How to Sell a Haunted House

by Grady Hendrix

her dad practically defined the word normal. He didn’t buy presents for people but instead gave cash

Lmao. You call it NORMAL?

“I’m supposed to be the stupid one,” he said, “but even I know that you don’t go back in a haunted house after dark.”

Exactly what I'd said to Louise

“Supernatural phenomena often materialize around sexually repressed women. Carrie, The Haunting of Hill House—”

ha I love The Haunting of Hill House

Mark said, waving her words away. “I’m not as smart as you, but what I do know is that when spooky fucking haunted dolls start writing messages on the wall, you should get the fuck out.”

Good one.

“A puppet is a possession that possesses the possessor.”

foreshadowing.

“A puppet is a device for driving the personality out of the body and allowing a spirit to take control,” Clark said. “Puppets have no freedom, but they give the puppeteer freedom. They have no life, but they live forever.”

FORESHADOWING.

puppets wear you as much as you wear them.

Good quote, bad vibe.

Like Clark said, “A puppet is a possession that possesses the possessor.” And a mask turns a person into a puppet.

CREEPY

Being loved didn’t mean you were alive. People loved lots of inanimate things: stuffed animals, cars, puppets. Being alive meant something else.

😭

“Because you’re real, Pupkin,” Louise said. “And nothing real can last forever. That’s how you know you’re real. Because one day you die.”

😭😭😭