Tales From The Edge Of Reality Read online

  Tales from the Edge of Reality is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2021 JM Jordan. All rights reserved.

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63760-040-5

  www.JMJordan.org

  Map of downtown LaFollette.

  Table of Contents

  Peggy Jean

  Monster under my bed

  The Adro Hotel

  No More, No Less

  Origins

  Saturdays

  Ride and Die

  Djinn

  The Costume Contest

  Long Night

  The Patient

  Peggy Jean

  The LaFollette area has a strange history of violence and haunted activity. The area from LaFollette Middle School to what is now IGA, East to West, and Ivydale to High Knob, North to South seem to be the approximate borders of this strange behavior. The middle of the square seems to see the most intense activity, the very center, from the old LaFollette Post Office to the LaFollette House, LaFollette Utilities to Indiana Avenue Church outlines this area of often violent and inexplicable behavior.

  It is with this in mind we begin our tale from LaFollette's history. Is it legend or truth? We may never know. We only know the tale Peggy Hoskins told in the early morning hours of November 1, 1955 at the LaFollette Police Headquarters.

  Statement from Peggy Hoskins 1st Nov 1955. Interview conducted by Detective Dan Chambers.

  Chambers: Ms. Hoskins, please state your full name and date of birth as well as the full names of the parties in your retelling of events.

  Hoskins: Peggy Jean Hoskins, August 18th, 1935.

  Chambers: In your own words, tell us what happened tonight prior to Patrolman Watkins finding you in the middle of Central Avenue on the Viaduct Bridge.

  Hoskins: At around 8:00 p.m., Charlie, that's Charlie Morris, picked me up at my house on West Walden. My little brother and I had just come in from tricks or treats. I took him around the neighborhood because Pa is on the road working. He drives a truck. Ma was tired and asked me to do it because she'd been on her feet all day at the store. She is a cashier at Shelby's Grocery. Anyways, Charlie got there right after me and Tim got home. Tim had a big sack full of candy and he gave Charlie some of it. Then Charlie and I left to pick up Doris and Alan.

  Chambers: State their full names please.

  Hoskins: Oh, oh yeah. You told me that, sorry, I'm just still shook up. Doris Williams and Alan Smith. They are dating, too, like Charlie and me. They were waiting at Alan's house. He lives on Iron Street. So we go there and pick them up, it's maybe 8:15 by now. We were going to a party on South Indiana. Barbara Saunders was hosting it. It was supposed to be the biggest costume party in LaFollette. Everyone from LHS who was anyone was coming. I was dressed as Stella and Charlie was dressed as Stanley, you know, from A Streetcar Named Desire. My folks didn't know I watched that movie, but I did. It was so marvelous. Anyways, we went to the party. We got there at about 8:25 maybe if I was guessing, because it took Doris and Alan a minute to come out and then it took a few minutes to drive there on account of it was raining and storming so bad.*

  *Chambers notes here that on October 31, 1955, the weather in LaFollette was dry and pleasant after a high of 60 degrees.

  Hoskins: We went to the party and everyone was having a good time. Mr. and Mrs. Saunders were at an adult Halloween party, so we kids had the house to ourselves. Barbara had the new Tony Bennett records, and everyone was having a good time. Charlie kept yelling “Stella” at me every time I was in a different room. He's a gas when he's playing a character like that. He was really into Stanley, Streetcar was just so cool. Anyways, the party was fun, even though Carl Redding was there acting like a big wheel. Just because his dad has money, he always acts like he's better than everyone else. He goes with Shelia Winters, she's gonna be prom queen this year, you can bet on that. But like I said, even with snobby Carl and perfect Shelia there acting better than the rest of us, it was a good time. We stayed til maybe 10:30. The rain had slowed down by then, so Carl said we should go and soap some windows or throw some eggs in town.

  I didn't want to do any of that, but he insisted, and Shelia kept saying we were just a bunch of wet ends if we didn't go too. Charlie was really into being Stanley and all and he's a bad boy in the movie so he decided he would go. That decided it for Alan, so me and Doris kinda had to go since we are their girls and rode with them and all. We get outside and Carl hands us two dozen eggs and some soap bars and says he will meet us on Central. We start down Indiana Avenue going real slow like and we toss a few eggs at some cars parked in the driveways there. At that house where the lady killed her daughter-in-law a couple years ago, Alan really splattered the front door with a few eggs. Then we park and sneak onto the porch of that big house where the LaFollette's lived, Glen Oaks I think it's called, and we soap up the windows real good. If you ask me they should thank us, they were real dirty.

  I looked back from the porch and see Carl and Shelia driving by, they hit Charlie's car with some eggs and started laughing as they drove away. Then it started thundering all of a sudden and there's some lightning and wind and it just starts pouring down rain. It's just soaking us. I hear a banging and the door of the house has blown open. About that time Alan runs inside and waves us in, so we kinda go in. I mean, we weren't gonna take anything and the door was wide open, so we figured we would wait out the storm. It's real dark in there so Doris finds this lamp on the table after lightning kinda lights up the room. She flips it on and it takes Charlie and Alan shoving to get the door shut in all that wind, but they finally bang it shut. So it's us in the house, and no sooner do they turn around to walk over and sit with Doris and me, the lights go out. It's super dark outside too, so we figure the storm knocked out the power. I'm glad it's back on now by the way, it was really weird in the dark in that house. I fell and knocked my head on something too I think, and I had a really weird dream.

  Chambers: A dream, Ms. Hoskins?

  Hoskins: Yeah, a dream, you know, it had to be. I don't know how long I was out or anything. Did Charlie call you guys and ask you to go find me? I'm not sure why he left me there asleep. Anyway, I remember us all sitting in the dark and Doris needed to go use the ladies. Been drinking a lot of punch you know. Plus the sound of all that rain gushing down outside, it just gives you that suggestion that you gotta go. So she and I went to find the bathroom while Charlie and Alan said they were gonna look for some candles. I guess it had stopped lightning bright by then. I could still hear some thunder, but the house was pitch black and wasn't lighting up anymore. I was walking along and could smell Doris' perfume, I remember that. But I stopped hearing her footsteps in front of me. I kinda whispered, “Doris,” but a loud whisper you know. I don't think she heard me. I heard a door slam above me, and my toe hit a step and I kinda fell frontwards on them and kinda hit my head a little. I was glad no one saw me falling like that; it would have been pretty funny to see I guess. I managed to crawl a few steps and get my feet under me. I heard some drawers rattling in what I guess was the kitchen, but it sounded really far away. It was a big house, I guess. I hadn't ever been in such a big one before to be honest. I got upstairs finally and was still calling out for Doris, but kinda not loud you know.

  She must not have heard me because she didn't answer. Those older houses have thick doors and walls, so I guess that was it. About then the lightning came back and flashed real bright. I was in a long corridor and there was a big window behind me and a bunch of doors on both sides of the hall. So I figured I'd try them to see if one
was Doris. I picked the one on the left and opened it. I called out to Doris but didn't get any answer, so I walked through it. I didn't know if it was a room or another hallway. The lightning flashed again and that's when I saw the little girl in the rocking chair holding the doll. At least I thought I did, but it flashed again real quick and it was just a doll in a rocking chair. I remember hearing a door scrape in the hall and turned around and went out of that room. I could hear talking down the hall on the right, like behind one of the doors. I thought Doris was maybe talking to me, thinking I was standing outside the door or something. I kinda laughed to myself and thought about how funny it was going to be to tell her I hadn't been there, and she'd just been chattering to herself the whole time.

  I guess I hadn't seen the hall as well as I thought from that other flash of lightning. I would have sworn the door on the right was no more than 10 feet down the hallway, but I walked along feeling for at least 30 steps before I found the door. I didn't even think the hall was 30 steps long, but maybe I was taking small steps because it was so pitch black. I hollered out to Charlie and Alan to see if they had found the candles, but they didn't answer me. It was roaring down rain at that point; the windows and roof were really noisy with it. I knocked on the door and called out to Doris, but she didn't answer me. I figured maybe she heard me walk up and realized she'd been talking to herself and was embarrassed. The door creaked open, though, and I felt my way in. I had my right hand on the wall and followed the wall for maybe 10 more steps. This was either a giant bathroom or more likely another hallway. A house that big has lots of hallways. I wasn't sure where the bathroom was or Doris, but figured maybe she was lost too, so I kinda stage whispered her name again. It's odd, but it didn't seem like a good idea to shout in the house all of a sudden. I can't explain it, because I'd just yelled for Charlie and Alan and didn't feel that way then.

  Anyway, this weird hallway just kept going, I mean it seemed like I walked 100 steps or more down it. I didn't realize that house was so big. I guess just seeing it back in the trees off the road you can't tell about it. I was feeling along for doors and doorknobs but not finding any. Finally, after I walked for a minute a flickering light framed the top and bottom edge of a door. Like someone had lit a candle. So, I figured Doris had found the bathroom and it had some candles in it. It was odd, though. I could tell by the light it was behind a door, but it didn't bleed out into the hallway. It was still black as midnight where I was standing. I walked towards it and it seemed to take forever to get there but I finally did. I went to knock on the door, and it was all of a sudden really, really cold. I mean it made my face sting, like being outside on a winter day. Before my knuckles could touch it, the door opened. The light wasn't a candle at all, this was a big room and very far on the other side of it, maybe 100 feet away, there was a fire in a fireplace. I know you must think I'm being crazy because the house can't be that big, but I'm telling you, that room was at least 100 feet across. I called out to Doris again, but it was a whisper. It was so cold I couldn't get much air out. It was like my vocal cords were literally freezing.

  I walked on deeper into the room, and it was just dim in there. Like the fire was putting out light but not as much as it should and not way back where I was. There was an outline of a rocking chair just to the right of the fire. I could only see its shape from behind; the dim light was visible between the slats. There was a muffled slam behind me just about then. I think it must have been some weird effect from the thunder outside. I looked back and the rocking chair had started moving, slowly rocking back and forth. The light through the slats was blocked out now, like someone was sitting in it. I managed to whisper out “hello” to them, but I didn't get much sound out. The chair just kept on rocking and I kept walking towards it. I would have sworn I'd been walking for a while and should have been there, but I was only halfway across the room by then. The wind must have gotten really crazy outside then because the fire just made a whoomping sound and it went completely out. I heard the rocking chair start rocking faster, like maybe whoever was sitting in it had just gotten up. I heard the floor creak from someone taking steps. I know it's silly, but I got spooked about that time. So I turned around to get out of the room and I'm not going to act brave, I planned on running. As soon as I turned around and tried to run, I tripped and fell and slid forward maybe five feet. No more than that, I promise. There was a loud slamming noise behind me, and I rolled over and looked. I was back in the hall and the light was back along the top and bottom of the door. I know I'd walked at least 50 feet into that room, maybe even more, but I somehow ended up outside of it when I fell. I maybe blacked out with fear or the cold got to me I guess. I just wanted to get out of that black hallway and find Doris, Alan or Charlie or just find the front door again. I wanted out.

  I felt my way back along the really long hall, but somehow it wasn't very long. I got back to the door I had found that I thought was a bathroom in just a few steps. I knew I'd picked the door on the right into here, so I knew I had to turn left and I'd be going right back to the stairs I'd kinda half crawled up earlier. So I turn right thinking I am maybe 20 feet from the top of the stairs at most. I feel along with my feet because it's still really, really dark and I don't want to tumble down the steps. By this time I'm pretty scared, so I yell out for Charlie. I don't know how to explain it, but the yell kinda didn't go anywhere. I know it sounds completely crazy, but it didn't echo in the entryway like it should have or anything. I couldn't even hear the rain anymore. What I did hear was a scratchy old Victrola like my grandmother has in her den. It was like some kind of low music, like it was being played too slowly. Something from a carnival with low vocal moaning is the only way I can describe it. I figured that had to be Doris, Charlie or Alan, that they'd found a crank Victrola that wouldn't wind up well anymore.

  I followed that sound and came to a doorway again. It had that funny light framing it like the other one. I didn't like that at all, but I didn't have any choice. I'd walked towards what should have been stairs but only found this. I guess I was turned around worse than I thought. I could hear low murmuring behind this door and some giggles, like a little kid was in there. I reached down and turned the knob, and it was very cold. It burned my hand pretty badly.*

  *Chambers notes here that there is no sign of a burn on Hoskins' palm even though she holds it up to him as if she is showing him the burn.

  I jerked my hand off it and the door pulled open really fast, like someone jerked it from the inside. I could feel the air whip around me that pulled into the room. There were dolls all over this room and low burning oil lamps hung on the walls. There was an older woman and two little girls in there. No one was around the door to have pulled it. The old woman appeared to be listening to the Victrola even though the sounds coming out of it were....warped...they sounded like the record was warped and scratched. The little girls were dressed in white dresses like my grandmother in her pictures from when she was a little girl around 1900. They were playing with cracked porcelain dolls that didn't have eyes. It was like deep black holes where the eyes should have been. They weren't looking up at me, just looking down at the dolls and dancing them around the room. The woman was rocking and mumbling. Her back was to me but she had dingy silver hair up in a bun. I could see her fingers curled on the arms of the rocking chair. They were long, pale and wrinkly with sharp nails.

  One of the little girls said, “Grandma, did you hear it, the door opened by itself,” and she said, “Yes deary, we have visitors again after all this time.” I said “hello” to them, but they didn't acknowledge me at all. I walked into the room further without meaning to do it. I know how that must sound, but my feet were just going forward on their own. Then one of the little girls said “Grandma, can we play with them?” and the old woman said, “Yes my dears, you may.” The little girls started giggling again. I couldn't do anything but watch at this point.

  The girls dragged a perfect replica of the house out of the corner. It even had the ir
on lamp posts and the big oaks that gave Glen Oaks its name. They had a toy car and they rolled it up in front of the house and took four dolls out of it. Two boys and two girls. They took three of the dolls, two boys and one girl, and put little nooses around their necks and they hanged them from the tree out in front of the house. The final girl they put in the house and slammed the door and laughed. This was the strangest thing I'd ever seen. The music on the Victrola sped up and grandma started laughing too. Then she stood up and the girls perked up. I hadn't seen them clearly from the front yet, but I finally did now. They all had black eyes like the dolls. Black like the black in the dark hallways I'd been in, where no light can penetrate. Cold came off them in a wave and I was shivering. The older lady's jaw dropped askew, like it was near on to breaking off and her crackling voice came out, “Welcome to Glen Oaks young miss. Please accept our hospitality on this stormy night. You and your friends washed our windows for us, so we have paid you back for the service. You may rest easy now, deary.”

  Then I woke up on the couch downstairs. I guess I'd fallen asleep when we came in and had that crazy dream. I could see the streetlights out the windows. I got up and walked to the door and looked out and found the car was gone. That's why I told you that Charlie left me for some reason. I noticed it had stopped raining, so I figured I'd walk home. It wasn't that far. I was standing on the Viaduct Bridge when your patrolman picked me up. I'm not sure why he brought me here instead of home. Am I in trouble for trespassing or something?