Tis the season to relive the 8-part Holiday story from last year. Enjoy!
It was Halloween night, 1989. The howling winds echoed like hungry wolves as the moonlight fought hard to filter through the swiftly shifting clouds. The three-story house was old and run-down, obviously left unloved for many years, branded by the neighborhood kids as “the Haunted Mansion”, especially relevant in late October. On that night the braver children ventured up its long and winding driveway, coated and slick with wet red and orange leaves. The rickety stairs to the front porch creaked with every step, adding to the already spooky ambience. Finally on the stoop of the massive covered front porch with its sad peeling paint, the two little girls, Maggie, dressed like an angel and Sue, a ghost brushed away the spider webs while tightly grasping their trick-or-treat bags. Looking at each other and taking a deep breath, Maggie knocked on the door, with no response.
“Try it again. . . “ She nodded and this time pounded on the heavy wooden door, with the same result, no answer. Suddenly a cat under the porch screeched bloody murder, causing Maggie and Sue to scream and both run back to the safety of the main road under the broken streetlight. Their group of friends were lying in wait. A Ghost Buster, Batman, Spiderman, Marty McFly and Indiana Jones, were all laughing hysterically while clutching their bags of candy.
“I knew you’d chicken out.”
“Yeah, well you go up there if you’re so brave.”
“Not me, I think there’s a dead guy in there.”
“Some Superhero you are . . “
“C’mon, let’s go to the next house.” They all agreed and walked as a group down the street, somewhat relived to get the Haunted Mansion out of the way. The old house certainly felt out of place sitting all alone on the two-acre city lot covered in a blanket of ash, maple and pine trees. The bushes were all shifting to fall colors of the Pacific Northwest. It was built in 1947 in the Queen Anne style architecture. The façade boasted a beautiful front porch entrance and inlaid wooden double front doors with ornate wooded trim and railings. A polygonal front corner tower and conical roof added to its majesty. But years of neglect and exposure to harsh winters and hot summers left the weathered wooden siding scuffed and broken. And the overgrown forest and unattended landscape contributed to its Haunted Mansion persona.
As the kids left to continue their night of trick-or-treating on the next street, none of them noticed the faint candlelight flickering on the upstairs tower corner room window.
to be continued