I hated it. It had been going on long enough. The screams! The screams! Every year! It was too much. I hated it. I’d had enough. It wasn’t always like this. Once upon a time it was peaceful. Once upon a time I had friends, at least I thought they were my friends, but that was years ago, and then they left me here to rot. And then there came others, and they brought in the yelling, and the lights, and the screaming, and then I’d had enough.


____


It was a chilly fall afternoon. The wind whistled through the air in thin cold strands, urging you where you needed to go. The leaves rained down from the trees, and Hal Abernathy crunched over them. He stopped in front of an old, rundown, wooden house. The windows had been boarded up long ago, but the boards had long since fallen down. The address on the mailbox would have said 2600 Lavender Street, if it had still been visible. The house had an empty, dead feeling about it, and looked as if it were about to fall over. There was no sign of paint left anywhere on it, it had peeled off, leaving the rotting wood skeleton to show through.

Abernathy eyed the house for a moment, then turned around to face the camera. “We are here, at the most haunted building in all of Virginia. An old haunted house, abandoned in the 80s. No one even went back in to take out the haunted house equipment, in fact, no one’s been in the house since the night it closed. Nobody that lived, anyway,” he grimaced for effect. “The old setup was on the ground floor, a tourist attraction for people from all around the country. ‘The scariest haunted house in the world,’ they called it. Is it possible that this name made the property attractive to evil spirits?” Abernathy started walking up the steps, “Back, nearly thirty years ago, on the night the haunted house closed, something threw a tantrum. The floors rocked, the windows broke, the power surged, the walls warped, end everyone was thrown out with a mighty gust of wind. Nobody died, except the owner of the house, who was thrown out the second story window. No one had dared go inside since then, not until tonight,” he finished, with a wicked grin.

“Cut!” the director, Alice Piers, called. Abernathy relaxed, and the script supervisor/ hair and makeup specialist, Miriam Redwine came over to give him a touch up. Kevin Fern, the cameraman turned off his camera, and sat down to the steps to rest.

“Seriously, this is a ghost story?” said Abernathy. “Is this the best, we’ve got, the earthquake that killed one person? It’s not even that scary. There wasn’t anything better?”

“It is in a haunted house,” Miriam said.

“Yes, and I suppose the haunted taxi cab was taken,” Abernathy replied. “These stories are getting worse and worse everyday. I can’t believe we’re running out!”

“You have been at this for ten years,” Piers pointed out.

“What, and that’s supposed to make up for my show being boring? That’s why ratings are down, I tell you. You get me a good haunted place next time, or someone is fired!”

“That is if they don’t cancel the show first,” Piers muttered under her breath. And, with that, the group headed up the porch steps to the front door.


___


They woke me up. It felt so good to be awake again. I’d been dormant for thirty years, longer than ever before. That was alright though, I needed a rest. Now I had life plenty of life to last for a while. I wouldn’t have noticed them at first, but one was wearing spiky shoes, and he stepped on me. Not a very nice first impression. There were four of them. The older one with the spiky shoes and trenchcoat kept talking into a box. A young one with a small beard, and tattoos was holding the box, a tired looking woman in a suit, was following, and another younger one was carrying some papers and bags of with various gadgets in them. Maybe they had come to take the ridiculous screaming gadgets out. I waited and watched.


___


“Now, in here, you can see the beginnings of the old haunted house. It’s even more creepy now, than it was then, from the looks of it.” Abernathy sneezed on some dust, “Achoo!” and brushed some cobwebs out of the way. “Let’s check it out.” The group made their way through a doorway draped in spidery streamers, and made their way down the long, haunted hallway, monsters, poking out at them from both walls. As they moved, eerie green lights flickered on.

“Woah,” Miriam, breathed.

“Motion activated, I’m sure,” said Abernathy, “Or are they?”

They continued, the crew, scrutinizing each hideous face on the wall. Miriam was sure some of them repeated. Their glowing eyes, and twisted features were frightening, along with the constantly flicking lights “Click- click- click...” Then, as Abernathy began to approach a particularly frightening full body zombie, It jumped off the wall. Piers screamed. Kevin jumped back.

“Relax,” said Abernathy, “It’s just mechanical.” Then all the lights went black.


___


The screaming! The terrible, horrible screaming! These people weren't different, they were just the same. They had to get out. They had to get out now before they caused me any more damage. Or else they were going to pay.



___


“What was that?” asked Abernathy.

“The lights are out,” said Piers. “Honestly, I’m surprised they were working in the first place.”

“I don’t know,” Kevin said, as he switched the camera to its night vision setting, casting everything on film into a creepy shade of green, “This place is supposed to be haunted, isn’t it?”

“Maybe this episode won’t be so boring after all,” Abernathy grinned. “Are we ready to start again?”

The group made their way down the hall, and further into the center of the house.

“Is it just me, or is it getting hotter in here?” Miriam asked.

“It’s not just you,” said Kevin, who was fanning himself. The two exchanged a worried look.

“Be quiet back there,” Piers said, “You aren’t getting paid for nothing.”

“Can we get out flashlights?” Miriam suggested. “It is pretty spooky in here.”

“Alright, fine,” said Piers.

The four made it out of the haunted hallway, and entered a room at the center of the building where controls for the haunted house appeared to be set up. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust.

“Achoo!” Abernathy sneezed. “What do we have here?” he asked.

Suddenly, a sharp gust of icy air filled the warm room. Everyone shivered in a combination of the cold, and the tingles running down their spines. Goosebumps pricked up on their arms. Only Abernathy was unfazed.

“Oh, spirit who inhabits this place,” he began, “I am here not as your enemy. Please, show us a sign that you are here.”

Silence filled the room, everything was still, as Abernathy waited for his response. But, none came.

“Spirit?” Abernathy asked, “Are you there?” Silence again. Abernathy turned to Piers, “Maybe he goes by a different name. Ghost? Undead? Lost Soul? Are you a she?” Still, no answer. The room was starting to warm back up again. “There’s nothing here,” Abernathy said, “Let’s head upstairs.” But, as the troupe headed up the staircase, they did not see the control room warping behind them, into a skewed version of what it had been.


___


They weren’t leaving. Why weren’t they leaving? They were going further and further inside of me. They shouldn’t be doing that. What did they want? Why wouldn’t they just leave?


___


“I think I see something,” said Abernathy. It was even darker on the second level. The cold gusts came and went, in and out, almost like breathing. The four approached a hallway, with doors on both sides. Kevin tested the floorboards, which squeaked, and bent under their weight.

“Are you sure this is safe?” he asked Piers.

“No, I’m not,” she responded, but the group continued to move forward carefully.

“Miriam,” Abernathy, asked, “Which room did the death occur in?”

“Well, technically, it occurred on the front lawn.”

“Yes, I know, but which room?”

“The third to the left from the front of the house.”

“Do you know which of these rooms that is?”

“No, I’m not sure.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to check all of them.”

They opened the first door. “Achoo!” Abernathy sneezed from the dust. Miriam illuminated the room with her flashlight. There was nothing there except some old furniture covered with sheets, and unpacked cardboard boxes, which were slowly deteriorating.

“That’s weird,” Kevin said.

“What?” asked Abernathy.

“Well, the windows are shuttered up. I’m pretty sure they were open when we first came to the house.”

“Oh,” said Miriam worriedly.

They shut the door, and continued along the hall.

“It is strange that it’s so dark,” said Miriam, holding her flashlight. “It was only four o’clock when we got here, you’d think some sunlight would be getting in somewhere.”

They continued to open doors, but there was nothing remarkable about any of them, they were all the same: dusty, covered furniture, cardboard boxes, and shuttered windows. When they reached the middle of the floor, it became unstable, shaking under their weight. Abernathy took a step, and his foot went right through the floor.

“Woah!” he shouted, his foot protruding into the ceiling below. Piers caught him, and pulled him back up. “This house is dangerous!,” he exclaimed. “It ought to be condemned!” At his words, a freezing cold filled the building. The walls twisted, and warped, and Abernathy was thrown into one of the rooms, and the door slammed shut behind him.


___


Stab a hole through me, will you? Insult me, will you? Threaten to tear me down, will you?! It’s not my fault I’m this way, it’s theirs- it’s yours. Well, I’ll show you, yes I will! What do you think of me now?!


___


Abernathy hit the ground with a thud, and saw the door slam behind him, cutting off the screams of the other members of the team. Abernathy got to his feet, but the room started shaking violently. The air swirled around him, at first slowly, then faster, and faster. Abernathy worked hard to keep his footing. The dust which coated every surface in the room lifted up and joined the tornado. Abernathy sneezed. He sneezed again. He sneezed again. He coughed. He wheezed. He couldn’t breathe. He reached into his trenchcoat pocket for his inhaler, but the wind whisked it from his hand, and it slammed against the wall, shattering. He wheezed again, and again. He fell to the floor. He wheezed one final time, and collapsed. The winds slowly stopped, the dust settled, and the door opened.

The other three entered the room, shaking. Miriam gasped at the sight of Abernathy’s body, face down on the ground, completely coated in dust. “Hal?” Piers asked, shakily. “Hal?” she took a few more steps inside the room. “Hal!” she shook his body, and screamed. “He’s dead!”

“What do you think it was?” asked Kevin, “The ghost?” he looked around, worried.

“Maybe it was his asthma?” said Miram. Shaking, she picked up the broken inhaler in the corner of the room. “Lets get out of here!”

“Agreed,” said Kevin, “Come on, Ms. Piers.” Piers got up, and shaking, made her way to the door, Miriam and Kevin helping her along. The three made their way back down the hallway, the way they came, past the hole made by Abernathy. They had been walking for a while, when Kevin said, “Stop!”

“What is it?” said Miriam.

“Turn around,” he said. They had been walking for nearly a minute, yet the hole was only five feet behind. “Have we been moving at all? Let’s run!” They tried running, but every time they looked behind, they were no closer to the stairs that would lead them back to where they came. Miriam and Kevin started to panic, and Piers was too out of it at the moment to panic, but they never moved, no matter how hard they tried. “Wait,” said Miriam. She tried taking a step back, and advanced. “I remember the building’s plans. There’s another staircase on this side of the building. Maybe we can get to it, come on.”

“Let’s try it,” said Kevin.


___


Not so fast. I gave you a chance to leave, and you didn’t take it. Now, you’ll have to do things my way.


___


The group made their way cautiously down the hall, carefully testing the floor before they put their weight on it. Piers was starting to calm down after the shock of seeing Abernathy’s body, and was able to support her own weight again, but continued to lean on Kevin. The group clustered together for support, no one wanting to be first, and no one wanting to be last. At the end of the hall they found the staircase Miriam promised, but it didn’t look like the one on the other side of the house. Instead, it was uneven, rickety, and twisted, and looked far too tall for the height of the house.

“Are we going down, that?” Piers asked.

“Do we have a choice?” said Miriam, who was shining her flashlight down the stairs, checking them out.

“Let me try my cell phone,” said Piers. She pulled the phone out of her pocket and tried to dial 9-1-1, but the screen went black and shut down. “Come on, turn on!”

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” said Kevin, whose camera had also shut down. “Let’s go.”

Miriam, with her flashlight went first. “It feels like we’re so high up, but we can’t be, right?”

“I wouldn’t be sure of anything right now. There’s definately a ghost in this house,” said Kevin, who followed. Piers, behind him, didn’t say anything.

The rush and withdraw of cool air over the steady heat in the building started again. It got stronger and stronger, the farther they went down the spiral staircase. The three walked in silence, jumping at every creaky step, and sudden shadow. Finally, the stairs ended, and they stepped off a landing, into a room.

It was very dark, the darkest room yet, and it smelled wet, and musty. The ground didn’t feel quite right either. Miriam bent down to check it out, shining her flashlight. She touched the floor, then picked up a bit, and rubbed it between her fingers. “It’s dirt!” she said in a hushed voice. “The floor is dirt, and it’s wet. That’s weird.”

“We must be in the cellar,” Piers whispered. “This is an old building, it was probably never floored.”

“Come on,” Kevin whispered, “There is another way out of here right?”

“Yes,” Miriam replied, “I think there’s a set of stairs that lead from here to the kitchen, probably around the middle of the building.”

“More stairs?” Kevin hissed, “Those last ones were a disaster!” he turned around to gesture, but just stopped, dumbfounded. “The stairs are gone!” And, so they were. There was a blank white wall with brown water stains running down it, like the rest of the cellar, where the stairs had been. The group renewed their panic as they rushed along the wall, hoping to find a staircase. Miriam used her flashlight to guide them, but suddenly it started to flicker.

“Oh no! Please, no!” she said, and banged the flashlight on her hand, but it was too late. The light went out.

“Now what?” Piers asked.

“We’ll put our hands against the wall, and guide ourselves that way,” Miriam said.

“Okay,” said Piers, and the three continued, hands against the wall. Not a one of them dared to speak the fear that they all felt, that the stairs leading out had disappeared just like the ones leading in. Suddenly, Kevin broke the silence.

“Do you guys hear that?”

“What?” said Piers.

“Wait, I hear it too,” said Miriam. It was a soft, bubbling sound, slowly growing louder. The three stopped to listen, as the sound grew to a roar.

“What is it?” Piers asked.

“Wait!” Miriam said. She picked up her foot, and stepped back down. When her foot hit the ground, there was an audible squishing sound. “Is it just me, or is the ground getting wetter?”

The group moved faster, still keeping close to the walls. Soon the water was up to their ankles, covering their feet. They kept going, desperately, blindly feeling for an exit. Then the water was mid-calf, then knee high. It was coming faster, now. Before long, it was at Miriam’s waist, and they hadn’t even made it halfway around the large cellar. The water was all rushing to a certain point, pulling them away from the wall. Piers dug her long fingernails into it, leaving marks, but it was no use. The three were swept to the center of the room. The water rose, and rose, eventually, the three were treading water, their heads growing closer and closer to the ceiling. Miriam coughed on the water as she fumbled hopelessly with her flashlight, wishing for a miracle. Then there was one. With a click, a light, dim though it was, shone from the flashlight, illuminating the desperate situation. The soaked and faces of Piers, Kevin, and Miriam gasping for air, and Miriam’s small hand clutching the metal flashlight, stood out against the frothy dark water. They looked up hopelessly at the ever-approaching ceiling.

Then, the water took a turn, it started rushing towards one of the walls, bringing the struggling crew along with it. They hit the wall, and Miriam shone the light towards it. There was a door outlined, the same color as the wall, with a small gap at the top which the water was able to flow through. Kevin dived under with his eyes closed, feeling the wall and door until he found the knob and turned it.

A wave of water and the three crew members rushed out. They landed on or at the base of four small wooden steps. All of them were coughing, and Piers spit out some water, the rest of which had mysteriously drained away. If the three hadn’t been soaking wet, with their hair and clothes plastered to their skin, they might not have believed it had been real.

Kevin was the first to stand up. At the top of the stairs was a brown wooden door. He stepped up to it, and Miriam and Piers followed. He turned the knob and they entered the kitchen.

It was dusty, just like the rest of the house. There were green countertops, and many wooden cupboards and drawers, and an old, white stove. Paper was peeling off the walls. On the other side of the room was a green door with a small window and decaying curtains. It had to lead outside.

“Come on, let’s go,” Piers said, “and leave this house behind for good.” She started towards the door, but tripped, knocking a floorboard out of place. The room started shaking. Piers was laying on the ground. Miriam and Kevin clung to the counters to stay upright. The walls started to warp and twist around them, The hot, cold, hot, cold, sensation happened more and more quickly. Soon, a whirlwind was circling around the room. Drawers flew open, and knives soared out, glinting and sharp, as they circled around the room above Piers’ head. Miriam screamed. The twister twisted, and twisted. It didn’t look like it was going to give up soon. Letters seemed to appear in the pattern on the warped wallpaper: 2600 Lavender.

“Do you see that?” Miriam pointed to the twisty letters.

“What in the world does it mean?” Kevin asked.

“I don’t know,” Miriam shouted over the howling wind. “I think its the street address of this place!” Suddenly, something clicked in Kevin’s mind.

“What if it’s not just a ghost? What if it’s the house?”

“What?” Miriam shouted?

“Think about it,” said Kevin, “Abernathy breaks through the floor, and says the building should be condemned, and he dies. I make a crack about the stairs, and we nearly drown. Piers knocks a loose floorboard out, and suddenly its The Wizard of Oz!” Miriam looked at him like he was crazy, then shrugged.

“I guess it’s no crazier, than there being a ghost here. It’s worth a shot. What should we do?”

Kevin thought for a moment, then said, “I don’t know.”

“Well,” Miriam sighed, “Let’s try this!” She dove to the ground, bracing her feet against a cabinet. She reached out, ducking under the storm of knives to where Piers lay, covering her head with her hands. Miriam pulled back, and propelled herself into the eye of the storm.

It was easier to see here, and there were fewer knives, but it was still difficult to move, fighting the wind from all sides. She grabbed the dislodged floorboard, which was laying upside-down with a few nails sticking out of it. She turned it over, and shoved it back into the hole it had left in the flooring.

The wind immediately died down. The knives clattered to the floor, harmlessly. The walls returned to normal, and the room took on its original rectangular shape. Miriam and Piers stood up shakily, as the door swung open, revealing the late afternoon sun outside.

The three ran out, and didn’t look back until they were safely in their car on the way to the police station.


____



Two Years Later


A car pulled up the gravel drive in front of the old house. A young man and woman opened the door and got out. The woman opened the back door, and a small girl toddled out of her car seat.

“Well, this is it,” said the man, looking up at the house. “It’s a bit of a fixer upper, but at least it was cheap. Apparently there was an accident here a few years ago. No one was even sure who the owner was anymore.

“Well, we’ll get it fixed up,” the woman looked at the rotting house, “Won’t we, Lily?” she asked her daughter.

The group made their way inside. The woman coughed on some dust. “What is that?” she pointed to the spooky hallway.

“This place used to be a haunted house, I think,” the man said. “We’ll have to clear this out. Lily, you might not want to look.”

“Come on, Lily, why don’t you help Mommy dust, while Daddy cleans things out?” She took the girl’s hand, and led her away.


___

My walls were painted, and covered in fashionable paper. The dirt and dust was cleared out of me. They took out the screaming gadgets. They moved in furniture, warm and cozy. I got fresh glass in my windows, how relaxing! Some of my rooms even got plush carpet. I was full of color again. All my holes were fixed, giving me support and strength. I felt like a brand new house! It was like I was alive again. The little family grew and grew. I vowed to protect them. They wouldn’t leave me like the ones before. They were my friends. They had healed me. And they didn’t leave, because even after many years, when the oldest ones had gone away, and I once again grew old and crumbly, one of the younger ones stayed and fixed me up again, and so on, and so on. A home is a powerful thing, and I gained strength, more than the mere shadow I had been before. I did feel bad about my past, later, but it was all such a blur, I could barely remember anything. I had deteriorated so much. But that is behind me now. I was rehabilitated...as long as families are kind, and good to their homes.