Haunted Christmas

Chapter 4

Author Note: I apologize for the lack of updates on this story, but my computer at home was down during the holidays. However, I'm back at school now, so this should be updated probably once a week now (even though it isn't really the Christmas season anymore).

As Sara parked in front of the old house, she noticed something unexpected about the house. Instead of the creepy, almost Gothic-style building that she had been looking for, the house was a simple two-story one, with something almost like a widow's walk on the roof. She decided to wait in the car until Grissom got there. Not that she was worried, she told herself. It just didn't seem very smart to get out of her car in an unfamiliar (and apparently deserted) area.

Grissom showed up at approximately 6:05. His first reaction upon seeing the house was that it certainly didn't look the part of a typical "haunted house." He had no time for a second thought, as he realized that Sara had arrived before him. He braced himself for a barrage of questions. They didn't come.

Instead, Sara was staring in fascination at the house. "Well, it looks like the American ideal of a haunted house," she said almost sarcastically, hoping this wouldn't turn out to be another of Catherine's fruitless efforts to make her and Grissom talk about their "issues."

"Well, shall we see what it looks like from the inside?" he asked, not knowing what kind of reply she was looking for. When Sara nodded, he wondered uneasily what he had done to make her angry this time. Doing something resembling work would put her in a better mood, or so he had hoped when he volunteered to go see the allegedly haunted house with her.

Sara wondered what he was thinking. First he offers to check out the house with me, and I was silly enough to think he was actually expressing interest in me.

Frowning slightly, she followed him up the creaky steps to the front door of the house, hoping again that Catherine hadn't plotted this just so that neither she nor Grissom would be able to work that evening. As they entered the house, she became conscious of a strange smell.

"Grissom, do you smell that?" she asked, looking around. Grissom was no longer standing in the room.