled with disgust, Joe quickly danced on his feet and exclaimed "What is this?!"

     It was certain that a few rats wasn't going to scare the young Doctor. He went on with his curiosity. His legs took him to another door which led to another dark room, the room was filled with hundreds if not thousands of dusty books, most of them stacked on the shelf. Wow!

    He moved on to the next door, it was a room full of large pictures on the wall. The pictures seemed to tell stories of strange people, at the end of every picture, there was an inscription-- Beware the Crimson Moon. Every picture had a disturbing feeling. They are just pictures, he consoled himself. There was one last picture he hadn't seen; the bottom of the picture held the family name.

   "They look strange", Joe commented, "Whoa ten kids?!"

    The family portrait stood at the end of the dark room, everyone wore their best, they all posed in a pyramid formation. William stood high above them all, his wives were slightly below him-- one on the right, the other on the left. Five kids were on one side, the other five were on the other side. The Aunties and Uncles were below the kids, Grandma and Pa sat at the end just below the others. 

    "Don't tell me they all live here?!" It would seem horrific and strange to Dr Joe if he would have to live with a polygamous family in a dark house, but... He had to see every bit of the house.

    Soon, he faced a long fleet of stairs, the longest he had ever seen. He could hear voices behind the door which the stairs led to, so he ran up the stairs.

    "Hello? Is-- anyone there? I'm Dr Joe!" There was no reply to his call, so he kept running up the stairs till he was tired, then he stopped for a while. This time, the door was so close, so he climbed some more. The voices were louder, but it seemed like the door was getting farther and farther.

    Soon, he was in front of the door, he knelt down panting for breath; he had been climbing the stairs for what seemed like an hour. When he was strong enough, he laid a knock on the white door, he tried to open it but it was locked. 

   "Hey! I'm here, somebody answer me!" The Doctor felt lost. On the outside, this house wasn't so large, how could it contain so much stairs? He wondered.

   Joe kept knocking, this time, he could hear a man's voice, shockingly to him, a girl was crying in there too. He tried to listen to hear what they were saying, it sounded like loud murmurs. Suddenly, the girl screamed so loudly like a banshee. The man kept shouting at her, Joe could hear thudding and banging, but he couldn't leave, he had to rescue the girl.

    "Stop that, hey open up!" Joe kept banging on the door.

    A feeling came behind him, a lady touched his shoulder, swiftly he turned around to see her, but none was there. Trying to forget what he had just experienced, he returned his attention to the door and the screaming girl.

   "Let her go, do you hear me? Let her go!"

    "Who's there?!" Finally, the man replied. Joe shook within him.

    His voice was broad, it sounded like a barbaric, killer's voice.

    "Open this door I say!" Joe tried again.

    A loud thud came at the door from the room. One, two, three times, Joe could see the head of an Axe tipping out, the strange man was tearing open the door. 

    "Go away!" The man commanded.

    Dr Joe staggered with fear and stumbled on his feet. No one need tell him he should leave. He sprang down the long stairs, back to where he came, when he was almost at the end of the stairs, the banging, thudding and screaming of the girl had stopped. He looked over his shoulder to see what had happened, but the stairs had vanished, the door was right behind him. This time, the white door was as good as new with no tear on it! He gasped. He reached for the handle of the door and pushed it open, he peeped into the room, only to find nothing and no one. Dr Joe dared not go into the room. How could he?

    Quickly, he ran back to the large Hall with the thought to get out of the house, but the door flung itself shut so quickly with a loud bang!

    "Well if you won't let me leave, I'll find another way out!"

    A black door appeared at the other end of the large room, with kitchen boldly written on it. Joe walked cautiously to it and opened the door and truly, the room was a kitchen, the biggest he had ever seen. Every kitchen utensil was there-- different kinds of food filled a long dinning table. It was very tempting for the certain young man to eat from the food as much as he could. "Put yourself together Joe", he shook himself, "I'm sure this food isn't real".

     At the end of the kitchen, another door stood. He opened it, a lady stared at him right into his eyes, Joe staggered with fear at the sight of the woman.

   "Who are you?" The woman asked meekly, she stood in a white gown and a blue apron tied to her waist.

    "Ha! Finally a real person. I'm Dr Joe, you received a letter right? Telling you that--"

     "What would you like to have?"

    "Well first, an explanation for what just happened back there"

    "You shall not enter! You shall not pass!" The woman's tone of voice had changed into a deeper, monstrous one.

    "What?!" This time, Joe was scared for sure. "Stop, What's going on here?!" A sweat broke free and ran down the side of his face. He began to breathe a little faster, he shut his eyes for a moment trying to convince his mind that this wasn't real.

     When he opened his eyes, he saw a beautiful figure coming towards him, she held a candle that was firmly fixed on its holder in one of her hands and the light it emitted brought a sense of hope to Joe's heart, but still he had his doubts. "You're not real, though I hope you are-- are you?", he asked in a low voice.

    This time, Joe could see the figure more clearly, it was a lady. Another lady, he sighed. She walked closer to the Doctor and raised the large candle stand so she could see the strange man's face, she was delighted at the sight and this made her smile.

    "Hi, my name is Viola, I'm William's sister", Joe nodded, doubtfully. He wasn't to be fooled anymore. Viola stared into his face and Joe began to realize a few things, she was beautiful! She was definitely in her early 30's and her scent, her scent was nothing but pleasant! Her eyes were a clear-water crystal colour, they especially caught Joe's attention.

    "I'm very much real, Dr Joe!"

    "You-- you know my name?"

    "Of course! Shouldn't I?" she scoffly said.

    "Don't mind me", he waved his hands in the air, "Surely you received my letter" Joe added lightly with a chuckle.

    "So-- uh-- tell me, is this house haunted?" He whispered.

    "What? Of course not!" She scoffed again, "That was just the alarm"

    "What do you mean?"

    "All what you saw was the doorbell ringing, telling us that someone was at the door. Look around, still see anything-- strange?"

     "I still don't get it"

     "Oh! I forgot" Viola snapped her fingers in front of Joe's ears then he could see that he was still in the large hall, just a few steps away from door through which he had entered the house. "We installed that um-- I don't know what's it's called, it was put there to scare away intruders, you know thieves and the like out of the house, and sometimes we do it to visitors too, well who am I kidding, we do it all the time!", she smiled mischievously.

     "You mean to tell me, all that was-- like-- like a daydream? an imagination?"

    "Yeah!" Viola freely shrugged.

     "This is insane!" Joe shut his eyes.

     "Forget about all that, you'll love it here. You're welcome to stay".

     "Oh please stay! Please stay!" The kids chorused loudly, they seemed to have appeared suddenly from the darkness, they perched all around Joe like flies urging him to stay.

     "Ah! Where did you all come from?!"

    "Hi, I'm Biggy!"

     "And I'm Chubby!"

     "We're twins!" The two boys chorused.

     "Hi I'm Audrey, I'm the eldest!"

     Joe couldn't help but laugh at the amazing creatures he saw. They all looked like they were the same age-- like a bunch of eleven and twelve year olds.

     "Hi! I'm Isabella"

     "I'm Millicent, I'm Granny's favourite!"

      "My name's Mandy!"

      "I'm Susie, I can sing!"

       "Hi, I'm Bradley, I'm the strongest, Uhh!" He demonstrated his strength with an arm.

        "My name's George, I'm a gentleman. If you like business then you're my friend!" The little boy smiled.

      Joe could feel someone tugging at his trousers-- it was a lovely little girl, "I'm Karen, I like you!" She had the sweetest faint voice, she was the youngest.

     "This is Aunt Viola, welcome to the Johnsons dark house!" The kids chorused excitedly.

    "Wow!", Joe released a breath, "Now that I met you guys, I'm not scared of this place at all. My name's Joe, I'm an Optometrist!" He announced.

     "Is that a doctor?" One of the kids asked.

     "Yeah it is. I'm Dr Joe and I take care of the human eye. If there's a problem with the human eye, I'll diagnose it!"

    "Oooooh!" They sounded fascinated by the Doctor's explanation.

     "I'm really sorry about the house thing", Viola quickly put in. "We're all really just a normal family", she stressed the words as if to give a hint or something. Joe replied with a smile.

     "You must be hungry! Kids, take Dr Joe to the dining"

     "I'm definitely hungry!"