Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Lamest. Haunting. Ever.

The town I grew up in was big, for a small city, but very spread out. It wasn't completely awful growing up there; it was easy to get out of town, for instance. When Haley's comet passed near, we were able to get out of the glare of city lights with very little effort. It helps having friends who live out of the main city when one wants to get away.
It wasn't uncommon to get out of the routine and away to the country. Gaming nights with friends kept me out of trouble and got me socializing with others, albeit in a geeky environment. One night, we went to a buddy's house. It was at the top of a hill, the driveway twisting down the side. On a rainy night, a driver would require a four-wheel drive vehicle to navigate the driveway.
There were four of us, alone in the house. Our host's parents were gone for the weekend. We were at the top of the stairs; the kitchen was on the first floor near the stairs and the back door was off the kitchen. With a bathroom next door, there were only 4 rooms that we were in the whole night. It wasn't until the weirdness started that he told us the house was haunted. Which was odd because it wasn't particularly old?
It began for us when someone went down to get a drink from the kitchen. He came back and asked who had left the cabinet with the glasses open? Of course, none of us had. We had walked through the post-70s kitchen on our way upstairs, the dark wooden cabinets were all closed. Our host apologized and bounded down the stairs, telling us in a rush about the haunting.
Lights would turn on, cabinets open, toilets flush.. the usual stuff one would expect from a bad horror movie. I got a creepy feeling from time to time but never saw anything, even out of the corner of my eye. In fact, it was the lack of anything tangible that sticks in my mind.
Everything that happened happened out of sight. It was almost as if we were supposed to be frightened by what we couldn't perceive (lights flickering, cabinets opening, etc) than by anything jumping out at us. Lamest haunting ever. It was like walking in on a party just after everyone has left... a surge of excitement but then a wave of let-down.
We eventually called it a night. I was most frightened by the twisting journey down the driveway of doom than by the lights that shut themselves off when I looked up the hill at the house, one last time.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks! This is a filler story. :( I couldn't recall what I wanted to post earlier in the day.

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