The Bloodstain
A California Ghost Story
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
The Phelps place was an old, abandoned property with a monstrous, decrepit Victorian house that was supposed to be haunted. It should have been a good resting place for the local deer hunters, but they would not go near it. A few that tried came away before midnight with tales of ghostly thumping noises, gasps, moans, and a terrible wet bloodstain that appeared on the floor of the front porch and could not be wiped away.
Phelps was an Englishman who had purchased land some 20 miles off the Mendocino coast in the 1880s. He had built a huge, fancy Victorian house all covered with gingerbread trimmings and surrounded by lovely gardens. When everything was arranged to his liking, he sent out party invitations to everyone within messenger range. It was the biggest social event of the year, with music and dancing and huge amounts of food. Sawhorse tables were set up with refreshments, and drinks were set out on the front porch. People came from miles around. The only one missing was old man McInturf's son-in-law. They had had a terrible fight that afternoon, and the boy had stalked off in a rage, threatening to get even with the old man.
Around midnight, the musicians took a recess and old man McInturf went out on the front porch with some friends. Suddenly there came the thunder of hooves rushing up the lane. A cloaked figure rode towards the lantern-lit porch. McInturf put down his drink. "That will be my son-in-law," he told his friends as he went down the steps. The cloaked figure stopped his horse just outside the pool of lantern-light. There was a sharp movement and two loud shots from a gun. Old man McInturf staggered backwards, shot in the throat and the chest. The cloaked man wheeled his horse and fled down the lane as friends ran to the assistance of the old man.
They laid McInturf down on the porch. He was bleeding heavily and they were afraid to move him much. There was some talk of fetching the doctor, but everyone knew it was too late. So much blood was pouring from the old man's wounds that it formed a pool underneath his head. McInturf coughed, once, twice; a hideous, gurgling, strangling sound that wrenched at the hearts of all who heard it. Then he died.
McInturf's body was laid out on the sofa, and the once-merry guests left in stricken silence. The servants came and wiped the red-brown bloodstain off the floorboards. The next day, a wagon was brought to the front of the house and McInturf's body was carried out onto the porch. As the men stepped across the place where McInturf had died, blood began to pool around their boots, forming a wet stain in exactly the pattern that had been wiped up by the servants the night before. The men gasped in fear. One of them staggered and almost dropped the body. They hurriedly laid McInturf in the back of the wagon, and a pale Phelps ordered the servants to clean up the fresh bloodstain.
From that day forward, the Phelps could not keep that part of the porch clean. Every few weeks, the damp bloodstain would reappear. They tried repainting the porch a few times, but the bloodstain would always leak through. In the county jail, McInturf's son-in-law died of a blood clot in the brain. A few months later, one of the Phelps servants went mad after seeing a "terrible sight" that made his head feel like it was going to exploded. Folks started saying the house was being haunted by the ghost of McInturf, seeking revenge. The property was resold several times but each resident was driven out by the terrible, gasping ghost of McInturf reliving his last moments and by the bloodstain that could not be removed from the porch. The house was eventually abandoned.
A cowboy has a much-too-close encounter with the ghost of Old Man McInturf in Spooky California by S.E. Schlosser.
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Comments
that was a really really scary story and an exellent one
Posted by: ranaya | July 9, 2010 07:05 AM
freaky
Posted by: freaky | July 11, 2010 02:47 PM
verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry
Posted by: mymoo | July 12, 2010 07:13 AM
OMG THATS MY LAST NAME!!!!!
Posted by: Heather Phelps | July 13, 2010 03:57 PM
ugh not even scary
Posted by: emily | July 15, 2010 07:25 PM
not very scary,but good.
Posted by: anirban | July 16, 2010 01:11 PM
thats to long i dont like tooo read heheheheheh bye :) but its a scary storie
Posted by: Anonymous | July 16, 2010 01:54 PM
not scary but a good tory !! :)
Posted by: Halee | July 16, 2010 09:22 PM
stupid story. just as scary as the three little bears.
Posted by: notmyrealname | July 19, 2010 05:13 PM
Good story
Posted by: maddi | July 21, 2010 12:12 AM
that wasn't scary.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 21, 2010 07:14 AM
this creeped me out i was scared to go in my basment for a month scary. i have a story to tell my basement is haunted because you hear walking in my computer room and there is blood in the storage room under the shelves and there is groaning and the scariest thing is i sleep in the basement so i slept upstairs !!!!!!! :q
Posted by: not telling | July 21, 2010 01:41 PM
that was actually a really scary story ... im gonna be scared going on my porch now .. and i will for sure watch my step and make sure no blood is beneath me ... D:
Posted by: freeaaakkkk | July 24, 2010 08:56 PM
that was really scary
Posted by: aviana | July 26, 2010 08:19 AM
So not scary
I wasn't scared but while i was reading the story my brother walked in and the sound of the door opening scared me lolz ha ha ha ha
Posted by: Bobby Bomb Button | July 27, 2010 03:26 AM
Poor guy
Posted by: Americanducklover | July 27, 2010 09:33 AM
scaryyyy!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: anonymous | July 27, 2010 05:43 PM
It is sad. The man seemed kinda nice. Woah, think of how the servents felt cleaning the blood up so often.
Posted by: Lulu | July 31, 2010 07:59 PM
kreepy
Posted by: Reba | August 2, 2010 06:10 PM
This story wasn't. All that scary but it wa still a good story an im gonna tell it tonight at my campfire.
Posted by: brooklhn | August 14, 2010 06:47 PM
That gave me chills! GOOD story!
Posted by: stephanie | August 19, 2010 02:01 PM
It wasn't scary but it was a good story.
Posted by: meeeeeeee!!!! | August 24, 2010 03:38 AM
Thats not so scary but it is a awsum story!!!!!!
Posted by: jasmin | August 24, 2010 08:04 AM
pppuuhhh lleeeezzz!!!!not scary AT ALL!!!
Posted by: Abby | August 27, 2010 12:39 PM
ugh
Posted by: carriana | September 1, 2010 10:49 AM
very good and scary vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Posted by: Anonymous | September 2, 2010 07:30 PM
wow scary
Posted by: Icantsay | September 12, 2010 09:17 AM
not scary at all.
Posted by: 1234 | September 15, 2010 07:39 PM
Soo lame
Posted by: Audi | September 16, 2010 03:26 PM
Scary but I got a story to tell here it goes: my house has 5 floors once I was walking to the basement then I saw the dead body of my maid in a pool of blood then I fainted
Posted by: Alan | September 20, 2010 04:47 AM
kind of scary but not sooooo scary.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 22, 2010 11:50 AM
AWESOMLY FREAKY I'D LOVE TO GO TO THAT HOUSE...[I love doing kewlish weird freaky stuff] and this defo goes under kewlish weird freaky stuff :D
Posted by: Memmy | September 27, 2010 06:39 AM
good and a nice story
Posted by: 124 | September 28, 2010 12:31 PM
freaky freaky freaky!!!!
Posted by: amanda | October 4, 2010 04:28 AM
what a fun and scary story. i'd like it
Posted by: dora tomson | October 6, 2010 02:34 AM
omg scary that gave me nightmares of the abondaned house next
creepy
Posted by: bill | October 10, 2010 12:26 PM
this was a good story I espashaly liked the end.
Posted by: madison | October 12, 2010 05:55 PM
was ok my phone rang while i was reading the story and it freaked me OUT! but it was ok
Posted by: Person in love | October 16, 2010 05:46 PM
........well.....nothing really happened. why would the old man stay at the house? Why not the jail?
Posted by: JohnLennon | October 19, 2010 02:50 PM
cool
Posted by: marahannda | October 21, 2010 01:35 PM
cool
Posted by: marahannda | October 21, 2010 01:36 PM
scary
Posted by: hththtyty | October 23, 2010 01:17 AM
This sound like a job for... House .M.D
Posted by: Anonymous | October 28, 2010 11:45 AM
i feel bad for the guy.
Posted by: it's a secret! | October 31, 2010 03:28 AM
that was a good storie keep wirteing
Posted by: taylor | November 2, 2010 05:53 PM
That was cool! Freaky too though.
Posted by: Claire Marie | November 3, 2010 08:37 PM
i was reading it in the dark suddenly i see a shadow of something on the wall i turn around my brother is standing there with a toy sword and a video camera and guess what i screamed i hope he doesn't putit on youtube or something
Posted by: mimi | November 18, 2010 08:33 PM
that was not to scary but it was a good stoey
Posted by: dood555666 | November 25, 2010 04:09 PM
so scary
Posted by: jayni | December 15, 2010 09:59 AM
Holy Cow that was SCARY never ever going there!!!!!!!! LOL :0
Posted by: Morgan | January 23, 2011 07:44 PM
cool
Posted by: andrew crumpler | January 25, 2011 09:32 AM
that was so freaky omg what kind of son in law does that 2 his father in law :o
Posted by: grace r. | March 14, 2011 02:33 PM
that was so scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 24, 2011 03:36 PM
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I AM NEVER GONNA GO TO MY ROOM AND SLEEP ANYWHERE!
Posted by: Caitlyn | April 10, 2011 11:32 PM
That's sad that man didn't deserve to die
Posted by: Anonymous | April 23, 2011 01:19 AM
gave me nightmares
Posted by: Derick | June 1, 2011 03:45 PM
hmmmm I liked it...cool.
Posted by: adam | June 22, 2011 11:34 AM
i have seen a movie like that they did all they could to get it off but t was in a house and they eventually heard werid noises and getting hit and pushed so they left the the house was abouynded
Posted by: Anonymous | August 8, 2011 07:58 PM
OMG EVIL SON IN LAW D:
Posted by: Anonymous | August 19, 2011 06:53 PM
COOOOOOOL!
Posted by: Anonymous | October 31, 2011 08:21 AM