June 8, 2020
It was Monday morning. It was time for Edward to start his new job at the Hallington Sawmill.
He wasn't particularly excited to work at a sawmill but it was the best he could do with his current predicament. He would work as a teacher but he hardly believed that any school would hire him again. It wasn't like he could get a recommendation from the last school he worked - they fired him.
Edward closed his eyes and shook his head, almost like he was shaking the thoughts out of his head. He pulled up into a parking lot outside of a large two-story wooden building. In front of the it was a white, trailer sized, building that Edward assumed was the office.. He walked in and was greeted by two smelly, burly guys. Edward wasn't much smaller than them but these two guys had far more muscle than he did.
"You must be the new guy?" One of the guys asked.
"I am," Edward said timidly.
The man laughed. "Don't be so shy new guy. I'm Robert," He said extending his arm out.
Robert was about 6'3, standing above Edward, who was about 6'1. The man had a very deep voice and the only hair on his head was a long red beard and mustache. He was very well built but not quite as well built as the other man who was standing next to him.
"Edward," He said, grabbing Robert's hand.
"I'll stick to calling you new guy for now," Robert winked.
"I'm Pierce," The other man said.
Pierce was about 6'3 as well and had an Irish accent. This one had short light brown hair and a curly mustache. His teeth were stained yellow, with a few being chipped and a large slash wrapped around the side of his neck. Also, his breath smelled of alcohol and his odor smelled of sweat - something that Edward could relate to.
"Nice to meet you. Are either of you the boss?"
"Yeah, new guy. I accidentally clogged the shitter this morning. I would give you a plunger but I think I broke the last one," Robert said, laughing loudly.
Pierce began laughing along with him and, so, Edward laughed along with them.
"Oh you think that was a joke, new guy?" Robert said, puffing out his shoulders.
Robert's face became much more serious now. He looked down upon Edward with the few inches that he had over him. Little beads of sweat started forming on Edward's head. The blood slowly start creeping up to his face and he struggled to keep his eyes met with Robert's.
"Oh piss off you assholes," A voice from behind them said.
Edward looked past the two large men to see a much slimmer and much more elegant man sitting at a desk behind the. Next to him sat a woman named Rebecca, the woman who interviewed Edward. She wore a black skirt that went slightly past her knees and a white collared shirt. She had her jet black hair in a bun, scarlet red lipstick on, and a double-layered silver necklace wrapped around her neck. She was stunning to look at, to say the least.
Robert and Pierce looked back at the finely dressed man and shrugged their shoulders. "We was just teasing him boss," Pierce said.
"We're already short staffed enough as it is. I don't need you two scaring him off," The man said.
"Oh I'm sure Edward here is fine," Rebecca interjected. "The boys were just having a little fun."
Robert and Pierce chuckled, almost at the same time. "Yea, boss. Just having a little fun."
The boss waved his hands and Robert and Pierce turned around to leave. "We'll see ya out there, new guy," Robert said before departing. They both exited the office, leaving Edward with Rebecca and the boss.
"Sorry about them. They're good guys but they've already scared off a few would be employees. They just like to bully around the new blood, The boss said.
Edward found his eyes gazing at Rebecca. She was quite younger than himself and very attractive. She smiled at him, almost flirtatiously. Rebecca turned to the boss. "Edward can take a little harmless bullying, can't you Edward?"
He stood frozen in place for a moment, as if hypnotized by her looks. Reality kicked in before he noticed he was staring for too long. "Uh yes, of course. I'm use to the harmless bullying," He said with an awkward chuckle.
"Indeed," The boss said, scanning Edward.
"So you must be Oliver Flores, sir?" Edward said, breaking the small awkward silence.
The man stood up from his chair and walked to the front of his desk. He wore a black suit with a white shirt and a red tie underneath it. A little white handkerchief protruded from his jacket's pocket and Edward could see a silver ring, with a single emerald in the center, on his left ring finger. He had a stubble on his face and dark brown hair combed to the right. He didn't look like he belonged at a sawmill.
"Mr. Flores is your supervisor. He is currently in the sawmill as we speak," The man said. "My name is Gabriel Matthews."
Gabriel extended his arm out to Edwards. Feeling confused, Edward slowly grabbed Gabriel's hand and shook it.
"You mean like Jacob Matthews, the man who built all the hotels and such?"
Gabriel smiled. "Yes like Jacob Matthews, my father."
Edward fixed his posture and cleared his throat. "A pleasure, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise Mr..." Gabriel paused.
"Porter," Rebecca said.
"Mr. Porter," Gabriel finished. "What brings you out to the Hallington Sawmill, Mr. Porter?"
Edward looked back at Rebecca again, who was staring at him intently. He fixated on her gorgeous smile. I'm a loyal man. I'm a married man.
"It was, uh, close to my new home."
"New home you say? Where at, if you don't mind me asking?"
Edward had to snap himself back to Gabriel. "About ten miles away from here on Waterworth Drive."
Gabriel paused to think to himself. "Oh that new white house that was owned by the Serpas?"
"That's the one," Edward said, forcing a smile.
"Beautiful, one of my cousins use to own that house you know? Stayed there for maybe four months before he moved all the way to Texas. Said he hated the place, too creepy. Of course, he lived there with his girlfriend before she dumped him and left him to his lonesome self," Gabriel paused. "Loneliness isn't very fun, especially when you're miles away from anyone and are surrounded by trees in darkness. The isolation can really get to you if you let it."
"Was your father isolated?" Edward blurted.
Gabriel sat there, staring at Edward with a fading smile. Edward instantly regretted his question - he didn't want to lose his job on the first day. All the nights to the bar had really run his bank account dry.
"As a matter of fact, no." Gabriel said, killing the silence. "Me, my mother, my two sisters, my uncle, and even our three dogs lived with him. I'm sure you've heard of Matthews Manor?"
Edward hesitated but then nodded.
"Yes, the famous Matthews Manor. Said to be built on an Indian burial ground. Said to be haunted," Gabriel leaned forward in his seat and smiled at Edward. "It's the truth."
"You're serious?"
"Of course I am! Do I look like a man who lies to you?" Gabriel said joyfully.
Edward chuckled, unsure as what to reply with.
"Yes it's true. Plenty of strange occurrences happened while I lived there but I moved out to go live in Washington. My mother felt like she was losing her mind every time she called me. My sisters told me how they were always sleeping in the same room and were scared to keep the door open at a night. My uncle found himself sleepwalking. Sometimes he'd wake up in our basement, sometimes on the front porch. Even the dogs were losing their shit, randomly barking in the living room."
Edward looked over to Rebecca who was now focused on Gabriel.
Gabriel continued, "My dad was suffering the most from it, however. For a while, he would still call me, ask me how I'm doing in Washington, tell me how his hotel/motel business is going. But soon, his calls became more hysterical. He would tell me how he could hear things underground. He started digging tunnels under the house, claiming that he was so close to finding whatever it was that he was hearing. He dug six miles of tunnels, can you believe it? Not just one straight tunnel either, no. He dug numerous paths."
"Where did they lead to?" Edward asked.
"Let me correct myself. Six miles of tunnels was calculated but nobody knows where his tunnels eventually led to. Most led to dead ends, some just kept looping like a maze, but nobody has ever found an exit. Maybe he never dug an exit. He may have just sat down there in the darkness, digging a maze that only he knew his way around."
"Is that how he disappeared?"
Gabriel looked out the window at a dark storm cloud rolling by. "No, it's not. You see, he placed a door in front of his tunnel that he locked from the front. The tunnels were still locked the night that he disappeared. So, unless someone locked him in there, there's no way he could have went in there and locked the front of the door."
Edward remained silent as Gabriel watched the storm.
"We don't know what happened to my father. My mother, uncle, and sisters all left the house about a week after he disappeared. They packed up the essentials and left all the furniture behind, claiming that my father disappearing only made the manor ramp up it's haunting on them."
The office became darker as the storm cloud drew closer. Edward almost felt eerie. Gabriel's story was creepy, but he wasn't sure he fully believed it.
"So between our haunted house and the legend of the Faceless, you can see why my father was feeling particularly disturbed. The rest of my family is well now but they can never return here."
"The Faceless?" Edward asked, scratching his forehead.
Gabriel looked to Rebecca and chuckled. "You haven't heard of the Faceless?"
"Well the realtor said something about mannequins or something but, no... I haven't heard of the Faceless."
Gabriel snorted. "Seriously? They're the creatures that folks say haunt the forests. You know, no faces, pale white skin?"
Edward felt blood rush to his face and he let out a nervous laughter. He thought back to his night with Jordan and the white figure that stood on the other side of the highway. Jordan claimed he didn't know what Edward was talking about. He said that Edward must have made it up in his mind when he was drunk. While Edward was certainly drunk, he was sober enough to know that he saw something that night. Jordan pointed it out to him but is now claiming he didn't do so. Someone was lying. Whether it was Jordan or Edward's mind, someone was lying.
"Ahh, you must have had an experience with one of them." Gabriel said, noticing Edward's face going pale.
He remained speechless - Edward didn't know what he saw.
"Nevertheless, I think I've held up enough of your time. I know I've probably spooked you but you don't need to worry. There's never been an accident at my sawmill, at least not in several years," Gabriel clenched his teeth and smiled. "Whether or not there's faceless men out there, it doesn't matter. We need your help to get this sawmill going because I plan to undertake many new projects up here."102Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrQFaaIoGF6
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"Many new projects?" Edward asked.
"Yes, I plan to reignite that excitement to travel to northern Idaho, like my father did. I'm going to build new towns, roller coasters, hotels, whatever you can think of. And to begin, I'll start with my family's manor," Gabriel said gleefully.
Gabriel walked up to Edward and wrapped his arm around his shoulder, escorting him to the door. "I know you'll do great here Edward," Gabriel's voice quieted down. "Just try not to look at the Faceless, alright? They tend to get upset when you do and have even drove several people crazy and you wouldn't want to crazy, would you?"
Both men chuckled with Rebecca following behind them. "You'll find Mr. Flores on the first door to your left," She said.
Edward nodded and began walking towards the sawmill building. He turned around, noticing the curtains close in the office and the door close. There was no guessing at what would be happening in that office. He felt an anger come over him but he tried not to think of it too hard. It wasn't his business if Gabriel was having an affair or not. He knew that he wouldn't ever betray his spouse, even if he so desperately wanted to.
Rain started drizzling on his head as he came closer to the sawmill. He heard a terrible yell come from inside the building and the sound of a bunch of men screaming. Quickly walking in, he saw around ten men standing around another man on the floor. Blood was running down his arm, as he screamed in terror.
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