Smack! The slam of the front screen door of the Henderson house was a very reoccurring noise at the end of Nantucket Lane. Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Henderson and her overly dramatic younger brother Trevor were always bursting in and out of that screen door to race off to meet up with their neighborhood friends. Trevor is eleven years old and insists on lingering around with Elizabeth and her crew. That poor screen door though. If it could talk it would probably be throwing out some curse words.
This forceful breakout of the house was different though. It was officially summer break! The last day of school was today, and the kids had just gotten home. They weren’t in the house even five minutes before dropping their book bags and lunch bags to turn and belt out that door. They took off running to the popular spot to meet up with their friends like they discussed on the school bus. The stop sign at the corner of Nantucket Lane and Black Crow Lane.
When Elizabeth and Trevor arrived at the crooked stop sign on the corner, they saw that Logan McGuire had beat them there. Logan was one of Elizabeth’s childhood best friends. Their mothers were best friends and had been since they were in the third grade. So, Logan was like the “cool” brother she never got. She had been given Trevor’s annoying self. Logan was a year older than Elizabeth at fifteen years old and was obsessed with learning to drive. He talked about his dream cars nonstop.
A few minutes go by and the three catch their breath from running to the meeting spot in humid 88-degree weather. Sweat was rolling down all their foreheads. Faces flushed with red.
“Mila!” Elizabeth yelled excitedly. Mila moved to the area just about two years ago and her and Elizabeth clicked immediately. Same age and even the same birthday! So, they like to say their friendship was meant to be. Friends forever. Also, a certain “little brother” just so happens to have his first crush on Mila. That’s probably why Trevor follows them around honestly. It’s all about being around Mila.
Mila got to the stop sign out of breath and pulling her thick, strawberry blonde hair up in a messy, sweaty bun. Finally, they were all there and started going over plans on what should be the very first thing they do to start off their summer break.
“How about we paint out names on that huge concrete wall near the park!” Trevor blurted out thinking he would sound like some rebel or something. He hoped to impress Mila even though he knew he was way too young for her, but he liked the idea of getting her attention.
“Oh yeah! Let’s do that! Let’s have our names plastered all over for the police to see THAT! Idiot!” Elizabeth sassed back while rolling her eyes toward her brother.
They went back and forth on ideas. Maybe go to the creek area not far away and clear an area by the bank where they could fish and have a new more secretive meeting spot. Maybe jump in the huge pond in their full clothes they wore on their last day of school. Nothing seemed to really spark anyone’s interest to the fullest. Logan mentioned four-wheeling at his grandparents that was like a 20-minute walk from their neighborhood, but Mila was NOT down with that. That was the difference between Mila and Elizabeth. They were so much alike, but Elizabeth was more of a dare devil and Mila feared her own shadow.
Moments more go by and Trevor decided to try again on looking like a “cool” kid. He kicked a small rock around, took a deep breath and said it. He couldn’t believe he was even considering this because he himself didn’t know if he really wanted to do this. He was determined to prove he was worthy of hanging out with though, so he spit it out.
“Why don’t we go checkout the abandoned Black Crow Manor house!” He did it. He said it. He wanted to take it right back because of the horrifying stories that go around about that place. Trevor looked at the other three and all he saw was stone cold faces. No emotion. No reaction. Silence. They were all in disbelief and started looking at one another.
Logan finally was the one to speak up and break the awkward silence.
“Well, you know I have always wondered about that place. All the stories about it and it’s not far. Every time my parents and I ride by the entrance to the property we bring up how neat it would be to really see what the place is like, but I get lectured on trespassing, “ Logan said as he wiped his sweaty forehead again.
“Oh my gosh! No! I am NOT going near that cursed place!” Mila said all worked up and shaking her head side to side.
“Well, we could just sneak up the long driveway and go up to it and maybe look through some of the windows and not actually go inside, “ Elizabeth tried persuading.
“Come on Mila. We can all just stay together, and we won’t go in the house but just like Elizabeth said we can look through windows,” Logan added on to Elizabeth’s persuasion.
Trevor was thinking how it seemed he finally had a cool idea and it seemed like just maybe he wouldn’t seem like the dweeb that just tags along anymore. They all looked at one another and were waiting for Mila’s decision. She rolled her eyes and sighed. She ended up giving in to the others if nobody went inside that place. They all made a pact that nobody would venture off or go inside.
Everyone in this little town of Middleton, Virginia has talked about that house for decades. So many stories swarm the area about it. Some may be true, some half true and some most likely were complete lies to just scare people. It’s like some people loved the thrill of the wicked stories possibly being true so they kept adding on to them until they started completely believing them themselves. Every town has a house that locals obsess over and, in this town, it was the Black Crow Manor.
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