Chapter 6

Joseph and Chris woke up groggily the next morning at 7:00. They had woken up many times in the night scared out of their wits all because of Stauf. They wanted to get out as soon as they could.

After getting dressed and going downstairs, Joseph said, "Why don't we go outside and do some exploring? We haven't done that yet," Joseph said.

"There isn't much to see," Chris said.

"Not on the hill, but there is a huge plain below the hill and the narrow path," Joseph replied. "That's where the old man lives right now."

Joseph and Chris opened the stained glass door and went outside. It wasn't exactly sunny, but the sky was blue, and the fresh green grass was sprinkled with dew. An environment like this was very rare to find on the Stauf property.

Joseph and Chris looked below the hill. There was a huge plain right below. The plains rolled on for miles and miles, and there seemed to be no end to it. On the right of the Stauf house, the two boys saw the dirt stairs that the old man created. Then, a little way past the stairs at the bottom, they could see a small log cabin. It looked very simple, and the boys assumed it belonged to the old man.

Joseph and Chris walked down the stairs and eventually made it to ground level. Then, they began to walk around the hill and its area. When they reached the back of the hill, they discovered something interesting. There was a black Ford Model T covered under pine straw, spider webs, cobwebs, and snapped-off tree branches. There was also a small dusting of small pieces of garbage. The Model T was rusted and did not have a very shiny coat of black paint. The black paint had faded and rusted so much that it now looked gray. Its leather cover was draped over the car, and the hood was open. The car smelled oily, just like Joseph and Chris believed an old car should smell like. The boys approached the car and stood by the front of the car.

There was an old-fashioned car light that was broken. Another light was hanging down on its cords. Both lights had dew on them, and the lights looked slightly yellowish. The windshield had a large section of glass broken off. With further inspection, there was a rock on the driver's seat of the car, and several shattered pieces of glass were located nearby the rock. The boys assumed that the rock broke the window.

They looked at the engine. It was a simple engine and had a little bit of rust. The color of the engine was dark gray, and the engine felt rough when the boys touched it. The coloration of the engine was caused by all its years being exposed to the weather. On one part of the engine, there was a bolt that had a wrench attached to it. It appeared that someone was fixing his or her car, and he or she abandoned it.

Suddenly, the boys were moved back and saw a ghost turning the wrench back and forth. Suddenly, the ghost heard a voice calling him. The voice asked him if he wanted to stay at his house as a guest. The ghost man looked up and called, "Sure." Joseph and Chris looked up. There was Stauf looking down at the man. Then, the ghosts disappeared.

Joseph and Chris did some more exploring after they saw the car. A few miles away from the hill, they began to see tire tracks. They followed the tracks for a few more hours, and then, the tracks led them to a cemetery. There was a cemetery in Joseph's neighborhood, but this wasn't it. This cemetery was much larger and had long, rusted black fences with arrows at the top surrounding the graveyard. There were two tall black and rusted doors, which were the gates. They stood wide open, as if they were expecting the boys to arrive.

The boys walked through the graves. They saw many names of the people who died, but at the front of the cemetery, they saw an interesting grave. It read:

Here Lies

Tad Gorman

(1918 to 1931)

DIED IN THE STAUF HOUSE OF MURDER. NO ONE KNOWS WHO KILLED TAD

"Hey! That's about thirteen years apart! That boy in the white clothes looked about like a young teenage boy in that time period should!" Joseph said. "That must be Tad!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah," Chris said, and look what I found," he said sadly, and sacredly. Chris pointed to a gravestone just in front of Tad's. It read:

Here Lies

Henry Stauf

(1866 to 1931)

DIED IN HIS HOUSE OF A HEART FAILURE A FEW MONTHS AFTER INVITING 6 GUESTS INTO HIS HOUSE

"Chris, I think we should leave this tomb alone," Joseph whispered into Chris's ear with his right hand against his lips.

"Yeah," Chris whispered. The boys slowly walked out of the cemetery. Suddenly, the rusted black gates that were open slowly closed while making noises that showed signs of needing oil. Extremely sharp spikes poked out of the doors and the bars. Then, the short fences turned extremely tall. They were as tall as the Empire State Building. The gates increased in size too.

Then, the gaps in the fences and gates filled up with cement, and spikes poked through the cement. Then, the gravestones slowly disappeared into the ground, and then, the ground filled up with cement. Spikes began to come out of the ground. "Don't worry, Chris, there's a spot that isn't covered with cement at the top. We can use my emergency jet pack to get out of here," Joseph said.

Just after Joseph said that, a cement ceiling formed on top. Spikes came out. Then, many coffins jumped from out of the ground like jumping beans, and then, they landed on the ground. Then, all of the walls began closing in.

Joseph and Chris gathered their loudest voices and screamed for help. The walls stopped moving, and then, they began to move back. "Phew, I guess Stauf is finally giving us a break," Chris said. Then, a black demolition ball destroyed the cement, and then, the coffins sank back down through the dirt, and the gates shrunk back to their normal size. Everything else returned to normal as well.

Then, the boys saw a man that looked about 40 years old. He had a lot of construction materials with him, and he wore an orange hardhat. It had reflective yellow strips on it. The man's face looked a little like Stauf. He was bald and had black hair. "Sorry, I was trying to destroy the cemetery. I believe the hauntings in that house are partly caused by the cemetery," the man explained.

"How did you get the cement and spikes to appear with no one being seen doing it?" Chris asked.

"Latest invention," the man said. "It sends out some rays, then they combine, and you have cement," he said.

"How about raising the cemetery walls?" Chris asked.

"I used an electromagnet to pull them upward. Most of the fence is hidden underground to keep the coffins in place in case of a flood," he said. "I closed the doors by placing the magnet behind the cemetery, and that pulled them together."

"I'm an inventor, too," Joseph said.

"What is you latest invention?" the man asked.

Joseph pulled out the red phones. "I built these video phones," Joseph said. "I've also built an efficient portable bed, a furnace, and a teleporter," he continued.

"Wow," the man said.

"He's a genius," Chris said.

"What are you kids doing here?" the man asked.

"We learned from Joseph, that's the kid next to me, and Tanner, another kid we know, about this house. We decided to investigate and try to learn Stauf's secret. We've opened a lot of unlocked doors, in the house," Chris said.

"My name is Bob Carmichael, and I once lived in that house, too," Bob said.

"Last night, Chris and I had experienced a lot of scary things, like the bedroom door locking us out, seeing a pair of eyes staring at us in the dark, a white mist above the fireplace, a draft, and scary dreams," Joseph said.

"Also, in a painting, we saw hands come out of the wall, a door opening and closing faster than light-speed, books scattering off their shelves, and floating in the air and rotating in a circle around the red couch, which was also floating in the air, and more," Chris said. "We even saw a crypt in the basement!" Chris added.

"I experienced scarier things," Bob said. "I moved into that house about 10 years ago, hoping to live in a larger and more comfortable house. I once lived in an apartment. I had too many things. There were even too many things to store in the storage bin. So I moved out after looking for a new house. All of the houses I found were either too small or too expensive. Some didn't have anything I liked. One time, I drove down the road in front of the lake, when I saw a clearing in the trees. I stopped my car and saw the house on the hill. It was not for sale, but it looked old and abandoned. Apparently, no one was there. The next day, I moved into that house," Bob said. "The instant I walked into the house I didn't feel very comfortable. The sky was always dark, even if the areas around the property were extremely bright. I also kept on feeling this eerie presence around me. I didn't want to leave, though, because the house was so big and beautiful, and there was a lot of beautiful land around it. So I still stayed there," said Bob. "Later, not only did I feel the presence, but I actually experienced things! I felt drafts at night everywhere in the house. Once, there was steam coming through the halls. On the attic stairs, I saw gallons and gallons of blood flowing down the stairs rapidly! Many times, I even experienced door slams faster than light-speed. Many times, I kept on seeing a man in the house. He looked a lot like a man called Stauf in the photo album in the library. Many times, I would unexpectedly see a physical manifestation that looked like him that was shining brightly saying calmly, 'What are you doing in my house?' I sensed he was going to hurt me. So I bent down to the floor, all crunched up together, but suddenly, nothing was sensed. I looked up, and the man was gone!" Bob said. "Finally, after even more scary hauntings, I finally got so angry and fed up that I left the house. I still live on the property since all of the mountains are so beautiful. I now live in a tall metal structure in the valley a few miles away from the cemetery. If you ever need me for anything, I'll be a close neighbor," Bob said.

"OK," Joseph said.

"Did you know that there was another man who also lived here?" Chris asked.

"You mean 'Old Man' John?" Bob wondered. "He lives in a wooden log cabin just below the hill, and he is 73 years old. He lived in the Stauf house in 1950. He's probably your closest neighbor," Bob said.

Joseph and Chris thanked Bob for his information, and then, they waved to him as they began walking away. When they were a few feet away, Chris said to Joseph, "Do you think he is Stauf? I mean, he looks a little bit like him, and he acts very suspicious."

"Not necessarily," Joseph replied. "He could look like him, but he could still be telling the truth. After all, he experienced what we did."

"But he experienced many of the things we did, so that must mean he's trying to tell us that he's haunting us," Chris said.

"Chris," Joseph said, "we won't know the truth until we finally solve the mystery. Now let's look around some more."

That day, Joseph and Chris found nothing, so they headed back to the house that night. Joseph took a yellow hardhat from his ear. It had a light attached that could shine as far as 10 meters. Joseph turned it on, and the boys felt safer while being in the light. Joseph and Chris went back onto the grassy hill, and they slowly approached the house. Joseph slowly opened the door, and the boys entered the house slowly and reluctantly.

Joseph's hardhat brightened up the house, and the hardhat made it seem as though there was a bright overhead light shining above the foyer. The only lights in the foyer were the lamps attached to the posts at the foot of the stairs, but the light they produced wasn't enough to brightly light up the foyer. With the hardhat light making the foyer brighter, Joseph and Chris felt safer right then. The boys shut the door and walked up the stairs and turned left. They had also brightened up the halls using Joseph's halogen flashlight, which he'd taken from his ear. It was black, and it had a red button near the light-bulb. They walked down the halls until they reached a room across the bathroom.

"We haven't entered this room yet," Chris said. Joseph opened the door, and the boys saw another bedroom. It had a lot of variety of colors, but the colors were rather dark. Joseph turned off his hardhat. The room wasn't as big as any of the bedrooms they had seen, but it had room for at least one twin-sized bed. "Why don't we sleep here tonight?" Chris suggested. "Tomorrow we can explore what's behind that door." Chris pointed his left pointer finger at the door on the left side of the room. It was in the far back part of the room right next to a four-poster bed. Joseph and Chris were pulled to the front of the bed and saw a suitcase. It was covered with silver coins.

Joseph and Chris were pulled right, and they saw another set of coins. Joseph and Chris tinkered with the puzzle, flipping over coins in a sequential pattern. When they goofed up, the coins would magically turn over and Stauf would snicker at them from somewhere unknown. Eventually, the boys realized what they were supposed to do. They easily solved the puzzle. Then, the boys moved over to solve the second part of the puzzle. It looked like the shape of a backwards dollar sign. It took Joseph and Chris an hour to solve the puzzle since it was harder than the other one, but at last, they solved it.

Joseph and Chris walked out of the room, and they entered the Chess room. They gathered all of their things and walked into the coin room and placed them there. Joseph set up his bed in front of the four-poster bed, got into his robe, and then, he turned off his halogen flashlight and put it back in his ear. He also put his hardhat back in his ear. Then, he got into bed and fell asleep. Chris got in the bed that was already in the room, but he had a hard time sleeping for a while. Then, he looked at the door next to his bed and whispered to himself, "Tomorrow, we see what's behind that door." Then, Chris smiled as he closed his eyes and happily fell asleep.