Hauntings Read Online Free PDF Page B

allowed to stay on the property in one of the servant's rooms on the third floor, but the rest of us were told to leave. Not that anyone wanted to stay with the Nazis in charge. “ He took a long glance at the black and white photograph of the estate and gently placed it back in the drawer.
                  “The baron wasn't going to get the chance to make his stud farm a success. All the baron's staff were dismissed. The lucky ones were fired, the others were sent to the labor camps never to be seen again. The baron and baroness were allowed to stay but they had to do the work of the servants. They made the Baron the grounds-keeper, and the Baroness a maid. As for the livestock, the Nazis had all the horses killed and butchered and the meat sent to the front lines for the soldiers” The concierge appeared to visibly age with the memory of it all.
                  “The war was nearing its end. The allies had invaded Europe and were forcing the Germans out of the countries they occupied. It was only a matter of time until the Allies would be in Holland. When the time was right, the Canadian army attacked the castle with overpowering force. The Nazi's managed to fight the Canadians off for a time. The Nazis had time enough to accuse the baron of spying for the allies. The commandant claimed the Baron communicated vital information to the Canadians. Who knows, perhaps through the underground, he did. They executed him by firing squad the same day, no need for a trial. Accusation then execution, the Germans are nothing if they are not efficient.”
                  “ It wasn't too long before the Castle was liberated. The allied soldiers searched the castle and took whatever the Nazi's left behind that provided what thought may have been valuable intelligence to the Allies. The Canadians didn't take up residence, they took what they wanted then followed the German's retreat. After a few days, when the battle was over and the soldiers were gone I went back to the castle and offered the baroness my help. With the help of some of the other old farm hands who had worked for them we found and recovered the Baron's body. I remember two of us carried it back to the castle wrapped in canvas. The Baroness prepared her husband's body while I prepared the family crypt.”
                  “Damn” Ozzie exclaimed “You old folks went through a lot.” Was this the first Ozzie heard of war, or just the first time he heard someone share their personal account of what happened to them during the war , Randal wondered.
                  Ignoring Ozzie's comment the old man continued. “There wasn't a funeral service, no priest came to say the rights of passage from one world to the next. The baroness Theadora stood alone and observed as I laid the baron's body on the slab reserved for him. She didn't shed a tear, she didn't say a word of farewell, she only stood there watching what I was doing and waited. I folded his arms to have his hands meet on his chest as if he was praying. After a few moments she ordered me to close the crypt and that was that. After that, she ordered the place be boarded up and closed the castle.”
                  “So the castle isn't haunted?” Randal asked.
                  “Haunted? Perhaps, there are memories there, that is certain.” he replied and then continued his story. It was as if he had been carrying this burden within himself for many years and now that he had the chance to lay it down, he was going to lay it down completely. 
                  “The baroness hired me to board it up after that, forbidding anyone to enter the castle for as long as she lived. Some people believed this was an act of extreme grief, but others, townsfolk mostly from the lower classes thought they knew otherwise. They are the ones that started the rumors that the castle is haunted. I continued to work for the baroness. I