“THE RED BARN” (Horror – Part IX)

Previously on The Red Barn

The town of Avalon, North Carolina has been proven to be haunted by restless spirits by several different paranormal investigators, who have investigated the town and gathered numerous evidence to stake their findings.  Prior to their arrival to town, several people, such as first responders and civilian volunteers, have been subjected to the town’s evil entity that is still hovering around.  The last event that occurred in the town has sent global shockwaves and prompted the governor of North Carolina to take drastic action after a pack of red and black wolves mauled everyone inside the town limits.

The Main Story

Within a few days after the last horrific events that took place within the town limits, the local media converged on the area to report of what happened to their listeners.  At about the same time the local media was reporting on the deadly attacks of wolves mauling everyone in town to death, the state government sprung into action.  For the first time in a long time, outside of natural disasters, the state governor ordered the National Guard to converge on the town and seal it off to the public.  During one media coverage just outside the town limits the cameraman caught the state militia being escorted by the state police towards town on his news camera.  Anyone on the roads as the military convoyed towards town, was either stopped and directed to the side of the road or pulled over and questioned about the events occurring in the town.  Since no survivors of the town were found and no records to get in contact with outside family members, the police and military were forced to count on outsiders for information.

As most state troopers and military personnel questioned those within a few miles of the town to gather information and possible intelligence, an Englishman, living in England, heard about the news from some family members living in the United States.  His reaction was horror when he was told about one whole town on the east coast of the United States being wiped out of all of its residences.  During the conversation with his family he was also told that not too many people outside of the country know about the events that are happening.  With that information being stated to him he felt kind of honored to have first dibs on this new story, but that gave him little comfort.  After several minutes on the phone he quickly went to his computer that was located on his dining room table to see if he could gather more information about the town.  He used numerous search engines and on his third search he found some historic information about Avalon, North Carolina.  As he began to read the history of the town he was shocked to find out that it goes back as far as pre-civil war in America.

In the historical information about the town of Avalon, North Carolina it was basically a slave plantation that housed several hundred slaves at one time.  Prior to the first shots of the civil war, Avalon Plantation was owned by a white man named James Lee Ray.  James Lee Ray, who was from southern England and fought in the War of 1812, stumbled upon some riches and earned his right to own slaves.  It was later figured out that several of his black slaves were from the central and western regions of Africa.  Within those two regions several Africans were practicing and serving voodoo and other by the waste side religions.  According to the article of the history of Avalon the slaves attempted a revolt against their white owner to be freed.  During the raid on his plantation home, James Lee Ray opened fire on several slaves killing them before he was finally taken hostage in his own home.  Since James Lee Ray lived alone and had very few visitors, no one knew he was missing until the first year after the civil war began in 1862.  When his body was finally found it was discovered inside a red barn that was several hundred feet from his home.

The horses that were being held inside the barn were gone and only a few were found roaming the plantation and the nearby dirt roads.  The Confederate Army and some vigilantes within a few miles of James Lee Ray’s home joined forces to search for the escaped slaves.  Several slaves were found and brought back to the plantation to only be hanged, mutilated, or sold to another slave owner further south.  One black female slave was being held for the pleasure of one of the captures inside the home.  Her name was Harriett Douglas and at age 15 she was considered ripe for the taking and no one of authority was allowed to show their objections.  Harriett was constantly raped and sexually abused for numerous days and weeks until the Union Army was found just a few miles outside the plantation.  As her new slave owner tried to flee the plantation with her and leave the others to their own fate, she suddenly fought and broke loose of his grip.  His first thoughts were not to chase her and let her be on her own, but knowing that her witnessing words to the Union Army may soon lead to his arrest if found he chased after her.

His fat, out of shape physique was no match in speed and agility to catch Harriett, but he would soon catch a break.  As he entered the woods several hundred yards away from the house, he could see her enter inside the red barn where James Lee Ray’s body was found weeks earlier.  As he entered the red barn he realized he couldn’t see and opened the barn door once again to bring in some natural light.  He searched for her up and down through all the hay stacks and corners he thought she would be.  For several minutes he found no sight of her except he could smell her body scent inside the barn so he knew she was still in there.  Just before he left the barn Harriett sneezed loudly and that ill-advised noise gave her hiding spot away where he found her.  He grabbed her from underneath an old stack of hay and placed her up against the walls of the barn.

Harriett found herself up against the wooden walls of the barn being held by her small wrist, which felt like they were being crushed by his grip.  He got closer to her to where she could smell the burnt whiskey, cigar smoke, and his sweaty body odor radiating from his breath and underarms.  She tried to turn her head away from looking at him as he got his face within inches of her neck and lips.  Harriett struggled restlessly to get out of his grip where she accidently raised her knee and struck him in the groin.  The sudden shock of pain in his trousers froze him in his motions and shocked her as well and didn’t know that doing that was so immobilizing.  A few seconds later his gripped loosened and she started to run towards the barn door, but then stopped and turned around.  She saw him on the floor holding himself looking back at her with pain obviously on his face.  Harriett suddenly got filled with anger and hatred towards him and ran back over to him to stand over him.  She raised her red dress so she could have enough room to begin stomping on his face and chest.  The force of her stomps broke his nose, caused several teeth to fall down his throat, nearly loose one eye as blood erupted, and a partially crushed windpipe.

After Harriett saw that he wasn’t moving or trying to fight her back, she stopped and stared at his motionless body for several minutes to see if he was alive or dead.  Once she knelt on the floor next to him she could feel and see his chest rise up and down, which made her believe he was still alive.  For several minutes she struggled on what to do with him as she could hear cannons and musket fire several miles away from the plantation.  As the Union and Confederate Armies fight each other with bravery and gallantry, Harriett decides to conduct a witches spell on him so that he may suffer in the afterlife for all eternity.  While the battle outside grows fierce and several thousand soldiers are dying, no one knows the whereabouts of Harriett and the new slave owner.  The noise and numerous killings of the civil war battle outside the plantation caused several slaves and other neighbors to flee for safety.  Harriett continued on her anger and hatred quest to make him feel all her pain and suffer at least ten times the mental and physical pain she suffered.  In the middle of her witch spell he woke up to only see her hand on his forehead and hearing her chant continuously.

This obviously scared him to death, but as he attempted to move his extremities he found out he couldn’t.  He laid there paralyzed and realized his life and soul was in her hands and he knew that she wasn’t going to be nice about it.  The slave owner attempted to apologize and promised to let her be free if she would stop chanting and not cast a spell on him.  Harriett refused and continued to conduct her witch spell on him until she was stopped by two Union soldiers.  The two Union soldiers were searching the plantation for any escaped Confederate soldiers and black slaves.  Immediately as they entered the red barn and heard her chants they knew exactly what she was doing as only a hand full of Union soldiers could recognize.  After numerous orders to stop her practicing of witch craft, Harriett stopped chanting and stood up very slowly.  She slowly turned around towards the two Union soldiers and gave them a stare that was felt deep into their souls.  They pointed their single round rifle at Harriett and ordered her to get down.  A minute later as she continued to protest their authority her eyes turned white, her red dress was ripped off by some unseen force, and slightly levitated.

Her mouth opened up and a loud roar was heard expelling out of her throat.  The two Union soldiers fired simultaneously at Harriett killing her instantly as her lifeless body dropped to the wooden barn floor.  Almost immediately the slave owner was able to move and gather his legs to stand up just before the two Union soldiers.  As the slave owner looked at them and attempted to give his gratitude for them saving his life from that evil bitch, one of the two Union soldiers loaded his single round rifle and pointed it at the slave owner.  The slave owner stumbled backwards with his hands up in a surrendering pause before a shot was fired without words being spoken.  His body dropped harshly on the wooden floor just feet from Harriett.  The Union soldier that shot him walked up next to him and watched the slave owner struggle to breath to gather his last words.  The slave owner never could get his words together to speak to the Union soldier that just shot him.  The soldier knelt next to him and spoke words in the sense that it was natural for them to kill slave owners and rapists.  His turn at suffering and eternal damnation is justified and that he will never rest in peach!

It only took several more minutes before the slave owner died from his wounds.  Several minutes more the two Union soldiers, along with help from other fellow comrades, attempted to burn the barn.  Surprisingly, the barn never caught fire by hand, but was eventually destroyed by two cannon balls striking it.  The red barn collapsed on itself and the lifeless body of Harriett and the slave owner were burnt in the fire.  For days, weeks, and months no one entered the plantation and no one found the bodies of Harriett and the slave owner.  When the red barn was finally located by some historians several years later after WWII, it was only rebuilt due to some historical significance of the American Civil War.  Still at this time no one had information and evidence of what the red barn structure represented.

It wasn’t until the mid 1980’s that more evidence of the significance of the red barn was discovered.  This new information angered some historians and civilians who were living in the newly incorporated town of Avalon.  Till this day no one knows exactly what happened to the red barn, but it was burned down by at least a group of individuals.  While the investigation of the burning of the barn was being conducted by the county deputy sheriff’s office, a shocking discovery was found amongst the rubble of the burnt debris.  It was later determined that a young black girl was inside the red barn at the time it was set on fire and ended up burning alive inside.  Several hours and days went into this investigation, which was now turned into a homicide investigation and involved the state police.  It took several months and some years to determine the DNA relation of the girl, which was finally found out to be related to Harriett Douglas.  This information was very shocking to hear as the name of Harriett Douglas was linked in the town history books of being a black slave.  Armed with this new discovery several attempts were made to find the next of kin to this little girl, which she had no name to be called.

For years her picture, which was a sketched by an artists of what she might look like, was featured in the town newspapers, county monthly newsletters, and local news stations.  This story made a lot of people sad as no one could come forward to claim the body of this little girl, which she was buried in the town cemetery with no name on her headstone.  As time continued and people lived their lives and the newly incorporated town of Avalon began to flourish, the little girl started to fade everyone’s memory.  Soon she was forgotten and never spoken of again until her sightings of other town residences, which didn’t know her significance to the town.  Once Bart Coleman, the Englishman, finished reading the long history of the town of Avalon, North Carolina, his first question was to find out why someone is trying to hide the historical truth.  From that more questions began to come to his mind, which they all made him start looking for a plane ticket to the states.  After searching several airlines Bart found the cheapest plane ticket he could find and scheduled his flight to the states the following weekend.  Bart is about to embark on a journey that will take him to many levels of emotional and physical stress, along with warnings that he will choose to ignore.

TO BE CONTINUED…PART X