The Legend of Youngs Corner XVIII

PART XVIII
The List of Names

Out of a dozen trunks, those two were the only ones we could open; all the others were locked shut. So, we spilt up- Bobby searched the area by the wall with the windows, Gaeten and Nicholas looked through the area past the trunks and into the bottom part of the L. I searched the wall opposite of the one with the windows. There was a closet door and a shelf with scattered items. The cabin was full of scattered items as well. An old, fabric arm chair with its springs popping out sat against a corner, a folded spring mattress stood in the middle of the cabin with a pair of black, dirty, and dusty boots placed on top. Very odd. There were old, turn-of-the-century political signs lying everywhere. I brought my focus to a shelf.

To the left of the shelf was a door, which none of us had dared to open, at least, not during this trip anyway. The shelf extended from the wall with a broken mirror mounted above it. I could barely see my reflection through it however, as it was covered in grime and mildew. Among the small scattered items were bits of metal, ash, etc. But there was one thing that stood out above all, it was a slip of small paper. It was the size of a restaurant tab, even the name “Charlesport Hotel” was on the top of the page. However, the page was not covered in writings of appointments, or orders for a waiter, it was covered in names. There were two columns, on both sides of the page, each filled with names, first and last name in all – and almost all of them had a line drawn across.
“I’ve found something,” I shouted as softly as I could. The others quickly gathered around me. I showed them the list of names.
“Hold on a second,” Nicholas said. “Is this what I think it is?” I looked down at the paper.
“I sure hope not.” Bobby took the page form my hand.
“No way, it can’t be, it just can’t.” We were all thinking the same thing and shivering because of it- Was this the old woman’s death list? Was this a count of people she has and has yet to kill?
“Look at this,” Bob said, “some names have an X by them, some are drawn through, and there are only 3 that have no markings.” It was indeed a provoking observation – what was the list’s purpose, and who were those remaining 3?