Eleanor's Spooky Story
| Eleanor's Spooky Story Worn Unique |
| Eleanor's phantom email story. |
| Used in "Spooky Stories of Solomon Island" |
Used for the mission Spooky Stories of Solomon Island, but given as a reward from the mission The Lantern Man
Transcript
The Dufresne boy was here earlier. Dropping off the newspaper, he claimed, but he normally doesn't linger around.
I invited him in, and he clearly wanted to ask me something. I thought it might be something about Ed so I tried to put his mind at ease by offering him tea and candy. That just made him more nervous.
Eventually, he told me what he wanted. A ghost story. One about Solomon Island. This mansion has plenty of ghosts, but those stories are a little too personal to be shared.
But I do remember one story that would probably work well in his book. It took place over a long time ago. And like all good stories, it starts with love.
- Eleanor Franklin
The proposal had been accepted and the families were in agreement - that spring Samuel Towne was to marry Scarlet Piedmont. It was no surprise to anybody else on Solomon Island, the two families had held neighbouring farms for decades and sweet Scarlet and strapping young Samuel had been walking out together for months.
Solomon Priest was going to officiate and all over the island, as the snows and darkness of winter set in, men began carving furniture for wedding gives and women began sewing dresses to wear to the celebration. A wedding in spring was always a good omen for the year.
Samual felt like a blessed man. His world overflowed with happiness. Everywhere he went, he was greeted with smiles and congratulations. And Scarlet, beautiful Scarlet was everything he could hope for. She made him happy, and he hoped that he could do the same for her.
But then the pox came to Solomon Island. It was winter, and most people were locked up tight in their houses. Still it seemed to spread, through closed doors and solid walls. People began to whisper about a black rider who trotted along the snowy streets, throwing handfuls of plague dust into chimneys.
But that is another story and needn't concern this one.
By the by, Scarlet got the pox. Her beautiful skin became covered in lumps. Her face became a ruin, her eye sockets swollen and her mouth torn apart by the angry pustules which seemed to spring from every pore. And yet, she recovered from the disease, scarred and disfigured, but still alive.
And she was still engaged to be wed in the spring. She demanded that her parents keep her betrothed away, lest he catch sight of her.
Samual beat at their door day and night, demanding to see his beloved. But they turned him away, pleading more time for Scarlet to recover from her illness.
As the winter passed, she sought out all manner of cures for her disfigurements, sending to New York for medical advice. She nearly beggared her father buying fake cures from every snake oil salesman and charlatan that passed by.
In the end, she grew desperate, and sought out the local shaman. The Wabanaki had been devastated by the smallpox and she came to visit this shaman in the ruins of what had once been a great settlement.
Among the ruins of his people she asked if he could cure her beauty. He gestured to the piles of rotting corpses that had once been his tribe.
"My sons will never hunt again and my daughters will never sing by the campfire at night. My grandchildren will never laugh and run. And you ask only for beauty? Are you not happy with your life?"
"My beauty is my life" Scarlet replied quite earnestly. "I would gladly pay any price to make my skin smooth again."
The Shaman gave Scarlet a small flask and told her to rub the liquid within onto her skin. She would get what she wished for. She left him to his grieving. That night, she heated snow in a giant iron pot and poured a bath.
She washed herself thoroughly and then uncapped the flask and rubbed it into her skin. She started with her arms, her breasts and then her face.
A tingling warmth began to radiate from the places where she had rubbed the ointment. Using a cloth, she rubbed at the skin of her arms, and the pox scarred skin sloughed away, revealing a layer of shining new skin beneath.
Scarlet began to cry, great sobs of joy which shook her entire being. She cried out to her mother and father who came rushing into the room.
"Look at me!" She cried. "I am beautiful!"
Her mother screamed and covered her eyes. Her father, hand trembling pointed towards the large full length mirror in the corner and Scarlet turned to look.
Scarlet had become scarlet in truth. The acid in the flask had eaten away the skin from her arms and chest and her face, her once beautiful face was melting into ruinous goo.
She screamed and fled the house, into the night. Later, they followed her trail. The pitter patter of her blood on the snow led them into the Moon Bog, a treacherous place to walk at any time of the year. They followed her trail right up until the point where the ice was cracked, as if something heavy had fallen through. After that, there was no trail to follow.
The community was devastated and a memorial was held. Solomon Priest himself said a few words. But Samuel Towne wasn't buying any of it. He didn't believe she was dead, how could she be? After all, she spoke to him every night! She would come, just outside his window and talk to him through a crack in the curtains. He knew her voice even though he never saw her face, he knew it was his beloved Scarlet.
Samuel became a shut-in, never leaving his room. He grew pale and drawn and his parents worried about him.
Abruptly, a week before the date originally scheduled for the wedding, Samuel began to return to his old self. He gathered flowers in the fields, ate heartily and joked with his family and even washed and pressed his old suit.
On what would have been the night of the wedding, he retired to his bedroom early. His parents, relieved by the apparent change of the past week, were happy to let him go.
In the night, they heard the door of the house open, and came downstairs to see Samuel, back towards them, walking off into the Moon Bog with a lantern held high. He did not turn back when they cried out after him.
And when they returned to his room, they found his eyeballs, tongue and the skin of his face lumped in a bloody mess on the floor.
It is said that he never found her, out there among the pools of the Moon Bog. But that he looks still, searching by the light of his lantern for the face of the women he loved.
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