It was one of those old Tudor style homes with an original facade dating back to the late 1500's. Done in darkly stained oak with white daubed paint to cover the wooden frame, it looked like an old English fairytale brought to life. On bright summer days you could easily picture fairies and the like fluttering about the extensive front garden.
The only thing to spoil the image was the thick iron fence all around the house and garden grounds. Though it was once painted bright white the paint was now little more than dots and splotches along poles that time and weather had warped to look more like tree branches than a border.
Someone had been keeping the house and gardens in perfect condition all the years it had stood for without being seen by a single living soul. There were no records anywhere of a caretaker or owner having ever been in charge of the property, only an official document somewhere in the council offices that stated the property wasn't open to the public and must remain undisturbed indefinitely.
The order was originally written in the late 1800's by a local lord who had been keen to ensure the house was in peak condition without having disclosed the source of the upkeep. Of course there were rumours of late night joggers (who are a naturally suspicious and eagle-eyed lot to begin with) who claimed to have seen eyes as big as their torso up in the apple trees inside the fence and hundreds of arms where branches should be but these are the kind of people who just so happen to stumble upon corpses regardless of their location.
The occasional trespasser is caught by the police before they can even enter the house and when confronted they always tell the same story. They saw candlelight through the windows and went to investigate - they were only making sure someone wasn't about to burn the old place down, honest!
When they got right up to the window where they'd seen the light coming from they saw a horribly broken and bent looking arm clutching an old candlestick close to a large bulbous head. If they made any sort of noise they'd say that the head snapped around revealing a face with no nose or mouth, only a pair of enormous baby blue eyes, all bloodshot and dry. The eyes would narrow and the thing would begin to crawl towards the window, dragging itself by countless stick thin arms with too many joints but the police would pull them away and out of the gate by the time the creature had begun to open the front door.
If they made no noise and continued to observe it they would see how it lovingly dusted each shelf, humming quietly as it moved small wooden figures about to clean them. Of course the police would grab them and haul them away eventually but they would always try to look back, each one of them seeing that large bulbous head peering out of the partially open front door looking utterly furious.
The one occasion where the creature was seen in its entirely occurred when a trespasser delayed the police removing them by faking a (very realistic) seizure. While it delayed them it meant that by the time they'd pulled the convulsing teenager to through the gate and locked it the creature was literally right behind them. It politely tapped its eight knuckled fingers along the bars impatiently, several dozen sets of arms crossed and torso indiscernible from the mass of limbs it possessed, looking the very picture of unamused and annoyed.
The only thing to spoil the image was the thick iron fence all around the house and garden grounds. Though it was once painted bright white the paint was now little more than dots and splotches along poles that time and weather had warped to look more like tree branches than a border.
Someone had been keeping the house and gardens in perfect condition all the years it had stood for without being seen by a single living soul. There were no records anywhere of a caretaker or owner having ever been in charge of the property, only an official document somewhere in the council offices that stated the property wasn't open to the public and must remain undisturbed indefinitely.
The order was originally written in the late 1800's by a local lord who had been keen to ensure the house was in peak condition without having disclosed the source of the upkeep. Of course there were rumours of late night joggers (who are a naturally suspicious and eagle-eyed lot to begin with) who claimed to have seen eyes as big as their torso up in the apple trees inside the fence and hundreds of arms where branches should be but these are the kind of people who just so happen to stumble upon corpses regardless of their location.
The occasional trespasser is caught by the police before they can even enter the house and when confronted they always tell the same story. They saw candlelight through the windows and went to investigate - they were only making sure someone wasn't about to burn the old place down, honest!
When they got right up to the window where they'd seen the light coming from they saw a horribly broken and bent looking arm clutching an old candlestick close to a large bulbous head. If they made any sort of noise they'd say that the head snapped around revealing a face with no nose or mouth, only a pair of enormous baby blue eyes, all bloodshot and dry. The eyes would narrow and the thing would begin to crawl towards the window, dragging itself by countless stick thin arms with too many joints but the police would pull them away and out of the gate by the time the creature had begun to open the front door.
If they made no noise and continued to observe it they would see how it lovingly dusted each shelf, humming quietly as it moved small wooden figures about to clean them. Of course the police would grab them and haul them away eventually but they would always try to look back, each one of them seeing that large bulbous head peering out of the partially open front door looking utterly furious.
The one occasion where the creature was seen in its entirely occurred when a trespasser delayed the police removing them by faking a (very realistic) seizure. While it delayed them it meant that by the time they'd pulled the convulsing teenager to through the gate and locked it the creature was literally right behind them. It politely tapped its eight knuckled fingers along the bars impatiently, several dozen sets of arms crossed and torso indiscernible from the mass of limbs it possessed, looking the very picture of unamused and annoyed.
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