The Amityville Horror

A Story by Abishai100

A handsome portrait-like multicultural American family slips into darkness, in a tale of terrible destiny.

One extra piece I've been dreaming of writing as an important fanfiction, inspired by the remake The Amityville Horror , which is really a poignant story of the American Dream gone disfigured(!). Thanks so much for reading,

----

====

The Russos moved into the nice and ornate New England home in Amity. The young multicultural American family was comprised of Amlan Russo, half-Algerian, his wife Mary Rose, their son Albert, daughter Mary Lou, and infant daughter Elizabeth. Amlan had just finished traveling around Europe and took a teaching position at Yale. His wife stayed home and took care of the kids. Everything seemed very nice and enchanting for this bright young American family in America. This however is a horror story of real crime. Follow along.

Amlan Russo studied at Dartmouth College (Ivy League) before deciding to travel around Europe. Moved by Dickens novels, Amlan daydreamed of being a real-life Artful Dodger, a man of the streets, wise and shrewd and an excellent thief. Amlan traveled all over Spain, France, Italy, and Germany and participated in some modest bank heists with a group of anarchists he met in France. He'd become an Artful Dodger. However, he now sought to leave this bohemian life behind him and wanted to settle down into a normal life. He met his wife Mary Rose in Italy and proposed to her and brought her to America to start a family. He took up a teaching position in the Comparative Literature department at Yale. Things looked positive for the otherwise somewhat wandering Amlan Russo.

Mary Rose was the picture of loveliness. She was Italian-American and loved cooking and fell in love with Amlan in Italy and his special and unique brand of Italian cooking. He proposed to her in Venice. Mary Rose wanted a life in America with a handsome young man who's interested in education and the arts and psychology, and that's what Amlan was really, though he kept his Artful Dodger past a secret from her. Mary Rose was confident they'd have a wonderful life together in New England while Amlan taught at Yale.

ALBERT: We love our parents and our baby sister Thelma (Elizabeth).
MARY LOU: We love our giant house in New England, and daddy's a wonderful school-teacher!

Amlan had a local painter make a special faceless and culture-less family portrait to mount on the mantle above their fireplace in their new large and beautiful Amity house in New England. The portrait reminded everyone of the joy of this newfound life of sane marriage and fidelity and the American Dream the Russos embraced in their Amity house. Amlan walked by the painting evey now and then just to look at it and smile. He was proud of his beautiful family.

When the Russos moved into their Amity house, they found a number of things belonging to the previous residents. Among other things, they discovered a handful of porcelain sculptures, some religious and some mystical. They decided to keep these sculptures and figurines in their home. Some of them were placed on their front lawn. One special odd piece was of a sumptuous mermaid embracing a pink panther animal. Mary Rose hated this sculpture and told her husband Amlan it seemed to give off an evil aura, but Amlan insisted it was a delightful comedic piece about the inevitability of funny human temptations. Mary Rose however remain convinced this sculpture, which would remain simply in their home attic, would be bad luck.

Amlan pulled out of a photo he kept of himself from his days of wild adventures and travel in Europe while daydreaming of being the real-life Artful Dodger. He started thinking of how radically his life had changed since marrying Mary Rose and settling down in Amity. After about 1 year of living in Amity, Amlan started hearing strange noises inside the house and some coming from the attic and basement. He started believing these were ghosts or voices commanding him to remember his days as a devilish young man. Amlan remained rather and oddly amused by these sounds, thinking eerily they'd be some kind of magical omen about the availability of metaphysical temptation contemplation. After all, he was at heart a skeptic and atheist, despite the fact that his wife Mary Rose was devoutly Catholic. Mary Rose started noticing her husband was looking at this photo of himself as a younger man in his wallet quite often lately.

AMLAN: I'd stolen some diamonds from Antwerp while in Europe, traveling with my bohemian pals, and I'm suddenly haunted.

The Russos also found a strange book of dark magic in the attic of their Amity home when they first moved in, and the realtor explained that the previous occupants were somewhat eccentric and were found dead mysteriously in a nearby park and no one had any explanation. The presence of this book, according to the realtor, suggested to the neighbors that their earlier suspicions that these previous occupants were somehow involved in black magic were confirmed. Amlan began to think it was the darkness of these earlier occupants that were haunting their home and producing those temptation-sounds he'd been hearing lately.

MARY ROSE: We don't need a damned maid or housekeeper, Amlan!
AMLAN: Yes, we do, darling; we want a professional maid to look after the children.

MARY ROSE: I look after our kids just fine, honey.

AMLAN: No, this maid I found is perfect, and she's a local and she's lovely and perfect.

MARY ROSE: I already met her, and you know it, and I know you think she's very attractive.

AMLAN: Don't be silly, dear.

MARY ROSE: There's something wrong about this maid, man --- what's her name, Rebecca?

Rebecca was not normal in fact. She was a friend of the previous occupants. The previous occupants were indeed involved in some dark magic activity and it seemed to be linked to the haunting sounds Amlan was hearing in the Russo Amity home. This new rather attractive young maid Rebecca began tempting and seducing Amlan, who himself started to unravel. He'd been staring more and more at his photo of himself as a younger Artful Dodger traveler in Europe. Amlan decided to start an adulterous affair in secret with Rebecca and decided to rob two banks in the New England area. He kept everything a secret from his wife and kids. However, he shocked his wife Mary Rose when he brought home a very strange-looking painting of a very odd-looking family to place in their living room wall.

DETECTIVE: You can't tell us anything about what happened, miss?
REBECCA: The husband, Amlan, pulled out a silencer-pistol and shot everyone.

DETECTIVE: You managed to rescue the baby infant Elizabeth?

REBECCA: Yes, but as you know, everyone else is dead, and Amlan committed suicide!

DETECTIVE: Did you know of any strange tidings regarding dark magic or links to the previous occupants?

REBECCA: No, and I resent the fact that Elizabeth is turned over now to an adoption agency!

DETECTIVE: Don't worry about Elizabeth; she doesn't belong to you; we'll tidy up the details of this evil crime.

REBECCA: Thank you.

The police detective investigating the awful gun murders of the young Russo family discovered a William Blake painting of spiritual agony, depicting a great dragon keeping in perdition or purgatory the yearning of a woman clothed in the rays of the ominous sun. The detective wagered Amlan had procured the painting of symbolic darkness prior to killing his family and then himself. Apparently, Amlan Russo had lost all sense of spiritual control and given himself to the forces of pure insanity, leading to what would be known as the Amityville Horror. The Blake painting was confiscated by police as evidence of this awful incident in American history.

It was known that the maid Rebecca visited the grave-site of the dead Russo members and laid flowers, but there continued to exist some troubling rumors that this maid was somehow mysteriously involved in this American tragedy, but police and the investigating detective failed to tie her to any causal diagram!