ALTAR
There’s some sort of spooky looking altar here, creepy enough to give even you the chills. Several photos surround a picture of a girl in the middle with a red candle on top. The photos are all oddly labeled, not with names but with titles. It reminds you of a criminal lineup, save the eerie atmosphere and sense of dread you get from being here. If you had to guess, you’d say this was all part of some sort of spell, like witchcraft or something.
You take a look at the candle. You’d say it was a fairly typical candle if not for two things: It’s an unsettling blood-red color and it’s heavy… Strangely heavy for its size. Heavy enough to be a weapon, even. A photo of a girl labeled “Elsie” is underneath the candle.
You pick up the photo of the girl and take a closer look. “Elsie”. Why does that name sound familiar? You think about it for a moment, and then realize where you’ve ended up. This is the old McDermott House! That’s right, Elsie McDermott was a little girl who was found poisoned in her home, along with six other people. Yeah, people are still talking about what happened. “The McDermott Curse” and all that. Elsie’s father, Charles McDermott, was the only one not there at the time, and it’s said he spent the rest of his life trying to figure out what happened. As you hold the photo, you find yourself lost in the child’s stare. You feel confused. An odd, metallic taste starts to envelop your mouth. You quickly drop the photo back onto the altar and place the candle on top. Your senses return to normal.
You take a closer look at the six photos surrounding the candle. Aha! Those are the other victims! You remember hearing the story from a drinking buddy of yours. The Salesman, the Aunt, the Brother, the Neighbor, the Lodger, and the Stepmom, all found poisoned to death along with Elsie, the daughter of Charles McDermott. Now what else was it you heard about these people?
Ah yes, the salesman! You always thought it was funny how he ended up in such a predicament. What bad luck! As your drinking buddy recalled, the salesman’s name started with an “O”. Odie? Otis? No… it was Otto! Otto the Salesman! He sold something creepy… was it dolls? That sounds right. Toys like that were big business back then, as it was easy to get a hold of cheap knockoffs and relabel them as brand name products to sell to unsuspecting families. As the story goes, Charles McDermott was away on business, and Mrs. McDermott and family had headed toward town in their car for an errand when their vehicle broke down. A storm started to roll in when lo and behold – Mr. Otto happens by and offers to give them a lift back to the house! They invited him in, and that’s where he was found days later, poisoned to death! The poor man, he must have thought he was going to make an easy sell.
You remember your buddy telling you about the Aunt. Jane was her name, and she was Charles McDermott’s sister. She lived in the house along with some of the others, having moved there after something terrible that happened to her daughter. Rose was her daughter’s name, and she was kidnapped. Your drinking buddy claimed it was likely Jane’s husband who took the child, but by all other accounts, he had died years earlier in a traffic accident. Oh, and then there was the note. A sinister and strange note left behind at the scene of the kidnapping, reading something along the lines of, “The curse will get you all!” Sounds like something straight out of a horror movie! Anyway, after a failed suicide attempt, her brother Charles insisted she move in with him and his family. Little did he know he’d be sealing her fate, condemning her to a horrible death by poison along with the others!
Your drinking buddy had some funny things to say about the brother. It was Elsie’s older brother, of course, or stepbrother, really. He was the son of Vera McDermott, some out-of-town babe who had married Charles after his first wife’s untimely death. Oh, the funny thing is that his name was Virgil! Isn’t it weird to think of a little boy named Virgil? Well, it was certainly funny when your buddy told you about it. Anyway, young Virgil was a bit of a hellraiser, always getting into trouble. In typical teenage fashion, he would often lock himself away in his room and write angsty entries in his journal about how much he hated his family. Well, that last part might not be true, but it probably happened. Had he stayed locked in his room he might have survived, but like the others he was found poisoned to death under highly mysterious circumstances.
The neighbor’s name was Birdie, and your drinking buddy described her as an old lady with a grudge against the family and a strong desire to get even! As he explained it to you, Birdie’s father had originally built the house you’re in now, and she had grown up here and inherited it after his death. After hitting some financial hardships though, Charles McDermott had taken advantage of Birdie and managed to purchase the house for a criminally low price. It’s said that once Birdie realized how bad she had been swindled, she never got over it, constantly making her presence known at the house to complain about everything a neighbor possibly could, anything to make the McDermott’s lives miserable! She was probably there that night, complaining about how the grass wasn’t green enough, or how the children had been playing too noisily in the afternoon, when she too was poisoned to death along with the others!
There was a man renting an empty room at the McDermott House when the deaths happened, and he had somehow gotten caught up in the mayhem. Emmett was his name, and as your drinking buddy said, he was probably some sort of criminal. That doesn’t mean he was a bad person, though. He probably just ran upon some hard times, made some mistakes, and was needing to lay low for a while. Nothing wrong with that, we’ve all been there. From what you heard, Emmett mostly kept to himself, occasionally joining the family for dinner or to help with a stray errand here or there. He had been living with the McDermotts for about a year, and had formed a sort of friendship with Elsie during his stay, often playing word games and dishing out riddles for the child to solve. Where was he from and where was he going? Now that’s a riddle as puzzling as the poisoning deaths themselves, an incident Emmett himself was present for firsthand.
Ah Mrs. Vera McDermott. Your drinking buddy said she was Charles’ “super hot” second wife, but that she was “stuck up” and not liked by many. Apparently, Charles had gone off on a business trip, and when he came back Vera was with him along with her weird son, Virgil. Rumor has it she murdered her first husband, but that’s always the rumor, isn’t it? Allegedly, she was very affectionate towards Charles and her son, Virgil, but not so much Elsie, Charles’ daughter from his previous marriage. From what you heard, she was cold towards pretty much everyone else in the house, resenting the need to care for Charle’s sister, Jane, and having a deep hatred for the lodger, Emmett, for fear that he would be a bad influence on her son. She must have been livid the night she died, with Charles being gone and her house full of not just the children, but the neighbor, the lodger, the aunt AND the salesman! Are you sure she didn’t just die of anger?
You take a look at the candle. You’d say it was a fairly typical candle if not for two things: It’s an unsettling blood-red color and it’s heavy… Strangely heavy for its size. Heavy enough to be a weapon, even. A photo of a girl labeled “Elsie” is underneath the candle.
You pick up the photo of the girl and take a closer look. “Elsie”. Why does that name sound familiar? You think about it for a moment, and then realize where you’ve ended up. This is the old McDermott House! That’s right, Elsie McDermott was a little girl who was found poisoned in her home, along with six other people. Yeah, people are still talking about what happened. “The McDermott Curse” and all that. Elsie’s father, Charles McDermott, was the only one not there at the time, and it’s said he spent the rest of his life trying to figure out what happened. As you hold the photo, you find yourself lost in the child’s stare. You feel confused. An odd, metallic taste starts to envelop your mouth. You quickly drop the photo back onto the altar and place the candle on top. Your senses return to normal.
Ah yes, the salesman! You always thought it was funny how he ended up in such a predicament. What bad luck! As your drinking buddy recalled, the salesman’s name started with an “O”. Odie? Otis? No… it was Otto! Otto the Salesman! He sold something creepy… was it dolls? That sounds right. Toys like that were big business back then, as it was easy to get a hold of cheap knockoffs and relabel them as brand name products to sell to unsuspecting families. As the story goes, Charles McDermott was away on business, and Mrs. McDermott and family had headed toward town in their car for an errand when their vehicle broke down. A storm started to roll in when lo and behold – Mr. Otto happens by and offers to give them a lift back to the house! They invited him in, and that’s where he was found days later, poisoned to death! The poor man, he must have thought he was going to make an easy sell.
You remember your buddy telling you about the Aunt. Jane was her name, and she was Charles McDermott’s sister. She lived in the house along with some of the others, having moved there after something terrible that happened to her daughter. Rose was her daughter’s name, and she was kidnapped. Your drinking buddy claimed it was likely Jane’s husband who took the child, but by all other accounts, he had died years earlier in a traffic accident. Oh, and then there was the note. A sinister and strange note left behind at the scene of the kidnapping, reading something along the lines of, “The curse will get you all!” Sounds like something straight out of a horror movie! Anyway, after a failed suicide attempt, her brother Charles insisted she move in with him and his family. Little did he know he’d be sealing her fate, condemning her to a horrible death by poison along with the others!
Your drinking buddy had some funny things to say about the brother. It was Elsie’s older brother, of course, or stepbrother, really. He was the son of Vera McDermott, some out-of-town babe who had married Charles after his first wife’s untimely death. Oh, the funny thing is that his name was Virgil! Isn’t it weird to think of a little boy named Virgil? Well, it was certainly funny when your buddy told you about it. Anyway, young Virgil was a bit of a hellraiser, always getting into trouble. In typical teenage fashion, he would often lock himself away in his room and write angsty entries in his journal about how much he hated his family. Well, that last part might not be true, but it probably happened. Had he stayed locked in his room he might have survived, but like the others he was found poisoned to death under highly mysterious circumstances.
The neighbor’s name was Birdie, and your drinking buddy described her as an old lady with a grudge against the family and a strong desire to get even! As he explained it to you, Birdie’s father had originally built the house you’re in now, and she had grown up here and inherited it after his death. After hitting some financial hardships though, Charles McDermott had taken advantage of Birdie and managed to purchase the house for a criminally low price. It’s said that once Birdie realized how bad she had been swindled, she never got over it, constantly making her presence known at the house to complain about everything a neighbor possibly could, anything to make the McDermott’s lives miserable! She was probably there that night, complaining about how the grass wasn’t green enough, or how the children had been playing too noisily in the afternoon, when she too was poisoned to death along with the others!
There was a man renting an empty room at the McDermott House when the deaths happened, and he had somehow gotten caught up in the mayhem. Emmett was his name, and as your drinking buddy said, he was probably some sort of criminal. That doesn’t mean he was a bad person, though. He probably just ran upon some hard times, made some mistakes, and was needing to lay low for a while. Nothing wrong with that, we’ve all been there. From what you heard, Emmett mostly kept to himself, occasionally joining the family for dinner or to help with a stray errand here or there. He had been living with the McDermotts for about a year, and had formed a sort of friendship with Elsie during his stay, often playing word games and dishing out riddles for the child to solve. Where was he from and where was he going? Now that’s a riddle as puzzling as the poisoning deaths themselves, an incident Emmett himself was present for firsthand.
Ah Mrs. Vera McDermott. Your drinking buddy said she was Charles’ “super hot” second wife, but that she was “stuck up” and not liked by many. Apparently, Charles had gone off on a business trip, and when he came back Vera was with him along with her weird son, Virgil. Rumor has it she murdered her first husband, but that’s always the rumor, isn’t it? Allegedly, she was very affectionate towards Charles and her son, Virgil, but not so much Elsie, Charles’ daughter from his previous marriage. From what you heard, she was cold towards pretty much everyone else in the house, resenting the need to care for Charle’s sister, Jane, and having a deep hatred for the lodger, Emmett, for fear that he would be a bad influence on her son. She must have been livid the night she died, with Charles being gone and her house full of not just the children, but the neighbor, the lodger, the aunt AND the salesman! Are you sure she didn’t just die of anger?