The Cougar Painting
By jobella
THE COUGAR PAINTING
Chapter 1:
After wandering around the old Cougar mansion
for about an hour
Troy Anderson walked over to his girlfriend
Wendy Adams and asked
“Wendy, can we please get out of here?”
This place is starting to creep me out.”
But Wendy didn’t answer him.
She seemed to be lost in some sort
of faraway trance
While staring at a picture of Betty Cougar,
which was hanging on the wall
Above the fire place
In the picture Betty was sitting in a rocking chair
on the mansion front porch
Standing next to her was a small child who
seemed to be pointing at something
But all Troy could make out from looking
at it.
was some strange blurry outline
That looked like another small child
“Hello, Wendy
earth to Wendy, come on in!”
He cried out snapping his fingers in
her face
“What’s the matter?”
She asked snapping out of her trance
“Nothing’s the matter.
I just want to get out of here
before old Betty, asks me out!”
He laughed
“Ha!”
Don’t flatter yourself.” Wendy snorted
“Well, I got you to go out with me.
Didn’t I?”
Troy proudly smiled
“Yah,
but I only agreed because Brad Pitt,
was already taken!”
She laughed as she picked up her bag
off from the floor
“Very funny,”
Troy frowned taking her hand
and leading
her to the front door
“I wonder why nobody else showed up.
I mean this
place has been closed for almost
twenty years or so
“You’d think that there would be a
line of people waiting to go in.”
Wendy told him once they were outside.
Troy didn’t answer her,
he just started to walk faster
He wanted to get far
away from the old mansion
as soon as possible.
He didn’t know why but covering
this story
about the re-opening didn’t feel right
“Troy?”
Who is in la-la land now?”
Wendy smiled
“Huh?” Oh, sorry.
Maybe they didn’t hear about it yet,
but for now let’s go get something
to eat
“I’m starving.” He shrugged
Chapter 2:
They went to a local pizza shop and ordered
“Well, we’re off to a good start.”
Wendy sighed
while picking at her salad
“Don’t worry about it Wen,
after we finish eating we’ll head out to
the library.
I’m sure we’ll find something that
we can use.” Troy told her
“Here, I got you something.”
He added smiling.
He reached into his pocket and
pulled out
a small black box and handed it to her
“Oh, Troy you shouldn’t have!”
Wendy cried out happily
before she opened it.
inside was a small whistle tied to
a long black cord
Wendy put it around her neck and added
“How does it look?”
“Just for your information the guy at
the gift shop
told me that the artist who made it.
was one of the best artist in the world.”
Troy pouted
“Oh yah, right,
maybe in whistle world.
He’s!”
Wendy laughed
before flicking her pickle in his direction
“Oh, real mature.
Aren’t we just a bit too old
to be playing with our food?”
Troy frowned
“I’m very mature Troy,
but then I started dating you
and well.”
Wendy shrugged
“Cute,
come on let’s get out of here.”
Troy frowned
A few minutes later they walked inside
the Bay Hills Library.
Wendy walked up to the old lady
who was sitting behind the
front desk
“Excuse me,
my friend and I are from
the Havens newspaper and.”
“Never heard of you.”
The old lady frowned
“Oh, we’re an out of town newspaper.
Sort of a ghost hunters
but instead of a tv show we write
about it.”
Wendy explained
The old lady didn’t answer
she just gave Wendy a weird look
“Any way we were sent out to cover the
story of the Cougar mansion re-opening.”
Wendy began
“That place has been
closed for the last twenty years.”
The old lady snorted
“I know.
But I’m sure that you’ve heard
that they’ve re-opened it again.”
Wendy answered
“No, I haven’t.
besides why in the world would
they want to reopen
that old place again for?”
Is this some kind of joke?”
The old lady scowled
No
“Listen miss,
I’m not interested in anything that
has to do with that place.
I’m afraid that I can’t help you,
now if you’d excuse me I’ve a lot
of work to do.”
The old lady frowned.
She then picked up her papers
and went
inside her office behind the counter
“Gee. Thanks lady, you were
very helpful.”
Wendy muttered to herself then
went to look for Troy
“So what did you find out?”
He asked looking up from
the computer screen
“Nothing, the old lady just looked at me
like I suddenly grew another head.
As soon as I mentioned the
Cougar mansion.”
Wendy sighed
“Oh, maybe you scared her you
do some times have that effect on people.”
Troy smiled
“Not funny. So what did you come up
with computer boy?”
Wendy smirked
“Well, I tried looking for any headlines
announcing the re-opening.
But I couldn’t find anything which
I thought was strange
“I would’ve thought that whoever
planned this
would at least have a web page
or something.” Troy explained
“I don’t know Troy;
I’m starting to get a funny feeling
about this whole thing.
I thought we’d come out here take
a few pictures, talk to a few people,
and we’d have the rest of
the weekend for ourselves
“But now every time we
even mention the word Cougar,
these people look at us like
we just killed their first born child
or something.”
Wendy sighed
“I know. I got the same feeling
So, I did a quick google
search on the Cougars.”
Troy answered her
“It seems that old Fred Cougar,
build that place for his lovely bride Betty- “
“I guess
they didn’t have whistles back then!”
Wendy interrupted laughing
“Funny, anyways
thing seemed to be going good
for the love birds,
until her forty birthday.”
Troy started to explain
“Why?”
What happened on her birthday?” Wendy asked
“Well, according to what I read Fred,
threw her one hell of a birthday party.
The whole town was there having
a grand time
until one of the banker’s daughter
disappeared into thin air.”
Troy answered her
“Oh wow!” Wendy cried out
“Oh wow, is right.
Of course the police did they’re thing
but they didn’t find her,
a few months later Fred
threw another party.”
“And let me guess another girl disappeared.”
Wendy interrupted
“Bingo!”
And it happened four more times
before the cops
began to suspect old Fred of foul play
“Since all the girls went missing while
his house.
But they couldn’t pin anything on him,
Freddy,
himself, was so disturb by the whole thing
“That he ordered Betty,
to pack up their stuff and moved
out of the mansion.”
Troy explained
“Did they ever find out
what happened to the girls?” Wendy asked
“Relax there Nancy Drew,
I was just looking into that when
you showed up.”
Troy stated
Chapter 3:
Troy typed in a new google search
“Hey, check it out!”
He cried.
“It says here:
That Betty Cougar,
was brought in to be questioned about
the missing girls.
After reading some more he cried out again
“Holy crap!”
After a few hours she confessed on
murdering the girls,
after finding out that they had been
having an affair with her husband
“What a naughty boy
you were Freddy boy!”
Troy laughed
Wendy shot him a dirty look
before asking
“What happened to her?”
Troy scrolled down the page
and answered
“Umm, she was charged
with six counts of first degree.
But instead of serving any jail time,
everyone involved decided that
it’d be better
“If she serves her time locked up in
some private mental hospital.
I guess money talked even back then.”
Troy shrugged
“Figures, and Fred,
what happened to him? Wendy frowned
“He disappeared for a while.
And whoa!”
a year later when
he suddenly appeared again.
He moved back in with Betty!”
Troy cried out
“What?” No way!”
How did that happen?” Wendy yelled
“According to this Fred,
paid some mad money and threatened
that he had magical powers
And would put a curse on the whole town.
If they didn’t release her to him.”
Troy read
“And they really
believed that stupid story?”
Wendy snorted
“Not only did they believe it.
but according to this Fred,
became so obsessive with the
occult that he never left his house.
“The few people that he did allow
inside told strange tales of how
Fred went on and on of how
He’d hear the voices of the dead girls
calling out to him.” Troy answer
“Until one night he totally snapped
and drowned Betty,
and then set the mansion on fire.
Some of the town’s people say
that only Betty died that night
“That Fred escaped through one of
the secret tunnels.” He added
“Oh wow,
no wonder no one will talk to us.
But if the mansion burnt down who
rebuild it and why.”
Wendy asked frowning
“That babe is the
six-million-dollar question.
Maybe Freddy did it!” Troy laughed.
And before she had a chance
to answer him back
The old lady that Wendy had talked to before
walked up from behind them
and cried out
“We’re closing now!”
“Wow, lady!”
You just scared the hell out of me!”
Wendy cried out
“Sorry,
but we’re about to close.
And you’ll have to leave now.”
The old lady frowned
“Fine.
We’re going and thanks for all
your help.”
Wendy smirked before
she and Troy gathered up their stuff
Chapter 4:
A few minutes later they were walking
pass the old mansion.
When Wendy suddenly stopped then
started walking up
the mansion drive way
“Hey, where are you going?”
Troy called after her
“I just want to check out
something really quick.”
She answered him
“You want me to go with you?”
Troy asked
“No,
I’ll be right back.” Wendy smiled.
And before he could stop her
she vanished through the front doors
A couple of minutes passed and there
was no sign of Wendy
“I wonder what’s taking her so long?”
Troy asked himself.
He slowly went inside and was
about to call out for Wendy.
But the sound of laughter coming
from one
of the upstairs room interrupted him
“Oh great,
she must’ve found someone
to interview.”
Troy decided to give her
a few more minutes before interrupting.
But after ten minutes went by
Troy began to get a funny feeling
“That’s it.
I’m not going to wait inside
this creepy place all night.”
He started to go up the stairs
when something caught his eye
“Hey,
I don’t remember seeing this
picture before.”
He went to get a closer look at it
It was the picture of Betty Cougar
that was hanging above
the fire place
But this time it looked
completely different
“Holy shit!”
There’s no freaking way!”
Troy started to run up the stairs
calling out Wendy’s name.
but she didn’t answer
When he reached to the top of the stairs the
first thing he noticed was that Wendy’s bag
was lying on the floor
And the sound of laughter
suddenly grew louder
as he ran from room to room
yelling out for Wendy
Chapter 5:
When the cops found Troy a
couple hours later.
They found him crawled up
crying hysterically
When they finally got him to
calm down
to asked what happened
All Troy would say was that the house
had just murdered his
girlfriend Wendy
Then hid her body inside the painting
that was hanging by the fire place
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