The House (Part 1)

“Sometimes we don’t realize what we’ve lost. Just that simple, sometimes it’s just...gone. But the truth is maybe we never had it in the first place. I loved you and I still love you, but I can’t be with you because I’m married.” The note was simple, Beth was always blunt and “to the point”. That’s what I loved about her. I remember thinking to myself “I wish she was with me on this job.” Our crew pulled up to the house; it was old and rickety with garbage scattered on the overgrown lawn from all the neighborhood parties. The roof was practically Swiss cheese with all the holes torn in it from the horrible weather on the Upper East Coast. The old house was on an island on the east side of the country and it was rare that a mansion this old would still be standing after being left alone for so long. “Wow baby, when I agreed to marry you I didn’t think that I’d be coming up home to such a swank house!” Bobby chimed with a sarcastic smirk. Bobby was a great friend and we founded our research team together back when all we had was an EMF reader and a couple disposable camera’s. He’s been with me through thick and thin. Cocky little twerp though but it made things interesting. We ran a skeleton crew for this job, so there were only two people left to arrive. Bobby and I looked at each other with expecting glances, and I could see that he was excited as I was to do this place. We started our team with the goal of investigating the ghosts of this old place. I walked up towards the porch and I could see that most of the boards were either ripped off completely or worn down to practically nothing. The door was previously boarded up from the city, but those boards were removed so that we could enter. The city wanted to tear the place down years ago but a huge protest kept the place listed as a “House of History”. Too bad it’s title wasn’t good enough to convince the tightwads in office to fix it up. I suppose half the reason we were invited to investigate the mansion was due to someone sucking up to the Mayor. I grabbed the key out of my bag and a flood of nausea filled my stomach. “This don’t feel right without you Beth.” The words barely escaped my lips hidden like a chameleon under my breath. Just as I wiggled the key into the lock the other van showed up.

“You’re not going to go ghost hunting without us are you?” I hear Rachel’s voice chime from the walkie talkie and I could barely catch a glimpse of her smiling from the dust on the front windshield of the second van. Rachel was a bit of a firecracker, but underneath she was a bit self conscious. It was sad really, she was a very attractive woman but never believed it a day in her life. She and I had been friends for a very long time, and I trusted her with my life. “Where’s Mac?” I asked a bit confused. “He got food poisoning last night and I had to leave him at the hotel. “Crap we’re short handed as is. Ah well I suppose we make due with what we have.” I was extremely disappointed but at least we could go on with our investigation. We had a rule that we never go without at least a team of three or more.

“Hey Rachel tell your boyfriend to stop eating the chicken!” He choked out while laughing at his own joke. She looked at him with a glare that would make Death herself shiver. As usually he just shrugged it off since he was used to getting that look from her. In fact we named that look “Lee” after his middle name. He hobbled over to me carrying several cases and a duffel wrapped over one shoulder. Putting down the cases he pat me on the back and whispered “Now’s your chance you’ve got her all night!” into my ear. Bobby had it in his mind that Rachel had been attracted to me for sometime but I just wasn’t seeing it. She and I had been friends far too long, and whatever chances I had were gone years ago. Still it was an interesting thought. I shook my head trying to clear the thought’s out so I could focus and grabbed cases to bring into the house.

Walking into the old place I instantly understood why it has a reputation for being haunted. That fact kind of disappointed me. You see the creepy old houses are usually just fine. They just tend to get that reputation because they look creepy, but this house had some history to it too. The owner of the house, killed his wife, two kids, and all the servants in the house before ending his own life out by an old willow tree. “Let’s see if we can find the tree where Bartholomew shot himself.” I told Bobby. “Alright can we do it after I hook up these camera’s? I really want to get these set up before dark.” I was frustrated, but more at the fact that we were down a man on the only team we could muster for this job. “Why don’t you take Rachel? Get pictures!” He said with a smug grin from ear to ear. “I’m starting to understand why she gives you those looks bud.” He sobered up slightly and continued to unpack the camera’s.

I was walking towards the servant’s bedroom where Rachel was setting up some equipment and I felt a dull ache at the base of my skull towards my neck. I shook it off probably stress, but the closer I got to the bed chambers, the further up my head the pain reached. Once I got to the door my vision blurred from the searing pain. My eyes closed involuntarily and I dropped to my knees. A high pitched whine burned itself straight into my brain through my ears. As the ringing cleared up it started to turn into the laughter of children running through a house. I opened my eyes to see the entire room changed and everything was faded into a yellowish tint. You could hear a piano playing in the den and a child ran past almost knocking me over. She was wearing an old fashioned dress and the boy that was chasing her held a frog in his hand screaming “Kiss it! Kiss it! He’s a prince, he’s a prince!” The house no longer looked broken down and in fact it looked like it had fresh paint on some of the walls. I was near the servants quarters, confused and bewildered the only thing I could think to do is walk into the bedroom. As I reached closer to room the door slowly opened and I saw Rachel in an old but beautiful red evening gown draped every so gently over her surprisingly sensual body. She had a blank stare in her eyes, and in her hand was a surgical scalpel covered in blood dripping from her clenched fist. “Did you say something about the tree?”