The journey to Llanada Villa was most pleasant, the sky overhead stacked with high white clouds and the plains themselves covered with beautiful woodland and fine colonial dwellings, many surrounded by flowers, and the evergreen trees which grow here in abundance. I do not think you can imagine the lushness of this landscape, for the tenderest blooms grow here in wild profusion all year round. Great forests of redwood trees rise up everywhere. And so do giant yellow daisies upon the trunks which grow as high as the trees. No less enchanting were the sudden glimpses of the distant green mountains. If there are any mountains in Ireland as green as these, I have never beheld them, and when it is seen at twilight, it is most spectacular. On the road I also passed two Victorian Houses, very pleasing structures, set back from the road behind great gardens. And also, just beside a small pond, a graveyard laid out with fine marble monuments inscribed with German names. My senses were lulled by the beauties I saw on this journey, and by the heavy moist twilight, and by the long stretch of tended fields and the sudden spectacle of Llanada Villa, grander than any one could behold. Llanada Villa is a Grand Queen Anne Victorian mansion, and by that I mean it has a great pitched roof, with several towers, and many domers, and beneath there are proches stretching the length of it, supported by wooden columns. My mansion has more windows than the tallest high buildings in New York and are decorated with gorgeous wooden shutters which can be bolted both against enemy attack and against storms. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

A heady profusion of light came from my home as we approached. The stables and other offices were concealed by trees The mature couple who had been engaged to act at butler and cook-housekeeper were waiting inside the front door, and opened at I approached. Their name was Strauch; they gave a very favourable impression. The large rooms on the ground floor of Llanada Villa were satisfactory, especially the library, which was as large as The Venetian Dining-Room, and three tall windows facing east. The guests often contemplated and enjoyed the shiny portrait of my husband William which adorned the drawing-room. Some ancient sepulchral reliefs were built into the wall, and about it all was a pleasant flavour of the grand tour. While the Sun was bright, I went merrily on, and without any difficulty reached the heart of the Labyrinth and got the jewel William had left for me, and set out on my way back rejoicing: but as the night fell, wherein all the beast of the mansion do move, I begun to be sensible of some creature keeping pace with me and, as thought, peering and looking upon me from the next hallway; and when I should stop, this companion would top also, which put me in some disorder of my spirits. And, indeed, as the darkness increased, it seemed to me that there was more than one, and, it might be, even a whole band of such followers; at least so I judged by the rustling and creaking that they kept amongst the floors; besides that there would be at a time a sound of whispering, which seemed to import a conference among them. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

 Gradually the light faded, the hall grew darker—as something huge had come up behind me. However, in regard of who they were or what form they were of, I would not be persuaded to say what I thought. As I swung around quickly, there was nothing there. I drew a deep breath. It must have been just a cloud passing across the moon. But then The Door to Nowhere, all by itself opened. And before I could stop it, it closed with a bang. And it was then, as I was running out of the room, that I saw the ghost. It behaved just as you would expect a ghost to behave. It was a tall, dim, white figures, and it came gliding slowly toward me. I gave a yell, and tore down the stairs. I did not stop until I was in the morning room on the first floor. About Midnight (so far as I could judge) I heard my named called from along way off, and I would have sworn it was William that so called me. I stood still and listed at the pitch of his voice, and I supposed that the echo, or the noise of call, disguised for the moment any lesser sound; because, when there fell a stillness again, I distinguished a trampling (not loud) of running feet coming very close behind me, wherewith I was so daunted that I set off to run, and I continued running through the maze until the dawn broke. Sometimes when my breath failed me, I would cast myself flat on my face, and hope that my pursuers might over-run me in the darkness, but at such a time they would regularly make a pause, and I could hear them pant and snuff as it had been a hound at fault’ which wrought in me so extreme an horrour of mind, that I would be forced to betake myself again to turning and doubling, if by any means I might throw them off the scent. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

And, as if this exertion was in itself not terrible enough, I had before me the constant fear of falling into a trap, of which I had heard, and indeed seen with my own eyes that there were several, some at the sides and other in the midst of the hallways. So that in fine a more dreadful night was never spent by a mortal than that I had endured in my Labrinth; and not that jewel which I had from my beloved in my hand, nor the riches from the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, could be a sufficient recompence to me for the pain I had suffered. Then as I made my way cautiously over the great floor, there came a sight which for the time excluded all other matters. There was the apparition of a child, wandering about the rooms moaning, and, strange to say, with the palms of his hands turned outwards. And just as I got over my fright, the boy floated over to the door and went right through the keyhole, the way water goes down the drain. Then he came back the same way. The ghost screamed for a while down in the cellar. I wandered through the house for nearly half an hour before finding myself in the kitchen. It was almost like a tunnel in the murky light of the gathering storm. Somebody had been eating a meal. I picked up a cup half-filled with coffee. The coffee was still warm. Whoever it was got out of here in a hurry, too. Knocked over the chair for being in such a rush. And threw a napkin on the floor. Suddenly I heard the violent slamming of doors. Somebody or something was moving through the mansion close behind me, stomping on the floors, charging through rooms. A little startled, I shouted. There was no answer. “Funny,” I said. “There certainly must be somebody there.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

Then the rain fell suddenly, like a torrent, hitting the roof and windows like tiny pellets. Some feeling of anxiety came upon me; and it grew stronger and stronger—horrour lest something might emerge before me, and a really agonizing conviction that a terror was on its war, from the sight of which I would not be able to escape. Oh yes, somewhere there was a movement in the mansion. Nearer and nearer it came, and it was of a blackish-grey colour with more than one dark hole. It took shape as a face – a human face – a burnt human face: and with the odious writhings of a wasp creeping out of a rotten apple there clambered forth an appearance of a form, waving black arms prepared to clasp the head that was bending over them. With a convulsion of despair I threw myself back, struck my head against a hanging lamp, and fell. There was concussion of the brain, shock to the system, and a long confinement to bed. Dr. Wayland was badly puzzled, not by the symptoms, but by a request which I made to him as soon as I was able to me. “I was to build another Ball Room.” I muttered and turned over to sleep, and the doctor intimated to the nurses that the patient was not out of the wood yet. When I was better to express my views, I made my meaning clear, and received a promise that the additional to the house should be done at once. When I awoke, I was glad to find that the servant had remembered to leave my curtains undrawn and my widows open. I went to the window which commanded a view of the garden. It was a brilliant sunlit morning. It a few weeks’ time the sonorous winds of autumn would break up all this calm. However, now the distant woods were in a deep stillness; the slopes of the lawns were shinning with dew; the colours of some flowers could almost be guessed. The light of the sun just caught the cornice of the observational tower and the peak of its dome, and I admired this real beauty. As I turned from the window, I felt that I had never seen anything more complete of its sort. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

The Curse of the Winchester Fortune is viewed by a joke by some, but the tragic events that Mrs. Winchester and a family suffered prove otherwise. Curses are real. There is a curse attached to Queen of the Damned as well, a 2001 film by Anne Rice Starring Aaliyah and Stuart Towsend. Queen of the Damned almost did not get cast. But is the role of a Queen not a role actors die for? Not if the movie is cursed, it seems. Aaliayh initially turned down the starring role. She was busy with her music career and did not have the time. Producers had seen her videos and told her that they would be willing to work around her schedule and that if she did not accept the role, they would not make the movie. However, even after accepting the role, the movie almost did not get maid. When is house was broken into, a producer broke his ribs, which punctured his lungs; an editor fell off the balcony and broke his leg; a cameraman fell down a flight of stairs fracturing his skull and severed a finger.  After a freak accident on set, an experienced stuntman suffered multiple fractures, internal injuries and hemorrhaged for several days. Another stuntman was sliced on his throat when the stage exposed causing him to lose a lot of blood. A plane Aaliyah was flying on malfunctioned in 2001 killing several passengers and Aaliyah before the movie was completed. Even Stuart Townsend said the curse came between him and his wife. A curse is like a recipe. Read and reread it until you understand it. The film was thought to be cursed because producers wanted the movie to be authentic and some of the props were bought on the black market from an ancient burial tomb that was unearthed in 1827. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

After the filmed was released, it was later discovered that some of the antiquities were real, and were traced back to a string of deaths in 1858. Many of the tombs bore hieroglyphic inscriptions on sealed outer doors that were believed to be curses making all kinds of threats, seemingly with no moral boundaries. The phrasing and location of the tomb inscription was meant to strike terror into the heart of any potential tomb raider. One curse that seems to cover all eventualities comes from the administrator of the 18^th dynasty, Amenhotep, the son of Hapu. He threatens anyone who would damage his tomb with a comprehensive list of punishments. They would: Lose their Earthly possessions and honours, be incinerated in a furnace in execration rites, capsize and drown at sea, have no successors, receive no tomb or funerary offerings of their own, and their bodies would decay because they will starve without sustenance and their bones will perish. I conjure thee, Lucifer. Come, therefore, promptly, obey my will, appear and as for anyone who shall lay a finger on this pyramid and this temple which belong to me, one will have laid one’s finger on the Mansion of Harris…one’s affair will be judged by the Ennead and one will be nowhere and one’s house will be nowhere; one will be one proscribed, one who eats oneself. As for every mayor, every wab-priest, every scribe and every nobleman who shall take from the statue, his arm shall be cut off like that of this bull, his neck shall be twisted off like that of this bird, his office shall not exist, the position of his son shall not exist, his house shall not exist in the World, his tomb shall not exist in the necropolis, his god shall not accept his white bread, his flesh shall belong to the fire, his children shall belong to the fire, his corpse shall not be to the ground, I shall be against him as a crocodile on the water, as a serpent on Earth and as an enemy in the necropolis. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

He who trespasses upon my property or who shall injure my tomb drag out my body,  or injure my carriage, the sun god shall punish him. He shall not bequeath his goods to his children; his heart shall not have pleasure in life; he shall not receive water in the tomb; and his soul shall be destroyed forever. As to anyone who violates my body which is in the tomb and who shall remove my image from my tomb, he shall be hateful to the gods, and he shall not receive water on the altar of Osiris. I conjure thee, Lucifer, and constrain thee, in like manner, by the Most Holy Names of God, ELOY, ADONAY, ELOY, AGLA, SAMALABACTAY, which are written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; by all the sacraments, by all the names written in this book; and by him who drove thee from the highest height of Heaven. I conjure and command thee by the virtue of the Most Holy Eucharist, which hath redeemed men from their sins; I conjure thee to come without any delay, to do and perform all my biddings, without any prejudice to my body or soul, without harming my book, or doing injury to those that accompany me. Oybarhtoaz mepsa-tvrua mear mehsema meteahsxravh ansay atavnurus iszay met acahgnaneravh ayar eha aceravh acmehgnam eratna methsihav manarhdexah itas tay acmerhdexah iazay hsitioayoag-uruov oy orhtim manavead itiap ehderemak metxivvinuh merzav iazay menamhsac-eraveab mehsoag-argnazah mitioayoag-uruov merhtim iazay mepsa -tavrua mear mehsema tay eravh etiazay oy acayhteag atazay acavayniam epsiv itieyavanhsex menavru moah etiazay etneps ehsema etiazay madzam meruha etiazay. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

The Winchester Mystery House

In 1890, Mrs. Winchester’s mansion had been vandalized. There were once tiles inside of the mansion, lettered, and the letters, taken in the right order, formed an inscription—what it was I forget—something about Theseus and Ariadne. There was, however, a copy of it, as well as the plan of the labyrinth itself. When Mrs. Winchester’s niece Diasy saw the damage, she said to her aunt Sarah, “How people can do such things! I shall never forgive you if you injure your maze. Do you know, they’re becoming very uncommon?” Although a huge portion of the mansion was destroyed, and the nine story Observational Tower was removed, much of the mansion still remains with 160 rooms and four stories. It once contained as many as 600 rooms. However, one of the oddest things in the whole series of transaction is that the book which contained blueprints and photos has entirely disappeared. Caretakers have never been able to find it. Some believe it may have been sold at auction and would be priceless. If it still exists, it is probably sitting in someone’s attic somewhere.  

It is sometimes said that ghosts, or phantoms, may often walk unknown among the living. The supposition here must be that the ghosts of the dead are sometimes indistinguishable from “real” people. How many do we pass in the course of the day in the mansion? There is an intriguing account of a figure in a wide-brimmed hat standing at the counter in Sarah’s Café in what seemed to be seventeenth-century clothes. He then disappeared. He was seen again walking down Winchester Boulevard where no one seemed to notice him, and though he did not appear to take any deliberate avoiding action, he never seemed to get in anyone’s way or to bump into anyone. Muffled sounds float from the recesses of the basement and cause people to read into every wind-howl they hear. A voice from other epochs belongs in a graveyard of other epochs. As it is, however, the noise shatters all profoundly seated adjustment—all tacit acceptance that the inner mansion is utterly and irrevocably void of every vestige of supernatural life as the sterile disc of the moon has evoked a monstrous response from the spirits.

A house built for uniform lifelessness has sometimes opened new and unexplored tunnels on the basement levels. There have been reports that in the basement a large pyramidal structure is accessible and it is remarkably well preserved. Along the path, there have been reports of a bulky white shape looming up ahead, which causes people to turned their minds from earlier fears of what might lurk near. Caretakes have found supplies of others in a great circular place that they must have planned to return after their scouting trip into the abyss. The white, waddling thing is fully six feet high and invokes a primitive dread almost sharper than the worst of any reasoned fear. A farmer pointed it out. “Folks that go in there after dark,” he said, “well, they usually don’t ever come out again. After the passing of Mrs. Winchester, Winchester Repeating Arms Company rented the mansion out three times, but every family had moved out within a week. They said the things that went on there were just too queer. So nobody would live in it. That is when they opened the house for tours.

While a number of people were looking at the statue of Hebe, no one had told them anything untoward about Hebe and Demiter, and they had no idea at the time of their fearsome reputations, they were just amazing statues. There were about seven people looking at Hebe when they heard a griding creaking sound coming from within the mansion. They all took a step back fearing an earthquake and that debris might fall on them. The noise continued for a few more moments, and they all had their eyes transfixed on the statue. Then it moved, just slightly initially, but its head definitely moved. Then its arm extended outward towards them, right where they stood. The arm appeared to extend forward, moving closer to them, and as it did so its head moved It was one of those occasion when one thinks someone was playing a practical joke on them, but they were not certain. They all laughed nervously, and then it moved again, this time they all screamed out in terror. One woman was screaming, “It’s alive, it’s alive!” Two officials came over to them and asked what had happen, so they told them, expecting them to dismiss their claims. They did not. Instead, they asked them to leave the area and join a complementary mansion tour. They no longer allowed guests to take photographs after this happened.

For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

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