Part 1: Chapter 14

Steven and the kids came home, and the light were all on, yet again. The kids were out of school and summer had officially started. As they were getting ready for bed, they payed a board game. Steven saw a figure in the corner. He thought it was only his imagination, but then realized it was coming toward him. His plan was to calmly leave the house, not letting the kids suspect anything. As they got out of the house, they heard something fall and heard a loud scream that made all the dogs in the neighborhood bark. They went to Steven’s parents house, and to Steven’s disbelief, his father believed him that the house was haunted.

“You don’t think you rented a haunted house, do you?”

“I envied their [Mr. and Mrs. LaChance] life, a life that I would never lead.”

“...I glanced up at the second-story windows that peeked through the leaves, and for a brief moment I though I saw someone spying on us from above. I blinked and looked again, but there was no one there. What an imagination…”

“I noticed it first out of the corner of my eye, just a quick flick of movement, something in the doorway that led to the family room. I looked toward it again and realized that it wasn’t something; it was the dark figure of a man backlit by the light from the kitchen. He was solid in form, except his form seemed to be made up of moving, churning dark gray and black smoke or mist. I looked down at the game board, certain that when I looked up again it would be gone. I was tired, I told myself; my eyes were playing trick son me. I kept trying to rationalize what I had just seen, but I couldn’t. When I looked up again, he was still there. And to my horror, he began to move toward us. He came slowly at first, but then he picked up momentum. He moved into the family room and paused in the center of it. His form was still a churning mass of blackness. I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel his eyes watching me, staring directly at me, challenging me. He stood in the center of the room for what seemed like an eternity but was actually only a few moments. Then he melted from sight. He was gone.”

“...a loud, painful, tortured, agonized scream came pouring out of the house. Our house! It was the voice of a man screaming in pain, and it was so loud that the neighborhood dogs began barking in response.”