The Haunted House

When I was about 13, my best friend, Jamie and I used to walk down the alley a few blocks to where it dead-ended.  Facing the Alley was a rickety, wooden garage that we called "the barn" because it looked like an old barn.  To the right of the barn was a small patch of yard and the house that it belonged to.  The house was vacant and it had a weird, grey box on the locked, iron security door.  Of course, I know now that is where the realtor kept the key but I had no knowledge of such things at 13 and living in a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone and noone ever moved.  

We knew the story but never bothered investigating.  We just went to the barn because it was a safe place to go smoke where we wouldn't get caught.  Sometimes, we would take the boom box and play that New Edition cassette over and over.  It was just a handy place to go in the cold and the rain and much less scary than sneaking a smoke on the side of her house.  We never had any thoughts of going into that house, or at least, I didn't.  Until the day we decided to grow some balls.

One day Jamie and I and two other friends, Mesha and Raina (OK, I think it was Raina but it may have been Wendy.  For the love of vodka, my memory sucks.) decided we would sneak into the house and take a look-see.  We entered through a small window on the backside of the house that was unlocked, one at a time, going headfirst into the house.  Once we were all in, we walked through the kitchen, a straight shot into the living room at the front of the house.  I looked around at the plain white walls.  The house was empty.  There was a set of steps to either side of the living room.  A set going up to the left and a set going down to the right.  There was a picture window on the front wall and there was a mantle on the right wall.  

And so the story goes....

There was a family that lived in the house and they had a little girl.  There was something wrong with the little girl and she wore braces on her legs.  It was rumor that the parents were arguing and the little girl got in the way.  She tumbled down the stairs to her death and the house was haunted by her ghost.

image from Google

Laying on the mantle was a pair of braces that looked much like the ones in the picture.  OK, that was just creepy but we decided to press on. I can tell you that my heart was racing.  I was always a chicken about taking risks of any kind.  The four of us started up the stairs and as we all just barely up a few stairs, started hearing the sounds of metal clanking. LOUD.  Like chains.  Or leg braces falling down a stairwell. 

We flew out of that living room and back through the kitchen.  Jamie flung open the back door to be greeted by that crappy, iron door.  There was maybe an 18 inch gap between the last iron bar at the bottom and the concrete slab on the outside.  Jamie slid under, then I slid under and I can't be sure because I was so terrified at that point but I think the other two girls went out the same window that we had came in.

That was probably one of the scariest moments in my life. 

I don't know who ever moved into that old house but I would love to know if they hear the clanking metal too.