It was a small farming community where every citizen lived peacefully carrying out their assigned duties. That is until the day Count Alexander Von Elshoff staked his claim on some of the more desirable lands in the area. At first he seemed to be a gentile quiet man, not bothering the local community with his intricacies.

But there always seemed to be a distant twinkle in his eye that reflected evil and malice.

After completion of Elshoff Manor, the locals noticed that the population was thinning. At first people would just wonder where the old hermit went, or what happened to that guy who begged on the corner by the bread store? But after people noticed some of the children were gone, something wasn't right. The townspeople formed a search party to locate the missing residents, but found nothing save for a little girl's doll at the base of the gates of Elshoff's cemetery.

The people were shocked at what they heard when the search party returned and they demanded that the Count be brought to justice. So many citizens took up arms and torches and ran towards the manor with malicious intent. They broke down the front doors and killed many servants that tried to stop them. Elshoff himself was no where to be found.

One of the mob noticed a partially open panel in the dining room that led to a secret passage. He called the others, and they explored this murky cave further. The sight they laid their eyes on next stopped them cold in their tracks. There stood Alexander Elshoff with his hand clenched tightly around one of the children's throats and the other hand holding a dagger aimed at the infant's eye. Without a word the people charged him, saved the child, and tackled Alexander. They pinned him to the ground and saw that he was not of this earth. His face was all sunken in as if his very life was being pulled from him. He shouted, "You fools! you are going to kill me, I must feed on the child."

This was too much for the people to take, and they began to beat him. His final words were a curse that in 200 years he would return to exact his revenge on the town and destroy the souls of all who lived there.

The house was never the same, there were too many deaths in it for human souls to remain, so the place was condemned and forgotten for decades. Not until 1905, nearly one hundred years later, did anyone try to move in. It was Vincent Elshoff, the great grandson of Alexander's brother. He heard about the house, and went to stake his family claim, but learned all to soon that he wasn't alone in the house. Spirits of tormented children and other foul beasts shared this dwelling with him. No one knows how he actually died, whether it was from insanity, or if the house itself swallowed his very soul.

Twenty years after Vincent had died, his daughter Sarah and son William moved in. They didn't know of the manor's twisted past, or of the methods that their father died, just that the home was now theirs. They didn't get any more rest than their father did from their evil house guests, in fact they where killed within weeks of moving in. No one is sure how they died, except that their bodies were found missing their eyes.

Two hundred years later, David and Mary Elshoff the son and daughter-in-law of William Elshoff received a telephone call letting them know that an old will was found leaving a place called Elshoff Manor to them. At first David was excited, but wondered why after all these years he was the one that would inherit the house, and not some other member of the Elshoff family. Then he learned of the home's dark past, and he wished nothing to do with the dwelling, though he felt as though something was drawing him there, something that needed him.

So David packed up the family and moved in to the old manor. They spent months on repairing the old place, but every time they thought they were getting close some horrible thing would happen to one of the workers and they would flee. Mary said that the place was haunted, and that someone or something didn't want them to fix up the place, but David didn't believe.

Then one night while they were sleeping in their bed, a faint knocking sound could be heard through the bedroom wall. David went looking for the source, but could not figure out what was causing it. Suddenly objects started flying around the room and a booming voice was heard shouting, "I live again!" Well that was enough for Mary, she grabbed what she could and ran out the door screaming with David shortly following her.

The manor has been left empty ever since... Though late at night strange noises and lights can be heard and seen coming from inside the old house, so it may not be as vacant as we suspected.

Disclaimer: "FrightFx's production of Elshoff Manor is based on a fictional storyline and is meant for entertainment purposes only."