Ella drove most of the day with a smile on her face. By the time she navigated her way to Cloosh Valley forest and down the many narrow dirt roads to find the house, it was dark and she was tired. She parked up and stretched in the car with groggy pleasure to be at her destination at last. Her reprieve was short as she saw a figure coming towards the car with their torch light on and their face like thunder. A man who had oddly decided to stand out in the rain rather than inside the house for long enough to be drenched from head to toe tapped on her window.
“Are you Ella Murphy?” The fact the guy knew her name told her that he must have been the one Drake had told to hand over the key to her upon arrival. So she nodded with a smile and opened her car door.
“Yes, but Ella is fine.” She didn’t get out the car just yet as it was raining. “My umbrella is in the boot. Shall I meet you inside or-”
“God no. Here’s the key.” He shoved it onto her lap and marched over to a jeep to make a quick escape.
“Hang on!” Ella scrambled out of the car, the key falling to the seat beside her, and shrugged her coat up over her head as a make shift rain cover. “Wait a minute!” She got to the jeep in time for him to shut the door and start his engine. “Do you work for Drake? Or Carlton? Are you coming back tomorrow?” He did a double take and then lowered the window enough to talk to her.
“Lady? I’m driving the hell away from this place and never coming back so long as I breathe. If you had any common sense? You’d do the same.”
“What? Why?” Ella was baffled by his skittish behaviour. He was a tall strong looking guy, but he also looked really pale. Her blue eyes landed on something on his neck as he fussed with it and darted his own gaze nervously around them. “Are you hurt?” She nodded to what looked like scratches, but he pulled his collar up higher and shook his head at her.
“Nothing distance and a good whiskey can’t fix. I’m gone. Good luck. You’re going to need it.”
Just like that he drove away and left Ella stood in the rain, in the dark, in the middle of the forest, with chills running down her spine. This realisation made her skin ripple with goosebumps and she decided to get back in her car for a moment. With the doors locked. And the lights on.
That guy was really scared. He said I should leave. But why? Ella retrieved the key he threw at her from the passenger seat and looked it over. It was an old looking iron key. Rusted and with really old engravings around the bulbous handle. She smiled at the shamrock embossed there. It made her think of her grandmother, rest her soul, and all the lucky charms and knickknacks she used to have around her home. Old Nanny Fern had been very proud of her Irish heritage. She used to tell the most wonderful and fantastic bedtime stories of fairies and dragons. Ella missed her and chuckled as she imagined what her Nanny would say if she saw her now. You’d tell me that I should get out of the rain, set up base camp, and check out the kitchen first. As long as the roof doesn’t have any holes in it, I should be fine. I have a key, so the doors lock. Ella cast a final wary glance behind her and after the long gone jeep. I wonder what had that guy so spooked?
Ella hurried to gather her suitcase and camping bag from the boot of the car. She was giggling at the tickling of rain trickling down her neck as she hurried up onto the wooden porch. She could smell moss and damp and imagined it was from the forest and the house in equal measure. Please don’t have a hole in the roof. Please? She begged and put her things down to manoeuvre the bulky key into the lock. It whined but with a heavy thunk it unlocked, so at least it worked.
“Yes.” She pushed the door open with her shoulder and shuffled in with her two large bags. Once inside Ella put them down on the floor, shut the door behind her and locked it. She got her torch out of her camping bag and located the back door to lock it as well. “That’s lucky. With a house this run down I was expecting the doors to be hanging off.” Ella was pleased to find that the foundations of the house had weathered time rather well. She swept the torch beam around the house to briefly examine what she had to work with. Once upon a time this was probably a hunting lodge of some sort. Or the home of a hunter at least. Thick dark wood floors and walls with a second floor, which again, Ella was not expecting. She saw faded circles on the walls where picture frames used to be, and scuff marks from the previous owner’s furniture. It was pretty bare as she walked around. The kitchen had an old-fashioned stove where she’d have to burn coal or wood to cook food or heat water. It even had an old fashioned black kettle and wooden utensils hung from a rack over it.
Ella saw no fridge or any electrical outlets to allow one to be plugged in. She hunted as much as she could in the dark with her torch and saw no pluck sockets. “Wow this place is dark ages. Are there any lights? Any electrical wiring at all?” Ella saw a massive part of her budget being swallowed up if the whole house would need an electrician to wire the whole place. If that would even be possible, living so far out in the forest. She sighed and returned to the empty living room. “It’s late, I’m tired, and I can explore and look at what needs restoring tomorrow in the light.” She put her torch in her mouth and heaved her bags up to make one trip upstairs. At least the stairs aren’t missing any steps. It hasn’t creaked more than a normal set of stairs so it doesn’t feel like my foot will go through at any moment. That’s a good sign.
Ella found that upstairs there were two unfurnished bedrooms, and one had an on suite! It was basic, but the sign that there was plumping made her more grateful than words could say. There was a toilet and an old fashioned copper bath. She didn’t care to investigate if it was hooked up to the plumping and functioned as a normal bath, or if it had to be filled up manually. Ella left that for tomorrow. Right now she washed her teeth and face, relieved herself and set up in the attached master bedroom. She rolled her sleeping bag out, wriggled down into it and set an alarm on her phone to wake her at 7am. Ella had a lot to do tomorrow. She’d do a full inspection and put together a list of priorities to make the house safe to sell and appealing to buyers. …re-wiring the place is a priority…this could be a summer vacation home or a creative recluse get away home…but not without wifi…
She sighed, happy to drift off to sleep and dream of rolling up her sleeves and making this shake a dream house.
Ella was blissfully unaware she was not alone.
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