Have I just broken your immersion for the story I am about to tell. Can I write a good blood curdler after such a proclamation. Lets find out.
In 1642, the autocratic temperament of Charles I led to war with parliament. All the rules in England were broken, heaven was blotted out, and the material world flowed into that of the spiritual. After a series of defeats in 1645 the King was forced to flee from place to place to escape the Parliamentary forces. Charles would now have to do without palaces, banquets and dazzling jewelry. The King of England was lost in the wild, with only a few loyal followers, and watched through the hedges and briars by the restless dead. It would be during this time on the run, that he would end up at Treasure Holt Inn on the Essex coast. The inn was surrounded by marshes and woodland, and was accessible only by a series of ill defined pathways. As to its peculiar name, I was only able to find that the word ‘Holt’, is an archaic term used to describe a small forest or thicket of trees. So the name can be taken to mean a wooded area with treasure or riches hidden inside. For there would soon be plenty of gold to be had at the inn, and the trees surrounding it would help provide cover for the horror that was to follow. To earn this name evil things would happen at this place and ghosts would come to reside on the property, watching the customers from across the bar.
Only a nation at war with itself could produce something so hellish. One of the few things that was certain in this ethereal time, was that the presence of a royal could not be kept secret for long. Soon the Parliamentary forces had discovered Charles location, and made ready to end the civil war in one night. Six miles away across the boggy ground and tangled trees, the monastery of St Osyth flickered with light. The monks of this monastery were on the alert. They had received intelligence of the Kings enemies and their plans. Without delay one of their number was sent to Treasure Holt to warn their sovereign. His name was Simon.
Upon hearing the message from the monk, the King and his party wasted no time, and disappeared into the night. For this act of loyalty, Simon would be rewarded with damnation, for his Holy mission was not over yet. With his duty to the King fulfilled, he took it upon himself to preach the word of God to the inns enigmatic occupants. At some point in this evening, he was offered strong drink, and invited to attend a ritual in the forest. He would emerge from this ritual a changed man. For there was a cruel, malevolent darkness that surrounded Treasure Holt.
After that night Simon would come to reside at the inn permanently. He took part in the usual business of providing food and lodging to travellers. But once the sun had gone down, the inn would facilitate a different kind of business venture. Even before Simon arrived on the scene, the residents of the inn would give shelter to smugglers from Europe. These debased men would come ashore at night, and trek across the glistening, festering marshes to find shelter, for both them and their contraband goods. One of the most successful was a Frenchman named Decoursay, who would be essential in fencing stolen valuables. Simon and his followers would rob local churches. Then they would quickly have Decoursey take the stolen gold to Europe before it could be traced. Upon reaching the woods the smugglers would enter a tunnel that led up into the inn. In exchange for shelter, the criminals paid Simon a share of the profits and ate their meals in stony silence. They had no choice but to endure the knowledge of what went on at Treasure Holt. For this place and its owners served and master more vile than any European underworld boss. The inn was in the grip of black magic. It would claim dozens of victims. Eventually this would include Simon and his accomplices who would die in fear and agony in the woods. But three hundred years would pass before the extent of their depravity became clear.
In 1928, the well beneath the inn had to be drained. As the workers excavated it, they discovered skeletal remains half buried in the mud. A complete skeleton was also found, hidden underneath the floor of the inn, along with coins, buckles, and a clay smoking pipe. The excavation team was horror struck as the truth about Treasure Holt was revealed. Anybody with valuables had been knocked out with strong alcohol. Once they were asleep, their skulls would be split open, their money and goods taken, and their bodies hacked to pieces. Then the flesh would be removed and the rest of the carcass thrown into the well. With the evidence disposed of, Simon and his followers would honour their masters in hell with a grisly ritual. Worshippers of Satan would travel across the kingdom to take part. After three days of blasphemy, these man and women would eat the flesh of those they had killed and robbed.….Cannibals. The regression was complete, revealed and perfected. These outwardly loyal subjects of Charles I had degenerated into the twisted things they really were.
But the rot did not even stop here. Decoursey was no ordinary smuggler. His business was far more macabre. He brought bottles of human blood to the inn which Simon would use in the rituals. Some times he would return to Europe with mummified human remains, given to him by the monk of Satan. For Treasure Holt was only one part of a ghoulish practice that had infected the upper strata of European society, including royalty. Kings and courtiers, Stuart and Bourbon, Hapsburg and Vasa; all indulged in medicinal cannibalism. This practice was most popular in the 16th and 17th centuries . Consuming human blood and ground up bones, was thought to cure certain ailments, including depression, head aches and epilepsy. After entertaining heads of state with lavish banquets, royalty would retire to hidden rooms. There Decoursey would show them how to keep their bodies working by consuming the dead. As high society danced and drank in golden ballrooms, Simon and his followers would be carried down to hell at last. For the bottles of blood supplied by Decoursey also contained bubonic plague. The pathogen was active in Europe in 1663, and would reach London in 1666. The occupants of Treasure Holt would be among its earliest victims in England.
But this was the promise Simon made when he first attended that ritual in the forest; the spreading of malevolence, decay, and death. He had stood up on a tree trunk and declared, ‘I am forsaking my god, my faith and all that I previously stood for. I wish to worship the devil like you, to worship, spread and practice evil.’ This is the horror that the smugglers witnessed, their livelihoods dependent on paying a toll to Satan himself.
Simon continued to reside at the inn. Over and over again, the monk was seen in the woods, his face and arms covered in buboes. His victims would remain at the inn with him. They wandered the empty corridors of Treasure Holt, limbs de-fleshed and eyes blank.