Haunted House Tales

by Riley Amitrani

  “Me? Scared of some ghosts in an old haunted house? Hah! You know my interest in the paranormal. It would be cool to see if anything is actually in that place not of flesh and bone.”

  “Great! This will be a blast!”

  “Mind if I invite Drew?”

  Rhiannon sighed. Drew Andreas. He and Kristen had just started dating about two or three months ago and he was not Rhiannon’s cup of tea at all. When the pair had first hooked up, Rhiannon had felt a bit put off, worrying that this would cause some conflict between them, that perhaps she would be replaced as Kristen wanted to spend more and more time with Drew. She was also a bit jealous, as she had not yet really come across a guy at school that she was interested in. However, as time had gone by, Rhiannon had not been pushed aside and to be perfectly honest, Drew was a bit too timid and passive for her to let her jealousy grow. He was a nice enough guy, but definitely not what Rhiannon would have been attracted to.

  “Sure. Bring him along. What the hell. He’s almost another girl as it is.”

  Kristen slugged Rhiannon playfully on the arm. She knew Drew was not quite as masculine as Rhiannon preferred in her boyfriends, but she loved that Drew was shy and a bit sensitive. Even if Rhiannon was not kidding, she just let it go. After dinner, Kristen called Drew up to give him the scoop and see if he was interested in coming along on this adventure.

  “Horror movies in an actual haunted house?” Drew asked with trepidation in his voice.

  “Sure. It’ll be a hoot!” Kristen replied.

  “I don’t know, Kristen…”

  “Oh, come on, Drew. Please? We can sleep over…”

  “Well…if that’s the case, you sold me. Haunted house or not…”

  ……….

  Carmarthen, Wales, United Kingdom

  March 18, 2013, 7 PM

  Drew came by the girls’ flat the first day that Rhiannon was scheduled to begin taking care of things at Glass Mansion. As he left his car and walked to their door to help them with their overnight bags, he was still feeling uneasy about the whole thing. Granted he was thrilled at the thought of a night with Kristen as the enticement, but deep in his gut, he wondered what he was getting himself into. Drew rarely had strong intuitive moments, but as he knocked on the door he was sure this was possibly one of those times. They loaded up their bags in the car and Drew set off for the mansion as the girls chattered away about some classes they were enrolled in at the university.

  As they rolled up to the looming mansion, clouds had built giving the always imposing and creepy-looking house an even more sinister and ominous presence. The sun, what little was left visible due to the growing overcast sky, was just hitting the horizon. Drew left the car off to the side of the semi-circular gravel driveway as they collected their bags and headed to the front door. The house itself was in good shape externally. It was not like the typical haunted house motif that Drew had in his mind from elsewhere, but something about the large, dark structure in front of him made him begin to reconsider his decision to come along. He hesitated a moment as Rhiannon went to retrieve the key from under the planter just adjacent to the front door.

  “Drew? You OK?” Kristen asked as she looked back to where he was standing as Rhiannon unlocked the door.

  “Um…I, uh…yeah, sure. Just have not been this close to this place before. It’s pretty overwhelming don’t you think?”

  Kristen had to admit he had a point. She had known Glass Mansion was the oldest and largest building in Carmarthen, but it was a sight to behold up close. She waited and looked at Drew until he finally seemed to overcome his apprehension and perhaps him reconsidering to come along and joined them as they moved inside. As Rhiannon closed the door quietly behind them, the gloom of the interior was definitely a different scene that the well-kept exterior. Little light penetrated the dark and dim entryway. Drew’s relief at not experiencing a typical haunted house look vanished as he dropped his bag to the floor.

  The three of them looked around in wonder. Granted, the weather and approaching evening was having a decided impact on the lack of light inside, but Rhiannon had this feeling it would have made no difference. This was a place that just seemed to exude dark inside. As they wandered around, the same feeling and atmosphere pervaded each room. Kristen could think of nothing except that if she had wanted to see a possible haunted house, they had arrived at one. In every room they explored, it looked as if nothing had been done to update any decorating motifs in years. The furniture and carpets and wall decorations gave the sensation of stepping back in history.

  Despite her interest in the paranormal and maybe wondering if they might actually catch a glimpse of a ghost or two, Kristen hung close to Drew, taking his hand in hers. Some of her dramatic bravado at not being scared previously had faded as the wind outside rattled some loose window shutters and a light rain pattered the old panes. Those sounds along with the natural creaking and settling of the old floors as they walked were giving her the creeps. However, none of it seemed to be fazing Rhiannon. While Kristen and Drew trod carefully through the house and down a narrow unlit corridor, Rhiannon headed for the kitchen to grab the watering cans to get her chores out of the way.

  The walls of the corridors that flanked a staircase to the upper level were lined with old paintings and photographs. Kristen aimed the light from her cell phone at the dusty and cracked canvases that hung along the way. As eerie as the inside of the house was in general, these ancient-looking paintings and pictures only added to the creeps. She assumed they were family members from generations gone by. And though she was sure she was just seeing something that was not there, Kristen could not escape the feeling that the eyes of each person were following her. It gave her the shivers.

  The longer they were in the place, the more Drew felt his intuitive warning from earlier kick in. While Rhiannon wandered quickly from room to room checking on all the plants, Kristen and Drew huddled close, their gazes taking in all that the old house had to offer. The high ceilings gave each room an impressive and cavernous feel, but the chill from all that space was unsettling. As the weather outside grew in intensity, the temperature of the interior seemed to fall with it. They wandered back to the entryway as Rhiannon flitted off to several of the side rooms, watering can in hand, to see if there was a way to bring some lights up around the interior. Just as they returned to the front door, Kristen spied a light switch on the wall just to the left. She flipped it on and some lights did illuminate, but they did little to brighten the overall dim of the entryway.

  No sooner than she had flipped the switch, a loud clap of thunder broke the relative silence of the evening and a fierce streak of jagged lightning ripped across the sky giving the entryway a brief flash of bright light. Both Drew and Kristen jumped at the unexpected noise and light. Then the lights from the sparsely placed lamps went dark.

  “Great…” Drew moaned. “Guess the lightning has killed the power.”

  “Probably,” Kristen replied as she felt her heart pound in response to the thunder. “Let’s look around for some candles we can use until the power comes back.”

  Using the light from their phones, they searched through the rooms at the front of the house. However, in none of the drawers or on any of the tables did they find anything to use. Upon their return to the foyer, they came to the massive staircase that led to the upper level they had walked by when they had arrived. Drew shone his light up the stairs, but the beam hardly penetrated the dark, showing only about the lower third of the steps. He considered taking a look upstairs as well, but in his heart, he was just barely coping with his nerves and apprehension of what was on the lower level. He was sure the second floor was just another version of the main level, in terms of creepiness and weirdness, but he was not eager to check it out.

  Just then a dim and quivering light began to emerge from one of the paired dark corridors that flanked the stairs. The light was dancing unevenly from wall to wall and moving toward them at a slow but steady pace. Kristen and
Drew froze in their steps, both breathing quicker. As the flickering light approached, a low, painful-sounding voice accompanied the light calling out their names. Drew felt the real desire to flee and Kristen grasped tighter to his arm, her fingers digging into his flesh. However, they held their spots at the base of the stairs and waited. The moaning vocalization transformed into a rising wail as it echoed around the high walls.

  The Real Haunting of Glass Mansion: An Appetizer

  Carmarthen, Wales, United Kingdom

  March 19, 2013, 1 AM

  Just as Kristen was about to grab Drew and have them get out, the familiar face of Rhiannon appeared behind the flame of a single tall candle, giggling in delight at having spooked her companions.

  “Not cool!” Drew exclaimed as he felt the rush of adrenaline that had been building in his system flush away. His legs quivered in the aftermath and a single fat drop of sweat from fear fell from his brow to his face.

  Kristen exhaled in relief as well but let her annoyance at Rhiannon’s sense of humor go unanswered. She realized she had let her imagination get the better of her, even though the interior of this place was reason enough to have had that occur. Deep down, though, she was pissed at Rhiannon and she was sure her feelings were visible on her face.

  “Oh, come on guys…” Rhiannon said as she continued to laugh. “It was just a joke, for Christ’s sake. Lighten up already…”

  “Really bad sense of humor, Rhiannon…” Kristen finally added, knowing Drew’s deep sensitivity and how she had coerced him into coming to a place he was not real keen on in the first place.

  “OK…OK…I’m sorry,” Rhiannon replied. “When the lights went out completely, I just had an impulse. The haunted house thing was just too much of a temptation, I guess. I’ll behave from now on…I promise.”

  Neither Kristen nor Drew replied. He was still shaking from the incident, and Kristen felt a bit foolish that she had let her imagination allow her to be taken in so easily with a prank often seen in a summer camp.

  “Lightning killed the power, I guess…” Rhiannon finally said just to break the tension between them.

  “I guess,” Kristen replied. “We were looking around for some candles, but so far we have not found any.”

  “This one was in the kitchen,” Rhiannon said as she gestured with the tall taper. “Let’s take a look around in all these side rooms. Probably more somewhere.”

  Kristen nodded and she and Drew followed Rhiannon as she led the way. The first few rooms had nothing, but as they came around and under the staircase to the corridor on the opposite side, they discovered a wealth of candles and they lit them all and began to distribute them around the lower level. It was not hugely bright anywhere, but at least it was enough illumination to enable them to navigate from room to room and up and down the twin hallways off the steps. The trio returned to the foyer to retrieve their bags and take them into a large parlor-like room on the left side of the staircase, about halfway down the corridor.

  The room seemed to offer the best place in which they could set up to watch some movies and then crash for the night. Like the walls of the twin corridors, the room was adorned with mementos, presumably from the Glass clan. The furniture was old, but ornate, having seen better days. As Rhiannon looked over the room she was sure the mansion must have been impressive in its day. The Glasses seemingly had spared no expense in building this home and filling it with high-quality furnishings. It was too bad, she thought, that the place had been allowed to fall so far from what one day must have been a real showplace. She guessed Gladys and her husband were just too elderly at this point to keep it all up. It was, after all, a huge mansion.

  While Rhiannon was in the parlor musing on the golden days of Glass Mansion, Kristen and Drew had returned to the car to retrieve the DVD player they were going to use to watch movies on as well as some light snacks to get them through the night. As soon as Kristen and Drew came back inside, though, they came to a sudden halt.

  “Did you hear that, Kristen?” Drew asked as he set down the bag of food.

  “Hard to miss,” Kristen replied as she hugged the DVD player tight to her chest.

  They stood in silence, the only audible sounds now the rain outside and the heightened pulses in their ears. Whatever they had heard seemed to have vanished. Kristen looked at Drew, but he just shrugged.

  “Guess our imaginations are still on high alert after Rhiannon’s little joke, huh?” Kristen asked.

  “Guess so…”

  They both exhaled in relief and each grabbed a candle from the foyer, just for comfort as they slipped off their shoes and turned to head back to the parlor. However, after just a few steps, the sound happened again. They froze, the candle flames sputtering from their breath. It was this low and subtle, but definitely discernible repetitive thumping noise that seemed to be coming from under their feet. They both looked down and them up at each other again.

  “What do you think, Kristen?” Drew asked. “That for real or you think Rhiannon’s up to her bag of tricks again…”

  “She promised, Drew. I am sure she would not pull another stunt.”

  They stood still, both feeling a bit unnerved as the noise continued, and then just seemed to fade away as if whatever had been causing it was on the move. Kristen shrugged in bafflement as she looked at Drew, but he was not convinced of Rhiannon not being responsible.

  “One way to find out, Kristen. Let’s go check out the parlor.”

  They moved quietly down the corridor, moving to the parlor, but the noise had not repeated itself as they walked. They peered in the room from the hallway to see Rhiannon moving from place to place shining her own candle on all manner of things in the room, like she was perusing a museum. She spun around when she sensed their return.

  “Oh, great! You’ve got the DVD player and the food!” Rhiannon exclaimed as she came closer to help them with their gear.

  Drew handed over the bag but looked at her suspiciously. He knew Rhiannon did not care much for him and that he was along on this little adventure only at the urging of Kristen. Despite her assurance of Rhiannon’s promise, Drew was not convinced. Kristen moved to the side and set the player on a table where they could all see the screen. Drew continued to look at Rhiannon in a questionable manner.

  “You OK, Drew?” Rhiannon finally asked. “You’re looking at me funny. And not ‘ha-ha’ funny.”

  “You hear anything just a few minutes ago?” Kristen asked, stepping in to try and diffuse a potential conflict.

  “Just the rain and you guys walking back and forth. Why?”

  “When we came back from the car just now, we heard this repeated thumping-like noise,” Kristen replied. “You hear anything like that?”

  “Nope. Can’t say I did.”

  “Unless she was the source,” Drew said, directing his comment with a touch of acidity toward Kristen.

  “Are you accusing me of something, Drew?” Rhiannon asked, her hackles now up fully.

  “Just wondering, Rhiannon,” he replied.

  “I told you I was sorry and that I would not do it again, OK?”

  Drew raised his eyebrows in acceptance but at the same time to let her know he was skeptical. Kristen could sense things getting out of control, so she intervened.

  “Everyone just calm down, OK. Drew does not know you like I do, Rhiannon. If you say it was not you and you did not hear anything, I am sure that is the case. Your little prank before was not really cool and I am sure Drew was just asking based on that, right Drew?”

  Drew shrugged and nodded.

  “Sorry, Rhiannon,” he added. “Guess I overreacted.”

  “Sure. No biggie. We all cool now?”

  “Sure,” Drew replied.

  “So, what exactly did you guys hear?” Rhiannon asked as she opened one of the bags of crisps from the food bag and sat down.

  “Hard to describe,” Kristen replied as she sat on the thick carpet just next to Rhiannon and crossed her legs. “Was t
his soft, but repetitive thumping that seemed to be coming from under us. This place does have a cellar, right?”

  Rhiannon rolled her eyes wishing now that maybe she had come alone to take care of the house. Or at the most just had Kristen come along by herself and left the effeminate Drew at home. It seemed her friend was letting his tendency to jump at any little noise work on her as well now.

  “Old house. I would assume it has a cellar. I am sure an old place like this is going to have a lot of creaks and other odd noises. Sure you did not just imagine it? Or maybe it was just the storm outside or the house aging as they do?”

  “No, Rhiannon,” Drew interjected, feeling this was directed at him despite her recent apology. This was not the rain or wind. And it was not an old house creaking. It was a regular, repetitive thumping coming from under us.”

  “Kristen?” she asked, looking to her friend, as her patience with Drew was now wearing thin.

  “I would agree, Rhiannon. This was not just an old house groaning or the wind.”

  “Well, sorry. I did not hear anything. I think maybe the two of you are letting your imaginations run wild since you know this place is supposed to be haunted according to all the old geezers in town.”

  Kristen was not satisfied with her response, but she knew her well enough not to pursue it any longer and that more discussion in this vein would only lead to hurt feelings. She was trying to tread a fine line between her long-standing friendship with Rhiannon and her new budding relationship with Drew. No one said anything for a few moments, the only real sound in the parlor the sudden audible ticking of an old clock on the far wall. In the silence of the back and forth growing animosity between the three, the clock’s ticking sounded loud. Finally, Kristen spoke up with a tactic she hoped would satisfy everyone and take all the bickering down a notch.

  “Just to settle this little disagreement, how about we go—all three of us—to the cellar and take a look around just to make sure?”