THE COUGAR PAINTING

A Story by jo

Sometimes a painting is something more then just a pretty picture

THE COUGAR PAINTING

After wandering round the old Cougar mansion for about an hour. Troy Anderson walked over toward his girlfriend Wendy Gril, and asked

“Wendy, can we please get out of here? This place is starting to creep me out

But Wendy didn't answer him. She seemed to be lost in some sort of faraway trance. While staring at a picture of Betty Cougar, which was hanging on the wall above the fire place

In the picture Betty was sitting in a rocking chair on the mansion front porch, wearing an old gray dress. Standing next to her was a small child, who seemed to be pointing at something. But all Troy could make out from looking at it. Was some strange blurry outline that looked like another small child?

“Hello? Wendy earth to Wendy, come in! He cried out while snapping his fingers in her face

“What's the matter? She asked snapping out of her trance

“Nothing is the matter, I just want to get out of here before old Betty, asks me out! He laughed

“Ha! Don't flatter yourself” Wendy smirked

“Well I got you to go out with me, didn't I? Troy smiled

“Yah, but I only agreed because Brad Pitt was already taken! She laughed. As she picked up her bag off the floor

“Very funny” Troy frowned then took her by the hand and leads her towards the front door

“I wonder why nobody else showed up. I mean this place has been closed for almost twenty years or so” You'd think that there would be a mob of people outside just waiting to get in. don't you think? Wendy asked once they were outside the mansion. Troy didn't answer he just started to walk faster. He wanted to get far away from the old mansion as soon as possible. He didn't know why, but covering this story about the reopening didn't feel right

“Troy? Who’s in la-la land now? Wendy smiled

“Huh? Oh sorry, maybe they didn't hear about it yet” He shrugged. “Come on let's go get something to eat I'm starving

They went to a local pizza shop and ordered

“Well we're off to a good start” Wendy sighed while picking at her salad

“Don't worry about it Wen, after we finish eating. We'll head out to the library I'm sure we'll find something that we can use. Here I got you something” Troy smiled. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small black box and handed it to her

“Oh, Troy, you shouldn't have! Wendy cried out happily before she opened it

Inside was a small black plastic whistle tied to a long cord

“Oh wow! Troy, my very own whistle how romantic! She laughed. Wendy placed it around her neck and added

“How does it look?

“Hey! The guy in the gift shop told me that the artist who made it. Was one of the best artists in the world” Troy pouted

“Oh, yah right! Maybe whistle world he's” Wendy smirked before flicking her pickle in his direction

“Oh, real mature! Aren't we just a bit too old to be starting food fights? Troy smirked back

“I'm very mature but then I started dating you--

“Funny, you're so-so funny! Come on let's get out of here” Troy interrupted her frowning

A few minutes later they walked inside the Bay Hills library. Wendy walked up to the lady who was sitting behind the front desk

“Excuse me my friend and I are from the Yorker newspaper and--

“Never heard of you” the old lady frowned

“Oh, we're out of town newspaper. And we sent out here to cover the story of the reopening of the old Cougar mansion” Wendy explained. The old lady just looked at Wendy with a strange expression in her face and answered

“That place has been closed for the last twenty years”

“I know, but I'm sure you've heard that they've reopened it haven't you? Wendy frowned

“Why in the world would they reopen that old place again for? Is this some kind of joke? The old lady scowled

“Listen Miss, I'm not interested in anything that has to do with the Cougar mansion” I'm afraid that I can't help you now if you'd excuse me” I've a lot of work to do” The old lady frowned. Then picked up her papers and went inside the office behind the counter

“Gee, thanks lady, you've were very helpful” Wendy muttered to herself then went to look for Troy

“So what you got? He asked looking up from the computer screen

“Nothing the old lady just looked at me like I suddenly grew another head. As soon as I mentioned the Cougar mansion” Wendy sighed

“Wow! Maybe you made her nervous or something you do have that effect on people” Troy smiled

“Not funny Troy, so what did you come up with computer boy? Wendy smirked

“Well I tried looking up for any headlines announcing the reopening to the mansion. But I couldn’t find anything which I think it’s a bit weird”

“I’d have thought that whoever planed this there were be at least a web page or something” But it does explain why we were the only ones there” Troy shrugged

“I don’t know Troy; I’m starting to get a funny feeling about this whole thing.” At first when they asked us to cover this story, I thought we’d come out here take a few pictures, talk to a few people. And have the rest of the weekend free”

“But now every time we even mention the word Cougar, these people look at us. Like we just killed their first born child or something” Wendy sighed

“I know I got the same feeling so I did a quick Google search on the Cougar’s. It seems that old Fred Cougar; build this mansion for his lovely bride Betty�"

“I guess they didn’t have whistles back then” Wendy interrupted laughing

“Funny, anyways things seemed to be going great for old Freddy and his bride. That was until her forty birthday” Troy began to explain

“Why? What happened? Wendy asked

“Well according to this Freddy, threw one hell of a birthday party. He invited everyone in the town who was anybody” But something happened one of the banker’s daughter disappeared into thin air” Troy added

“Oh wow! Wendy cried out

“Oh wow! Is right! Troy continued. ”Of course the cops did the let’s search the woods blah, blah. But they never found her”

“Two months later Fred decided to throw another party at his home and �"

“Let me guess another girl disappeared? Wendy interrupted

“Bingo! Then a couple months after that it happened again” Finally the cops began to suspect old Freddy of foul play. Since all the girls went missing while visiting his house”

“But they couldn’t pin anything on him. Freddy, himself, was so distraught about the whole thing. That after the last girl disappeared he ordered Becky, to pack up their stuff and moved out the mansion” Troy explained

“Did they ever find out what happened to the girls” Wendy asked

“Relax there Nancy Drew, I was just looking that up when you showed up”

Troy typed in a new search engine

“Hey check this out! He cried out

“It says here that Betty Cougar, was brought in by the police to be questioned about the missing girls” According to this-

“Oh wow! She confessed to murdering all the girls. After finding out that her husband had an affair with them!

“Oh Freddy, my boy, you were a bad, bad boy weren’t you! He added laughing

“Oh shut up! Wendy answered him as she jotted down all the information into her notebook

“So what happened to her? She asked

Troy scrolled down the page and read

“She was charged with four counts of first degree manslaughter. But instead of going to jail everyone involved decided that it’d be better.” If she would serve her time locked up in some private mental hospital”

“It figures, what happened to Fred? Wendy frowned

“Umm okay, afterwards he disappeared from Bay Hills, for a couple of years. And when he came back he moved back into the mansion with his wife! Troy cried out

“No freaking way! Wendy yelled out a bit too loudly

“Shh! The people in the table next to theirs whispered

“Sorry” She mumbled “How did that happened?

“According to this Freddy, paid some mad money to a lot of greedy judges and got her out.” It also says here that when Fred returned he was into the occult and threatened” To put a curse on the whole town if they didn’t release her to him” Troy shrugged

“And they really believed that? Wendy frowned

“Not only did they believe it but according to this. They said that Fred became so obsessives with the occult.” That he never left the mansion and the few people that he did allow inside.” Told strange tales of how Fred went on and on, of how he’d hear voices of the dead girls” Crying to him in the middle night to avenge their death, until one night he totally snapped

“And drowned Becky and then set the mansion on fire. Some of the towns’ people say that only Becky died that night.” That Fred escape through one of the secrets tunnels” Troy explained

“Oh wow! No wonder no one will talk to us about that place” But if the mansion was burnt down who rebuild it? And why? Wendy asked frowning

“That babe is the six million dollar question. Hey maybe Freddy did it! Troy laughed

“Very NOT FUNNY! Wendy snorted

Shortly the old lady that Wendy had talked to before. Walked up from behind and cried out

“We’re closing now!

“Jesus lady! You just scared the hell out us” Wendy cried out

“Sorry but its closing time you two have to leave” The old lady frowned

“Okay, we’re going and thanks for the heart attack” Wendy smirked. Before she and Troy gathered up their things and headed for the exit door

A few minutes later they were walking passed the old mansion. When Wendy suddenly stopped and turned around and started walking up the drive way

“Hey where are you going? Troy asked

“I just want to check out something real quick” She answered him

“You want me to go with? Troy asked

“No, I’ll be right back

And before he could stop her she vanished through the front doors

A couple minutes passed by and there was no sign of Wendy

“What’s taking her so long? Troy mumbled to himself. He slowly opened the doors to the mansion and went inside

He was about to call out Wendy’s name but the sound of laughter coming from one of the upstairs room interrupted him

“Oh great she must’ve found someone to interview”

Troy decided to give it a few more minutes before interrupting. But after waiting around for a couple more minutes. Troy began to get a funny feeling

“That’s it I’m not going to stay in this creepy place all night”

He started to go up the stairs but something caught his eye

“Hey I don’t remember seeing that picture before”

He went to get a closer look at it

It was the picture of Becky Cougar that was hanging above the fireplace. But this time it looked completely different the figure was now visible

It was Wendy

“Holy s**t! There’s no freaking way that could be her!

Troy started to run up the stairs calling out Wendy’s name. But she didn’t answer him when he reached the top of the stairs. The first thing that he noticed was that Wendy’s bag was lying on the floor. And the sound of laughter suddenly grew louder. As he ran into each room yelling out for her

When the cops found Troy a couple hours later. They found him crawled up crying hysterical. They finally got him to calm down to asked what happened

But all Troy would say was that the house had just killed his girlfriend Wendy, And buried her inside the painting that was hanging the fire place