The House

"Sunny, you can't... what the FUCK?" he raged, turning around and rubbing the back of his head. "What the fuck was that?"

"What?"

"Someone hit me in the back of the head!"

"There's big bugs or something. Get out. I mean it, Dash, leave, now."

"Sunny... have you considered this place might be haunted?"

"Yeah, and Santa Claus is real and the Easter Bunny lives in my backyard. Fuck off, get out."

"I'm serious. The doors opening, how cold it is in here all the time, footsteps, and something just hit me. I'm guessing you too at some point if you really think there could be bugs as cold as it is in here."

I hesitated, then scowled at him. "You are NOT scaring me into going home with you! Get the fuck out! What the hell is wrong with you? You're a grown ass adult trying to scare someone with ghost stories! Get out!" I screamed, yanking my bedroom door open and stomping down the stairs.

He followed a moment behind, pulling his shirt on as he came down. "Sunny..."

"No! No talking, just get out! And I'm deleting your number, I'll never call you for help again!"

"Sunny!"

"OUT!" I screamed, holding the front door open, tears of rage in my eyes now.

He left with a growl of anger, but turned at the door. I didn't wait, slamming the door and ramming the lock home.

"ASSHOLE!" I yelled through the door, then stormed back upstairs as the tears began falling. I HATED that I cried when I was angry. It made me look so weak instead of pissed.

I screamed wordlessly in frustrated anger as I slammed my bedroom door and locked it. He assumed I was lying! Just so he would come back! Egotistical bastard!

A soft touch, almost like a hand landed on my shoulder and I spun, swiping at my shoulder. What the actual fuck?!?

Dash's words came back to me.

What if this place was haunted?

Bullshit. It was just a hard draft or something that felt like a touch and my mind was playing tricks on me. Why had he even mentioned that? Now it was all I was going to be thinking about.

Asshole.

I got back into bed, still frustrated and angry. I knew how to work my aggression out. I turned porn on on my laptop and watched for a while, then laid down and started touching myself as I watched. I was getting so into it I could practically feel his teeth on my nipple again and it felt amazing. Closing my eyes, I listened to the girl on the screen obeying her master as he ordered her around and made her do things for him and worked harder for my own end as I rolled my fingers over my clit rapidly. I was still sore from the other day, but I was also horny as hell and soaking wet. Thinking about the other day made me imagine that dildo sliding into me, I could almost feel it, spreading me open and gliding in. Small, like a finger, gently fucking as I worked myself. A mouth on my nipple again, biting and tugging. It almost felt real! I could remember it so vividly!

I cried out as I came and I could swear I felt that long, thick finger inside me as I did. As I came down, it seemed to ease out and I lay there panting.

There. I felt much more relaxed now and tired too. Turning off the porn, I curled up and tabbed over to what I had been reading about before I'd been interrupted.

My phone chirped and I looked at it.

Dash - Sorry

Dash - If you need me please call, I do believe you

Dash - I just wanted to think you wanted me there that bad

Dash - it was an asshole thing to say

Dash - please call right away if you hear anything else or see anything. I'm a phone call away

I sighed and hit reply. - Don't text me again, lose my number

Dash - please don't be mad, I'm sorry

Me - stop texting me

Dash - Sunny please don't be this way, I just want to help

Me - text me again and I'm taking my phone is as evidence of harassment

He finally stopped texting and I tossed my phone aside grumpily. Ugh. There went my better mood.

Frustrated, I turned off my laptop and turned over and went to sleep. As I drifted off, I could almost imagine an arm over me, holding me close.

In the morning, I went down, then paused as I looked out the window next to the front door.

His truck was out there!

I stepped out onto the porch and looked, but I couldn't see him. I tiptoed closer, the concrete walk freezing on my cold feet, then stepped up on the stepside to look in the truck. He was asleep, his phone on his chest and a hat over his face blocking the light.

Banging on the window, I yelled at him. "Get out of my driveway! Get out of here!"

He sat up, jerking the hat away and barely catching his phone. I was halfway back to my house when he opened his door. "Sunny? Was everything alright last night? Did you hear anything else?"

"I'm getting my phone and I'm calling your station! I'm telling them that you won't leave me alone and you slept on my property like a fucking stalker last night!"

"Sunny! I was afraid for you and wanted to be close if you needed me! What if whoever it was came back? Sunny!" he yelled, but I shut and locked the door, cutting him off.

Running upstairs, I grabbed my phone and went back down to make coffee as I dialed Derrick.

"Y'ello."

"Derrick?"

"Yeah babe, what's up?"

"You need to talk to your partner. He's harassing me! He slept on my property last night in his truck after I told him to leave multiple times. He tried to scare me into letting him stay over! He keeps calling and texting and he just won't take no for an answer! If he keeps it up, I WILL turn him in!"

"Shit. Sorry about that babe, I'll talk to him. He's got it pretty bad though, he thinks you're pretty perfect. Even your little temper. I'll talk to him, make him back off."

"Thanks. Really."

"Yeah, no problem. Anything else?"

"No, that's it."

"Alright. I'll call him now then. Later!"

I hung up with another frustrated sigh. I couldn't dwell on this, I had things to do and Riley and his friend were coming over later for the interview and to look at the third story rooms. I ordered an Uber then hurried to get dressed while I was waiting.

When the Uber arrived, Dash's truck was pulled a few houses away on the street and he was arguing with someone on the phone. I rolled my window down and flipped him off as we went by.

"Ex?" the driver asked.

"He wishes," I mumbled, still irritated that he hadn't actually left.

I ran errands and picked up things I needed all morning, including stopping in and filling out what I needed to for a gun and signing up for the class.

I was a little stressed and nervous as we headed back home, but the truck was gone. I was running way behind, so I hardly had time to make myself some coffee before Riley and his friend showed up.

Riley was maybe 19, but his 'friend' was easily in his thirties. He looked... incredibly socially inept and geeky.

I handed them the forms to fill out and we sat talking for a while. Kevin was shy, but he seemed nice enough. He asked if it would be alright if he hosted a game night once a week in the parlor where their living room would be.

"It's the only night we all ask off at work," Riley spoke up quickly. "Us and the other guys. We play D&D and right now we're meeting up at my friend Haydans basement. It kind of sucks and it's all mildewy smelling."

"I see no issue with that," I smiled at them.

"You could play too if you wanted," Kevin offered, blushing and not looking at me.

"Oh, thanks but probably not. I have a ton of my own hobbies and work I want to get done. Maybe I'll sit in one night and see if it looks interesting. If, you know, the background checks come back alright. Did you want to go up and see the rooms?"

I took them on a small tour of the third floor, telling them I had plans to convert the smallest bedroom into a bathroom on top of the one already up there. The same on the second floor. I also told them the rooms would come mostly furnished unless they wanted to bring in their own furniture. A mini fridge and microwave were allowed, but nothing bigger, though they were free to use the kitchen. I just preferred they store their food in their own rooms so there were no issues.

Kevin seemed excited about that.

I hesitated, then turned to Riley. "How into painting are you?"

"I mean, I do it in my spare time and I sell it on Etsy. Most my stuff sells. I enjoy it a lot, why?"

"Come here a minute," I told him, going to the attic door, then up. "I plan on cleaning this out completely and it's so open with so much lighting with all the windows. I just thought it would be sort of ideal for a painter."

"Holy cow! Wow, this is huge! And super nice! Umm... how much more would it cost?"

"No more than the other rooms, it is up ANOTHER flight of stairs after all and further from the bathroom and all that. It would be a wasted space otherwise and I just thought of you when I saw it. Someone should get some use out of it, right?"

"Wow, yeah! Thanks! I'm like, super stoked now!"

"Yeah, pending the background check and all that, and me getting stuff moved around..."

"I can help move stuff!" he cut in excitedly. "And I'm not sweating the background check! I've never done anything in my life except skip school once to go to ComiCon. This is so freaking cool! Seriously, I'll help move anything you need!"

"Yeah, I can help too," Kevin offered. "Like, you know, if you pay us by the hour and just take it off the rent. We'd bust our asses and not drag it out or anything. But you know, fair trade."

I nodded, smiling. "That works for me. It won't take me long to run these and I'll call you both as soon as they come through, ok?"

"Fantastic!" Riley cried gleefully. "I'm going to pack as soon as I get back to the hotel!"

Right, he was staying in a hotel.

"I'm going to pack too," Kevin grinned. "Can I have the dark blue room? The one next to the bathroom? Once you're done with the background check, you know."

"Sure," I smiled. Neither of them were worried about the background check at all, which made me feel better.

They left, both talking excitedly about moving in and I had to grin again. They seemed nice. And quiet.

Going back to the living room, I curled up with my laptop to do research on local contractors. I wanted my baker's kitchen first!

I also looked up the area and local land for sale. Most of the land around was owned by banks, foreclosures. I wondered if that would make it harder or easier to get the land?

A question for later.

I went back to looking at contractors, plumbers now for retrofitting the rooms into bathrooms. The two smallest rooms were directly above the kitchen and I was hoping that would make it easier to put bathrooms in the rooms above.

A hand landed on my shoulder, resting in place and I went still.

Had I left the door unlocked?

"Dash," I began, turning to yell at him, but there was no one there.

I could FEEL the hand on my shoulder, but when I reached up to feel it, there was nothing there.

What the hell was wrong with me?

Standing up quickly, completely shaken, the hand was suddenly gone. Had it been my imagination? It had to've been. A weird muscle spasm of some sort. I shivered, looking around.

Of course the house wasn't haunted.

Sitting back down, I opened a tab on my laptop and googled the name of the corpse. The search brought up several things I had to filter through, but I found him in an archive site for strange deaths.

Simon had apparently died of smallpox, but no doctor had ever diagnosed him and he was buried on the family plot as soon as he died. His mother had been devastated, but his father refused to answer questions about him and had disclaimed him as part of the family. He had four other kids from his previous marriage and it was speculated that Simon wasn't his and when he found out, he murdered him. His younger wife and his older kids' stepmother, had gone mad with grief. She'd even been institutionalized briefly, but her husband refused to allow such a spectacle as his wife being in an insane asylum. He took her out and after that she rarely left their home at all. Not until he died a couple decades later. Simon's grave had been found vandalized and dug up, his body missing a week after. People speculated it was her who had done it, but nothing was done. They were rich and powerful people. There were whispers of their family for years and stories that lingered and haunted the old house until the last of them had died out and it was left to a widow outside of the family bloodline.

My great grandmother. Shit, she was only 16?!? I was still creeped out to know that used to be a thing, to get married so young. And him in his sixties! Gross.

I clicked on a link that talked about the house and when it was built and by whom. I was hoping for some story, some history, but there wasn't much about it. Just that it had been built by a well to do family who lived in it for years and a lot of the land around it had been sold off by the widow who only kept the house but didn't live in it.

No ghost stories or other weird things going on. No stories about it being haunted.

I knew it was just my imagination!

Just as I was about to close the tab, it closed by itself. Every tab closed, all but the one of the story about Simon and his crazy mother.

I stared at my computer wide eyed.

Had I hit some key? My palm brushed the mouse pad? I'd done that before and a few things had popped up when I had. Tabs had never closed before, especially not leaving a single one open.

A hand settled on my shoulder again and I went completely still, my breathing becoming more rapid.

Was there really a fucking ghost in this house?

I tried to stay calm, stay reasonable. After a few seconds of panic, I realized something. It wasn't trying to scare me or hurt me, it was trying to communicate. Trying to let me know it was there.

"D-do you need help?" I asked out loud. "Do you... need to move on or whatever? Need your body laid to rest? Find out who murdered you?"

The hand left my shoulder and I relaxed a hair.

A new tab popped up, a tab that listed local sex offenders. Kevin Coleman was on the list. I stared at it, starting to shake before clicking on the little marker that would pop open his window. Statutory rape. I looked at the date and his age. He was 18 at the time. I wondered if it was one of those situations where they had been dating and the parents decided to press charges? Or it had gone wrong and she had? Or was the girl a lot younger and it had been nonconsensual? It didn't say.

It did say appeal pending. That meant he was trying to have it removed and he wouldn't be able to do that if it hadn't been a romeo and juliet type situation, right? He had just turned 18 before her and the parents hadn't liked him?

Ugh.

I ran the background checks immediately.

Pending misdemeanor dismissal. Misdemeanor meant it wasn't that bad, right?

Shit. I was going to have to ask.

With a sigh, I called him.

"Hello?"

"Hi Kevin, this is Sunny."

"Hi! Did we get it?"

"I had a question I need cleared up. Umm, this says you have a misdemeanor?"

"That was supposed to be taken off! It was a mistake and it..." he let out a frustrated sigh. "It never even happened, we didn't DO anything. Her mom heard us playing D&D and our characters were flirting and you know... roleplaying a little. We'd known each other for YEARS but her mom hated me for getting her into D&D. She was my neighbor and only a little over a year younger than me. Our birthdays were close, but it happened to fall in that area where she was still 16 and I had just turned 18. Her mom freaked out and told the police she heard me doing things to her and raping her. That's not even what happened in the game, she was rolling to seduce ME. They didn't even do a rape kit and there was no DNA evidence and even Carla told them nothing happened. Her dad was a lawyer though and even though he didn't live with her, when her mom called him, he bulldozed it through court. It was on my record, but I finally got a lawyer after saving forever to have it taken off! It was supposed to be off by now!"

"It does say pending removal, but you understand I have to ask, right?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "Does this mean I don't get the room?"

"If that's all it was, then I don't see why it would be an issue. I'll get back with you soon, alright?"

"Ok. Thanks," he sighed glumly, assuming I was blowing him off.

I looked him up, seeing if I could find anything about his case. Nothing.

Did I trust him? He seemed harmless to me, but a lot of guilty people seemed harmless. Should I give him a chance and try not to judge him? His story actually seemed likely to me, it was so... him.

Ugh. I would decide tomorrow. Riley at least had nothing on his background check.

Standing, I remembered that a ghost had just shown me a webpage.

A ghost.

"Uhh... thanks? Uhhh... do you need to move on or something? Your bones buried? You ARE Simon, right?"

The lights flickered.

I shivered. This was fucked up.

Going to the kitchen, I made myself dinner and took it to the library to look around. I wanted to do a layout of my office, then a layout of the living room and where I would be displaying things if people came in. Would they come in? In this neighborhood? Did I need to get a license or something?

Ugh. I would look into it tomorrow.

Creaking sounded behind me and I immediately imagined it was Simon trying to get my attention again. Turning, I froze, staring at the man in the doorway.

He was skinny and not very tall with long, greasy hair. He looked like a thug, especially the way he was sneering.

"Well. Looky looky at what we have here! This is our place, girly, but you can stay too if you wanna share a bed. I got a nice bed upstairs in one of the rooms. All this new shit yours?"

"Billy, there's a fucking motorcycle in the shed and it looks like it works! We should..." the other man trailed off as he came to the door and looked in at me. "Ho-leee fuck. That looks to me like a nice little treat after a shitty fucking day!"

I backed up to the corner, shaking my head. The new man was bigger than the other and heavier set. They were blocking my only way out and I was terrified. "Just... move. You can stay here and I will leave. Leave you in peace, I swear. Just... stay back!" I cried as greasy hair came in closer, smirking at me.

"Look at that tight little body, Joe. I get to go first this time," he sneered as 'Joe' circled around to block me into the corner.

"Please!" I begged, fumbling for my phone in my back pocket.

Billy lunged forward and snatched it from me, tossing it across the room as he leered.

"Don't!" I screamed, sobbing.

Joe laughed and moved closer, then grabbed me and threw me to the floor as Billy leapt on me. Both of them put hands on me, ripping and pulling my clothes off as I screamed and tried to fight.

Billy jerked back suddenly, almost flying across the room. The back of his head hit a shelf so hard, the shelf broke as he fell bonelessly to the ground.

"What the FUCK?" Joe demanded, still holding me down but staring at Billy in confusion. "Billy? Billy? What the FUCK did you do, bitch?" Joe roared, then drew his fist back. He screamed suddenly as his arm broke at a severe angle, then he was shoved forward face first into the wall. His nose crunched with a sickening squishing noise and I sobbed as I scrambled up and grabbed up my phone as I ran. I took the time to yank up a blanket before running outside while I dialed 911.

Shivering from head to toe with adrenaline, fear and cold, I waited out at the sidewalk, ready to run if either man came out, but neither did. The police arrived and I was still sobbing as I told them they were inside.

I followed them as far as the porch when another cruiser pulled up, coming to a screeching halt. Dash jumped out as the two officers already there paused to wait.