THE SIREN IN THE SHED BEHIND THE HOUSE

The end is here,
dear reader...
Of my COUNTDOWN TO HORROR ZERO anthology experiment!

Three years and Seventy posted horror tales later...
Presenting the final Horror Zero tale:

THE SIREN IN THE SHED BEHIND THE HOUSE.


I hope you have enjoyed my unique brand of horror tales.
In this format, I decided to stay away from horror gore and hard sexuality.
This final tale needed to explore sex, just a little bit.
But The Countdown To Horror Zero is now finished.
Goodbye!

But, I am not going anywhere.
In fact,
Now I will turn my attention to my lifelong horror obsession.
That project is the continuation of my horror short story series... The Horrorwalker Travel Guide.

And, there is so much more horror stuff I am working on... every waking hour of every day.

Anyway,
Enjoy this last horror tale in this horror blog.

I hope to soon compile these tales into a paper book form and tour with it.
I will let you know my intentions, soon.

OK,
Take care of yourselves out there in the slippery dark world of horror fiction.
I will still see you every day in my other horror blogs.

Take care and thanks for three years of reading the horror I have written in this blog.
Thank you very much.


RLJ
Ronald Lee Jones

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Season 5, Episode 0)

THE SIREN IN THE SHED BEHIND THE HOUSE

(Fayetteville, N.C.)

(1)

My name is Mark Lee Jones. And, do I have a tale of the absurd for you to contemplate. I am making daily recordings all this madness into my diary/journal. It begins with...

...The paperwork for the transfer of the title of this house I now own was all completed weeks before I moved in on that 5th of January. My uncle Julius left his house, and the six acres of land it sits on, to me. I had met my father’s brother several times... decades ago, when I was a young kid. I clearly remember my father taking me to visit my uncle at this house several times all those years ago. I wish I had gotten to know my uncle better before he recently died of complications from what we were all told was a heart attack while he was convalescing in St. Mary’s Hospital for a deadly bout with the flu.

He was 96 years old!

I remember being allowed to play in the huge back yard flower garden during the few visits to this house back when I was a child. And I also remember approaching the tiny house sized shed just a ways from the back of the main house, attempting to open the rather large locked door with the strange words and stranger symbols carved into the black wood... and trying to peek into the heavily shaded windows... before finally deciding that chasing dragonflies among the flowers was much more interesting than some dumb old outhouse.

The thought of just who was maintaining all of these beautiful flowers and fruit trees, and the awesome landscaping, never crossed my mind.

My uncle Julius never married. He lived alone in this house and was very strict about entertaining visitors. Apparently, my dad was one of only a select few people he allowed on the grounds of his property. I did feel special, the fact that I got to visit him with my father. I felt very special, especially when my uncle would put his arms around me and whisper to me that one day I was going to meet someone very special. I always thought he was doing what most elder family members do to their younger relatives... project their desire to see us married off and having children.

And so, I did have some very good memories of uncle Julius. And as time passed until the present time, now we are all having to deal with the reality of death and property.

The family heads soon learned that uncle Julius left strict instructions with his lawyers that in case he ever died, for any reason, the front property gate was to be locked shut and his will was to be read within a one week period of time.

I did not take part in any of the legal workings of his funeral and his property finalizations. All that stuff was dealt with by the older relatives. I simply did what I was told to do, which was to hang back and make sure I show up for all the proceedings.

I must digress again, for a moment...

Dad raised me, for nine years, as a single father devoted to doing everything he could to make sure I started on a good path of life. He never talked much about my mother and how she died... I have always supposed that her death giving birth to me was simply too much for him to remember, other that a few times that he told me that she loved me very much.

We had each other, so the fact that I was an only child never really bothered me all that much. Dad kept plenty of books in the house and was always on the hunt for things for me to do. When he died, I went to stay with his older sister, Aunt Millie... and I have to admit, I had a blast living in her house with her and Uncle Max and their three older-than-me children. We all had some excellent times together... in home and at school and in the neighborhood.

So, I was the last kid in the house to graduated from high school. I graduated in the top percentile  of my class and went on to finish five years at North Carolina State University... to become a lifelong member of the Wolf Pack... five years of college, to earn a Masters degree in Education. I was fielding offers for jobs... for teaching jobs... across the state before I graduated.

Everybody in the immediate family was happy with my accomplishments. And then, only a week later, uncle Julius passes on.

Those were sad days for his brothers and sisters... but, there was an air of mystery over the funeral because of uncle Julius’ lifetime of secrecy. And so, immediately after the funeral ended, all of the adult family members were summoned to uncle Julius’ attorney’s office in Raleigh for the surprise reading of his will.

And as it turns out, really not too much of a surprise, Uncle Julius was loaded. His will stipulated that a large portion of the money he possessed would be equally distributed to his siblings. Other money and property matters were attended to... eventually coming ending in what to do with his huge house, and the land it sat upon, over by the university.

We were all shocked when the lawyer read the instructions left by Uncle Julius... his order for the home to be turned over to me... taxes paid up for the next twenty years. And, the Will stated, only I was to enter the house first... and that I was to spend one month in the home alone... and after I made my assessments, I could do whatever I wished to do with everything. But, I had to live ALONE in the house for a month.

And so, that was that!

So, I took the responsibility in stride. I moved all of my possessions from my apartment into the huge house. Over the course of three weekends, I moved all of my stuff by myself. I decided to go along with my uncles wishes in full force. He obviously liked me and wanted me to experience what he experienced in owning this house. But, to be sure, I had no intention of being a recluse.

I did everything I needed to do without missing one day of work time. And when I finally moved the last of my belongs into the six bedroom house, I was swiftly overcome by a feeling of peace and calm.

The next few days were spent exploring the house and its contents. Every room was furnished with up to date furniture. Every room was very clean and dust free. The pantry was filled with canned goods and the refrigerator was empty, and very clean, as I supposed it would be. The five bathrooms were all roomy, well stocked with toiletries  and the leak free faucets were perfect. I was having the time of my life exploring the house from the attic, with all of the great antiques up there, to the monstrous cave-like basement filled with all kinds of collectors stuff... including boxes of sorted and preserved very early comic books, early baseball trading cards in boxes and sleeves, all kinds of pristine toys and posters, art work, clean automotive parts, several very early pristinely preserved Indian Motocycles and so much more stuff to be sorted and cataloged.

The 6 vehicles in the garage on the side of the house is another matter entirely. I’m not a car guy, so I’ll look into them later.

Obviously, Uncle Julius knew these treasures were down in the basement, and up in the attic. Did he actually want me to have these items? Why was he so generous to me? Did my dad convince him that I would be a responsible caretaker of his items? I was slowly beginning to feel some heavy responsibility weighting down on my shoulders.

And then, on day 20 of going to work six days a week and living inside my Uncle’s home, I discovered the plain white envelope in the kitchen cabinet over the top of the pantry double doors. Written on the front of the letter size envelope was “Inside this envelope is the key to the shed out back behind the house. Enter through the door only when you are of clear mind. There begins the rest of your life. Your uncle, Julius.”

Well, OK then...

(2)

I held onto the envelope with the key inside of it for a week. The more I thought about the simple message on the envelope the more my mind made the words more ominous. Even though the shed out back behind the house belonged to me now, I was straight apprehensive about opening that door.

Oh, in the course of that week, I probably walked up to that door around ten times and stared at it for many long minutes. I placed both of my ears to that door several times only to hear silence, like I really expected to hear any sound at all. But, not knowing what was inside anyway, perhaps a sound was on the other side of the door that was muted by the thick wood. And as usual, the windows were so well tinted that I wasted moments trying to peer through the silvery surface.

And so, finally on the next Saturday night, after the sun had gone down and I was bored with what was on the TV, I grabbed the envelope off the kitchen counter, extracted the simple looking key and walked out the back door to confront my date with... destiny.

I took in a deep breath, of why I was filled with such angst and all I could not tell you, and by the light of the flood lights on both of the roof corners of the shed, I slid the key into the key slot. The lock turned with ease and the door silently opened on its well oiled hinges with as much ease. I took one step into the pitch darkness inside the room and I was inside. To the immediate right of me was a light switch... of which I reached over and flicked the switch up to turn in the interior lights to the shed.

What I saw inside took my mind and my body to a place I am still not prepared to exist from inside of, but I am there... and here... and I have to phase into a next chapter in a strange way to tell that part of my tale.

(3)

She was sitting in the chair beside the large table over by the kitchen nook area of the shed. Where she sat positioned her so that she could look directly at the door from which I had just entered. I was shocked to see this beautiful vision of a woman inside this room. I really expected the shed to be empty... or, to be filled with more of my uncle’s antique stuff.

I was instantly transfixed by her stare. The details of the interior of the shed did not matter to me because I was focused on her eyes. The bed, the book shelves, the candles, the television, and how everything was placed in the room did not matter to me. The only thing that mattered was the magnetic attraction that I had to her.

She stood up and raised her right hand to me. Her fingers were extended toward me, inviting me to her, silently calling me to her. I walked straight to within a couple of feet from her. And she did to me, what I later learned, what she had to do to me in order to make sure I was the one who was actually suppose to be there with her.

She touched my left temple with her right hand... and then I was suddenly in a other world nightmare.

I could not move. I could only watch, in a dream-like state of confusion, as this woman stripped me of my clothing. Within moments, I was standing there in the complete nude. My glazed over eyes followed her movements around my body, even though I could not move my head. I did not know why she was touching me here and there while lightly humming an intoxicating song that appeared to aid in her control of me.

Next thing I know, she has led me over to the bed on the other side of the room. She appeared to effortlessly lift me with her hands and place me gently onto the white quilt on the bed... on my back... head to the pillows. She then removed her wispy cottony white dress. I already knew she was nude underneath. And then she literally climbed onto me and took me sexually... that is the only way I can describe it. How she commanded me into an erection, in the state of fog she placed me into, was a mystery horror then, and still a mystery now.

The ecstacy was exquisite! Whatever her movements were, blended with her song, took me to a place of mind and body impossible for a human to go to without her taking me there. And even when she transformed her shape into something monstrous and alien, still gyrating on top of me while I was still inside of her, the horror of being ridden by... I cannot describe what I witnessed... her true self, a being that could only have been created by gods gone mad, I was still engulfed in her sex.

There was no panic in me. I still felt as though I was being loved by the woman I saw when I first entered the shed. And as she looked into my eyes with her six eyes, we orgasmed together... hard, long, painful, and soul melding... I put the essence of my soul inside of her and she did the same to me. And as we both came down to earth, within minutes later, she slowly morphed back into the lovely human vision I first saw when I entered the room.

She then climbed off of me and allowed me to move again. She walked over to her dress, slowly put it back on her beautiful body and then sat back down at the table and stared at me with a look in her eyes that told me I was accepted by her.

I, on the other hand, slowly slid off the bed and walked over to near where she was seated and began to put on my clothing. I did examine myself down there before I put on my boxers because we had created a lot of friction and sweat and other body fluids on that bed... and I felt nothing wet of sticky down there in my pubic area. I looked down and there was no evidence of our sexual encounter at all. There should have at least been semen all over my penis, but I was dry there. I simply shook off the questions inside my mind and continued to dress myself. And as I finished tying the last shoelace, I looked at her... and something in her demeanor and her eyes told me that it was time for me to leave, for tonight.

(4)

So now, weeks later after out first meeting, every time I cross over the threshold of the thick solid Oak door to the shed behind my house, I enter into a surreal living space that houses energy that is never touched by time. That energy is in the form of a woman so gorgeous she is nearly blinding in her physical beauty. And, as it turns out, she is actually something fantastical that the ancient gods of a time long past... from a land, perhaps, long lost... have abandoned to remain earthbound and subjected to dangers she never would have feared in those ancient times.

Her powers are in full effect... with a caveat, or two! She is still an immortal being, quite possibly, from the times of Ulysses’ famous treks. She appears to be a stunning, clear skinned, tan skinned, raven haired twenty-something year old woman of Mediterranean descent. She has told me that bacteria, viruses and parasites do not affect her. But, she is no longer invulnerable to severe physical attacks. She discovered, a few centuries ago, that she can be harmed... quite possibly killed... by extreme physical force, so she must be protected from modern traumas. And fire is feared by her because her skin burns like that of a normal human.

I’ll never let that happen!

In inheriting the property we are both standing in, I have inherited the vocation of being her sole protector... like my uncle was. I did not volunteer for this duty that takes up all of my free time, but here I am writing in my diary some of the serious points to being the keeper of secrets that could change the world, if I were to make a mistake and blabber about what lives in the shed behind my house.

(5)

Her name is Aglaope. She tells me, as far as she knows, she could be a thousands year old immortal creature of times she cannot remember anymore, even in her deepest dreams. The one thing about her physical body that is the most amazing to me is the fact that she never ages. How does that work? She has showed me the photos from as far back as the 19th century capturing the image of the same beautiful woman in my life today... looking just like she looked back then.

In reality, she is a creature in possession of the ability to change her form from what she presents to me on the usual basis... to a representation of what her true form obviously is. She has revealed her true self to me only the one time, soon after we first met. She says I needed to be convinced that she is what she says she is... and that image still occasionally haunts my nightmares.

She can change her form into other creatures, both mythical and real, but she prefers to remain the lovely vision I have really fallen in love with. Amazingly, she is now a creature of good... although, she remembers, she was not necessarily a benevolent being in the days when she was one of three evil ocean bound sisters who were charged with the powers to create deadly mayhem... and facilitate the deaths of many men in ships at sea.

That memory is actually strong in her mind.

That was then, she says, and today is today... a time when she laments her past evils. She has stated to me that the Gods of that time were real son’s of bitches who enjoyed tormenting their human subjects. Obviously, she was created as one of three daughters of destruction who were acting out the sick fantasies of one particular god... or, perhaps, several gods who had too much free time on their hands.

Regardless of all that hyperbole, she is now a gentle being who realizes there is not one reason for her to act out her original duties.

And she has accepted me as her next... companion, to call it what it really is.

(6)

When I visit the beautiful vision inside my shed behind my house, Aglaope reminds me that there are things about her nature that she cannot hide from me... or herself. One of those things is her raw sexuality. When I enter into the large living space inside the shed, she overpowers me with the ancient powers of her voice and her mind. To hear her speak is to hear the vocalizations of a perfect pitch,  goddess-like voice that easily, when ramped up to the ultimate extension of her ability, can absolutely wash out the free thoughts a man has in his mind and draw him to her like a moth to its death in an open flame. I know her power because I feel her power, even if she is not trying to make me her... mind slave.

Her voice cuts through me like a hot knife through warm butter... and I LOVE the feeling! I would kill for her when she sings to me.

She could murder me where I stand with but a flick of one hand. Her physical strength and powers are awesome. But, she allows me to feel her gentle hands upon my skin and I love how she makes me feel.

Her thick hair on her head naturally smells like lilacs in mid-spring as I run my fingers through it. Her piercing hazel colored eyes look directly inside my soul. Her perfect lips invite a kiss from me every time she whispers a word. Her neck invites kisses, her busty chest invites my hands to caress her there. Her flat stomach, her toned legs and her beautiful feet all invite me to desire her more. And her lightly browned skin is the perfect finishing touch to her perfection.

I do not care if she is altering herself into the image that she senses I desire the most.

She does not eat. She never drinks liquid. She is a self-contained entity who simply is... alive. The fact that her temperature is constantly a perfect 98.4 degrees proves even more that there are forces inside her that are beyond man’s comprehension.

And then there is the... raw goddess-like sex! I cannot resist her sexual advances.

(7)

It is like her sexuality is a driving force from deep inside the cells of her body. To be a man in her line of sight is to be an arrow shot straight into the center mark of her target. She was created to draw men to her... to their deaths. Now that she does not kill men with her sexual attraction, the logical conclusion is... men are still drawn to her like dead walking zombies, and she cannot turn off that power. She can control its intensity to a degree, but all men want her when they see her. She has told me many tales of horror about how she has had to deal with men, or groups of men, who have become obsessed to death with her... and the seekers of revenge from other men, and women, who have hunted her down like a mongrel dog that has bitten a child because of what men have done to other people in order to be with her.

She has learned over a lot of time that she MUST hide away from men. Everybody is in danger of going mad when she places herself in public circumstances. And all of that craziness is the reason she lives in this shed out behind my house.

She has sex with me, and so I am with her and of her. I have not experienced the psychotic withdrawal from her absence because we are sexually active and as long as that occurs I will not fall to the obsession from her powers.  Men who have not had sex with her go insane over time because they cannot have her. It is all as simple as that. And, she tells me that she does not desire to have sex with every man she meets!

As other things have turned out, I have learned that I am the fifth caretaker of her gifts. I have learned this information by reading through Uncle Julius’s papers... and by the sweet voice of Aglaope. I have also learned that my father was supposed to take his ten years older brother’s place as the caretaker of this house... until they learned of my father’s own illness. It was only logical that the two brothers concocted this plan for the rest of my life.

And so, I am now the 32 year old lover and the protector of a human-like creature who just might be a powerful daughter of ancient gods. I am the owner of this huge gated property that is filled to the brim with secrets after secrets... including hoards of modern money and a treasure grove of  ancient gold ingots hidden throughout the house. There, along with all the stuff in the attic and the basement, is found some of the reasons why my uncle never lacked for money.

I still have yet to explore the “other” bank account information he has left for me to take care of. There is a lot of money in about 8 separate bank accounts.

And as for my new life as the caretaker, or hopefully friend with the ultimate benefit, of the feminine impossible... well, there she is right there in the shed behind the house. I have only spent a few months of my life with her as of now. It is obvious to me that I have a lot to learn about our relationship. Basically, I talk to her, spend quality time with her, purchase her books and music and video entertainment, listen to her educate me about the long and harrowing life she has lead... and simply enjoy her.

How am I going to feel about this relationship one year from today?

Obviously, Uncle Julius took care of her for a very long time... until he died. And obviously, she outlived him... and so, will outlive me. We have yet to talk about their decades of history with him, but that conversation is soon to come. I have to know what is in store for me over the long haul... and I have to tell her of my intentions to NOT be a recluse like my uncle.

But for now, the sun just went down about thirty minutes ago. After another long Friday at work, I’ve showered and ate a sandwich. I needed to write down some thoughts in my journal, and I will put away it away, go to my siren in the shed behind the house and spend a few hours with her.

It is obvious to both of us that I can only be in her presence for a couple of hours at a time before I become delirious from her powers. One day soo, she says, I will be adjusted to her enough that I can stay with her as long as I want to.

OK... alright...

I am soon to ask her if, in fact, she is manipulating me into believing I am what I believe I am to her... or do I have free thought and am I really going to protect her for the rest of my life because I actually want to. Or, is she forcing me to me her... mind slave.

I think all that thought will be for another night. I have a weekend to spend in her presence that is both magical, and at times terrifying... and that weekend begins right now. Tomorrow, I will write another chapter about this bizarre relationship that obviously will go on until the day I die. But like I said before, we need to talk about the rules of this relationship... if there are any.

So, here I go to visit the siren in the shed behind the house. I’ve got the books she asked for and the DVD she said she wants us to watch... just like this is a normal date.

Not normal!

(8)

And who takes care of the beautiful garden in the back of the house?