"We have a deal with The Butcher, and she's gonna get you back." "There was no way out." "Oh, my God." "They're coming." "What do we do?" "Of all the horrors I'd seen... this one affected me..." "to the core." "I gave up." "There was no way out." "I just tried to soak up every last second I had left." "There are very few homes in United States that have a history as interesting as the big Shaker mansion built in 1792 by Edward Philippe Mott, at 900 Sappony Road." "As Daphne du Maurier has famously written," ""Who can either affirm or deny" ""that the houses that sheltered us as children, adults," ""and our predecessors, too," ""have not embedded in their walls" ""the imprint of what was then, the suffering, the joy?"" "I cannot speak to the joy at the house at Sappony, but there certainly was plenty of suffering." "Lot five:" "Portrait of a Nobleman, 1789, by John Alden Peale." "Sir!" "Sir!" "We are in the middle of taking bids." "Well, stop." "Everyone go home!" "I am buying the whole lot." "I won't be outbid so you're all wasting your time." "Even amongst the rich of the day, he was envied for his great wealth." "Family money, of course." "Edward had what would probably be diagnosed now as severe social anxiety." "He hated being around people." "So he went as far away as he could from the parties and the excitement of Philadelphia." "He found a plot of land deep in the North Carolina woods on Roanoke River's edge and bought it from the state." "Then he sent Shakers down to build a retreat, an escape where he and his beloved artwork could be alone." "Welcome home, sir." "‭More paintings?" "The house is coming along." "How goes the underground work?" "They dig day and night." "It's slow work, because of all the trees." "Deep roots in these woods." "It must be done." "The artworks in this house are worth more than every tobacco farm in the state put together." "If kidnappers come for them, we need to be able to facilitate their escape." "There were numerous incidents during the building of the house." "Odd stories." "Mischief, mostly." "Put these in the main parlor." "The Peale goes over the mantel." "Wait!" "Come back." "He left his wife and young heir back in Philadelphia to be down at his Carolina castle with his lover and his art." "He positioned each one carefully, often rotating them from room to room." "Bring the Gainsborough in here and put her opposite the new Peale." "He needs someone to talk to when we aren't here." "They judge us." "I can see the way they look." "I should get rid of all of them except for you." "Then I would be working all day instead of playing" " with this." " ‭" "The art never judges." "I envy it." "Life in two dimensions." "Frozen in forever beauty." "To watch the world go by unencumbered by the gossip and the pain of three-dimensional men." "I love them, you know?" "The paintings." "Even more than I love you." "Stop talking and make love to me." "Fine." "But first let's rouge each other's nipples." "Edward wasn't there two days before things started getting extremely weird." "No." "No." "Which one?" "Which one of you destroyed my Peale?" "!" "Speak up!" "Goddamn you!" "Speak up!" "Speak up!" "Speak up!" "Mr. Mott!" "I swear..." "I saw a big white woman and a young man in the yard by the woods a few minutes before you screamed." "Lies!" "Lies!" "Lies!" "Lies!" "Lies!" "You will stay there until the murderer confesses his crime." "There are your thief's rations!" "You can fight over them!" "Close it up!" "Do not judge me." "Need I remind you that you are a servant as well?" "Do not think your velvet tongue and purple cockhead are enough to make you any more than that." "Do not find yourself in my sight for the rest of the night!" "Or blood will spill!" "What we know of the rest of that night, and the apparent end of Edward Mott, was told by Guiness." "Ugh!" "Unhand me, you fools!" "Who are you?" "!" "This is my land!" "Mine!" "You are trespassing!" "This land is mine." "This land will always be mine, and I shall consecrate my holy right to it with thy blood!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "At some point during all of this apparent mayhem," "Guiness rode away on one of the horses." "But no body or evidence of a giant fire was ever found." "Guiness ended up in jail, accused of murdering his master and hiding the body." "He neglected to tell anyone about the servants in the root cellar, though." "The house remained in the Mott trust for over a century, but it was said that madness always ran in the family." "The line ended in scandal when the last Mott died in South Florida in 1952." "At that point the house was bought and sold a few times, but no one ever stayed for long." "Do you believe it was haunted?" "Do I?" "I'm an historian." "It would make my life a lot easier if the dead came back." "All I can say at this point is that no one will convince me to stay in that house overnight, certainly not at a full moon." "_" "_" "_" "_" "Matt." "Deliver yourselves unto me, and I shall grant you a merciful death." "It was... surreal." "This wasn't just weird sounds in the woods or knives left in the ceiling." "This was a mob, and they were coming for us." "It didn't matter if they were alive or dead, or what they were, I just knew that we had to get out of there." "Usurpers!" "Your time is nigh." "The Blood Moon is upon us." "We must honor our covenant with the ancient gods and consecrate this land once again." "You were given opportunity to cede this territory." "As you did not, your end shall be a merciless reckoning." "Oh, God." "What do we do?" "‭Take my keys." "I'll go out first and lead them away." "Oh, no." "You take Flora and go straight to the truck." "Matt, please." "Please, we have to stay together." "Listen to me," "You have to get Flora out of here." "Okay." "Okay." "I need you both safe." "All right, now, once you go through the front door, go straight to the truck." "No matter what happens, don't stop." "Okay." "Yes." "‭Promise?" "Uncle Matt, I'm scared." "I know, honey." "I need you to be brave just for a little while longer, okay?" "Okay." " Okay." " Okay." "Okay." "Come on." "Look at me." "Hold on to me as tight as you can." "Do you understand?" "‭Mm-hmm." "Do not let go." "Flora!" "You could feel the house... coming alive around you." "Flora?" "Flora!" "Flora!" "Oh, shit." "Matt!" "Flora?" "Flora!" "Look at me." "Are you okay?" "Are you hurt?" "Come on, come on." "It's like we'd been led there." "I didn't understand at first." "Elias..." "Elias said that past victims of The Butcher were afraid of her." "Later on I realized that she used that fear to make them do what she wanted." "They corralled us." "Usurpers!" "Like animals for an easy slaughter." "What now?" "We're trapped." "Perhaps I may be of some assistance." "No, no, no!" "No, no, no!" "No need for violence!" "My intent is not to harm you." "In fact it is to save you." "If you let me," "I can help you escape this house." "Yes." "Yes." " That's right, in we go." " He told us his name." "Edward Philippe Mott." "And that he was the original owner." "As many questions as that raised, we-we didn't have time for any more details." "Where are you taking us?" " Safety." " Where do these tunnels lead?" "I thought the hillbillies built them." "I built them." "You're not..." "You're not alive." "No, The Butcher killed me." "I will keep her from killing you." "No more, no less." "Is that why you appeared?" "To save us?" "No." "You're my bane." "My ruin." "We're no threat to you." "All that I was is no more." "Everything precious turned to dust." "I have but one last sliver of grace." "My solitude, such as it is." "I can hardly suffer three more souls." "We must've walked a mile in the dank and dark." "In some places the walls were moving, infested with insects." "It smelled like a grave." "I'm cold." "Well, better cold than the heat from The Butcher's flames." "Will this take us to the road?" "There are no roads where I go." "If we're not going to the road, then where the hell are you taking us?" "We can't go aimlessly into the woods." "We'll die of exposure." "This is as far as I care to take you." "The living cling to life above all, but the trophy misprized is to die in peace." "Come on, let's go." "Some animals are afraid of the light." "Their instinct is to stay hidden from it because darkness means safety and protection from predators." "We should have known that in that forest, we were nothing more than prey." "I see a light." "Pigs." "In the darkness, we didn't recognize where we were." "But it was that same house where we'd seen those feral boys suckling the pig." "And we weren't alone." "Oh, help me, help me." "Oh, no, no, no, no." "No, honey, don't look, don't look, don't look." "Don't look." "‭Elias?" "What have you done to him?" "You got it wrong." "We found him full of holes." "Arrows stuck out of him like a porcupine." "Mama worked her magic to keep him alive." "Mama worked her magic." "Why didn't you take him to a hospital?" "He weren't no use to nobody but us." "No use to nobody." "See for yourself." "‭No, no..." "No more..." "Elias?" "It's me, Matt Miller." "Hi, Matt." "They're all crazy." "You have to get out of here." "Get out before she comes." "Look at me in pieces." "Mama took my leg." "Mama took my leg." "Kill me... kill me." "Kill me!" "Y'all must be famished." "I got fresh jerky from the smokehouse." "No, don't eat it." "Don't eat it." "Hush it." "Please don't hurt him." "Another word and you bring that hammer down on his teeth." "Help yourself, now." "No, thanks." "Take it, child." "It's delicious." "She's not hungry." "Don't act all biggety." "You're no better than us." "I offer food to welcome you to my home." "It's not poison." "Shit!" "Rancid!" "I like my meat sweet." "I spent hours curing this!" "It's his fault." "He's bad meat." "Bad meat!" "He's spoilt." "No reason to keep it alive." "You should've never bought that house." "Come here with your big money." "Outbid Ishmael at the auction." "You can have it." "Move in tomorrow." "We'll sign the deed over to you right now." "We don't want to live there." "We got places all over out here." "We wanted to keep it empty for The Butcher." "She don't like no company." "My kin made a deal with her over 200 years ago." "So long as she can consecrate the land with fresh blood every year, she'll leave us alone." "Some years when the pickings are slim, we help provide the sacrifice." "In turn, nobody steps foot in the forest and disturbs our crop." "That cannabis grow tall in this Carolina soil." "Why are you telling us this?" "Why not?" "You ain't never gonna tell nobody." "No." "We won't." "I swear it." "No, sir." "You won't say a peep." "Not a peep." "I ain't forgot you led the police here and took away our babies." "My babies." "My babies!" "We gonna get the boys back, I promise." "Please, please just let us go." "We will go back to California and no one will ever see us again." "No, they won't, sweet meat." "The Polks have always been as good as their word." "We have a deal with The Butcher, and she's gonna get you back." "As much as I wanted to get away from the Polks... there was only one place worse than where I was." "And that was our house." "It was Shelby." "She called the cops, telling them that I had something to do with my husband's death." "That's why they were holding me and questioning me over and over again." "I knew what they were doing." "I was a cop." "They only had 48 hours before they had to charge me." "48 wasted hours, when I could've been out there looking for Flora." "Let's go over this again." "Your sister-in-law told us you left around a quarter after 10:00 p.m." "15 minutes after your ex-husband." "Now, you didn't come back until about four hours later." "What were you doing?" "How many times do you want me to tell you the same story?" "You took your daughter from school without permission." "You knew your ex-husband was gonna turn you in for kidnapping." "Is that why you killed him?" "These are facts, Lee." "I went out that night to look for my daughter, which is what we both should be doing right now." "Come on, look at how you found Mason!" "Do you honestly think that I could lift a grown man into that wooden thing?" "Not by yourself." "I had nothing to do with Mason's death." "So you either charge me or let me go." "They tried for every minute of that 48 hours to catch me in an inconsistency." "But there was no lie to catch." "Because like Mark Twain said," ""If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."" "When I turned on my phone, I had, like, 20 texts from Matt." "I couldn't make sense of them at the time." "They were all pretty frantic." "There was only one message that mattered." "My baby was safe." "Every time that truck bounced," "I was sure that gun would go off." "I just needed a moment." "Just one." "Slow down, peckerhead!" "Cain!" "I knew I had to make a move." "Come on, come on." "Come on, girl." "Come on, Flora." "We were gonna die if The Butcher got her hands on us again." "I figured I'd rather us take our chances in the woods than be slaughtered like pigs." "Get down." "Get down, get down, get down." "Whatever was going down, it was bad." "Matt wouldn't just ignore my call." "Especially if he had Flora." "Officer!" "I need a ride." "Put the girl in the truck." "No child should have to see this." "‭No, no!" "Pl..." "You fashion yourself a hero, don't you?" "Real brave and such." "You come onto my land." "Take my babies." "Kill my son!" "If she didn't want you so bad," "I'd bash your skull in right now!" "And I tell you what." "You ain't running again!" "No!" "No!" "Please don't hurt him!" "Please, I beg you!" "I beg you!" "I beg you." "Do whatever you want to me." "I won't run again." "Oh, no, you won't!" "Shelby." "I've never felt more useless." "I don't really remember much after that." "Matt." "Look at me." "You have to save her." "You have to save Flora." "You have to save..." "Promise me you'll save her." "Promise me you'll save her." "I gave up." "There was no way out." "I just tried to soak up every last second" "I had left with Shelby 'cause I knew, when that truck stopped... it was all over." "There were still so many things" "I wanted to do with my life." "Be a mother." "Grow old with Matt." "Open up my own yoga studio." "And I always thought that..." "I'd have all the time in the world." "But our time was up." "Thou hath lost a son tonight." "'Tis a mother's burden to suffer the birth of her babe, but all agony pales when placed in measure with the cold death of a child." "Back in the truck, boys." "No!" "No, no, no, no!" "No, no, no..." "No!" "You promised she would be last." "Now she goeth first." "Flora!" "It was... inhuman." "I mean, sh..." "she was just a little girl." "They were monsters." "Call for backup." "Wait." "No, wait." "Wait, wait!" "Shit!" "This land belongs to the colony, and the colony to the land." "We consecrate our holy right with blood!" "No!" "It was one of her own." "I don't understand why he did it, but he stopped her." "I shall not stand by and watch thou shed another drop of innocent blood!" "Go on, now, make your grand escape." "I can't move, I can't move." "Get in!" "Flora!" "Flora!" "Go, go!" "Lee, go, go, go!" "It was a miracle." "After all we'd been through, I..." "I still can't explain half the crazy things we saw." "We were lucky to be alive." "Those months were like a terrifying nightmare." "When I close my eyes, I can still see... the fire and..." "Elias screaming." "That... insane family." "I'm just grateful that I will never have to see that god-awful place again." "We only had enough cash on hand for a motel room and some takeout." "OK, alright baby." "Let's get you all cleaned up." "We stayed in the cheapest place we could find until my sister could wire us enough money for a flight back to L.A." "We'd be homeless when we got there, but that night... we were the richest family on Earth." "Ooh, me next." "You sure that's a good idea, with your cast and all?" "I am filthy, I smell terrible." "Try and stop me." "We're okay, baby." "We're okay." "Flora?" "‭Hmm?" "Did you save a slice for your Uncle Matt?" "I don't know, Uncle Matt, I was pretty hungry." "To this day I still have that dream." "I've tried yoga, meditation, hypnotherapy even." "We escaped with our lives that night, but I never completely got over it." "I'm not sure I ever will."