The Possessed Clothes of Handily Manor

Albert and Alexis Michaels never knew their mother Lily's parents. She ran away from home at as a teenager because they couldn't accept she was gay. They well English Gentry. The kind of people who'd be invited to the Queen's garden parties. Lily was their only daughter.

She had moved to the United States settled in San Francisco's Castro district and met Christine. Lily had concieved their twins via donated sperm and they lived a simple, happy family life. Lily worked an office job for BART, the Bay area's subway system, as an accountant, while Christine managed a coffee shop. The twins had just turned twenty when the phone call came.

"How much further, Mum?" Albert asked. The twins called Christine "mom" and Lily "mum".

"not much farther... never thought I'd be back here again..." she said.

Lily's parents had died. Her father had died of Covid-19 and her mother of grief a few months later. Neither had wills, so everything had gone to Lily. She was, in fact, now a countess.

The car pulled up to a large gate. Christine reached out and punched in a code Lily gave her.

The large gate swung open and the family drove up the drive to the front of the house.

"Hello again, M'lady." A older man with a gruff voice as they got out of their car.

"Henry?" Lily asked "Henry Durmont? My God, you're still here?"

The old man was standing under an umbrella.

"I never thought I'd live to see the day you returned to Handily Manor." he said as he walked up and gave her a hug.

"Aly, Al... this is Mr. Durmont. he worked for your grandparents as the grounds keeper.

The two smiled and waved.

"and this is my wife Chrissy."

"If your parents could have only had some sense..." The old man said "You've raised two lovely children. I retired as groundkeeper about five years ago, but when I heard you were coming... i had to see you."

"You're always welcome here." Lily said.

"Much appreciated, M'Lady. I best be getting home... looks like a storm is coming."

The Michaels thanked the man for coming and went inside as he headed home. The winds began to pick up.

"Storms like this in a house this big used to frighten me when I was a little girl." Lily told them.

"House this big shouldn't be in danger." Aly said.

"It wasn't the storm I was scared of."

"Hey, I'm from Iowa." Christine said "I've seen my fair share of thunderstorms two."

The family set up shop in a guest wing, as they were used to the more confined nature of a San Francisco apartment. A rumble of thunder echoed in the distance.

Aly and Al started wandering through some of the rooms. They were curios about their mother's family. Hell, they didn't realize their mother had inherited a title until the letter came in the mail with the deed to the property, addressed to "Lady Lily, Countess of Handily.

"Just our luck to inheirt 'Downton Abby' Al said as he and his sister wandered down a corridor.

"I think it's kinda neat." She said "and you always liked history."

Most of the room were realtively empty. They heard another rumble as they reached one, followed by the gentile sounds of rain.

This door was stuck. Al tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He and Aly gave it a good, hard shove and it pushed open.

The room was a large wardobe, full of all sorts of outfits.

"I guess our grandparents never threw anything out." Aly said.

"You could probably stock every thrift store in the bay area with this stuff." Al told her.

'It looks like it's in amazing condition." Aly added, pulling a heavy coat off a rack.

she looked it over. it looked like an old army uniform.

"forget thirft stores, this stuff is museum level qual... watch where you're walking."

"Wha... OOFFF." Al said as he crashed into another rack, knocking it over."

"Dumbass..." Aly scoffed "How you've never been run over by a bus I'm never gonna understand. come on, let's get back to Mom and Mum."

The twins got the rack back up and closed the door.

The didn't see the clothes start to twitch...