The Horror of Central State

By Adriel Chevalier

The horrors that grip our souls usually have their roots within our imagination. However, when events exceed our imaginations, we are taken to higher planes of fright than we ever dreamed. We may try to dispel our fears by persuading ourselves that these events are fictional or impossible, but when we can no longer reject the reality, it finds its way into our subconscious that unravels the fabric of our very souls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adriel Chevalier
• Release date: Nov 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215402993

Adriel Chevalier

Adriel Jacques Chevalier descended from a French family that migrated to the Netherlands before immigrating to the United States. His family's vocation centered around the jewelry and watchmaking business for generations. However, Adriel was never adept with handling the delicate parts of tiny machinery. Instead, he turned his interests to the software industry that was just becoming popular in his young, adult life. He found that logic and problem solving better suited his skills, and he excelled in his field.Adriel's elder sister had taught him to read and write at the age of three. Due to boredom suffered from structured learning, he sought to educate himself from his youth. In his adult life he spent decades studying ancient history and various writings, mostly centering around Christian and Judaic literature. Some of his studies he opted to conduct in the pre-translated, original language to gain a clearer understanding.Always frustrated with the structure and politics of organized religion, he sought relationships according to the instruction of the Messiah, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst." Adriel recognized that the Messiah's name was synonymous with his authority, which is Truth, and that any group larger than three brought annoying problems.Adriel and his fellows departed from the mainstream teaching of the established religions and embarked on a journey that led them on a quest for intrinsic Truth. Through many enlightening revelations and miraculous experiences, Adriel came to recognize that much of what is taught today concerning the Creator and his anointed one is rubbish. He forsook the erroneous cliches, rhetoric and discrepancies of the religious culture and embraced Truth, which is available to any man anywhere at any time.Although it was contrary to Adriel's belief system to share his findings in a rhetorical document, in his latter years he decided to envelop them into works of fiction to be enjoyed by others. He has developed several stories with elements of actual experiences and enlightenment for others to enjoy and ponder.

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Adriel Chevalier Books

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The Precinct Murders - 2020

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COVID-21 - 2020

The Templar Secret - 2020

The Geneticist - 2021

Midnight Marauder - 2021

The Ribbon Maker - 2022

The Seven Peals of Thunder - 2022

Beyond This Grave - 2023

THE HORROR OF CENTRAL STATE

Adriel Jacques Chevalier

Copyright © 2023 Adriel Jacques Chevalier

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9798215402993

To the Reader

The horrors that grip our souls usually have their roots within our imagination. However, when events exceed our imaginations, we are taken to higher planes of fright than we ever dreamed. We may try to dispel our fears by persuading ourselves that these events are fictional or impossible, but when we can no longer reject the reality, it finds its way into our subconscious that unravels the fabric of our very souls.

Although many of the characters and events within this novel are based on facts, it is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is merely coincidental.

CHAPTER ONE

The Sea Captain

THE DISCONCERTING FACT is that I can read minds. No, I can’t know your secret passwords just because you are thinking about them, but I can read the innermost intentions of your heart. When I look into your eyes, they provide an open window to your soul. I can get your passwords if I start asking questions. For example, does your password start with a special character, letter, or a number? I then ask, is it a number? I know from your eyes if it is or not. I can ask similar questions to gain all of the specific attributes of your password by narrowing the possibilities, and you don’t even have to say a word. I can read it from your eyes. If I force your eyes to stay open and look into mine, I can learn anything I want to know about you.

Whether this was genetic or spiritual, I had yet to determine. I first noticed this ability in my early twenties. In retrospect, I think I have had it all my life. However, it became maddening. I could tell who was fucking whom, or who was the real father of the child. I knew if someone was having an affair, or if one intended to harm someone. I knew if one was lying or cheating, or if a house was truly haunted. Yes, I can detect ghosts, whether you believe in them or not. I served on two hung juries due to my refusal to convict an innocent defender. Don’t get me started on the travesties of our judicial system.

I didn’t want to know the things that I knew, and for many years I tried to ignore my abilities. However, as soon as I looked into another’s eyes, that soul became an open book. Perhaps that is why so many thought me to be an introvert. I avoided eye contact. Although avoiding eye contact wasn’t feasible during intense periods like interviews, interrogations, classrooms, bank tellers, and a myriad of other situations that couldn’t be avoided.

One day, I finally resigned to the fact that I had an advantage, and I decided to take it. I got job offers, salary raises, lucrative contracts, married the woman of my dreams, amassed a small fortune, and I am embarrassed to say, blackmailed my way into an early retirement. I’m not proud of it, and that is a story for another day. However, I wanted to know if my parents ever experienced paranormal activity. Little did I know. The farthest I could trace my clairvoyant ancestry goes back to my great-great-great grandfather. The alarming discovery was the macabre incidents later in the early twentieth century that took place at a mental hospital, which has long since been dissolved.

Let’s start at the beginning of my research. In the mid-1800s, Captain Leander Freeman had sailed from the Caribbean to Callao, Peru. He had been bouncing from New Orleans, Vera Cruz, and Tampico, as he was carrying merchandise to be sold on consignment. However, the goods that he was attempting to sell in each port wouldn’t command the price set by the merchant. He did not deem the cost to ship the goods back to New York to be worthwhile. He later received notice that he should abandon the project and return to New York to transport those who hoped to stake claim in the California gold rush.

Time was of the essence, and apparently someone had taken exception for a sailing delay during his return. Captain Freeman’s letter stated, Callao, 25th July 1848, Messrs. Grunning & Co., Lima. I improve the earliest opportunity to reply to your letter dated 21st inst., which I read yesterday, containing various complaints and claims which your agent Mr. Bowan it pleases to make against me, all which complaints and claims are ungrounded and false, which falsity I can prove by certificates in my possession and other evidence if required. I have therefore professed against said Bowan and whomsoever else it may concern therefore and for the delay in the sailing of the ship Orpheus for New York, all detention since 22d inst. being to note said protest and reply to your letter above stated and whatever else may be necessary on account thereof. I trust the enclosed certificates are amply sufficient to exonerate myself from each and every charge brought against me by Mr. Bowan and denominated 1st, 2d, 3d in your letter. You requested me distinctly to state whether the delay at the islands was caused by the ship or the Charterers. I have handed you a true statement of my proceedings daily while at the Islands, which together with the enclosed certificates will prove that everything in my power was done to hasten the landing of the ship, as it was not a question to be decided here. I hasten to subscribe myself your humble and obedient servant, Leander Freeman.

I had heard stories of Captain Freeman in my youth from my father. He stood just short of five feet one inch, but his abilities were phenomenal. He once defended himself against a mutiny by vaulting his short frame up to the poop deck to fend off those who tried to usurp command until his allies had assisted in capturing the mutineers. He was a regimented individual with impeccable morals and integrity. His wife, Hannah, and son, Charles Leander, lived at his home in East Orleans, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. However, he was rarely home, and with his return to New York he hoped to visit his family briefly before departing for San Francisco.

When Captain Freeman arrived in New York just before Christmas, he received the charter for the voyage and the expected departure date for San Francisco. To his elation, the voyage wasn’t scheduled until 5 January 1849. He would have nearly two weeks with his family in Cape Cod. However, he was expected to be in New York three days before sailing to assist the chief mate with preparations for voyage. In all honesty, his duties required nothing more than his presence, as it was the chief mate’s responsibility to acquire all provisions and create the necessary logs of preparation. Captain Freeman would oversee the operation and provide signature to attest that all was according to protocol.

The family reunion was a tonic to the captain’s soul. It had been too long since he had been with his wife, and he thoroughly enjoyed the stories with which Charles regaled them about his life and experiences in college. Charles was finishing his accounting degree at Harvard, and he was eager to establish roots in Boston after graduating in the spring. However, the mood changed when Captain Freeman and his son became deeply concerned due to a nagging cough that was plaguing Hannah. Leander encouraged her to see a physician, and she promised that she would.

Captain Freeman’s visit ended disappointingly too soon for all of them. He was off to New York, and the chief mate was procuring all of the supplies for the voyage. He was checking his list as men were rolling barrels of beef, pork, beer, water, suet, rum, and flour up the gangplank. Eighty bushels of oatmeal and seventy bushels of peas were carted aboard along with two hundred fifty bags of bread. One hundred ninety-eight charterers and twenty-two crew members were making the journey with one planned stop at Valparaiso, Chile to replenish any water and supplies that were insufficient.

Two large cabins would house the passengers, each on a different level inside the ship. Thirty women would occupy the smaller, while the remainder of men occupied the larger. The voyage was estimated at two hundred days if the winds were agreeable. There had been a slight delay in registering the voyage with appropriate certification and obtaining the logs for recording the passage which detained the ship in port until 9 January.

Finally, they set sail, and the passengers bubbled with excitement. Some were eager to search for gold and stake claims. However, the majority of the opportunity seekers were interested in opening saloons, mercantile shops for clothing and supplies, becoming card sharps and swindlers, or providing other services that weary men might be willing to buy for gold. Some would strike it rich, while others would lose all that they had, and some would die. Regardless, the passengers had opted for a sailing journey rather than traveling by land to the West coast. They traded the threat of Indians and highwaymen for the threat of storms.

The first two weeks provided good weather with reasonable winds. Progress was encouraging, and there was talk of getting to San Francisco even sooner than anticipated. Men were sharing stories and making alliances. They were drinking, smoking, and playing card games to pass the time. After one month, the chief mate took inventory, and it appeared that they had ample provisions to make it to Valparaiso. There had been no sickness, casualties, or death, and the former leak that the ship had suffered on previous voyages had been successfully repaired. All seemed to be well.

However, on their forth-sixth night as they were sailing along the coast of Argentina, they entered a squall that woke the crew and most of the passengers. Captain Freeman dressed himself and met the chief mate on deck to assess any danger. The ship was faring well, and neither considered the storm to present any serious peril. They calmed the passengers and returned to their quarters. Captain Freeman lit his lamp and sat at his table to make a log entry of the storm since he was already awake. The ship rocked and creaked as the hanging lantern swayed from side to side. He could hear torrents of rain as sheets of water blasted the deck above.

Suddenly, the ship stopped rocking, and the lantern stopped swaying. He could no longer hear the storm nor the pounding rain. All was quiet and serene. There was no creaking, and Captain Freeman couldn’t recall a time at sea that provided the solace that he now experienced. He looked about his cabin as he sat at his table. He knew that he wasn’t alone. He looked toward his door thinking that someone may be approaching, but instead a faint mist began to rise from the floor and collect as it got denser and began to take form. His eyes widened as he recognized the specter that stood just out of reach in front of him on the other side of the table.

It was Hannah. She was dressed in her white wedding gown, and she looked identical to the day that they had been married twenty-two years ago. As she continued to solidify before his eyes, he could detect the sweet smile upon her lips. Her eyes were sparking, and she exhibited a radiantly rare beauty that he had never seen before. It was a bittersweet moment. He was elated to see her, but he also knew what it meant. The cough that had plagued her so much obviously had its terminal effect.

When her form congealed to the point that it appeared she was in full bodily presence as he had seen her last, she spoke. Dearest Leander, I can see in your eyes that you realize what my fate has been. The doctors could do nothing for me. Please be encouraged because I am at peace. I am here to tell you to settle in San Francisco, as it can provide you with a comforting future. Charles is well, and he is a responsible man who can make his own way. I will see you again when your time has come. I love you dearly.

She faded and vanished like smoke. Captain Freeman heard the creaking, the driving rain, he saw the flicker of his lantern as it swayed back and forth with the rocking of the ship. He was somewhat dazed and began to wonder if he had fallen asleep at his table and dreamed the entire sequence. However, later inquiry proved that Hannah had taken a turn for the worse and died on that very night. He stared at his log book and made the entry that described Hannah’s visit.

The next morning, as Captain Freeman spoke with the chief mate he was more convinced that he had fallen asleep at his table, as he learned that there was no calm in the storm until daybreak. However, after they had arrived at their destination on 8 July 1849, and the captain had verified his wife’s demise, he took her words to heart and remained in San Francisco. He retired from sailing after forty years at sea and partnered with a man named Baker to begin a business firm. During the next year, he was also instrumental in selling the ship Orpheus for his former employer.

I carefully placed the log book on my desk and leaned back with a sigh. I had a significant piece of family history before me. Leander had visited his son in the coming year after landing in San Francisco and given him heirlooms that consisted of copies of correspondence journals and logs that he had kept. His son passed them to his own son, who was the father of my paternal grandmother. She had no brothers, so the logs were entrusted to her, then to my father, and finally to me.

This was the farthest that I could trace my ancestry with any account of paranormal activity. However, the most horrendous story was yet to come. Seeing a ghost didn’t necessarily count in my book as having any extrasensory abilities. Was it really a ghost? Well, the fact that his wife died on that same night seems to indicate that it was a bona fide sighting, or was it Hannah, who could read her husband’s eyes? I was trying to understand if genetics played a part, but the later events that I discovered did not come through the ancestry of Leander Freeman. In fact, it appeared that the more interesting accounts were introduced into my family’s ancestry by marriage.

This lineage continued through my father’s side of the family. Albeit, one day, many years ago before my mother passed, I had a conversation with her about out-of-body experiences. Much to my surprise, she began to recall episodes of her own where she had left her body while relaxing on the couch. Again, this didn’t appear as something I would necessarily classify as extrasensory. Research into the phenomenon claimed that anyone could have those experiences under the right circumstances. My search continued.

As a youth, I would walk to my paternal grandmothers’ house during summer breaks from school. I always enjoyed her stories of her childhood and adolescent days in the late 1800s. However, she was rather tight-lipped concerning aspects of her family that were unsavory. She was a very prim and proper lady, who didn’t put up with any nonsense. I knew as a child to be on my best behavior whenever we visited as a family. Although, I learned to get away with some of my antics by making everyone laugh. That is how I gained most of my allies throughout life.

My mother is the one who told me about my great grandmother. My father, much like his mother, would never admit to anything negative concerning his family. I wasn’t looking for dirt, I was looking for possible facts that could shed some light on my abilities. My mother had suffered at the hand of her step-father to the extent that she went to live with my father’s family during high school. That’s how she knew some of the family secrets. She had spoken to my great grandfather, Charles Edmund, at great length during her stay in my grandmother’s home, as he lived on the other side of the double house. She even committed much of his story to a typewritten manuscript that she intended to keep for posterity as family history, and this is where my story continues.

Captain Freeman’s son, Charles Leander, settled in Boston with a successful accounting practice. Once his business was established, he took a wife, and they had a son in 1855, whom they named Charles Edmund. He became the father of my paternal grandmother. Charles Edmund grew up in Boston, and as he matured, he helped with his father’s business. Eventually, he was sent to his father’s alma mater, Harvard, where he earned his degree in accounting. The frugality of the family trickled downward to my father, whom I always considered to be stingy. However, the economics of the times had caused many to plan very conservatively. They paid cash for everything, or they did without.

Charles Leander had expected his son to continue in business with him in Boston after graduation. However, he was disappointingly introduced to the fact that his son had fallen in love at Harvard with a student named Sarah King. She was from Providence, Rhode Island, and she had made it clear that she intended to return home after college. He hadn’t yet proposed to her, and his father disapproved of the union. During the winter holiday break, he and his son locked horns.

Edmund, you’re a young man with your entire life ahead of you. There are many fish in the sea. Your roots are here in Boston. I established this business with full intent of having you take over one day. Please, don’t let your emotions get the best of you.

I’m sorry, Father, but you have yet to meet Sarah. She is rather quirky, which is one of the things that I absolutely adore about her. She is sweet and kind and rather compulsive on occasion. She makes me laugh, and when she’s with me the world seems to be a better place.

Oh, Edmund, it’s just young love, and you are unaccustomed to its wiles. There are thousands of other women who could make you feel the same way. Rule your life with your head, not your heart, my son.

You should give her a chance, Father. I am bringing her home during the spring break to meet you and Mother. We both graduate in May, and I plan to ask her hand in marriage before we flip our tassels.

Edmund, you’re being impulsive. You have known this girl less than two years, which isn’t nearly enough time to get to know her. You haven’t even met her family, and a proposal this early is totally inappropriate and disrespectful to her father. This is a mistake, and when she ends up making you miserable, I won’t hesitate to tell you that I told you so.

Charles Edmund returned to Harvard after the winter break. One evening, during supper, his mother attempted to persuade her husband to stop interfering with Edmund’s life. You know, Dear, the more you oppose Sarah, the more you will steel his heart toward her. If you believe that she is the wrong woman for him, you should give her a chance, and if you are correct, Edmund will see it for himself. Otherwise, he will turn a blind eye toward any of her faults.

Clara, I can’t stand idly by while my son throws his life away. I have worked far too long and hard to provide a future for him, and I’m not about to take this lying down.

Clara leaned forward. Then you are bound to lose him. Let him live his life and make his own mistakes. He will respect you for it. Otherwise, you are likely to drive a wedge between you and him for perpetuity, and I don’t want to suffer that broken relationship. For once, please consider others who are involved.

Charles Edmund was careful not to disclose to Sarah his father’s disdain for their relationship. He had hoped that once his father met Sarah he would see the same magnificent qualities that had won his own heart. He hinted at the prospect of marriage, but Sarah had no intention of making commitments so soon. She invited him to meet her parents during the spring break, which meant that they would be traveling from Boston to Providence by train, splitting the week between their two families.

By the time spring break arrived, Clara had persuaded her husband to give Sarah the benefit of the doubt. However, his hope was that by giving Edmund enough slack he would change his mind about leaving Boston, and he had every intention of persuading Sarah to move to Boston if they married. The introductions were pleasant. Sarah was five feet tall, petite, blonde haired, and blue eyed. Her stylish clothing spoke to her father’s success. She was an only child and obviously spoiled to the hilt. However, she was pleasant, and Clara found her to be delightful.

As much as Charles tried to sell Sarah on Boston, she equally resisted by explaining her father’s prominence in Providence. He was well known and favored by politicians and bankers. His realm of influence in finance was second to none, and Sarah enjoyed the prestige of the King family. Although she didn’t come right out and say it, she made it apparent that the Kings could buy out the Freemans at least two times over. This didn’t settle well with Charles. By mid-week, he had forsaken his benevolence and much to Clara’s chagrin, he voiced his disapproval to Edmund in private.

Edmund, I’m afraid you are making a terrible mistake. You have no idea what you are in for with Sarah. She is obviously very spoiled, and keeping her happy will be your worst failure that causes you to live in misery for the rest of your life with her. Please, don’t rush into a marriage proposal. Give it a few years, and I’m sure you will learn that I am right about her.

Father, just because her family is well off doesn’t mean she is spoiled. Besides, as her husband I would give her wishes priority over mine in any matter. She isn’t as difficult as you portray her. I can understand your concerns because I’m more like mother than I am you. Mother always kowtows to you. I often wonder who the real spoiled person is.

The departure of Edmund and Sarah for Providence was civil, but restrained. Clara shed a tear knowing that she was about to lose her son to the King family after he graduated college. Once Edmund and Sarah had settled into their seats on the train, she could