Return to Albrecht Manor

By Christopher Newman

Noah Ravenswood gets a call from a man he never thought he'd hear from again, Max Albrecht. His father, Baron Markus Albrecht, has died but more importantly, hasn't passed to the afterlife. Max suspects his foul deceased sister Elsa has remained as well and is holding her father in ethereal bondage for her own evil ends. Can Noah figure out what is really going on as he returns to Albrecht Manor?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Roast Press
• Release date: Jan 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452477343

Christopher Newman

Chris Newman lives in northeast Ohio. A life-long fan of Robert E. Howard, Richard Matheson, and Stephen King the bookshelves at the Newman residence run the gambit from erotica to horror to spirituality to humor. In fact, Chris hopes one day to inherit a library (or a castle with a library, that'd be nice!). Surrounding his eclectic library is his collection of medieval weaponry, helms, and shields. Woe be to the foolish mortal who tries to invade the Newman home.

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Return To Albrecht Manor

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The story is fictional. Names, places and any similarity to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Return To Albrecht Manor Copyright © 2010 by Christopher C. Newman

Cover image by Persephone’s Pomegranate © 2010

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Return to Albrecht Manor

A Noah Ravenswood Adventure

By

Christopher Newman

Chapter One

Noah! Dr. Sarah Bookings harshly whispered. Look over by the rose garden!

Without responding to her, Noah Ravenswood, witch and occultist, turned his eyes to the rose bushes only twenty yards away. At first he saw nothing. But soon a shadow, darker than the ones surrounding it, moved in a jerky fashion.

She’s coming, he informed his friend. Be ready for a fight, Sarah. She’s been afflicted with this for over two months. Her hunger is going to make her quite mad and completely unreasonable.

I’ve never dealt with… the long nosed woman’s statement trailed off. She craned her neck in the direction of the cemetery’s gates, looking for aid that wasn’t coming.

Ignoring Sarah’s fears, Noah watched as Angela picked her way amid the rosebushes and cautiously approached the Williams crypt. He could hear her low muttering and constant ranting, the sounds of which chilled his soul. She giggled and chortled as her hands clenched involuntarily like the claws of some terrible beast. He continued the surveillance as she approached a patch of light that separated her from the front of the mausoleum. He held his breath as she quickly launched herself across the shaft of illumination with the grace of a tigress. As she did, he took in every detail he could, since anything he could discover about her would be helpful.

Lord and Lady, he breathed softly.

Angela White was once a beautiful woman, he could see that still, but gone was any semblance of humanity from her once pretty face. Her long kinky hair hung to the middle of her back and was matted with leaves and dirt. Her dress, more like a burial shroud, hung off her frame and frantically billowed as she passed by. Her long legs thrust out past the garment’s hem and ended with bare feet caked with thick, clinging mud. She quickly knelt against the side of the crypt shrouded in darkness but Noah could easily see the hot burning points of her eyes. For a terrifying second he thought she had spotted them. But as the moments passed he noted her stare was for the cemetery road between the twin hills and he watched her eyes swivel down toward the gates.

She senses something wrong, he whispered to his long-time assistant. What could it be?

The figure crouched suddenly and went flat to the ground. Noah turned to look where she was spying and was relieved when a car passed by, its headlights shining well ahead of it.

Capturing Angela once more in his line of sight, he saw her rise from the cool grass and stalk forward. With a jungle cat’s grace she moved to the front of the crypt and grasped the iron gates barring her way within. He let out a breath filled with admiration as her bony shoulders bunched and flexed; she ripped the cage away with minimal effort. It let out a horrible screeching sound, followed by a bang as she dropped it. Angela drove one shoulder into the door and burst it open. She disappeared into the confines of the mausoleum.

Quickly! Noah gasped as he jumped up and ran, his hands digging into the deep pockets of his duster. As they neared, the sounds of shattering fiberglass echoed out of the dark portal. Noah knelt by the door and rapidly drew a complex sigil into the dirt in front of the crypt with the oak wand drawn from his coat. Digging into the soft earth below, he channeled a bit of his stored arcane energy into it and it flared briefly. Inside he saw the bony woman hunched over a lidless casket, crooning softly in an animalistic manner. She reached into the coffin and drew forth the corpse’s clothed arm. A soft, sobbing sound resounded pitifully through the mausoleum as she bared the limb. Noah could see drops of spittle raining down upon the dead flesh. She bent her head down and opened her jaws.

Angela! he called out into the dark recesses, startling her enough to release her grip. Stop what you’re doing! If you eat, you’ll only complete the curse!

The figure inside looked over its shoulder and hissed horribly. Fear momentarily clutched at the occultist’s heart.

Who are you? she growled, in a voice better suited to a demon than a woman. How dare you interrupt my meal?

We’re here to help you, Sarah replied from off to Noah’s left. But if you continue along this path, we can’t restore you.

Aarrggh! The creature screamed as she spun in place. Noah backed up, happy to see Sarah do the same thing. Angela crouched suddenly and launched herself across the gulf between her and them in a panther-like leap. Her eyes were burning a fiery scarlet and her mouth wide open, exposing her teeth. As she flew through the air, the wizard could see that she had filed them down to points, typical of someone with her condition. He nearly stumbled and fell as he backpedaled out of her reach.

Angela soared past the crypt’s threshold and slammed into the opposite end of the prepared magical barrier which sprang to life as she fully entered the containing circle. In a screaming rage she began to beat her fists bloody against the arcane obstruction until she stopped to let out a howl of pure anguish, and then commenced to hurl herself against the walls of her prison.

Angela, listen to my voice, he commanded as she shrieked and wailed. You managed not to feed, and that is good! But you’ll be doomed if you eat of the dead! I cannot return you to humanity if you fight me. Unless I banish the curse upon you, you’ll never be free of the hunger!

This increased her flurry of thrashing, clawing, and biting at the shield. With both hands she drove her now bloody fists into the spell repeatedly. As this went on, Noah’s mind turned back to the events that had brought him face-to-face with this irate, hungry she-ghoul.

*****

Dandelion was located on the shores of Lake Erie, along what was called the North Coast by most Ohioans. The Dandelion City Council had contacted him via his website to inquire about obtaining his unique skills. He recalled the secret meeting four days ago with the members of that governing body. To the man (and one woman) they were scared and frightened, and at a loss as to how to explain to the general public who, or what, was desecrating tombs here in Two Hills Cemetery.

Eyewitness reports vary, City Councilwoman Maggie Drake had told him. But one fact is unmistakable: it is a lone person who is prowling the graveyard, forcing their way into mausoleums, and dragging out coffins one at a time.

This is a quiet little town, Mayor Luther Higbee supplied in a disgusted tone. We can’t have the public all stirred up over something as despicable as desecrating the graves of our loved ones. This perpetrator needs to be brought to justice.

They suspected a grave-robber at first, he thought darkly, frowning at the still practiced profession of stealing from the deceased, but I knew better.

The police escorted them out here and allowed him and Sarah to inspect the damage and even read their reports. He was shocked to see that the caskets had been ripped apart by superhuman strength and tossed aside like discarded, broken toys. He hadn’t flinched at rummaging around the emaciated dried-up bodies within, examining each one to find some sort of clue as to why they had been so rudely treated.

It was on the throat of one pale corpse, placed in a family crypt two months ago that he discovered the answer. A perfect set of teeth marks had barely broken the dry cold flesh. A quick check of dental records with the local dentist named the culprit as twenty-two year old Angela White of 349 Blackbird Lane.

It must’ve been her first try, he thought at the time, before she filed down her teeth.

The cops raced off with this information, but found nobody home at the address on the poor side of town. Noah and Sarah had followed in his 1972 Monte Carlo at a more leisurely pace. . The place was dark and cool and the blinds were all drawn tightly shut. Every room was like this; even the mattress was up against the only window in the solitary bedroom. Upon entering the one floor ranch house they discovered it to have been the scene of a terrible struggle. The pantry had been raided and the contents flung across the floor. Spoiled food was strewn about the kitchen. In the living room the furniture was torn to shreds and broken like matchsticks, the white stuffing jutting out like the guts of a disemboweled teddy bear. Even the bathroom revealed a toilet clogged with foul smelling, brackish vomit. In short, it looked like a pack of wild animals had gotten into Miss White’s place and destroyed it like a hurricane in a frantic, desperate search. Every room showed the wizard his assumptions were correct.

The police bemoaned not catching the woman at home, but Noah had already suspected they wouldn’t locate her there. If his assumptions were right, she would be in hiding since her condition wouldn’t be so obliging as to let her remain above ground during the day. Instead of looking for clues inside the home he had gone around to her neighbors to ask about the missing woman’s recent activities. It was in an elderly black woman’s parlor that he confirmed all his terrible suspicions.

She’s got the Devil in her, the poor thing, the old gray haired woman had wheezed as she nursed a cup of tea. She was a good God-fearing Christian, even went to my church. If’n I had to guess, I suspect it has to do with that feller she was seeing.

What was the man’s name? he asked politely.

Darrin Moses. He works for the local garbage company, she answered him. I heard tell another gal had her eye on him and didn’t take too kindly when he came a- calling on Angela.

Who is the other woman? he had asked, with his interest fully piqued.

I don’t rightly know. But I heard from my grandson that this girl is from New Orleans. She settled here after the hurricane a few years ago. Folks say she’s a Creole woman, you know voodoo and such. Some people from my church have been whisperin’ and moanin’ about her dallying in Black Magic and such. Hexing the young’uns who cross her or don’t do what she asks.

The story was an old one, a love triangle with one of the players dabbling in the occult. Noah had seen this kind of thing countless times over his many years dealing with the bizarre and strange world of magick.

*****

Her elderly neighbor’s words resounded in his mind as he stared at Angela’s thrashing form, still trapped within the boundaries of his ensnaring spell. He had picked this location for their stakeout particularly. Only yesterday a prominent member of the community was laid to rest in this family mausoleum. The lure of Robert William’s body, freshly interred here, was more than poor Angela could bear. He had never been so sad to be right.

The night was cool, on the verge of being chilly. But the early spring season made only the lightest of jackets necessary. He looked around Two Hills Cemetery, which was no longer eerily quiet, as it had been before the ghoul’s confinement. She continued to bang and scream as she fought for a way to escape imprisonment.

Two Hills was perched on the peaks of two tall mounds of earth overlooking the small town which gave it the name. The south mound was taller than its northern brother. There was a narrow blacktopped road that wove a twisting and turning path around the graveyard. It was an elderly but active bone-yard, one that often saw a new interment despite its cramped conditions.

The citizens of the nearby town of Dandelion, Ohio tended this place lovingly. From either hilltop you could see the wrought iron fence that marched around the place.

The front and only entrance was a grand display of the metallurgic arts. The iron vines wove up from the ground and entwined as they created an eye-catching border that encompassed the gothic lettered name. There was even a central reflecting pond surrounded by weeping willows. An oak grove at the top of the larger hill would have been perfect for Druidic pursuits. Well cared for hedges, bushes, and even a rose garden made this place feel more like a park than a cemetery.

Now the darkness was only punctuated by the soft sheen streaming from the streetlamps onto the variously shaped headstones and mausoleums. The numerous statues, whose presence in the daylight evoked calm and serenity, seemed to move as the wind varied the shadows cast by the trees. The shifting of the branches caused their stony humanoid forms to appear to grimace, smirk, and even blink. The moon, full and pregnant, occasionally flashed past the heavy clouds and caused great patches of lunar illumination to move across the markers as well. This creeping light made the monuments seem to undulate even more.

*****

As Noah came out of his contemplative surveying of the landscape, he noted Angela had subsided to merely standing still and glaring at him and Sarah. The soft blue light of the shield afforded Noah a better look at her.

Her red eyes hotly burned as her rage was barely contained; she was just taking a break, gathering her energy for another attempt to shatter the trap he had laid for her.

Her thick lips quivered as she sucked in quick breaths. But also, he noted, they trembled with the desire to rend gray flesh and devour it in greedy mouthfuls. Her head was elongated and her cheekbones high and prominent. She could have easily played the role of an African princess in some Hollywood film.

She looks like that supermodel Iman, he mused aloud.

She’s skinny enough to be a supermodel, Sarah replied. She really needs a good meal, one that doesn’t include dead tissue.

Look who’s talking about being thin, Noah groused jokingly.

Fuck you, Ravenswood. She grinned back despite the dangerous situation. John tells me I’m sexy all the time.

I always thought cops were a bit blind.

Release me! demanded the creature trapped in the blue shaft of light, to interrupt. Spit flew from her lips and splattered on the wall of the ward in front of Noah. He watched it as it dripped downward.

I can’t set you free, he told her. You are in danger of fulfilling this curse, being shot by the cops, or worse-- hunted by a lynch mob.

I’ll kill them all…

Sooner or later they’ll find your underground lair, Angela, Noah cautioned the drooling, ravenous woman. Then they’ll drag you out into the burning sunlight and you’ll go up like a stack of dry twigs. Do you wish for a fiery death?

I don’t care, she growled back. But Noah could see the fear in her face. The entrapment spell was cutting her senses off from the reek of the decaying flesh. That and the conversation were restoring a bit of her humanity, making it less difficult to reason with her.

Let us help you, Angela, Sarah pleaded.

You’re not lost yet, Noah added.

Y-you can take away the gnawing feeling in my stomach? she unexpectedly moaned, turning her hot crimson glare at Noah alone.

Yes, I can, he answered her as traces of civilization seemed to creep to the forefront of her fevered brain.

I’m so hungry! she caterwauled as she fell in a heap on the grass. I’ve tried everything to stop the gnawing of my guts! I’ve eaten food, rats, garbage, cats, and anything I could choke down but nothing seems to stay down! I end up puking it all up and then it starts all over again! This hunger twists at my very soul!

I know. This is one of the foulest enchantments I’ve seen.

The ghoul dropped to the grass and raised her face to the unforgiving stars as she howled in utter torment. The sound was filled with misery, pain, and loss. The mournful cry echoed through the cemetery and threatened to even move Noah’s unflinching and stoic heart. It was the wail of every mother who had lost a child to death and the cry of every heartbroken member of humankind. He glanced over and saw tears rolling down Sarah’s cheeks as the terrible noise worked its spell upon her. At long last the shriek of despair faded away, leaving silence to reign once more over Two Hills Cemetery.

The red lights in Angela’s eyes flickered and died, like a candle blown out by a quick powerful breeze. She once more raised her face to stare at Noah. Her cheeks, like Sarah’s, were now wet with tears as she held her middle tightly with both arms.

Take it away! Angela finally cried out. Please; I beg of you! Take away this horrible hunger!

I promise you you’ll get my very best efforts on it, Noah swore, his heart filling with pity for the poor creature in front of him. Follow us to my car and I’ll take you to my basement where I’ll labor to dispel this hex.

Freeze! Don’t move, this is the Dandelion Police Department! a loud authoritative voice shouted out from behind the crypt. Noah’s mouth fell open in amazement as six officers of the law appeared out of nowhere.

What the hell is going on here?! Sarah spat out angrily at the intruders. We have permission to be here!

That may be so, ma’am, one of the figures rounding the mausoleum stated flatly, But I cannot permit you to take this woman anywhere.

Mayor Higbee was right, a young female voice chimed out. He said these two would try to spirit her away without a fair trail.

You utter morons! Noah exclaimed hotly. This isn’t a matter for the police! This woman is under a terrible enchantment! If you put her in jail you’ll be responsible for whoever she kills when she tries to escape!

She ain’t going nowhere, a tall man said as the cops surrounded Sarah and himself. I’m Police Chief Henry Duggan and this woman is under arrest. Stand aside or I’ll have you sharing a cell next to her. Read her rights, Danny. Noah watched with astonishment as a young cop walked up and smudged the carefully drawn circle in the dirt beneath the grass.

You have the right to remain silent… he began as the protective barrier popped out of existence with a bang.

No! Angela spat. She backhanded Danny, snapping his neck like a dry twig. Danny’s corpse flew into the mausoleum and landed with a thump across Robert William’s dead body.

You fucking idiot! Noah screamed as he reached into his pocket. She’s a ghoul, not a criminal! She’ll kill us all!

With a terrible wail Angela jumped on the policewoman nearest to her and bore her to the ground. Noah watched as the woman’s face turned blue and rapidly darkened to a terrible shade of black. There was a choking cough as both of the woman’s hands constricted around the young cop’s throat. Her four co-workers began pummeling Angela with their nightsticks trying to subdue her. But a quick, sharp snap let Noah know their efforts were in vain. Their comrade was dead.

Sarah! he yelled. Get back!

You don’t have to tell me twice! she answered as she backed away fearfully. Noah was forced to hastily prepare a spell of entanglement. He wasn’t wild about his choice of words but it couldn’t be helped. He began to chant:

"Lady of the Moon, hear my cry.

Let not those here so foully die!

Bind Angela, fast and tight!

Save our sorry butts this night!"

Beams of moonlight rushed from the haloed orb in the sky and flashed around the cemetery. This lunar effect wrapped around the ghoul, who was going through the cops like a hot knife through butter. Two more officers were down and Angela wasn’t even breaking a sweat. The white tendrils of energy coalesced into six inch thick bands that squeezed the irate, shrieking ghoul until her arms were held fast to her sides and her legs slammed together. With a crying shriek of hate, Angela White fell to the soft, cool loam, immobilized by Noah’s hurried enchantment. A loop of moonlight gagged the cursed woman as it slid up over her mouth and silence once more reigned over Two Hills Cemetery.

Nice spell, Noah, Sarah remarked as she sauntered up to him. I especially liked your choice of wording.

Shut up, he growled, angry not with Sarah, but at the blundering police.

He strode forward, setting his shoulders squarely. Chief Duggan stood there shaking from sheer terror. He was surprised the big man hadn’t peed down his leg in fear because the cop’s face was as white as a sheet and he had a wild look in his eyes.

S-she killed Donna! he squealed in a high-pitched voice. That rotten bitch strangled poor Donna to death! Noah reached out and slapped the man across the face.

The harsh blow seemed to restore a bit of his composure.

How dare you hit me! he bellowed angrily, his reason restored.

Shut your stupid mouth and listen, Noah snarled back at the stunned cop. If you would have left us alone none of this would have happened.

B-but Mayor Higbee said…

I don’t give a flying fuck what that stupid politician told you! I was to be given free rein to do as I needed and you and your band of bumbling idiots have now gotten two more people killed! Dammit man, did you think this was all a fucking game!? You saw the damage she was doing to the other crypts; did you think she was using a crowbar?

I….I… he stammered.

Lord and Lady save us from small town sheriffs! he roared, heating up on the old subject of clumsy, interfering authorities in the dealings with such matters. There were no marks of tools on the doors…you told me that yourself! By the stars above, what kind of moron are you?!

That’ll be enough, Noah, Sarah gently remarked as she pulled him away. He knows he fucked up. Just let him be.

What’s wrong with her anyway? one of the surviving policemen fearfully inquired as Sarah led him to a safer distance.