Almost True

...that one time when Sally didn't make things worse...
“Look! ‘The ParagonParanormal Society has thoroughly investigated this site and guarantees itsauthenticity’!”“Huh. Who arethey when they’re at home?” I muttered under my breath.Peter and Dadlaughed.Mort was nowhopping from foot to foot, obviously excited.Or he had to goto the bathroom.I gazed up atthe creepy-looking three-storey house and shivered. If they had a bathroom…The five of usstarted up the great front stairs to the doorway.They creaked‘authentically’.So far so good.“Oh, look atthat! A spider! Whoda thought?” Sally poked at alarge, furry brown member of the species in itsrather spectacular web.It curled itslegs up, then scurried away from her.“Oh. It’s real.My bad.”Just then, agust of wind blew over the porch, tossing Sally’s and my hair and almostclaiming Dad’s ball cap.He opened thedoor—another realistic creak—and we went inside.“Welcome!” Asolemn voice called out. “Please join the group. We’ll be getting startedsoon!”The five of ushovered near the door, allowing our eyes to adjust to the gloom. Finally, I wasable to make out a large, square room, with a stairway directly in front of me,great shelves filled with…gee-gaws…on all the walls, and a rathermundane-looking reception counter to the right. The voice seemed to have comefrom there.A group of 8 or10 people were gathered/huddled beside the stairway. Some of them were, likeMort, excited.The rest seemedmore like me.We gatheredwith them.A moment or twolater, a tall figure emerged from behind the counter and approached us—finallycoalescing into a young man.Wearing a heavycowl.Okay. Creepy.“Welcome toDell House,” the young man said. “I’m Night and I’ll be your guide thisafternoon.”His voice wasdeep and sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a well.I shivered. Ofcourse his name was ‘Night’.“First, awarning. Dell House spirits are capricious and unpredictable. They can appearat any time and have been known to ‘attack’ in numerous ways. Blasts of wind.Falling items and pictures. So please be alert. Best to stay away from walls atall times. And hang onto each other.”A timid hand slowlyrose on the far side of the group. “Ex-cuse me?” a faint voice said.Night turnedtoward them. “Yes?”“Is it quitesafe?”“Well…no onehas died here. Well…apart from the spirits.” Night’s laugh was, like him,weird. “Stay together and let’s go.”“Do you have ahistory of this place?” Dad asked, falling into step beside our guide.A long-fingeredhand dipped into some hidden pocket in Night’s robes and emerged with a handfulof pamphlets. “Our history is written here.” He handed one to Dad.“Thanks.” Dadfell back with the rest of us, squinting as he tried to read in the ratherinadequate light.Suddenly, ablast of wind, similar to the one we had felt outside, tore the paper from hishands.“Hey!” Dad madea spectacular, but futile effort to catch it. Then he glared as the paper rosenearly to the ceiling two floors above us.Night silentlyhanded Dad a second pamphlet. “That happens a lot,” the young man said.Dad looked atme. “I’m beginning to believe the reports,” he whispered.I gigglednervously.Night took usup the main staircase.By this point,everyone in the group was clinging desperately to someone else.My bunch wasn’tany different. I had linked arms with both Dad and Peter and I saw Mort grabSally’s hand.One man aheadof me was gripping the heavily-carved bannister. Suddenly, he jerked his handaway. “It’s hot!” he said.“Oh, yeah.That’ll happen, too,” Night said. “Careful.”We had justreached the top of the stairs when a stream of water came out of nowhere andstruck Mort in the chest.“Hey!” heshouted, ducking to one side and brushing hastily at his shirt, now drippingwet.Night pausedand looked at him. “Capricious and unpredictable.”“Maybe youshould give us an idea of what more we can expect,” Dad said.What can I say.He’s an ex-marine, but the urge to plan and execute remains strong.Night looked athim and shrugged. “We don’t know, sir. It’s never the same twice.”Dad looked atme and Peter. I tightened my hold on both of them.We were guidedalong a wide hallway, hung with a dozen or more massive portraits.“The familythrough the generations,” Night said.Man, this guywasn’t about to waste breath explaining anything!As we werepassing one picture of a young girl and her beribboned pet goat, the picturesuddenly just…dropped, hitting the floor with a heavy thud.Someoneshrieked and everyone huddled closer together in the center of the hallway.Okay, I knewwhy Night had advised us to stay away from the walls.We continueddown the hall.Doors slammedopen, then shut.Light fixtures swayedalarmingly.Soft, strange music played. It would grow for a moment, then die.And I’m prettysure I saw a translucent figure sail across the hall and into the wall justahead of us.“Did you seethat?” I managed to gasp.Dad and Peter’seyes were on the same spot.“I did,” theysaid together. They looked at each other.“Keep up,” Nightsaid.We hurried tocatch the others.Throughout allthis, Mort and Sally were uncharacteristically silent. I kept glancing back tomake sure they were still with us.Sally seemedcalm, but Mort’s eyes were bigger than dinner plates as he swiveled to watcheverything.Night led usinto bedrooms, where rugs rolled themselves up and dresser drawers made astaccato sound as they moved in and out. Blinds snapped up and curtains slidback and forth across the rods.Bedclothes weretossed about.A pillow sailedpast. Dad ducked, but I wasn’t as fortunate.The resultingcloud of dust made me sneeze repeatedly.It was hard toknow how to react or where to look first.As we made ourway back into the hallway from one of the bedrooms, Peter leaned close andwhispered in my ear, “Even if this is all fake, it’s pretty spectacular!”Just as thewords left his lips, another wind blast tore through—this time seeming totarget him. It nearly pulled him free from my grip.Our holdtightened.The tourcontinued...We couldn’thave been in that house for more than half an hour, but it seemed days. Everyfloor and room sported some new and startling event.My fingers werejust beginning to grow slightly numb from Peter and Dad’s crushing grip when Nightfinally steered us back to the main staircase.We descendedit, relief writ large on every face in the group as we spied our escape.Night stoppedat the bottom of the stairs, halting the group. Then he looked up at us. “We,the spirits of Dell House hope you enjoyed your visit. Do tell your friends andneighbours. And come back yourselves. If you dare.”With thosewords, he suddenly…disappeared.I am not makingthis up. He disappeared. His cloak was suddenly—empty. It dropped to the floorin a heap of cloth.We stared,aghast.One womanfainted.But Sally ismade of sterner stuff.“Cool!” shesaid. “Let’s go again!”
Use Your Words is a writing challenge!Each month, I exchange words with my friend and intrepid leader, Karen of Baking in a Tornado Neither of us knows what the other will do with her words.This month, Karen gave me: ghost ~ grow ~ brown ~ spider ~ soft Thank you, my friend!Now go see what Karen did with my words!BakingIn ATornado