vultures ...

   "Clarence?  What are you looking at?"

   "Those birds.  Soaring in circles up there.  What kind of birds do you think they are?  Ravens, maybe?"

   "Not likely.  Probably vultures.  Why?"

   "Hmmm.  I see them quite frequently circling over our house, Albert.  Do you think they are an omen?"

   "I think they are too high up in the sky to know exactly whose house they are circling over, but no.  I don't think they are an omen.  Vultures are scavengers, and they probably smell something in the forest."

   "Hmmm.  Have you ever thought about the people that have lived and died in our house, Albert?  I mean, really thought about them.  What their lives were like.  Whether or not they knew they were going to die when they moved into the house.  What their last thoughts were about.  I went through some of the trunks in the attic and there have been a great number of tragedies.  Did you know that?"

   "I suppose I suspected, but never really thought about it much, Clarence.  It is a very old home, and I'm sure that before modern conveniences like electricity, indoor plumbing, or even automobiles that took someone to the hospital, there were several deaths there.  It stands to reason there may also have been some births there as well."

   "Perhaps.  But it seems that there have been an extraordinary amount of tragedies.  Parents lost at sea.  Suicides.  Mysterious drownings ~ both in the lake and in the house.  Disappearances.  And now this ... this spider that we have unleashed upon the village.  I just don't know how much more I can take."

   "Clarence, we don't know what happened there while we were gone.  The police found no evidence of the exterminator in the house and their investigation didn't even turn up any evidence of the spider.  They haven't been able to find him at all.  His employer said that he had always seemed a bit off and was extremely unreliable.  Perhaps when he realized that he had damaged the tent while removing it from the house he decided to quit the job and leave the country.  It's my understanding that tents to fumigate a house as large as ours can cost over £200,000.  I'm certain he was afraid he would have been held responsible for the damage."

   "Do you think you are safe there, Albert?  Really safe?  I feel the house is cursed.  Haunted.  There has been so much pain and sadness there.  I wish at times it would just burn to the ground.  I don't want to go back there.  I can't.  I won't."

   "You needn't worry about that right now.  Just focus on becoming well.  We can talk about it all when the doctor says you are well enough to leave the hospital."

   "But I worry about you being there alone, Albert.  Please promise me that you won't go back there tonight.  Stay here with me.  Please.  Please, Albert."

   "Shhh, shhh, shhh.  Don't get yourself worked up about it.  I will stay with you until your medicine takes effect and you fall asleep.  If it will make you sleep any better tonight, I will take a room at the inn to be closer to you until you are well."