Doris and Jack Mathias had a quest to buy their first home. The old real estate agent, Joel Cook was in dire need to sell a house that had been long on the market. Joel thought it would be an ideal fit for Doris and Jack to have this home for they were a young couple and he could see in their eyes that they were eager to do what it takes even if it was a fixer-upper. Joel explained to them that the area would also take time to get used to. The price was practically a steal as Doris and Jack was sold on that alone. So as first time buyers they were excited to see it. The house was in a small hill side where it was not populous by many houses in the area. One had to travel about a half of a mile to get to the next house and the property they were going to see was especially secluded. As they drove along the street towards the top of the hill, they approach it. Stopping the car outside the old picket fence, and walking in the long walkway, looking up to the worn building that badly needed painting Doris, Jack and Joel Cook approached the house. Doris was the first to showed apprehension when they walked in at the entrance. Apart from the old white dilapidated picket fence, there were bushes and wild plants and uncut shrubs in the front yard that spoilt what could have been a pretty landscape. As they entered the door, it creaked with the need for attention but as they paned the area, there was more to it. The wood floor was faded and needed some work, the windows to the kitchen areas were cracked, panes broken and the wall needed a definite face lift as it showed the age of a tired house. The ceiling was sparsely spread with spider webs. In the bed room it had a dismal aura with a smell of old wood. Periodically there was a howling of the wind one can hear coming from the attic that can have an eerie affect. The back yard has a few tall trees where one of them hung a scare crow by its neck. Small birds would gather around pecking at it. There were junk and debris scattered further from the stairs of the back yard where an old rusted car had weeds and tall grass growing within its hollow remains. As the real estate agent try to find the positive side in letting them know the benefits of the house, Doris was the most adamant in letting her feelings known. “I don’t feel we are quite ready for this type of house yet”, Doris said, “There’s a lot of work involved and even though it’s a great price, we may not be able to invest so much for repairs.” “Don’t worry”, Joel replies, “I am sure you can qualify for a loan, I am sure you can make this house into a winner, your guys are young and have the energy to make it happen.” “Well, maybe we can make it work Doris”, Jack responded, “This may be the best deal we’ll even get for a long time, I think we can do it honey.” Doris looks at them both. Then she silently accepts her husband’s logic but had decided against her better instinct. The next few days the documents were finalized and escrow processed. It didnt take Joel Cook long in expediting matters to make Doris and Jake the owners of the house. Jack went to work in replacing things like the doors and windows. Doris feverishly cleaned up the kitchen and bathroom areas. They would put in time and effort every day to repair and replace the needed things for the house. Tired and virtually worn out after a few days, they just had enough time to get a lightly prepared supper and then go to bed and be rested for the next day. However, being tired was not the only issue, at least for Doris. She was somewhat more apprehensive then Jack in their new environment. While Jack was quick to sleep, Doris would lie in bed with her eyes wide open listening to things like the creaks in the house to animal sounds coming from outside of their walls. Lying in bed, Doris would suddenly shake Jack who was already asleep.. “Did you hear that Jack?” “Wha.. what are you talking about”, Jack responded slowly. “A sound, a weird sound like a moaning sound.” “That’s just the wind in the attic Doris, now go to bed.” “There it is again, I don’t think it’s the wind Jack. It sounds almost human. Like someone has died and someone is moaning.” “Doris you have the most vivid imaginations. Please now go to sleep.” Doris reluctantly went to sleep but keep wondering about the sounds she heard before she finally dozed off. She could almost hear the wind having a conversation as she lay tensely listening. The next morning while Jack was finishing the installation of the last set of windows, Doris decided to check out the attic, curious to find out about the strange sound she heard last night. The house was a two story house with four bedrooms. The room to the attic was considered Jack’s office. Doris had to climb a series of winding stairs to get to that level of the house. Reaching the top level, Doris would look down to see how far a drop it was to the floor downstairs. The attic had a stairs built to access it. Doris took to the stairs and opened the creaking hatch to the attic. It was dark and eerie inside. She peek her head inside to see more. As she look in the darken area with an eerie silence she felt there were eyes looking at her, probably waiting for her to be totally inside. She heard almost a whisper but could not make it out clearly. She thought it was the wind talking. Her pulse raised a few notches as her knees began to shake a bit as she stair into the pitch black darkness of the attic. Doris felt a slight uneasy tension as her arm grew goose bumps. She was thinking now if she should continue or come back some other time with Jack. She stepped up one more step when she heard a series of fluttering sounds as if there were birds. Then suddenly something flew in her direction, smacked her on her face, flew out of the hatch below and left. It startled Doris but she had enough time to look back and saw it was a big bat. A vampire bat she presumed. The bat flew into the house, down the stairs and Doris closed the hatch and scurried down. She could hear a slight yell from Jack. “Did you see that Jack”, as she ran all the way down the stairs to the living room to him. “I sure did, it almost hit me, flew out the window at top speed, it was a good size bat.” “So we have bats in the attic Jack. Just another problem we have to fix. We’ll have to get an exterminator for that.” “We need to save money, I can fix that myself” Jack responds but continues with his work. Suddenly with that, they heard a door slowly creaking then it slammed shut. Doris started getting the goose bumps again. Jack looked at her with a quaint expression. “Just the wind Doris, it’s an old house, ok.” “You know Jack, I never wanted to live in this house, now it’s giving me the creeps.” “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.” Doris then left and sat on the front steps. She observed the front yard with all the bushes and tall weeds. Her nerves were getting rattled by the weird things and then she wondered how much longer it will take to get the house in shape. Suddenly there was a soft wind to her face. It was soft but then suddenly a warm feeling came over her. She noticed that the sky was suddenly getting dark. It was only midday. She sat there in wonder as everything started to revolve around her; the street, the trees, the entire area as if she had just spun herself around like little children sometimes do. She closed her eyes for a while and then opened them as he mind slowly began to stabilize. She could hear the wind whistling at a distance. The whistle was starting to develop into a faint melody. She was beginning to get apprehensive again. Then the whistling stops. She then heard an audible whisper that was distinguishable and slightly monotone, “You must leave,” it said, “You must leave.” Then it whistled one more time as it faded away. “Jack, Jack”, as she ran into the house, “Don’t tell me I’m crazy but the wind just talked to me, we have to leave this house, the house and everything was spinning around me.” “Doris, you are over worked, stressed out about this house, tomorrow we take a break and go into town.” “But Jack, I did hear the wind talk to me. Like I hear you honey. Don’t you believe me?” “Of course I believe you honey”, as he kisses her on the forehead. “But like I said, you are stressed out and we need a break.” The next day, they decided to do nothing to the house. They drove into town. They notice that there was no one around their age. Most of the people they saw were very much elderly. The town folks even moved slowly. Both Doris and Jack decided to go into the ice cream shop to get some ice cream. An elderly lady attended to them with a slow voice. “Can I help you?”, She said as she approach the counter to help them. Doris usually spoke a bit fast when she is stressed but to the old woman, Doris sounded like she was breaking the sound barrier. So Doris gave her request with her normal pace of talk. “Yes, I would like two chocolate twist and vanilla, with sprinkles and a strawberry splash please.” The old woman looked at her and asked her in a slow voice as if she had just woken up. “Can you please repeat that, that was a little too fast for me.” Doris then slowly repeated it, in the way the woman spoke. The lady responded, with her slow tired voice. “Yes ma’ am, right away.” Doris looked at Jack to make her comment. “Did you notice something weird with the town’s people; they are old and at least seventy years.” “I know Doris, there are no kids around, how weird.” “Now don’t be going around probing and asking questions, we have enough trouble as it is.” “But aren’t you curious on all of this Doris?” “Of course I am but I have to let my curiosity wait, we have other problems of our own to solve, let’s just get our ice cream and go.” And that was just what they did; they left but couldn’t help wondering how strange the town seemed. It was late in the evening when they arrived back to their home. They opened the door and found out that the furniture had been rearranged. It was as if it was arranged opposite. They saw in the living room, the sofa that was supposed to be on the right side of the room was now on the left, the large dinner table that was the south part of the room was on the north side. It was as if looking into a mirror and seeing things arranged in a perfectly lateral way. “You see what I was telling you, this house is haunted Jack.” “It appears so, or someone has a weird sense of humor.” “This entire town is weird honey, let’s call Joel Cook in the morning, he can take the house back.” “Sorry honey, we are stuck with this house; Joel Cook can’t help us now.” “What!” she exclaimed, “That old bastard screwed us, you know I felt he wanted to pan this house over to us at any cost, nobody wanted this house, no one wanted to live in this area. I should just go over to his place and choke him to death.” “Sorry honey, I know how you feel, it was my fault. I didn’t listen to you, I wanted to have a house so badly.” Suddenly there was a loud scream like a cat, only ten times louder. Doris got her goose bumps again as she put her arms around the waist of Jack for security. The dinner table began to vibrate and vibrate as the chairs slid back. The white table cloth on the dinner table quickly came off and floated into the kitchen. Jack and Doris froze in shock. Jack tried to open his mouth to talk but nothing came out. Then some large sounding footsteps began to “thump” and create a disturbance then a huge low voice echoed. “You have to leave. This is my home. You have to leave.” As Jack and Doris stood in the middle of the living room frozen in shock, they could see a blurred image of a bearded elderly man. His attire was somewhere in the 1920’s. He pointed his index finger of his right hand at them. In that instant a soft wind began to sweep across the living room where both Doris and Jack had stood frozen in shock. The wind blew Doris’ short cut shoulder length sandy blond hair around and Jack’s low cut Bermuda shorts was fluttering like a flag in a storm. The wind began to whistle that unfamiliar sound, then it spoke in a gurgling manner, “You will leave this house tonight and never come back, or you will surely die and live life like the blood sucking bats do. But leave this town or you will surely be old like the others.” In the kitchen was a hideous laugh. It was a voice of a woman. She walked out and united with the man. They held hands and walked back up the stairs and vanished. Jack and Doris finally got control of themselves. They headed for the door, left as fast as they could in their little Toyota car, as far as it could take them. After ten minutes out of the town they manage to talk. Jack would look across to Doris in the car, she was hyperventilating as her lips were trembling. “Doris, we lost big time. We don’t have a house and all that money invested in our house!” “We’ll have to tell Joel Cook about all of this. He won’t believe us anyway.” They drove about hundred miles away and finally stopped in at a little hotel. The next morning they went into Joel Cook’s office and told him the story. Joel was not a bit shocked to hear their story. He said there were five potential buyers that tried to live in that house but couldn’t. Joel then said, “I have to make it up to you guys, I feel like a heel.” Two weeks later, Joel called Jack and told him that he had good news. “I have the money you bought the house for, the money you invested in repairs and a substantial bonus for your problems.” “How did you do that?” Jack asked in astonishment. “You shouldn’t ask me how, but just because you should have listened to your lovely wife I will tell you. The house has burnt down the next day you had last talked to me and you are getting the insurance money for it.” Jack, yelled to Doris while on the phone. “Honey the house burnt down and Joel is getting us the insurance money.” Doris took the phone from Jack. “Joel, thank you so much, I am not going to ask how the fire started because I kind of know whose idea was that, thanks Joel.” The conversation ended with Joel as Doris and Jack was elated with the good news. And with that Jack hugged Doris. “Well Doris, it back to square one again, we have to find another house now.” “This time I decide which house we’re going to get. So there.” As she walked away she would hear Jack whistling. He was whistling that now familiar tune she had heard before
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 03:28:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015