Darcy�s life is in tatters. Just when things were starting to look up for him, his life takes a backward step. For the first 16 years of his life during his incarceration at the orphanage his name was Edward Willow.
He tells a story of how he and his friends were treated while living under the Mother Superior�s rules. While there, he was befriended by an entity who manifested itself as a ghost. Her name was Tilly, she played with him, and treated him like a brother. At first he thought she was one of the orphans. He grew up learning she was more than a ghost, she had the power to tell him the truth about the history of the building and one of its past inhabitant�s sinister secrets through his dreams.
He tried to escape when he chased the priest�s car but the gates closed shut in his face and almost broke his nose. Later he started suffering dizzy spells and recurring head pain that may have been the result of the incident. He vowed that one day he will find a way out of Willow Hall if it killed him. In the meantime took the gardener�s to make new friends. To occupy himself he decided to take on a tour of discovery in the attic with his best friend. Together they began to unravel the secret of the mansion before it was an orphanage. They thought they stumbled on some treasure until they discovered a large wooden sign that said Ledderman Manor.
It was when two other friends he was introduced to, go missing. Darcy began his search for them but it was futile. He asked the senior bullies of their whereabouts however Darcy was made fun of and told to mind his business. He didn�t want to let go because he and his mate vowed their circle of trust and feared they may have been killed. When he was in the middle of waxing the balustrades and bannister of the grand staircase, his best friend told him the boys turned up. �It�s when Darcy hopped into his bed he noticed strap marks on the torso of one of the victims but he didn�t quiz him yet. Later the boy caved in and told him what happened and cautioned Darcy and his friends to be aware of the Mother Superior because she caught them out during their discovery after the boys heard noises above their dormitory during the night. Darcy heard them too and began a deeper discovery of the mansion and found out how the nuns lived a luxurious life in their living quarters while the orphans ate measly meals a dog wouldn�t touch. They suffered malnutrition, sicknesses, and other diseases. Sister Bernadette was the only nun who really cared about them but when she had had enough, she left Willow Hall to live out her years in a convent.
Darcy had all ready been reprimanded and severely punished by the Mother Superior and Father Delaney had a stern talk with him but Darcy told him a few home truths about the Mother Superior. Father Delaney has the new girl removed from the orphanage because he has located her next of kin a little while after the accident where she lived but her parents died. Darcy thought he took her away because they were getting too close for his liking.
Darcy�s other two friends who were the youngest twins were taken from the dormitory after they were seen by a passing stranger who claimed he was their father. He tried to take his boys back but the Mother Superior conceded they were better off staying with her where they were protected from their mother. The gardener recognised who the Mother Superior really was but he and her secretary sister Lucia couldn�t do a thing about it. He later solved the mystery of the passing stranger and was frightened something bad was going to happen. He asked the Mother Superior but she denied anything was wrong.
She put a plan into action to have the children removed from the premises to have them driven to the church rectory when Father Delaney lived. A bus was delivered and hidden among the shrubs so that sister Lucia could quietly usher the children on and away to safety. They were given a specific day to get their personal items together so they were ready to leave. Darcy found about the senior orphans being allowed to leave, so he tells his friends and together they march out of the gates to freedom.
After Darcy and his friends left they became separated and go their own way. He bid his best friends farewell however was concerned for the little boys he left behind and could only pray for their souls. He walked on the dusty track towards the town to find a way of getting work. He conceded that if a boy could flog newspapers on the corner of the street he could too. He worked the streets selling papers and lived in the park among the bushes until he stumbled on an advertisement to lodge with an old lady and her lazy grandson who stood the size of a door. Darcy hardly ever spoke to him. When the old lady died her grandson left after the funeral to make it on his own leaving the house to Darcy.
Since that time Darcy had been searching for his mother then thought he was hitting a brick wall every time so he gave up. He advertised for a lodger. A week later a man answered his ad and moved in with his cat. Darcy wasn�t happy about the pet arrangement but he soon got used to it when the cat was used as a garbage disposal unit. He kept eating the scraps under the table.
His lodger was having a tough time sleeping because Darcy started having nightmares and waking the cat as well. Peculiar things started to happen since his Lodger decided to install a ladder to the roof to store his building equipment against Darcy�s better judgement. He began restoring the kitchen cabinets and making other alterations at Darcy�s expense.
One day his Lodger got an invitation to his grandparents� 60th wedding anniversary. He wanted Darcy to go so he agreed but he couldn�t understand why he wouldn�t take one of his girlfriends who worked at the club he always dined at. They went to the party where Darcy met his lodger�s mother. She and Darcy were deep in fascinating conversation until he mentioned Father Delaney. She suddenly fainted and couldn�t be consoled when she regained consciousness so her son and Darcy left the party early and drove to the beach and had dinner in the car overlooking the ocean.
The lodger�s mother called their home while he was in the shower, she wanted to speak with Darcy. She didn�t say who she was but said she wanted to meet him somewhere quiet. Darcy couldn�t make a time or day so he said he would call her back. They decided to meet at the park; he thought he was going to meet his mother.
The newspaper and news on tv reported that a pair of squatters who spent the night in the empty orphanage got a nasty surprise during their overnight stay. They witnessed an apparition of a woman dressed in period clothes carrying an kerosene lamp.
Darcy sat waiting for the woman to meet with him and instead his lodger�s mother turned up. They talked for a while and he soon forgot about the meeting with his mother. She began talking about her life and how she was sexually assaulted by her uncle. In her story she said she signed� her child up for adoption after it was born. Instead of handing the child to a good family a priest took it to the orphanage. She preferred to not know of its gender. They kept the meetings going for a while because Darcy was intrigued. He began to get embroiled with her story and the history of the mansion. Bit by bit the truth began to unravel. He met the girl he once knew briefly until she was taken from him and they continued their relationship from where they left. There was no space for Tilly in his relationship with his wife so he took Tilly back to where she came from.
He gave Father Delaney a piece of his mind while he lay dying in his hospital bed and quizzed sister Lucia about the empty bus she drove away with. She answered, �it was too late, he was on the premises, Mother Superior told me to go.� Darcy wasn�t born yesterday and he certainly didn�t come down from the last shower. So he kept on wondering.
�The mansion got sold and Darcy got to see his friends he thought were dead at the auction and was pleased they were unharmed. His lodger and his building team worked at the mansion to transform it into an asylum.
Darcy revisited the mansion several times for his own satisfaction and to get some answers to his true identity. The Mother Superior ended her freedom in tranquil atonement at the asylum until her end. The place was once again abandoned and a for sale sign was attached to the gate. The fence was left alive with electric current running through it. Who will be the next owner of the haunted mansion?��
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Please note this story has no basis in truth.
All characters are fictitious�