Mansion and a Diary - A Story

1, 2 & 3

_{Part 3
Gaby stands still staring at Helena.}

_{– My grandmammy always said I should close my mouth or my soul would fly out. And without a soul, one would go straight to hell where the devil would close your mouth permanently. She was a cruel woman and I was a afraid of her for many years. Gaby, get your camera up here!
Helena puts the phone on one of the nearby tables, takes the camera from Gaby and browses through the last set of photos that Gaby took from the corner.^@macoolette
– This is the photo you took of me.}

_{Helena hands the camera back to Gaby, but before Gaby gets a chance to look at it, her right arm suddenly starts burning and she notices a strange red pattern emerging just below her elbow. ^{@youhavewings}
– What the... Gradma!
Gaby looks at her arm and back to Helena with panicky eyes.}

_{Helena takes the camera from Gaby and puts it to the table where her phone is, takes Gabys arm into her hands and looks at the mark. Helenas phone beeps, but she ignores it.
– It's okay Gaby, everything is okay. It will go away in few days. Few weeks at the latest. And there will be no visible scar on your skin. It's just a whiplash.
Helena moves herself in front of Gaby, puts her hands on Gabys shoulders, looks at her and speaks to her reassuringly.
– I know this must be frighting to you, but I assure, everything is and will be alright. I thought these markings would't come on the first time, but I was wrong and for that I apologize. I am sorry I didn't get a change to explain this to you.
Helena takes a small metal can out of her pocket.
– This is just Vaseline and curcumin. It's a natural pain killer.
Helena applies the mixture to Gabys skin.}

_{– I don't understand, Gaby says with a voice that Helena can barely hear, but continues with a distressed voice and eyes wondering around the room.
– Was the man in the picture a ghost? From a different world? What is this mark on my hand? What was the picture you took with your phone? What do you mean a map? How... Who... There's nobody else in this room. You said that this is an abandoned building! Why did you say that you are my great grandma? You should be... I don't know, well over 100 years old. I thought that you are 70 years old, but now, I don't know, you do look younger. 60? Or are you even that old? 50 years old? I mean, that could be possible, my mom was in her 20's when she got me and if you were in your 20s when you got my mom, but if you say that you are my great grandma and you were young when... I don't know! This just freaks me out! All these echos before anything happens and whiplashes... I... I... I need more time to squeeze my brain around this.^@macoolette}

_{– Although it sounds very nice that I look like a 50 year old, I am older. I think my body is about 60 years old. I'm not sure and I have no way of counting it precisely because I lost my diary some time ago. But at my best days I feel like I'm 30 years old, so I think it doesn't matter how old my body really is. Age is just a number!
Helena gently guides Gaby to sit down on one of the chairs and goes to her phone. She quickly reads the message on her phone: "Curie project and associates trail is on. Valuing the variable on the basis of its relationship with the fallangies. Estimated result in 2 hours 50 minutes." ^{@curie, @nyarlathotep}}

_{Gaby continues talking:
– This is... I have... Did you get a message? Who is it? My... Where did I put my camera?}

_{Helena puts down the phone and goes to Gaby.
– Breathe slowly Gaby. Don't think about the camera now. The code in my equipment gathers all the data and informs me automatically when it starts processing info. I realize that I have to explain the... few elephants in the room. And be absolutely truthful to you. So actually, I'm not your great grandma. We are related and you can call me grandma, but now that we are speaking the truth all the time, there actually should be couple of greats before the grandma, but who's counting!
Helena laughs at her own joke, but doesn't get the reaction from Gaby that she wants, so she stops and sits on the chair in front of Gaby. On the table, the camera screen shuts itself off and at the same time the phones screen starts to process the image. The image is dark and blurry. The app starts to adjust it. Figures begin to emerge, one being Helena and the other one a bearded man with a blue-white striped shirt.}

_{Helena takes Gabys hands to hers, takes a deep breath and says:
– Let me start from the beginning. I was born in the year 1789.}

_VIDEO
IMAGE

Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0 - Insaneworks
Part 4

– I hope you don't expect me to...
Gaby starts to speak, but gets interrupted by Helena.

– Would you please listen what I have to say first? With an open mind. Just listen, and after that, decide what to do with the information I have given to you.
Helena leaned back and continued:
– In that year when I was born, my parents owned a mansion which used to stand on this property. I grew up to be a happy child surrounded with love. My parents would come running when they heard me cry. They would drown me with toys and give what I asked for. When I was six, a new bundle of joy came to us. My baby brother Fredericus, Fred was born. I watched over him like an owl, not allowing anything to touch him. Not even a mosquito. He grew up to be a very adorable boy and we enjoyed childhood most children would be envious about...
Helena paused for while.
– Then it happened one day... ^@macoolette
Helena paused again.

– Am I now supposed to ask what happened?
Gaby also leaned back to her armchair and continued with a sharp and skeptic voice:
– Alright. I will ask you. I will play along. What happened in your story? What happened next in that fairy tail that you are giving me instead of the truth? Instead of the facts that you could tell me about this all.
Gaby waived her hand.
– About this house, about the voices we heard, about the man in the photograph, about the weird draft, about your devices, your app and the image that you call a map. About the lie that you claim to be my great... no, greater than great grandma. Not to mention this freaking burn mark that I have in my hand. Well fuck Helena. Fuckity fuck fuck Helena! Let me just grab a joint and get comfortable here. So please do tell me. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED NEXT?

Helena stared at Gaby for a moment. Then she started rolling her sleeves and said:
– You sound like me when I was younger. Well, not young, but younger than I am now. I understand that you are upset. And a bit stressed and angry.

– A bit!

– There was this one day that I will remember as long as I live. That day I started to keep a diary. Because of what happened to me and my brother.
Helena showed her hands to Gaby. She had similar burn marks in them.
– The day that me and my brother got our first burn marks. I was thirteen years old then. He was seven. That burn mark and every single one after that, until I was 16 years old, never faded away. I guess it was because I was so young.

---

To be continued...

This story is published under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 4.0

---

That's it! For now.
Now I need you.

Tell me where to go with my story. Give me a clue or a suggestion.

How?

Comment a short sentence or two. If you have no words, comment with a picture or a photograph. Or a link. Anything! Your words or someone elses. A photograph taken by you or someone else. You can comment more than once, but perhaps not more than 5 suggestions. Before 7 days has gone, I will choose one comment. Or more if I feel like it.

But I don't know what to say!

That's okay. We've all been there at some point. Interesting, but brain all empty. You can also upvote someone else who has commented this post. That may have an influence to my selection.

Important!

If you comment with someone elses words or image, please mention the source also. If you don't mention the source, I assume the words or the image is yours and I will credit you. Words: @[you], images: ©copyright @[you]. If you want to be mentioned in some other way, please attach the text and/or link.

Why?

Well, mainly for fun, but also because depending on what I like, you will be rewarded for your comment. Upvote, SBI, a little bit of STEEM or SBD.

Does the little grammarist inside you cry tears of blood when you read my text?

No worries! Feel free to correct my grammar! I encourage you to do that. You can also suggest something to be changed if you think things could be written better than I have done. Help and suggestions are appreciated. Really. Truly. :)
Why am I using – instead of " " in the dialogue? Answer. _{Because I want to, and because I'm stubborn.}

Yours,
Insanewords

P.S.
This mansion, as you can see, is built in 1883-1885, not before 1789. :) It is Hatanpään kartano, the manor of Hatanpää and it locates in Tampere, just few steps away from lake Pyhäjärvi. It has it's own ghost and treachery stories.
You can find more info of the Hatanpää manor from the following links:
http://hatanpaankartano.iweb.fi/en-gb/manor
https://www.spottinghistory.com/view/134/hatanpaa-manor/
http://www.muuka.com/finnishpumpkin/manor/h/mwhata/manor_mwhata.html

Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0 - Insaneworks