The Kirke Mansion

A wall ran along the side of the road until it reached some huge, black, iron gates. The word ‘Kirke’ was on a black plaque on a pillar on one side; it was covered in bird poo and dirt from the road. Beyond the gates, was a stretch of road. The private drive led to a large house that was deep in the woods and concealed slightly by the embrace of a few trees. It was deserted.

‘We’re here. Come on.’

They got out of the car. Laura distributed the shopping bags from the trunk and Dom grabbed a large bolt cutter.

His hands still shook;

‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me.’

‘Give it here.’ said Laura, taking the cutter from him and rolling up her sleeves. She walked towards the iron Gates, that had been chained shut, and with one cut, the chain broke. There was a commotion of clanging metal that disturbed the birds in the trees.
A big, fluffy bird with clenched claws who had presumably been disrupted, flew out suddenly from behind the wall. Lucas, Kelly and Alex ducked as the giant thing swooped away into the distance.

‘It’s okay. It was an Owl.’ Laura said, ‘There’s gunna be a lot of big birds around here.’

After cutting a second chain on the front door and after a few kicks from Dom, some old wood snapped loudly and the big door could be pushed opened. Colours of the sunset streamed in and awoke some birds who came from all different directions in a frenzy, flapping their wings so violently they left a puff of feathers behind them.

Within the house, there were grey walls, dirty wooden floorboards and a smell of old, rotting books. Dark green Ivy had broken through the brick in one corner and was now growing along the walls and ceiling like a thriving fungus.

Dom hastily shut the door and grabbing his bike lock from one of the bags, he used that to lock the door behind them.

Darkness.

‘Come’. Laura said sternly, shining the torch on her phone into the blackness.
She opened a door and walked down a set of stone stairs.

‘Keep looking forward. Don’t look back.’

Lucas, Kelly and Alex followed.

Dom ran wildly in the other direction and up the stairs to the next floor, loudly stomping his feet and yelling ‘Hello! Hello! Anyone home?! Hello!’

st circular stained glass window above the stairs depicts the three wise men following the bright, Northern Star. Streaming through the window, shines colours of the moonlit sky.


It was twelve a clock and we were all still awake, sitting in a circle that filled the large drawing room. Dom and Laura chatted excitedly to Sam.

'I was wondering when you were going to get here.' Kelly said quietly, gripping my hand.

'I call this place 'The Cussion'.' Sam said.

'Oh yeah, whys that?' Dom asked.

'Because the air in here is so fluffy. I feel like I float when I move.'

'How could air be fluffy?' Laura smiled, 'That doesn't make any sense.'

A checkered blanket lay in the centre of the room. Various 'favourite' food and drink items lay upon it, crisps, cakes, sandwiches and alcohol.

'This is supper.' Dom said to me firmly; his stubbley chin, where foam had overflowed and dried up was stained with strong beer.

There was a huge, extravagant fireplace next to me. It birthed raging, wavy flames. Warmth filled the large room.
Kelly turned to me. I clipped her cheek and shuffled up closer.

'This place is great mate,' Sam said, 'thankyou for this.'

He sipped his beer and took it in. Dom and Laura drank too. Laura was huddled under Dom's arm, wrapped in a blanket, her face bright with the glow of the fire.

'Don't thank me, thank this one. Why don't you tell him the story you told me babe? You'll love it Sam, you honestly will.'

Sam was intrigued.

'My cousin told me about this place recently,' Laura began, 'after I told her that we were considering a getaway. She told me how this house sits beyond a river in the forest. The river is so remote its notoriously hard to find. My auntie Gina's first husband was the first person to discover it. He came here when he was ill and wrote about it in a letter before he died.'

'What else did he write about though babe?' Dom interjected.

'It turns out,' she continued, 'that Pierre had been cheating on my auntie for many, many years. He even had a secret son and daughter with another woman.'

Dom looked at Laura. He was a ball of electricity.

'Babe, you've not even told them the best part! Do you believe in ghosts Sam?'

Sam shook his head.

There was more; Laura leaned in. 'When Pierre told his other woman he had to break up with her, she went crazy. She was only Kelly's age at the time. She killed the kids and then jumped into the River and killed herself.'

Young Joe looked horrified.

'How many years did Pierre keep all that a secret?' I asked.

'I don't know exactly how long Rich,' Laura said. 'You always want everything so detailed. Point is, he left that girl to go mad. She mustn't have known what had hit her. He's a c**t.'

'Are you expecting us to believe all this?' Sam asked, 'We're not all kids.'

He flicked his chocolate wrapper toward the centre of the room. Dom, opposite, caught it and with a half smile, got up slowly and walked towards Alex. He violently yanked Alex's mouth open and shoved the wrapper in. Tears of terror formed in the boys eyes.
Kelly and I looked at each other, paralysed.

'Don't be f*****g rude!' Dom bellowed.

He let go of Alex's head. It dropped and banged loudly against the wooden floor beneath.
Alex nashed his teeth and gripped the back of his head and jaw.

Dom turned towards Laura and looked longingly at her mouth. He kissed her passionately. Laura was taken aback.
I signalled to Kelly. We walked out of the room quietly. The others followed.


In a room upstairs I lay in the black, my mind awhirl. I thought of unaccounted time.
I could hear the duo downstairs.

There were three soft knocks on my door.

'Richard? Are you awake?'

Kelly opened my door a crack.

'I'm sorry to keep disturbing you.'

She pushed the door shut behind her, holding back the flood of light from the corridor.

We were both in the dark together for a moment.

'Don't you have a nightlight in here?'

I reached for the switch next to the bed and sat up.

'I'm sorry it's so dim.'

Kelly was barefoot. She walked towards the foot of my bed and sat down.

She looked around;

'You're so lucky you don't have to share, Joanne has been snoring all night as usual. She's a f*****g nightmare.'

Kelly smiled hesitantly.

'I just wanted to see if you're okay.'

'I'm fine Kelly, why shouldn't I be?'

'Well,' she got comfortable, 'I thought after what Alex said to you earlier, you'd be angry. And I've come to tell you that there's no need to be.'

I considered. I'd not thought of Alex.

'I'm totally fine,' I said.

'You know why he was like that with you don't you?' Kelly looked at me seriously.
'Because he's hurting inside. Just how you, Sam and Joe are.'

She looked down.

'And Dom is nothing but a pig and I think you are more of a man than he will ever be.'

Kelly looked back up at me slowly.
I was silent.

'Thankyou.' I said after a time, 'Kelly, I think you're beautiful and I don't think you deserve to be treated disrespectfully by him.'

'It doesn't matter anyway.' She said, 'As long as we have each other. Are you sure you're okay?'

'I'm honestly fine.' I said absolutely.

Kelly edged towards me. She glowed under the dim nightlight. She brushed my hair away and kissed me on the forehead again.

Kelly's kisses were powerful. As she pulled away, I could already feel it working, her magic sparks of reassurance, popping around me.

She got up and left.

I turned off the nightlight and rolled onto my side. I rested my eyes.



'Richard, come downstairs.' I immediately recognised the voice; it was Kelly, calling to me.

There was a soft, warm light in the room around me. I got up and walked to the door. I made my way down the long corridor and staircase. A familiar smell of shampoo and cherries filled the air; It was Kelly's aroma. The scent was a sensation that ripened my awarenesses. It got stronger with each step I took.

I turned into a large room, the floor covered with pillows and empty food wrappers and drink cartons laid out on a checkered blanket. A lit fire, that was wild and relentless, made the room as hot as a sauna and a set of windows that overlooked the river which looked grander than ever, were illuminated by the flames.

And there was Kelly, lying under the windows on her back, her hair spread over the wooden floorboards in perfect formation. Her cheeks were rosy and I could see the fire reflected in her pupils.

She was wearing a cream negligee, her legs apart, knees pointing to the ceiling. I slowly scanned my way down her body, feeling every curve with my eyes until I was face to face with the creature that was inside her, its chest panting, relentlessly thrusting.

It was half man half pig, a hideous vision. Its human hands were tied together with the belt of the negligee. The muscular naked creature was shiny with sweat and its heart was pumping violently. The panting transformed into pig noises; sloppy grunts and snorts. As it grunted louder and louder, Kelly began to moan, her arms and hips dancing with satisfaction.

I stared at the pig face. It was hairy and dead behind the eyes. I felt angry and felt my knuckles twitch at the thought of knocking it out. I yanked its left ear and to my surprise the head came clean off, bouncing to the floor and rolling to my feet. In place of the head was a familiar image. It was Dom. It had been Dom all along although he was different; he was colourless with distress and pain, and tears had stained his cheeks. I looked at Dom's mouth; it had been stitched shut, White threads now red with blood. Every time Dom screeched the threads pulled tighter, ripping his flesh, pulsating lightening veins forming on Dom's eye balls, fit to burst.

'Its your turn.' Kelly said, laughing sinisterly, looking up at me. I glanced back at Dom who was frozen, anticipating more pain.

I backed away and looked at my palms. Both of them were covered in thick blood that dripped between my fingers and onto the floor. The strong smell of blood seized me in the centre of my forehead, forcing me to open up my eyes.

The darkness around me whirled and whirled and when it cleared, a light source remained.


I got out of bed. The fire in my room was lit and was hissing at me. I glared into the yellow flames, wondering how they'd got there. When I came back up, upon the fireplace was an envelope. It was addressed to 'Pierre'.

Author's Note

Hi thanks for taking a look! Please let me know if the story is easy to follow and my if main protagonist is likeable! Also would love feedback on how to transform this from a young mans musings to a professional novel. Any help, feedback, comments greatly appreciated.