Fears, Chills and Shivers

Gather children as I spin a tale or two of a house I once knew. It was not very big or either small and not that different from many others in the neighborhood. It was said that an elderly couple once occupied the home. The wife and husband were nice to all that knew them. They were happy as can be, until one day the little old man became sick and past away. With her husband no longer alive the wife did not wish to stay.

Along came a family of five, a mother, a father and three children. What a find, what a price that they could not pass up. So begins their journey into the unknown, a semi-happy family with their usual challenges. The father, Jeff, works long hours, his wife, Martha, a home-maker busy making it a happy home, their daughter, Beth, a teenager with growing pains and two little rascal sons, Gary & Jeremy.

One day Beth over heard the neighbor children talking about who moved in the haunted house on the block. Eager to hear gossip she accompanied them down the street, until she realized they were speaking of her new home. Addressing the head of the group, who then tells her that the elderly man past away in their home and on certain nights he can be seen staring out the back window on the top floor. As they left her standing there on the sidewalk, she decided to run home to tell the family of what she had learned.

Her mother was in the kitchen and her brothers were playing on the floor as she ran past them. "What have I told you about running in the house," her mother yelled. "Now get ready for dinner and help set the table, your father will be home soon." She did as she was told, said not a word and waited til her father came home. When he arrived they sat down to their meal and not hesitating for a second she began to tell them of what she had heard.

Neither believed Beth, which hurt her feelings and insult to injury, laughed it off as just a wild prank the neighborhood children were playing on her. After the evening meal, the family went straight to bed, closed all the windows and locked all the doors. Fortunately, Beth's room was on the main level of the house and not the second floor. There she laid, too fearful to close her eye but exhausted none the less.

She drifted off to sleep, the house was quite and not a sound could be heard. The room grew colder to a point where her breathe appeared as vaper escaping her lips. Beth drew the blankets ever so closer to herself in a feeble attempt to keep warm. This was not an ordinary chill in the air, its the kind when the blood in your body is not circulating enough to keep it warm; as if the heart just stops.

Beth is awoken to a hand caressing her face and brushing the hair from her eyes, as if she was being consoled. The room was dark and she could not see anyone let alone anything. She called out thinking maybe one of her brothers were scared and did not want to sleep alone which often times they did. Beth called out one name and then the other but no one answered. She finally got tired of the silence and got up to turn on the light. There was no other light then a switch on the wall by the door. After crossing the floor with bare feet, she noticed how warm it felt and started to wonder why she felt so cold.

The light now on, she realized that she was all alone in the room and remembered that she did not hear anyone opening the door to leave. Uneasy with turning the light off again, she kept it on the whole night through. The next morning, her parents asked why she was up so late the night before. Puzzled, she described her experience and was shocked to hear that someone had occupied the bathroom most of the night. Beth recalled that was the room just off the stairs that looked out the back of the house.

After breakfast the family made a trip to the store and on their return she could not help but look up at the window she believed the other children spoke of. She wondered was it him that visited her that night. What does he look like, she asked herself, I've never seen a ghost before. That night when she went to bed, the light was left on in hopes to get a glimpse of the spirit. Nothing happen that night or any other night for weeks. Beth began to believe her parents were right and it was just her imagination getting the best of her.

The holidays started to come around first Halloween, then Thanksgiving and now the Christmas season had begun. The thought of the elderly man had all but faded. She had adjusted to her new school and even made a few friends that did not try to scare her. All was well with the rest of the family too, this was going to be their first Christmas in the new home. Some relatives from out of town had come over to celebrate the holiday with them. After all the festivities they were getting ready for bed when a cry was heard from the stairway.

It was her aunt, who was found weeping by the stairs on the second floor near the bathroom door. Appearing very shaken, she was taken downstairs to the kitchen on the main floor. She was given a glass of water to help calm her down, everyone wanting to know what happened eagerly waited for her to begin. Beth could not help but head back up the stairs when she was stopped by her mother. Her father, Jeff demanded to know what had happen, growing ever more impatient by the minute.

Beth's aunt taken aback by his reaction, explained that she was waiting to use the restroom to get ready for bed, when she knocked on door no one answered. She said that she had knocked a few more times because the door would not open as if it were locked. The lights were on and she even went so far as to call out that someone was waiting to use the bathroom and still no one answered. It was not until she turned to leave that the door opened, a sort of foggy mist could be seen with a dark figure upon the bowl. Over and over again she repeated that she saw something.

After that no one was allowed to go up stairs by themselves, the second floor was off limits to all. It was quiet for a time, until another scream could be heard coming from Beth's mother, Martha. She was found with her back to the wall standing in the pantry just off the kitchen. All types of utensils lying on the floor surrounding her feet. The only words she could say was that they flew off the shelves at her. That was that for the family it was time to move. Not a box was made, no trucks ever arrived, whatever they could carry is all they took.

What a lovely looking home, for such a great price, in such a nice neighborhood; a deal that is hard to pass. I wonder who's living there now.