A SEASONAL MOMENT
I had to go to the dentist. My dentist’s office is on Fifth Avenue, two blocks from where I used to live there. Going there always leaves me feeling strangely nostalgic. It was humid and I was tired…
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Malevolent Spirit
Part 1
Lindsay followed her new friend, Shannon into her home. Lindsay peered around, filled with curiosity. She wondered if her friend Shannon knew the rumors about this house and if any of them were true.
Lindsay said hello to Shannon’s mom as she brought in an after-school snack while she and Shannon settled down in the den where Shannon said she and her brother always did their homework. She pulled out her math, making a face as she did so. Math was not her strongest subject. But that was one reason she was here; Shannon was one of the top students in their math class, so she was hoping to get some help.
Half an hour into their studying, Lindsay jumped a foot when she heard a whisper right behind her. She turned her head but there was no one there. Shannon didn’t appear to notice anything, so she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to seem weird. But just a few minutes later, the whisper happened again. She turned her head faster this time but still, no one was there.
Before she could say anything, Shannon spoke, “You wanted help with math, right?”
“Yeah.”
Shannon moved over next to Lindsay and they turned their focus to Algebra II. The whisper came once more, and Lindsay started to ask Shannon about it.
“Go away!”
Lindsay blinked in shock at Shannon’s words.
Shannon noticed and hastened to tell her, “Not you, Lindsay. I said go away, go away!”
“Um, does that happen often?”
“At least once an afternoon. But typically, if you tell him to go away three times, he’ll leave you alone.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“Other than a spirit, no. There’s lots of them here.”
“So, the rumors are true?”
“About what?”
“That this house is haunted.”
“Oh, yeah. Filled with ghosts. Some are nice, some are just annoying, and others are really mean, even vicious. Just to let you know, the attic is off limits. There’s a really vicious ghost up there that not even we mess with.”
“How long have you lived here?”
“Three months. Why?”
“You didn’t even blink. It sounds like you’re already used to it.”
Cheeks filling with pink, Shannon admitted, “I’ve grown up with it. This is what my parents do. They move to haunted homes or at least to a city with a haunted house if the house is too dilapidated for us to live in. Then they spend however long it takes proving the spirits exist, figuring out why they’re stuck in our world and getting rid of the ghosts.”
“So, you knew coming in that this house was haunted.”
“Yep.”
“Huh. I don’t think I’d be brave enough. Not after the rumors of what’s happened to previous tenants.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t too happy when I read up my parents’ profile on this house. After living here over the summer, it didn’t seem too bad. Other than the attic, there were some mean spirits but overall no really vicious ones. Then, the first day of school, I immediately hated it again when Genevieve decided to single me out for living in the haunted house and for my parents believing which, of course, immediately meant I was a believer.”
“Oh, yeah. I heard about that.”
“Yep. Still haven’t heard the end of it even as I’ve made friends.”
Lindsay perked up, “I know! Invite her to a sleep-over here.”
“Are you nuts?”
“No. Invite her here and let her experience it for herself. Then she’ll stop bullying you since she’ll be a believer.”
“Not a bad idea. But only if you and Jocelyn spend the night too.”
“Of course. And you know Genevieve won’t if Sadie doesn’t.”
“Yeah, gotta invite her minion too.”
Lindsay snickered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following Friday, Lindsay stood in the living room with Shannon and Jocelyn, waiting for Genevieve and Sadie to arrive. She knew Genevieve would show as after Shannon had gone to Lindsay, telling her about how Genevieve had made fun of her for even thinking she’d go to ‘The Creepy Rogers House’, Lindsay had taken care of it. After all, after calling her chicken in front of all her followers and fellow classmates at 11th grade lunch period, there was no way Genevieve would lose face and not show up.
Sure enough, the doorbell rang once more and standing on the doorstep were Genevieve and Sadie, former with a scowl and latter with a perky smile.
Genevieve stalked in, followed by Sadie bouncing, and dropped her sleeping bag and duffel bag.
“Let’s get started. The sooner we start, the sooner this stupid night is over.”
Shannon led them into the rec room on the second floor where they’d be spending the night and Lindsay hoped at least one spirit would show to make spending time in Genevieve’s presence worth it.
A few hours passed by with nothing and the girls were in the kitchen, dividing out the pizza that had just been delivered when Shannon’s older brother and his best friend entered.
Shannon huffed, “Gage, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to stay upstairs in your room playing video games all night.”
Gage pilfered a piece of pizza while his friend leaned over Jocelyn’s shoulder, peering at the pepperoni pizza.
“We were. But we smelled pizza and Jules and I were hungry, weren’t we?”
Mouth stuffed with pepperoni pizza, “Yup.”
Shannon rolled her eyes, “Get your pizza and get.”
Genevieve added, “You don’t have to rush them off so quickly.”
Sadie piped in, “More company the better.”
Gage glanced at Genevieve and returned his sister’s eye roll when it was quickly obvious just why Genevieve and Sadie wanted them to stay.
“Whatcha doing after pizza?”
“Headed back upstairs to the rec room, with the pizza, to watch movies.”
“What movies? It might be worth it.”
“Scary movies to get us in the mood.”
Gage had been told by his sister just why the head mean girl was spending the night and decided to help out.
“Why not.”
Genevieve perked up only to immediately scowl when, as they settled in the rec room after choosing the movie, Jules sat next to Shannon and Gage chose to sit next to Lindsay on the end.
In the middle of the movie, Lindsay sat up straight, catching Gage’s interest. The 17-year-old peered over and noticed Lindsay was looking behind her. He wondered if one of the spirits had just made an appearance.
He reached over and grabbed the remote from his sister where she was sitting between Lindsay and Jules.
Hitting pause, he immediately gathered protests from Shannon, Jules and Jocelyn.
“Shh!”
He looked at Lindsay, “What’d you hear?”
Just as Lindsay started to speak, they all heard it.
“Peek-a-boo!”
They all looked around, no one seeing the little girl the voice belonged to.
Genevieve frowned, “Ha ha. Try again.”
Jules spoke, “Not us. No need to play those pranks when this house has so many of its own spirits.”
He’d had a few experiences of his own playing video games with Gage over the summer.
Before Genevieve could refute his words, “Peek-a-boo!!”
Lindsay spoke, “She sounds like she’s getting more insistent each time.”
Shannon shrugged, “Yeah. But we normally ignore her, and she goes away.”
She reached to take the remote from her brother to start the movie again.
But Lindsay didn’t want to leave it there. The point of spending the night here was to have spirit encounters.
The voice sounded like it was coming from behind her, so she got up and walked to the back wall of the rec room.
Gage decided he couldn’t let his sister’s friend walk into something unprepared, so he got up and followed her. He left the remote but by this time, Jules and Jocelyn were interested as well so Shannon gave up on the movie for the time being.
“Peek-a-boo!!!”
Lindsay started as the voice came from right beside her ear where she’d had her head pressed against the wall for clues.
“It sounds like it’s coming from inside the wall!”
Gage knocked on the wall where Lindsay was standing, and all were surprised when the knocks echoed hollowly.
Now Shannon and Sadie were interested. Genevieve was attempting nonchalance by studying her teen magazine. But she hadn’t turned a page since Lindsay got up.
“Well, Mom and Dad did say this house is old. There could be an old cubby there or something.”
“I’ll be right back. Jules, you stay here with the girls.”
Shannon huffed but before she could insist they could take care of themselves; Gage was out of the room.
“Honestly, I’m only 11 months younger than him. I can take care of myself just fine, thank you.”
Lindsay noted, “Yes. But normally it’s just you two. This time there’s four extra he’s probably considering.”
“Maybe.”
Before long, Gage returned with a large knife, bucket and sponge.
“What are you going to do with that?”
“Peel the paint off and see if there’s something there.”
He soaked the sponge in the bucket of water before spreading it in a 5 feet square around where Lindsay had heard the girl. She hadn’t spoken again but maybe she knew they were looking for where she was and was just waiting.
To their surprise, the wet paint revealed lines that couldn’t be seen dry.
Jules grabbed the knife and jabbed it into the lines to see what would happen. To his surprise, the knife went in nearly to the hilt.
He sawed down until the knife hit something hard. He pulled it out and turned it to the left.
Before long, he’d cut a three-sided square through the paint.
Gage took the sponge and rubbed it where, logically, there should be some kind of handle. No handle appeared but a large circle did. He poked his fingers through, and the paint gave way. The handle had been removed the but the hole where it used to be was there still there, and fairly good sized.
Once he had a decent sized hole to get a grip, he grabbed hold and pulled.
With a loud creak and ripping of still attached paint, a door opened.
“PEEK-A-BOO!!”
They all jumped several feet in the air as the little girl screamed while the door revealed a large cloud of dust.
Coughing and waving his hand in front of his face to clear the dust, Gage peered through to the opening that had appeared.
His face paled and he attempted to keep Lindsay from looking in.
She was insistent.
She clapped her hands over her mouth, stifling a shriek and Shannon pushed her way past Jules.
“Oh My God!!”
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