We moved to Millford to be closer to my wifes family. Katie’s Dad wasn’t in the best health and she wanted to stay close to him in case things got worse. The condo we got was pretty cheap, all things considered. Millford is pretty expensive, and the place we got still cost us a good $650,000 but it was in a nice part of town and it was reasonably close to the highway. Some of the freestanding houses around us were going for a million dollars, easy. This was practically a steal!
Katie thought that maybe it was cheaper because it was in a newer neighborhood. They were still building other condos on the other side of the complex. But I would’ve thought the newness of it all would’ve driven the price up. Who’s to say, really?
Either way, we got a good deal and I was happy with that.
We moved in, spent the next month and a half unpacking and started to settle in to our new home.
Everything was going great.
***
It was my oldest son, Archer who put the hole in the wall. He’d been playing down in the basement. It wasn’t finished, so we’d set up a hockey goalpost down there so he could practice shooting. We told him to use a soft ball, not a hockey puck. But kids are kids, and he’d wanted to shoot with an actual hockey puck.
One minute, Katie and I were upstairs feeding the baby, and the next I heard Archer screaming.
“DAD! DAD! DAAAAD!”
Judging by the sounds that poor kid was making, I thought he’d actually hurt himself! I came racing down the stairs with Katie right behind me, clutching the baby to her chest. I’d initially figured that Archer’s shot had bounced back and hit him in the face. But no.
This was something much, much worse.
Archer was white in the face. I’d say that the poor kid looked like he’d seen a ghost… but when I looked at the damage he’d caused to the wall, I knew that what he’d seen was much, much worse.
The puck he’d shot at the makeshift goalpost we’d set up had broken off a small section of the concrete… and behind it, I could see something that looked a lot like a human skull.
Obviously, we called the police. And we spent the next several hours talking to them, taking their questions and listening as they dug the body out of our walls… or I suppose it would be more accurate to say bodies.
There were four of them.
Four skeletons, extracted from the foundation of our home.
Four skeletons.
An entire family.
A family just like mine.
***
We spent the next few nights in a hotel, partially to stay out of the police’s way and partially because none of us wanted to stay in that condo. I spent a good chunk of my time on the phone with my realtor, Martin. The condo board wasn’t answering my emails and wouldn’t respond to my voicemails, so he was really the only person I could talk to.
Gotta say, to his credit he did what he could to help.
He said he’d look into the history of the property for me, and a couple days later he asked if I was free to meet for a coffee. I told him that I was.
“This whole thing’s a mess,” Martin said. His tone was a lot graver than I’d ever heard it before.
“How bad are we talking here?” I asked.
“Bad… that land where they built the condos. About five years back, there were other houses there.” He said. “Now as far as I knew, the old owners had sold and moved out before they’d demolished everything. I did a bit of digging though… looks like there were a few exceptions.”
“Exceptions?” I asked.
He opened a folder he’d brought with him and pushed the contents over to me. It was a few printouts from some local news article.
“There was a nasty fire in that neighborhood. I remember hearing about it in passing, but I didn’t hear about the deaths.”
My stomach turned.
“The people we found in our walls…?”
“God I hope not,” He said grimly. “I mean… you’d think someone would’ve reported it or something! Given the bodies a proper burial! But the more I dig into this, the more things don’t add up. After the fires, the company who bought the land was supposed to demolish the old houses. Doesn’t sound like they did a particularly good job of it. I found a couple of other complaints from the past few months of people finding… things… in their foundation. Shingles. Wood. Fencing. Someone even found part of a car under their basement.”
“I’m sorry, a car?” I asked. “What the hell did they do? Bury everything and pour concrete over it?”
Martin just shook his head.
“I don’t know… but it’s sure as hell starting to look like it though. This is insane. Truly, genuinely insane. I’ve been doing this for twenty years now and I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
I sank back in my chair, my mind reeling as I tried to comprehend the mess I’d gotten myself into. Mysterious fires, nightmarishly shoddy construction, and dead bodies. None of this made anything remotely resembling sense.
“I’d reach out to a lawyer, if I were you,” Martin said. “Maybe they can tell you what your options are. And the sooner you do it, the better. Odds are, the police are going to be looking into the condo company too. Those bodies, there’s no way they’re there by accident. This whole thing reeks. So you need to protect yourself and protect your family.”
I nodded.
“Right… a lawyer…” I said quietly.
“Honestly, I wish you the best of luck,” Martin said, although his words couldn’t help but ring a little hollow, no matter how sinere they were meant to be.
***
After about a week, I needed to move my family back into that house. We couldn’t exactly afford to live out of a hotel while all of this was settled and we didn’t really have anywhere else to go. But I wasn’t going to let the issue drop.
For what it was worth, I did take Martin’s advice. Katie and I hired a lawyer to go after the condo corporation for us. I was hoping that maybe he’d be able to get us back some of the money we’d sank into this property.
At the time, I’d almost felt a little hopeful. Like maybe there was a way out of this, maybe we could just recup our losses, find a new place and move on. But things just kept on getting worse.
About two days after our lawyer filed our claim against the condo corporation, I came home after work to find a black sedan blocking my driveway. At the time, I figured it was just somebody waiting on one of the neighbors, so I didn’t think that much of it. I could see that the driver was still inside, so I got out to ask him to move.
As I walked up to the drivers side door, the window rolled down and I was greeted by a man with cold eyes and a stoic face. He had a pencil thin moustache, and a military buzz cut. He regarded me with an intense stare that gave me pause for a moment, before gesturing for me to come closer.
“It’s Steve, right?” He asked. His voice was calm, casual, and almost conversational although there was something about his tone that made me uneasy. “C’mere Steve. I wanted to have a chat about something.”
“Why, what’s this about?” I asked warily. I kept a healthy distance from his car, not wanting to get too close.
“Nothing to worry about, alright? Just relax. I just wanted to talk to you about a dispute you’ve got with some friends of mine, okay?”
“What dispute?” I asked.
The man laughed. There was no humor in it.
“You know what dispute, Steve. That’s a nice house you’ve got there. It’s really nice. You must be doing pretty well for yourself, right?”
“I… I guess…?”
“Course you are. You’re a good looking guy, you’ve got yourself a pretty wife, two beautiful kids and a comfy job at some downtown accounting firm. What was it called again… oh! Atkins Chartered Professional Accountants. Now that’s a respectable name. It sounds like a company I’d want to hire.”
I could feel an uneasy sinking feeling in my stomach as the man spoke. I could hear every pump of my heart. Feel every breath I took. I’d never been so grounded in a single moment before and it was perhaps the most horrifying experience I’d ever felt.
“You’re a lucky man, Steve. A very, very lucky man. Gotta say, I’d kill for a life like yours. I really would.”
“Please…” I said softly, “W-whatever you’re going to do…”
“Relax. I’m not going to do anything, Steve,” The man said, looking back at me. He flashed me another empty smile. “But I think you might be doing something.”
“W-what am I doing?” I asked.
“Look… I understand that this neighborhood really isn’t for you. That’s fair. You’ve had some issues. Nobody can blame you for being a little bit upset. However, I don’t think it’s fair for you to take it out on my friends when they’ve got enough problems as it is. I mean, that’s just kicking down, don’t you think?”
“I… I don’t…”
“Well, maybe you should.” He said, cutting me off. “Tell you what, why don’t you call that lawyer of yours and tell him you’ve changed your mind. You do that and… well, maybe you and my friends can come to some kind of agreement. You walk away from all of this no worse for wear, and so do they.”
I swallowed, struggling to find the words to say in response although the man spoke for me again.
“Otherwise… well. I dunno. My friends will be very disappointed. I don’t want that, and I don’t think you do either.”
He keyed the engine of his car and it roared to life.
“Anyways, I’ve said my piece. You think about it, talk to your wife if you’ve gotta. And we’ll see what happens. Oh… and when you get in there. You make sure you hug your kids, little Archer and Amanda… you hug them real tight, okay? Life is unpredictable. A lotta bad things can happen, right at a moments notice. So it’s important that you treasure what you’ve got, while you’ve got it. Do you understand me?”
I nodded.
“Good. Have a good night, Steve. Tell Katie I said hi.”
With that, he was gone, and I was left standing, trembling in my driveway.
I spent the night arguing with Katie in our kitchen, begging her to rescind the lawsuit. But she wouldn’t.
She told me that we couldn’t these people threaten us. Insisted that we call the police and tell them everything. She was so sure that they’d protect us. She was so, so sure that they’d protect us and I wanted to believe her. I really, truly wanted to believe her.
***
About a week later, I came home to find the house dead silent.
I called out for Katie.
She didn’t answer.
I called out for Archer.
Nothing.
Even Amanda didn’t make a sound.
The kitchen was empty.
The living room was empty.
The backyard was empty.
My family was nowhere to be found.
I raced upstairs, hoping to God that maybe they’d be there… and if God was listening, then he has a sick sense of humor.
They were upstairs… each of them nestled in their beds. Katie, Archer, Amanda. All of them lying cold and lifeless… a single clean cut across their throats.
My family…
My wife…
My kids…
My everything…
Gone.
I should have fought harder. I should have gone behind Katie’s back to cancel that lawsuit.
The Police said they’d look into the murders but that was over a month ago. They’ve come back with nothing.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this. I keep thinking about what I could have done differently, how I could have saved them. Everything was going so well for us! Everything was going great and now… now I’m all alone.
My wife is gone, my children are gone. And I can’t help but feel that their blood is on my hands.
I don’t know what to do anymore.
I don’t…
I don’t know what to do.