The Haunting Of Ashburn House Quotes
"Every time Wolfgang wailed, the taxi driver grinned and chuckled as if it was the funniest thing he’d heard all day."
"Ms Edith Ashburn has bequeathed you her property..."
"The idea that they were waiting for her made a band of anxiety tighten over her chest."
"The only thing you have any right to feel is gratitude."
"The sun was dipping behind the trees, and the cooling air collaborated with her wet shirt and jeans to make Adrienne shiver."
"The house stood firm; no fires, giant waves, or asteroids swept through the yard."
"And if no one wants to be my friend, I'll just get another cat."
"Her entire twenty-two years of life had boiled down to these items."
"It must be nice to be a cat. No bills to pay. No difficult clients."
"The darkness seeped out of the second floor and swallowed her as she left the hallway light’s circle of influence."
"Perhaps the structure was too unsound to run wires through the higher walls. Or maybe Edith could only afford to do part of the house."
"She had to guess how much to pour into the lamp. The last thing she wanted was for the delicate instrument to explode in her hand, but losing her source of light in a dark passageway would be far from ideal, too."
"There were more than fifty paintings, all of the same family, all crowding the same hallway, their eyes following her no matter how swiftly she walked. It quickened her pulse and set her teeth on edge."
"No, don’t be squeamish. You’re not intruding. She left this house to you, and that includes her own room."
"For half a second, she thought the trees were burning and Armageddon might have come after all, but then she blinked and realised the glow came from hundreds of lit windows."
"The man had heavy-lidded, stern eyes and a thick brown moustache. The older woman—his wife, Adrienne thought—had darker hair and was often smiling."
"She couldn’t help her height. The long, pale face from her memory burnt itself into the back of her eyes. And she probably wore black in mourning. Doesn’t stop her from being a good, kind person."
"The grandfather clock began chiming as she took the stair’s corner. She tried to count the off-note clangs, but her mind was still buzzing with the new familiarity with Edith, and she lost count."
"We’re going to be okay here, she told him as she tried to ignore the eerie sensation that the long, pale face could be watching her from one of the corners where the shadows gathered thickest."
"A heavy weight pressed onto her chest, suffocating her, and she’d raised her hands with a panicked cry to fight it off. Then she felt it shift and realised what it was."
"The scrabbling echoed in the tiny, cramped space, seeming to drown her."
"A hundred thousand tiny scratches had cut into the wood, but it still wasn’t enough. Her fingers kept scrabbling."
"She sensed that she was a stranger to the window that must have seen the same face every morning for decades."
"The atmosphere was miles away from what it had been when they’d first sat down. The disaster with the teacup had broken the awkward formality of first introductions."
"Some people say the family was hacked to death. Others claim it was a gun. Still others believe it wasn’t a murder at all but a disease that swept through the area and claimed almost all of the family."
"I should’ve been kinder to her. We used to have that stupid rhyme we’d chant when she came into town. Ashburn, Ashburn, burn Ashburn down."
"Thanks for coming. It was really nice to meet you. Come back sometime… if, uh, if you want."
"A new phone will have to go on the buy-when-I’m-rich list."
"Everyone here must know each other. I must stick out like a peacock in a pigeon display."
"Welcome to Ipson, honey. I hope you like it here."
"Nearly half of Adrienne’s twenty dollars had gone to cat food."
"Edith was kind. She cared about me. And I love her for it."
"If Marion were still in the woods, every minute she remained outside increased the risk of hypothermia."
"She couldn’t help but feel that Jayne would have brought Marion inside if the house had been any other than Ashburn."
"She looked so much like a corpse. And lying there under the tombstone like that…"
"Dirt was dirt, she tried to tell herself, but it didn’t feel right to be touching the ground above where a body rested."
"Why is there a grave on this property? Who’s buried there?"
"I’ll be more careful from now on, I promise."
"It’s happened twice now, just after sundown. Will it happen again? Is it dangerous? Is there anything I can do to stop it?"
"Stop it. She’s going to be okay. She’s got to be okay."
"Adrienne exhaled a sigh, turned the kettle back on, and focussed on preparing the tea."
"Which meant the friendship might be salvaged with a little time and hard work."
"How about it, buddy? Reckon we’re ready to abolish the no-mirrors rule?"
"Morning was edging towards midday by the time Adrienne put the empty box away and stretched."
"It took less than forty minutes to mix and bake the cake then another half hour for it to cool."
"I suppose it doesn’t matter. She was in the box when I saw her. But I don’t think she’s still there."
"She said, ‘That’ll be Ashburn’s new owner.’ ‘I wonder how long it’ll be before she goes mad, too.’"
"She wasn’t keen on experiencing a re-enactment."
"I know you’re there! And I’ll call your dad if I catch you coming back! Don’t think I won’t!"
"Last night took stuff past simple coincidences and into legitimate-threat territory."
"I almost didn’t recognise you. You look so different!"
"Not really. Do you know what’s wrong with her?"
"Kris is really, really strong. And I think she expects everyone else to be the same."
"We’ve been friends since we were toddlers. I know she’ll call when she’s ready to talk. Until then, maybe the best thing we can do for her is to give her some space."
"It was a labour of love and never made much money, as far as I can tell."
"These are historical documents—possibly the only copies left. To butcher them this way—if I ever find out who did this—"
"All I want is to know whether I’m going to be murdered in my bed tonight. Is that too much to ask?"
"How many hundreds of thousands of mysteries exist in this world? How many will you hear about, and how many are left to rot in the cold-cases section of some two-man police station?"
"She’d listened to her family die then been trapped in a lightless box for two days while her loved ones decayed just metres away."
"The Ashburns had been torn apart. Blood was sprayed over nearly every room in the building, and limbs were scattered everywhere."
"Because the truth was just too awful to spread."
"Maybe some stories are just too horrible to spread."
"This is good. It’s less than a minute to home from here, and we know which direction to go. We’re going to be fine."
"The forest was eerily quiet... It was horribly, nauseatingly similar to the calm that had come in the minutes before the sundown phenomenon."
"She wasn’t standing at the side of a shadow after all. Spread out ahead of her was a deep, black hole."
"A corpse. Her steel-grey hair flowed behind her in horribly long, matted strands."
"Even in the moon’s cool light, she could see the spray burst over the cadaver’s face."
"She tried to run. The shopping bag’s weight disoriented her, so she dropped it."
"Adrienne woke and immediately wished she hadn’t."
"Get away, Wolf. You’re not allowed to eat me unless I’m dead."
"Adrienne choked on a thin, straggled laugh at the idea. _I can’t believe I’ve accepted the idea of ghosts so easily."
"She promised herself he would never go hungry again."
"Anything’s got to be better than staying here."
"Adrienne sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. She needed the bathroom, but that involved navigating the stairs."
"Adrienne slumped back in the chair, panting and trying to ignore the wet tracks running down her cheeks."
"The handle twitched as Edith tried to turn it, then a pale, grimy hand pressed against the window."
"Adrienne wanted to lie there forever, to close her eyes to the world and never move again."
"The only escape will be if someone comes to check on me and I can get a ride to town in their car."
"With enough people, I’ll have protection, witnesses, and a way to escape."
"The smell followed them, but the air was clear enough for Adrienne to take her mask off."
"The plan was solid, but there was no accounting for dumb luck."
"Having a purpose helped reduce some of the nervous tension in Adrienne’s stomach."
"If the smoke outside is anywhere near as black as this, it’ll be impossible to miss."
"I won’t have to endure it for much longer. Soon, I’ll hear the sirens as help races up the driveway, then I’ll never have to lay eyes on Ashburn again."
"You’ve just got to try harder, Addy. You can get out of here."
"Logic it out. What do you need to do? What do you need to survive tonight?"
"You’re alive. You still have Wolf. You can escape… if you just figure out how."
"I somehow need to warn them not to get out of the car."
"Nice work, Addy. Not only did you chase him off, but you made sure he wouldn’t be coming back."
"The outside world was silent for a moment, then, far below, the clicking resumed."
"The deepest region of the house seemed to repel illumination; it appeared to thrive on darkness and silence and desolation as ardently as its deceased owner had."
"I promised myself I would not take any risks. The risk-free option would be to close the door, push the clock in front of it, and forget Wolfgang ever existed."
"Then the Mozart composition hit its crescendo, and right on the final beat, the kitten opened its mouth and let out a tiny peep."
"She is strengthened by moonlight. She is debilitated by candlelight. She does not sleep. A part of her soul can be trapped in photographs. If she kills another human using her hands, her lifespan is extended by the number of years they had remaining. Her body ages like that of a mortal."
"Every morning, I walk to town and purchase, along with my groceries, a newspaper. The paper sits on the mantel above the fireplace and is burned when I start that night’s fire."