The Curse of the Berinstein Manor, Forest Ostrander [beach books TXT] 📗

in the future! There is no escaping it! You all will suffer the same fate I was dealt!” Then the old man was hanged. Years have gone and the manor still remains vacant, those who have not gone near the house have passed on their story to the next generation and they passed it down until all have abandoned the house all together. It is still rumored that to this very day, the tormented soul of the sorcerer still roams the house and the spell is still clinging to the land, waiting for its next victim to once more walk into the trap.

I couldn’t believe what I had read, there was no way this passage was true. Closing the book and putting it away I flipped open my laptop and google’d spells and curses, finding out that the curses lasted longer than the spells I was instantly amazed that such a man would do such a thing all to exact revenge on the towns people. Wow, to do such a thing in anger must really have caused a lot of torment on the soul, no wonder he is still wondering around if the passage was true I thought. I wonder how I would have reacted if people thought me to be a witch? Would I have done the same thing? I knew the answer, I would indeed have done what George had and that scared me. Realizing that such a thing would be what I would do made me wonder what other things the human mind could be capable off all to get back at someone for what they had done. Closing down my laptop I sat there in silence, I couldn’t help but toy with the thought of getting the good scoop on something as amazing as this and creating a story out of it to wanting to believe the passage was true and taking into consideration the warnings both grandma and James had told me about. Could I really get passed such a spell to even get close enough to finding the truth? I knew that a part of me wanted to go explore the house despite the warnings and though that may make me sound utterly stupid I still couldn’t deny the fact that the human curiosity just wouldn’t be laid to rest until the source of that curiosity was proven to be false or true. I wonder if I could get someone to go with me? If I did could I face up to the fact that both of us could be ensnared in the curse? I decided to not enact on the thought…yet.

Unable to go back to sleep I decided to look up more about James’s background to see what it was about the boy that made me want to trust him but also fear him at the same time and if I should even toy with the notion of possibly falling for him. Our kiss in the janitors closest suggested that there was potentially something there between us but I didn’t want to get mixed up in something that could possibly be detrimental to my safety. Quickly finding the thing I was searching for I was shocked at what was being displayed before me. He has a fucking police record?! I continued to read on.

James Hemington.

Age: 20

Birthday: June 4th, 1994.

Parents: June and Brad Hemington.

Address: 52, Lunar Ave.

Sex: Male

Race: White

Case number: 024533806Date: 13 August 2000Reporting Officer: Deputy HermanPrepared by: CPL Mahogany Incident Type: Suspected Murder Address of Occurrence: 52, Lunar Ave. New York, NY 24312 Witnesses: Ilene June: Mother of deceased. Female, 44, White Marcus Tango: Neighbor. Male, 34, Latino Jenny Coax: Neighbor. Female, 23, African American Evidence: Foot prints around the scene (Size 11 found in the rug) Finger prints (taken from glass) Video camera taken from the scene Weapons/Objects used: No weapons found but suspected to have lured out of the house and killed her else ware.On August 13, 2000, at approximately 12:12, victim is reported missing upon mysterious sound in the room. The victim has recorded a boy matching our description being in the same room of the victim before she went missing. Ilene June had called the police reporting her daughter, Alex June, missing when she had gotten to her room."I always check on her," she reported. "She has a disability that prevents her from breathing well at night." The boy in the video taken from the scene looked to be no older than a simple pre-teen that the girl had hidden in her room the night of her disappearance.After luring the victim out of the house, the suspect is believed to have lured her to a secluded spot and killed her. The two neighbors Marcus Tango and Jenny Coax seen the two pre-teens sneaking away in the middle of the night to the woods. The boy was described to be tall and skinny, only towering over the girl by a mere few inches. He was described to have semi-long hair, about mid-way to the neck.Deputy Herman arrived a few minutes after the distress call at 24:01, responding to Ilene June's 911 call and proceeded to view the tape on the video camera. Deputy Herman noticed the boy had a glass in his hand filled with some kind of juice; fingerprints were taken from the glass and sent to forensics. Close inspection of the footprint in the mud showed the boy wore a size 11 Nike Airs, which is consistent with the footage on the camera.I was completely taken off guard, James was prosecuted for murder? And not once either, there were reports on him leading all the way up to present time today. How could a boy that nice have a record such as this? I wondered. Even though I felt guilty for barging in on James’s personal life, I was actually happy that I did."Now why would James hide such a thing from me? And if he was really behind all of these girls’ disappearance then why did he feverously warn me to stay away from Alexander? Could Alexander be in on it as well and James doesn't want me to investigate him in case he told me more? Could they have been criminal allies? If I remained being around them would I too come up missing like these girls? I was totally lost in my thoughts on my recent findings and I doubted whether or not I should continue trusting these boys or not, especially James.Picking up my phone, I texted Crystal:Are you awake? I asked and waited for a while, my phone buzzed a little bit afterwards.Yes, what's up? She replied.Can I call you? I need to talk to you pronto about something.Sure, she said and I dialed her number; she answered on the second ring."What's up Forest?""I was wondering, if you found out that a guy you really like has a police record for missing girls, what would you do?" I asked quietly so I wouldn't wake up my grandma who was in the other room beside mine."Well, that all depends. How bad is the report?" She asked."It goes back until middle school. Supposedly he has been arrested for supposed murder of over 20 girls. I also think he might have had an accomplice as well. What should I do?" I asked."Well, I for one would not remain with him at all, and if he has an accomplice, find out who it is and avoided them as well. The last thing you need to do is come up missing because you were mingling with the wrong kind of people." I smiled, Crystal always knew the best things to say to calm me down some and I felt much better talking to her."Thanks Crissy, by the way, how are the others?" I asked."Oh, they are not taking your departure so well. A lot of them have separated from the group, they said with you no longer with them, their whole meaning of staying with the group has gone. They only remained in the group because they respected you and loved following you, now that you have gone they felt lost and have left." I frowned, this was not good news at all, the new people who have joined the group were people who had suffered through all kinds of problems and I was the only one keeping them from committing suicide."Have you kept in touch with them?" I asked hoping as my advisor in the group she would be able to seeing as how I couldn't get the time to get their numbers myself."I was only able to talk to one of them, I don't know what happened to the others or if they are even still alive. I tried for three whole days to get ahold of them but they just wouldn't answer their cell or house phones." That didn't sound too good at all, if they weren't answering any kind of phone meant that they either A.) Were dead or B.) Didn’t feel like talking at all and I had hoped it was option B."I'm so sorry Crissy. I didn't want to leave you guys, I swear I didn't.""I know Forest, but it couldn't be helped. The most important thing though is that you keep remaining our friend, I'm sure with that much in our lives the distance between us would be ok.""Oh I could never not be your friend, it would kill me to not be friends with anyone of you. We have been through so much together that it would be like ripping out my own heart and stomping on it till it was flat like a pancake." I heard her chuckle slightly which brought a smile to my face."I love your metaphors Forest, they're so funny at times.""Always here to please you," I said laughing a bit."Well, I best be heading off to bed before mom and dad find out I'm still awake.""Ya, the same goes with me too, grandma would kill me if she found out I was on the phone this late. Talk to you tomorrow?""Ok, till then good night!""Good night Crissy," I said and we both hung up and true to my word I went right back to sleep.

Chapter 5: I was never good at being quiet

When morning came, I decided that today I would dress like I always had back at my old school. I hated putting on the makeup yeasterday so today it was time to spice things up a bit. This time instead of wearing jeans I slipped on my brown swearpants which were absolutly comfertable, they were so soft on both the inside and outside and I had to restrain myself from petting them constently, next came my most favorite shirt, it was of a wolf back with the words: Down To Earth printed across the chest area, next came my very fluffy brown sweatshirt which had a wolf print on the left side of my breasts. After I was dressed, I applied some deoderant and brushed my teeth and hair after washing my face, soon I was comeplety ready for school looking like I usually always did, screw all that fancying up, I only did that on my very first day of school becasue grandma likes my pictures to look good,