A REAL Halloween Scare!

Jeannie’s grandma had one of the big, old houses in town that everyone loved. One year Jeannie decided to have a few friends over for a slumber party (we were in about 9th grade). Her grandma was in a care facility and her parents lived two blocks away in our small town, so no one was worried. The house was still furnished, giving it the Victorian ambiance it had enjoyed in earlier days.

Jeannie gave us a complete tour of the house, from cellar to the full upstairs, showing us the old servant’s room and the separate stairways for the help. This included at least two stairways upstairs and downstairs from within the house. It was amazing!

 There was a grand front entry with a huge yard outdoors (1/4 block) filled with trees and flowers. It a few weeks past Halloween, so it had gotten dark early. The clouds were low and it was cold. It would snow that night.

We loved romanticizing about what it would have been like to have a wedding in the lovely old home. The front stairway was grand and curved. There was a baby grand piano at the bottom of the stairs, set back far enough to allow plenty of space to entertain. After rummaging through every nook and cranny, every closet and set of drawers, we had not only satisfied our curiosity about the house, but we felt very safe, too.

We settled in the kitchen (by the back door) at a small table by the servants’ staircases up and down. We played cards and laughed. It was the best time ever!

Suddenly, there was a thump upstairs. We held our breaths. No one wanted to show what she thought she had heard, but we all hesitantly looked at each other without speaking. Silence. Certainly one of us had put something back wrong upstairs and it had simply settled or fallen.

We continued to play and were feeling more reassured when we heard another thump. This time we were nervous. After all, we HAD visited every corner of the house, and I had personally locked the front doors. Both of them. There was no way anyone else could be in the house. We felt silly that our imaginations were running wild, but we HAD invited memories from the past and disturbed some things that maybe hadn’t been touched in years…

The finishing touch for me was when we began to hear heavy footsteps upstairs. We all shrieked as we heard what sounded like someone coming down the servants’ staircase, which led to the kitchen…where we were. We jumped up and tried to decide what to do. The phone had been disconnected, so that was a moot thought. No easy way out of this.

It was so dark outside the back door…no one wanted to go outside in case someone was out there. The kitchen was in the farthest corner of the main floor from the front door. Any attempt to leave via the front door would leave us exposed to both cellar stairways and the grand staircase, plus having to unlock both front doors.

We each grabbed a weapon. We didn’t know why we were arming ourselves, since we couldn’t see how any human could have entered the house during the time we had entered and locked all the doors. Did I mention I personally locked both of the front doors? Yes, I’m sure I did. We were now clad with frying pans, brooms, and I happened to grab a butcher’s knife.

There was continued clatter upstairs, and my heart was pounding through my chest. I knew I wasn’t going to wait for “it” to get us. There was only one choice.

I took off in my T-shirt sleeves, made it to the front door, unlocked both doors (still locked), and ran into the cold. It had started to snow. I ran with my butcher’s knife down the long sidewalk and unfastened the gate. I ran the full two blocks to Jeannie’s house and knocked on the door. Her parents answered the door and were surprised to see me…especially white as a specter and holding a butcher’s knife.

I tried to tell them that there was something in the house, but my tongue wasn’t working well. They gently removed the knife from my trembling clutch and listened.

“Oh, Annie, I’m sure there can’t be anything in the house,” they tried to convince me. I crumbled, and they knew I was nearly scared to shock level.

“Oh, dear,” mentioned Jeannie’s mom. “Is it Marc?” (Jeannie’s older brother).

“How-w-w-w?” I couldn’t form any other words.

“There is a cellar door outside, too. He must have gone in and up the front set of stairs while you all were in the kitchen.”

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr………………….

They gave me a ride back to the mansion. By the time I entered again, everyone else was laughing. Apparently it had gotten quite hokey after I left, with rattling chains and recorded ghost music. I felt silly, but not. I had done the only thing I thought I could do in the scariest situation I had ever experienced, given what I knew.  

THAT is a scare I have never forgotten, and a big score for Marc and Jeannie (traitor!), who of course knew all along what was going to happen.

She is still my best friend.