Chapter 68: Something Goes Bump in the Night


Jake bought and rebuilt an old mansion in Happy Town which was once called Kennerly's Folly since it was reputably haunted and the family could never live there. The locals took to calling it Runnel's Folly after the raccoon acquired it, he and his family happily lived there for the remainder of his long life. It was ultimately inherited by his son Freddie.


"GET YOUR TAIL INSIDE!" the raccoon growled as he tried to shove the larger red fox through the door of the refurbished old Victorian home. "There is nothing for you to be afraid of…you…you fraidy fox!"

Nick had desperately grabbed the frame of the doorway and was holding on for dear life, much to the amusement of both Marie and Judy who were standing in the inside hallway. "NO! NO! NO!" the fox in the dark blue police uniform actually whined out. "I've been inside this place twice and both times a ghost possessed my body!"

"That was my great, great Uncle Ezekiel and he left after I told him I had bought this place," Jake grunted as he tried to shove the fox further over the threshold. "He was only haunting this place because he was mad that the bank stole his land almost a hundred years ago so they could sell it to that rich wool baron Kennerly. Now that his land is back in the family, he has crossed over."

"HE POSSESSED ME!" Nick screamed. "His ghost was inside of my body and we were floating around in the air!"

"Come on Nick, it wasn't that bad! So you had a ghost in you for just a little while?"

"A little while? A little while? Have you ever been possessed by a ghost? I was possed by a ghost Jake and one of your ancestors too!"

"Uncle Zek didn't know I was family until we talked."

"You two had a conversation six feet off the ground and he was using my body...again!"

"Well, you do have to admit that the first time you and Fennick were breaking and entering..."

"I WAS JUST A KIT!"

"He didn' t hurt you either time. Besides he's gone and crossed over, so now it's safe for you to come inside the house."

"NO ONE CAN MAKE ME GO IN THERE AGAIN! NO WAY...NO HOW!"

The fox gave a loud "oooffff!" when a large white paw shoved him bodily into the house. He turned to find both Kevin and Raymond standing there, the large bears were grinning at him in amusement and so was the fashionably dressed female shrew in Raymond's paw.

"Really Nick, I've been in here dozens of times with the designers and no ghost has ever bothered me or anyone else," Fru Fru giggled as she watched the wide-eyed fox standing there with his tail tucked between his legs. "Come on and let me show you around the house."

"No thank you!" Nick almost whispered. He was now clutching to Judy as if his smaller wife could protect him from whatever was in there with him.

"Come on Slick," Judy chuckled as she grabbed his tie as if it was leash attached to a collar and began pulling him after her. "Stop dragging your footpaws or I'll ask Kevin to sling you over his shoulder and haul you bodily around the place."

Fru Fru guided the friends through each room in the house, it was all decorated much more conservatively then Jake, Judy, and Nick were expecting from the social butterfly turned mother and then an amateur interior designer. It was quite obvious that Marie was very involved in the decorating because it lacked some of Fru Fru's more flamboyant tastes. The house kept its quaint Victorian charm outside, but inside everything was electronically state of the art.

Both Nick and Jake's jaws dropped when Fru Fru had Raymond lead them into what she called the Billiards Room with its velvety green pool table and a long well-stocked mahogany bar. The fox stopped and looked at four paintings on the wall. One was of Jake's father Richard and then there were two other male raccoons and a female all of whom Nick didn't recognize. "That is my great, great grandfather Charles and my great, great grandmother Sarah," Jake said as he walked towards the paintings. "The male raccoon at the end over there is my great, great Uncle Ezekiel, you two kind of met earlier." Jake reached up and straightened that painting, for it was a tad lopsided.

"I swear his eyes are following me," Nick muttered as he looked at the painting. "But, I pictured him as being a lot scarier then he really is."

After several hours of socializing and playing pool, it was time for everyone to leave but Jake and Marie. Nick and Judy were spending the night at Nick's mother's apartment where she was keeping little Nicky and Freddie for the night. Scooping his wife up, Jake carried her back across the threshold and into the house again.

"Don't go and hurt yourself," Marie softly chided him.

"This is the first place I…no…we have ever owned and so my dear wife I intend to make love to you in every room of this house," he huskily said to her as he nuzzled her neck.

"Every room?" she giggled.

"Yes, starting in the Billiards Room where I'm going to introduce you to a game called strip pool."

"I don't think I've ever heard of that game bef…" she didn't finish because he passionately kissed her.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes and tilted her head with curiosity when she noticed the painting of Uncle Ezekiel was crooked again. "Sugar, I'm starting to think that Nick is right and that your uncle's eyes in that painting are following us," she whispered into his ear.

The male raccoon turned around and walked over to the painting to straighten it again. "He's gone Marie," he chuckled. "Long gone and we have the whole house to ourselves."

"Still…" she sighed as she looked at the painting.

Jake wordlessly walked over to the drawer and pulled out four oversized bar towels, hanging one over the eyes of each of the painting. "There!" he proclaimed. "Happy?"

"Strip pool?" the female raccoon said as she picked up a pool stick. "Y'all are making this up, aren't you, Sugar?"

"My dear wife, have I ever made up things before?" Jake snickered. The skeptical look Marie gave her husband conveyed her answer more than any mere words she could say.

An hour later, Jake yanked off the towels and flipped off the lights as he followed his wife up the stairs towards their bedroom.

In the dark, the painting of Uncle Ezekiel suddenly moved and went crooked again. After a few moments, the three nearby paintings also went askew but towards the direction of the other painting and then the painting of Uncle Ezekiel seemed to reluctantly straighten back up as if chastised by the others. Above them were the joyful sounds of two raccoons in love.


For Jake and Nick's first night in the house and their encounter with the raccoon's late Uncle Ezekiel, please read Chapter 42: House Shopping Raccoon Style in Zootopia: A Raccoon's Redemption.

Yes, Nick did get over his fear of the house.