It is the early 2000s. The English department of a small college in upstate New York is scandalised when their resident Dickens expert Roger Croydon, a professor in his early sixties, leaves his wife for Veronica, a graduate student in her late 20s. After electively upending his own life in this fashion, Roger is then hit by a convulsive event not of his own making; Ted, his adult son who he’s always had a somewhat tricky relationship with, is killed whilst serving with the US Special Forces in Afghanistan. His work suffers; he is eventually asked to take a leave of absence. Eventually, he steps out for a walk one evening and simply disappears.
That, at least, is what the public story is. Only Veronica knows the other side of the story – and one day, she spontaneously decides to tell it to a fellow faculty member, a budding horror author who finds her personally grating but the mystery around Roger’s disappearance compelling enough to listen to her, on the off chance he’ll hear something to inspire him.

He is not disappointed – for Veronica is able to offer both hot goss and cold horror. Before being deployed to Afghanistan, Ted came to visit Roger, having learned about his marriage to Veronica and being outraged about it. Roger and Ted had an ugly argument which turned into a fight; the police were called, and the two men spent the night in the cells. When they parted ways the next day, Roger disowned Ted in the harshest possible terms – delivering cutting words so foul, so potent, that Roger had a heart attack on delivering them and Veronica believes she had a miscarriage as a result of them.
The curse’s potence seemed to come in part from Roger’s deep reserves of resentment for a son he regarded as a disappointment, and in part from Roger and Ted’s links to Belvedere House, the home Roger had formerly shared with Joanne; the place where they raised Ted; the building Veronica had a baffling vision of when she had her miscarriage. The place which seems to have played on Roger’s mind until, after Ted’s death, he buys out Joanne and arranges for him and Veronica to move in. The house which Roger will disappear from… and where the haunting will kick into high gear.
Continue reading “Windows of the Soul”