The Strange Tale of the Blood Stone
By H. Jason Schulz
Copyright © 2012 H. Jason Schulz
All Rights Reserved
Smashwords Edition
The story I am about to tell came to me from an old friend, a medical doctor. I had invited him and his wife over for dinner one night and we began talking about the good old days. During this conversation my friend's wife urged him to tell a particularly strange story about an event that happened to him one spring many years ago. After much persuasion he relented and recited the happenings of that long ago night. As the story unfolded, and with his permission, I began taking notes. I write stories for a living you see, and this story was more incredible than anything I could have made up. Indeed truth is always stranger than fiction. He asked me to keep his identity secret so we will call him Troy. The story is fantastic but Troy swears that it actually happened exactly the way that he described it. I, at the least, believe that he believes it. I have discovered that the families mentioned in this story (Their names have also been changed.) actually do exist and there is a police record of the disturbance at their home as described in this story.
I submit the following story to you. You can choose for yourself whether it is fact or fancy.
Troy was a young man at the time of this event, in his late twenties, and he was attending medical school. He didn't have a lot of money so he worked as an emergency medical technician for an ambulance service to help make ends meet. It was part time and usually on a weekend and night shifts. That night he was with a coworker, Mike, who was much older than him and always insisted on driving. Troy didn't mind, in fact he would rather ride in the back with the patient than drive.
This weekend happened to begin the week of spring break for most of the colleges in the state and was always busy with drunk kids getting hurt in one way or another. Troy had been through several of these weekends and knew that they were always busy, which made the shift go by faster. It also gave him an opportunity to put into practice a lot of the skills he had already learned in school.
Troy and Mike had been on several alcohol poisoning calls and had transported two people to the hospital when they received a call to a house on the outskirts of the city. The Bradham house as it was called. The house was built during the turn of the 20th century by the wealthy Bradham family. The Bradham family immigrated to the United States of America just prior to their building of the house. Old man Bradham claimed to be 145 years old when he died. His family worked as antiques dealers and spent most of their time traveling. Most had never seen old man Bradham in the city but had from time to time seen the lights of the house on. Old man Bradham had kept to himself and the city did the same to him. Old man Bradham had a son who was more public than his father and currently owned the home.
The current Bradham family were active in the community and while they frequently traveled, they were well know by many in the city. They had two sons who lived over seas and a daughter who lived out of state. This daughter had a son who was attending the local university and lived with his grandparents at the Bradham house.
Troy and mike arrived on the scene to find several police cars with their lights blinking and caution tape surrounding the entire house. Two police officers moved some barricades and waved them through. A plain clothed officer raised his hand motioned to the E.M.T.s as they parked the ambulance. Troy and Mike each grabbed a medical bag and walked quickly toward the officer.
“The boy is just inside.” The officer began as the three rapidly made their way through the crowd of police officers and college kids. “He has been identified as Garret Lorcin, grandson to Mr. and Mrs. Bradham who own this property.”