Chapter 1
“This is it,” said Silas as he stepped out of the vehicle. Before him was a very run-down Victorian style house. It was two stories tall. Possibly three, if you counted the attic. It had a covered front porch and a small balcony above the porch. In its day, it was probably very beautiful. Now, it was kind of eerie. Perfect for what Silas had in mind.
“Wow, it’s huge,” said Violet. She climbed out of the van after Silas. Her long black hair wafted in the autumn breeze. “It might be a little too big, don’t you think?”
“No, it’s perfect,” said Silas. “Once we’re done with it, it’s gonna look awesome. It has eight different rooms. We can set them up with different themes. And that balcony up there is going to be great for advertising. We stick a sign up there, people will see it when they drive by.”
“I think it’s great. Nice find, man,” said Ross. He was getting out of the back of the van with Annie right behind him.
Annie was the youngest of the group. The most timid too. She gazed up at the old house and she didn’t look excited like the other three. She looked worried.
“What do you think, Annie?” Silas asked. He stepped beside her and draped an arm over her shoulders.
“It’s… I don’t know. I get a funny feeling when I look at it. Like it’s not… empty. No one’s living in it, right?”
Silas shook his head. “Nope. It’s completely ours for the whole month.”
Annie nodded. “Maybe I’m just… being weird then.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Ross teased.
Annie blushed.
Silas gave her shoulder a squeeze. “It’s really old. I think the owner said it was built in the 1800s. So yeah, there’s probably some weird vibes in there. But that’s perfect for a haunted house, don’t you think?”
“I guess so…” said Annie.
Silas didn’t think much of Annie’s hesitance about the house. From the moment he first laid eyes on it, he knew it was exactly what he was looking for. It was also in a prime location. Right in the center of town.
“Com’on, let’s go check it out,” said Silas.
Building his very own haunted house attraction had been a dream for a long time. Silas loved Halloween. Had since he was a kid. He loved horror movies. He loved getting scared. And now he had the chance to scare other people. In his mind, this haunted house was going to be the best one yet. People would be talking about it for years. If it did well enough, they could do it again next year. They could seriously make a living off of this, if they did it the right way.
He led the way to the house and pulled a set of keys from his pocket. When he opened the double doors of the home, he was immediately hit with the smell of stale air.
“How long has it been since someone lived here?” asked Violet as she stepped inside.
Silas shrugged. “Beats me. But it looks like it’s been a long time, judging by the dust.” He trailed a finger through the dust on a nearby table. “Guess we’ve got our work cut out for us. Ross, you wanna grab the cleaning supplies?”
“Got it,” said Ross.
As Ross returned to the van, Annie cautiously stepped inside. She lifted her head, looking around and taking in the appearance of the old home. Beside her, Violet flipped a light switch. The light fixture above them came on, flickered, then let out a loud popping sound as the bulb blew.
Annie shrieked and stepped back towards the doorway.
“A lot of work cut out for us,” said Violet. She narrowed her eyes at Silas.
“Hey, you knew what you signed up for. And you can’t tell me this place isn’t gonna be awesome once we’re done with it?”
“IF we get done with it. It’ll probably take weeks to clean this place up!” said Violet.
“Yeah, I don’t know, Silas. This is a pretty big job…” Annie said.
“There’s four of us,” said Silas. He didn’t know why the girls were being downers. Violet especially had been excited about creating their very own haunted house. The place was old and dirty but it was perfect apart from that. They’d never find another house like it. “We can do this, guys. It’s gonna take work, sure, but it’ll be worth it.”
“If you say so. This is your vision, after all,” Violet teased.
Just then, Ross returned with a bucket full of cleaning supplies. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”
They spent days cleaning the place up. There was a lot of dust, and also various junk piled up in the different rooms. Some of it was modern, some of it looked extremely old. On the second day, Annie found a picture of the place from the 1800s. On the front porch, there were a couple of women dressed in old timey dresses with their cleavage hanging out.
“They look like prostitutes,” said Violet.
“Really?” asked Annie.
“I mean, I don’t know… but just the way they’re holding themselves, it’s not a normal picture,” Violet said.
“I guess not,” said Annie.
“What do you got there?” asked Silas. He had just finished talking with Ross in another room.
“Annie found a picture,” Violet said.
Annie offered the picture to Silas and he took a look at it. It was old. Very old. Black and white. The women were indeed posed oddly for the time period. One of them had her leg propped on the railing, showing off the garter around her thigh.
“You know… this place may have been a brothel at one time,” said Silas.
“What’s a brothel?” asked Annie.
“Oh my gosh, Ann, are you that naive?” Violet scoffed. “It’s a whore house.”
“Oh…” said Annie. Her cheeks turned a rosy red.
“Yeah, this picture and the other things we’ve found, it kind of adds up,” said Silas, then he had an idea. “You know, we could go with this. Turn one of the bedrooms into this sexy but creepy room. We could dress you up, Violet, like a slutty mannequin and when someone comes in, you could come to life and scare the shit out of them!”
“You just wanna get me in a sexy costume, don’t you?” Violet smirked.
“Well, that too. But I still think it’s an awesome idea,” said Silas with a grin.
“You would. What about Annie?” asked Violet.
“Oh, no, I’m not a part of the show,” said Annie quickly.
“You could be…” said Violet. She reached her hand to play with Annie’s curly brown hair. “We could both be whores, you know? Two whores are better than one.”
Annie’s face turned beat red and Silas felt the sudden urge to protect her. Annie was different from the three of them. More innocent. She only agreed to this endeavor because Silas talked her into it. Haunted houses weren’t really her thing.
“If Annie doesn’t want to be a part of the show, she doesn’t have to. She’s better at costume work anyways. So be good to her or I’ll have her dress you up as a clown.”
“Oh my gosh, you better not! I fucking hate clowns!” said Violet with complete disgust.
“Then you better not go in room 3. Ross is turning it into clown central,” said Silas.
Violet’s mouth dropped open. “You said there weren’t going to be any clowns!”
“What? I can’t have a haunted house without clowns. They’re the best part!” said Silas.
Violet glared at Silas and stormed out of the room.
“Are there really clowns?” asked Annie, once she was gone.
Silas did tell Violet there wouldn’t be clowns but… Ross had a really cool idea for a clown room, and who was Silas to turn him down? Violet didn’t have to go near the room, if she didn’t want to. It really wasn’t that big of a deal.
“Yeah. But she’ll get over it,” said Silas. “Com’on. I wanna talk to you about the chainsaw guy’s outfit.”
