Welcome everyone. Just a one-shot this time! If you haven't guessed, I did make references to fictional characters with the surname "Crane." Enjoy and review.
Mary Crane had allegedly murdered her father Ichabod and her mother Marion in 1892. She was Norrisville's first instance of an axe-murderer, resulting in one of Norrisville's bloodiest crime scenes where Mary, if it had indeed been her, had hit her mother nineteen times in the head and the Crane house was considered the most haunted house in Norrisville, so much so that no one would live in it after Mary died of old age in 1927, she was found not guilty.
There were sightings of blurred being shaped shades by those who dared to go into the house and even by those who would just be passing by. They would be apparent one instant and then absent the next. There were a lot of voices, footsteps, sounds that defied identification and objects moving in the house causing many to feel rather nervous when they entered the house. It was very possible that Ichabod and Marion still lingered there, looking for some angelic compensation.
As a middle school student, Heidi Weinerman had gone into the house. She entered the basement and felt like she had entered a walk-in freezer while having two fingers run down her back. She stopped dead in her tracks. She had also gone up to the room on the third floor in which a maid had lived. In that room had been a rocking chair, while Heidi had been in there the chair turned to face her.
Late in elementary school, Randy Cunningham had entered the house and felt an unseen hand upon his shoulder in the chimney room of the house. He later felt hands around his ankles. Howard Weinerman, had stolen one of Heidi's cameras in order to get an apparition on camera only for it to be taken right from his hand and thrown to the ground.
According to accounts, Ichabod and Marion were not the only apparitions in the house. It was believed that the, third floor of the house was haunted by the spirits of two children named Jonathan and Lila Crane, siblings of Mary whom had been murdered by their mother Marion. Also on the third floor was the ghost of Suebur Dirgah, the house's caretaker who had died before the Crane's bought the house.
And so it was that Ken Finlayson came to the house with Heidi, Randy and Howard accompanying him. Heidi had brought a winter coat with her.
"Well…" started Ken, as he looked at the old house. "There is your apparition abode. Heidi, would you feel like telling me what it was like?"
"Cold and creepy."
"And you Reginald?"
Randy shot Ken a dirty look. He was doing that on purpose. "Very touchy feely."
"And you Howard?"
"He broke my camera!" exclaimed Heidi.
"A ghost broke your camera!"
"We all know it was you, Howard! Stop lying!" Ken was on Heidi's side. It had to do with two reasons. The primary reason was that Ken had low opinion of Howard the second was that he had even lower opinion of people who break cameras.
"I am not lying!"
"What are you trying to hide?" asked Ken.
"Nothing!"
"What did you film yourself doing?"
"What? Nothing!"
"Alright, that's enough of this." Ken walked onto the porch and held up a camera. "Into the house, dear friends!" He then opened the door only for the door to slam shut in his face. Upon hearing some snickering, Ken turned to face Randy and Howard. "First of you who says that had I been closer it would have been improvement will get their but kicked into next week." He then sneezed. "Oh jeeze, it's probably nothing." He opened the door again, only for it to not close this time. "Heidi, ladies first." Heidi put on a brave face, as anyone who had previously been in the Crane had would, and walked into the Crane house. "And you…" Ken pointed at Howard. "If my camera breaks because of you I will bloody well kick your butt into the next two weeks!"
"I didn't break Heidi's camera."
"Just get in." Howard walked in leaving Ken and Randy outside. "If you want, you can just go home. Who knows if the Ninja will be needed?"
"Hey, you faced your monster when you took down Moloch. I think that all three of us should face our ghosts."
"You may just make a competent hero yet." Commented Ken. He then walked on into the Crane house causing Randy to realize what Ken had just said.
"Wait a minute, what is that supposed to mean?"
()
As soon as Ken entered the house he could hear it all. He could hear the voices, the footsteps the sounds that defied identification, the objects moving… It was a very charming place. Now, where was Howard? More importantly where was Heidi?
"Cool place if you're Vlad the Imapler." Commented Randy.
"You know who that is?"
"I do read, you know."
Ken chuckled. Randy was smarter than he initially thought. An idiot wasn't the kind of person chosen to become a hero.
"This about where the apparitions got all touchy feely?" asked Ken.
"I got as far as the kitchen."
"Then go as far as you can." Ken tipped his bowler hat to Randy and walked away. "I'm going to look around."
()
Going down to the basement, Ken found Heidi standing by herself. It was cold to be sure, making Ken wish he had brought a coat as well. The way Heidi just stood there, as if she was a statue, was unsettling. It wasn't even like she had heard him come down. Something was not right here. She was standing completely still.
"Heidi?" She did not answer. She was not dead, he could see her breathing from where he stood and yet she did not react. And then something came to Ken. "Mary?" No, that was impossible. There was no belief that Mary's spirit resided in this house. There were her parents, siblings and then there was Dirgah the caretaker.
And then Heidi turned to face him.
"It is Mary indeed, Master Rathbone." Said Heidi and yet it was not Heidi. It was Mary possessing Heidi. So she too was in this house. It seemed she was familiar with a past life of Ken's, a Master Rathbone. "It matters name what your name is in this life, I will only remember you as the man who knew whom I killed." Well, he certainly was lucky.
"What makes you think he and I are one and the same?"
"The voice, the hair, it is all there." That was certainly nice. At least he had not been hideous in a past life. "And it seems all the better I chose to posses this girl. The adoration she feels for you, something you share for her will make my torture of you all the sweeter! You failed to see me found guilty in a previous life and I shall kill you in your current life. You won't even be able to fight back out of fear of harming her." Ken merely gave a laugh. Confused, Mary raised Heidi's eyebrow. "Why do you laugh?"
"I'm more wise in the ways of supernatural than Master Rathbone ever might have been. I merely need to say four words and you shall be banished from her, from the house, from this very plane."
"You know no such words!"
"Do you dare to risk it if I do?" Ken did not actually know any such words. He was merely bluffing. He only hoped Mary didn't figure out he was bluffing. He wasn't just hoping. He was praying mentally.
Thankfully, Mary did not figure out Ken was bluffing. She left Heidi's body and never did Ken let Heidi know that he had bluffed a ghost till they were both far from the Crane house. Howard had found nothing, Randy had faced his ghosts and Ken had decided to not take any ghost pictures.
The End