The Haunting

Anything that is in italics is in the main characters head, unless he is speaking. And this is an insert from a larger story i wrote, but have misplaced most of the start... so somethings may not make sense right away.



God I hate this job. Whenever people think that something is spooky, or even haunted they call me to help them out. Why did I ever take the job?
I shake the hand of the beautiful woman that wants my help. She pulls me over to her husband who is holding back a little boy.
"So this is the place? And what all have you seen since you moved in here?" I ask, but I guessed the answers.
"Well..." starts the man.
"MY TOYS, I WANT MY TOYS!" yells the little boy, interupting his dad.
I pull a red sucker out of my coat pocket, and kneel next to the kid. "Would you like some candy"
He takes the sucker from my hand, and runs to hide behind his mom.
"So, what all has happened since you moved in here... anything out of the normal?" I ask, getting tired.
"You probably hear everything! Last night there was this weird noise coming from the basement. It sounded like something was scratching on the door to the main floor. When I walked into the kitchen this morning, all of the dishes were stacked in a pile in the corner. The pile got bigger as it got higher... with a little cup at the bottom." the wife quickly says.
"That does sound weird, and out of the normal. If I am truly to understand what is going on here, I am going to have to explore. Who knows, you may actually have something here, or it my be figments of your imagination." I yawn back at them.
They look at each other and then back at me. The little boy starts tugging on his mom's skirt. When she looks down at him, all he did was point at the attic window.
"What's there Tommy? What did you see?" she asks as she looks towards the window.
"There was an old man there," he starts, but drops his sucker, and starts crying.
"Don't worry; I have more. Would you like another one?" I ask.
He looks at his parents, and then reaches for the sucker in my outstretched hand.
"Well, maybe tou do have a haunting on your hands." I say. The confused looks I get make me want to leave. "Children have a heightened sense. They can see things that we, adults, can not see."
"Oh, how rude of me. I didn't introduce you." the wife quickly says. "This is my wonderful husband, Fred."
"Nice to meet you Fred, but I wish it wasn't on this situation," I say, as I shake his hand.
"Well do you want to come inside? Maybe you could start your investigation, and we can get back to living normal lives." Fred says.
"Once the paranormal enter your livees, your lives are never normal," I state.
Fred turns to his wife, and whispers something into her ear. She looks at him, and nods, and whispers something back. They look back at me, and turn around. They open the gate to walk back to the house.

"tommy would you bring Mr. Schneider. I'm sure he would like to get started." Fred says over his shoulder.
I follow the little boy. What am I doing here? Why should I be the one trying to help these people? They seem nice, but yet, I don't know them. When I get to the house, I feel something is wrong. They invite me in, and show me around.
"Can you show me exactly where you found the dishes?" I ask.
"It was right here, right where I am standing now," she says, standing by the corner closest to the basement stairs.
"Do you have any relatives that you can stay with while I do a full search of this house? It may take a few days, and if something is here, it will only be mad at my arrival."
"Well... both of us were only children in our families and both of our parents are dead. We are the last of our family," Fred says, looking at his wife.
"Dou you think that you could possibly stay at a friend's house for a few days, or maybe a hotel? It may get further out of the normal here."
"I guess, but don't take anything, I know where everything is," Fred says, proudly.
Just leave already! I just want to get this over with, and if you are here I can't!
I follow them out of the house and bid them farewell as they get into their station wagon. When I see them drive around the corner, I slowly walk to my truck to get my gear.
Now which parts of this junk should I take? The scanner, and maybe the gigaflash. No wait, I probably won't need the gigaflash, maybe ther is nothing here. Maybe I will be able to get this over with quickly, and get back to my life.
I grab the vest from the passenger seat and strap the scanner to its belt. I grab my tape recorder, and start the walk back to the house. When I get to the front door, a weird sensation goes through my body.
I can't wait to get this done. I'm missing my game.
I pull out the scanner which detects polarity shifts, and walk around scanning everything. I walk first to the kitchen, and start to scan the room. The cupboards, and appliances didn't even budge the scale, while the corner that the pile was in managed to boost it to a low.
Just a low reading, maybe I will get this done soon. Wait, didn't she say something about the basement. Yeah, she claims she heard scratching down there.
I walk to the staircase, the reading on my scanner rising ever so slightly. I slowly descend the stairs, reaching the bottom as the door slams shut behind me. I pull out my tape recorder, and click the record button.
"Nothing out of the ordinary in the kitchen, but on entrance to the basement, a weird force slammed the door behind me. It may have been a strong breeze, or there may be something here."