The Haunting of Hill House

by Shirley Jackson

Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

showers of stones had fallen on their house, without any warning or any indication of purpose or reason,

Carrie

The house was vile. She shivered and thought, the words coming freely into her mind, Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once.

Exorcism cannot alter the countenance of a house; Hill House would stay as it was until it was destroyed.

I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.

‘Every door in this house swings shut when you let go of it.’

she waltzed alone,

‘No physical danger exists,’ the doctor said positively. ‘No ghost in all the long histories of ghosts has ever hurt anyone physically. The only damage done is by the victim to himself.

whose hand was I holding?’

Within, its walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.