Chapter 3

Normal Activity

"This is amazing!" Spencer gawked while recording with his camcorder.

The mansion's large outdoor pool and patio deck was situated right outside a Hawaiian themed room. It had a crazy looking, tubular water slide and there was even a huge television screen mounted into an extended wall at the back of the pool.

"This is gonna make a killer set for 'Zombie Pool Party 2: No Running!...For Your Lives!'" Spencer mused to himself while finding a great angle to shoot in the pool in. He backed up a few steps and bumped into someone.

"Ooph- Hey." Spencer nearly dropped his camera.

"Whoops, sorry son." Hugh held his son up while Spencer regained balance. "I just wanted to tell you the movers are all done with the house."

"Oh that's great Dad." He had barely seen any of the mansion because the movers kept getting in his way.

"So I thought this would be the perfect time to show you your room."

"My room? Oh yeah." Spencer had completely forgotten to scope out his own room. "Where is my room anyway?"

"C'mon I'll show you." Hugh motioned excitedly for Spencer to follow him.

Spencer turned his camera back on and followed his Dad back into the house. They walked through the Hawaiian room and back into the large foyer. Near the bottom of the staircase was a doorway with a split, retractable lattice door. There was a button located next to the door.

"Wow, what's this?" Spencer zoomed in on the door with his camcorder. He had completely overlooked it when he came into the house.

"This way son." Hugh pressed the button.

There was a ding and the lattice doors opened.

"An elevator?!" Spencer's face lit up in surprise from behind the camera. "My room has an elevator?"

"You bet. C'mon." Hugh stepped into the elevator.

Spencer hurried into the elevator after his dad. The doors closed and the elevator began rising.

"Dad this is so cool. Thanks."

"No problem. Just don't tell your sister right away. She may get jealous."

The elevator stopped and the lattice doors opened up. The two stepped out into a large room. The only light coming in was through a large window. Spencer panned his camera as he looked at the room, which was filled with boxes of his stuff. His bed had already been set up in the corner.

"This is amazing Dad!"

"Me and your mother thought it'd be perfect for you." Hugh then checked his watch. "Uh oh, speaking of your mom, I should really help her with dinner. Come down when you're finished up here sport."

Hugh reentered the elevator and rode back down, leaving Spencer alone. The teen walked around for a bit, capturing the creepy, desolate feeling his unfurnished room gave. "This room is so beast."

Spencer's stomach began to grumble. It sounded like it was about to start eating itself. "Man, it's gonna take me forever to unpack though." The teen set his camcorder down on his bed. "Whatever, I'll just do it right after dinner. I'm starved."

Spencer walked back to the elevator and rode down to the foyer. He had to search around for a bit, since he hadn't even seen the kitchen yet. He finally heard the sound of his family talking and followed it to a hallway where the kitchen was.

"I couldn't watch a thing." Jane stated, putting the last of the vegetables on the table. "All over TV, the only thing they're talking about is Billy."

"Ugh, I know." Jessica piled mash potatoes onto her plate. "Didn't he die like a month ago? Don't they have anything else to talk about?"

Spencer took a seat at the table and started putting food onto his plate.

"Well, he was a pretty big celebrity." Hugh put down his newspaper, which was also plastered with stories about Billy Joe. "Let's just be grateful they aren't paying any attention to us."

"Yeah that's true. Everyone's so busy reporting on his death, they've completely passed us by." Spencer said, eating his vegetables. Still, would it really be so bad if they got a little media attention? Getting famous for being Billy Joe Cobra's cousin would probably do wonders for his movie career.

"So Spencer, how do you like your new room?" Jane smiled, sitting next him at the table.

"It's perfect Mom, thanks." Spencer garbled, chewing his food.

"Have you finished unpacking yet?"

Spencer swallowed. "Not yet. It's probably gonna take me all night."

"Serves you right." Jessica stuck her tongue out at him.

Spencer made a face back at her.

"Kids, not at the table." Hugh voiced, busy molding his mashed potatoes into a sculpture.

The siblings both took another mouthful of food, glaring at each other. Spencer swallowed first.

"Can I please be excused?" Spencer quickly asked, getting up from the table.

"What? But you just got here." Jane frowned. "You haven't even touched your lasagna."

"I know, but I really want to set up my room tonight."

"Well oka-"

"Thanks Mom." Spencer quickly dashed out of the kitchen.

"And make sure you get some sleep sweetie! We've had a long day!" Jane shouted after Spencer, who was already long gone.

"Weirdo." Jessica mumbled, eating her lasagna.

Spencer stretched while the elevator carried him up to his room. He was bracing himself for all the lifting and unpacking awaiting him. "Ugh, it's gonna be a long night."

The elevator stopped and opened. Spencer took a step out but stopped dead and looked around in disbelief.

The floor of his room was littered with all of his things. All of the posters, figurines, statues, electronics and other junk that were all boxed up when he left were now strewn all over the place. The cardboard boxes and suitcases that had held all his stuff had been ripped opened and thrown around. His room looked like a trashy mess.

"What?!" Spencer stepped further into the room, making sure not to step on any of his things lying on the floor. "What the heck happened to my room?!"

Spencer looked around. The only other way into the room, apart from the elevator, was the window. He carefully stepped over to it. It was locked, but even so it was pretty unlikely anyone could get in through it, since he was on the top floor of the mansion.

"Spencer? Is everything okay?"

Spencer quickly turned around to see his dad just coming out of the elevator. "We thought we heard you shouti- Oh my goodness." Hugh caught a glimpse at the cluttered, trashed up room. "Spencer, I know you're probably in a hurry to unpack but this might not be the best way son."

"But Dad, I didn't do this. I swear."

Hugh took another step closer to Spencer, and nearly tripped on a lava lamp. "Well if you didn't do this, who did?"

"I don't know. I just came up here and someone had already emptied out all the boxes onto the floor."

"Hmm, you know what I think son?" Hugh put his hand on Spencer's shoulder and started leading him toward the bed. "I think you might have tried to unpack while you were really tired, and just don't remember anything."

"What? No Dad, I-"

"No buts young man." Hugh insisted. "This is clearly a desperate cry for sleep from your brain. Into bed."

Spencer sat down on the bed, clearly annoyed.

"You can clear this up tomorrow." Hugh flicked the lights off. "Good night son."

Hugh reentered the elevator and rode it back down to the foyer.

Spencer laid himself onto the bed and kicked off his shoes.

"Who could have trashed my room?" He thought to himself, alone in the dark. It couldn't have been Jessica, since she didn't even know where his room was. And it definitely wasn't his parents. "Nobody could have snuck in here either."

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Spencer's thinking was interrupted by a beeping noise. He looked around and finally remembered his camera that he left on the bed. He picked it up. It was flashing red and beeping, meaning its battery was almost dead.

"Oh man, did I leave this on?" Spencer whispered to himself. Then the flash in his brain went off. "…Hey I did!"

Spencer jumped out of bed and flicked the lights on. He began searching through all the clutter for his laptop and camera charger. He finally found them, hidden under several boxes, and brought them to his bed.

He plugged the charger into his camera, and then connected the camera to his laptop. He brought up the footage he had taken today and clicked on the most recent video, which was more than hour long.

The video started with Spencer following his dad toward the elevator. Spencer skipped ahead to when he was leaving the room.

—"Man, it's gonna take me forever to unpack though."—The video then showed the camera being placed onto the bed. Miraculously, it was aimed toward the rest of the room.—"Whatever, I'll just do it right after dinner. I'm starved."—Spencer's footsteps were recorded as he walked to the elevator and rode it down.

"Okay, now let's see what really happened. " Spencer whispered to himself.

The first few minutes after leaving the room, nothing appeared to happen on the video. After the fifth minute however, Spencer watched as one of the boxes in the background began to move. His mouth opened in disbelief as the box was lifted into the air and ripped open by some unseen force. One by one, his stuff inside the box was emptied and thrown onto the floor. This continued with boxes and suitcases being opened in midair and stuff being tossed around by seemingly nothing.

Spencer's face lit up with a large grin. "I can't believe it."

His entire life he dreamed of making the perfect horror film and now he was actually living one. He had a real life poltergeist moment caught right on camera. Right in his room! And it made perfect sense too. Moving into a house right after the death of the owner is almost guaranteeing some ghost action.

"I am gonna go down in history as the first horror director to film a real, life haunting! I'll call it 'Haunting in the Heights—A Spencer Wright film'." Spencer excitedly proclaimed to himself.

The teen's camera was fully charged now, which was perfect considering he'd need it for the rest of the night. He packed away his laptop and silently turned his camera back on. He set it to record and aimed it towards the room.

Spencer then feigned a yawn. "Oh well. I guess I'll just go to bed then." He stated loudly, for the spirit to hear. "I just hope nobody messes with my stuff anymore, since it's gonna to take me forever to clean it up!"

Spencer looked around for any sign that the poltergeist might be listening. Nothing.

He turned the lights out and got into bed. Hopefully, whatever had trashed his room would come back so he could get more footage. He checked to make sure the camera was angled right one last time before forcing his eyes shut. Even with everything that had happened, he was actually kind of tired. It took a few minutes of clearing his mind before he finally fell asleep.