The House on the Hill

Hart has checked nearly every inch of my rooms looking for evidence of some kind. We don’t actually know what we are looking for exactly but as he said earlier…anything is possible. He’s currently on the floor of my closet and I’m glad I’m not hiding anything embarrassing in there, just my clothes. He moves a pair of shoes and says “Shit!”

“What?” I ask, startled.

“I got a splinter. There’s a board sticking up in here.”

“Old houses,” I shrug.

“Yeah,” he suddenly starts lifting the floor board.

“What are you doing? You can’t just destroy my room!”

“Just checking,” he replies. He pulls the board up and peers into the hole beneath it. “Give me a flashlight.”

“You really think there’s something under there?” I reach into the bottom drawer or my nightstand then hand him the flash light I keep there in case the power goes out.

“Maybe,” he takes it from me and shines the light down. He reaches his hand into the hole and produces an old shoe box.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know,” he climbs out of the closet and sits down on the edge of my bed. I sit with him and he opens the box. He lays an array of old pictures and letters out on my blankets.

“Who are they?” I ask, looking at the couple in the photos. It’s two men who look very happy together. They are pictured laughing, kissing, opening presents under a little Christmas tree, and even out eating ice cream.

“This looks like your place, doesn’t it?” he holds up one.

I look behind the guys at the background. After a moment I nod. “Actually, yeah it does.”

“Do you think one of them committed suicide here?”

“I don’t know,” I shrug. “They look so happy.”

“Well, there’s one way to find out. Let’s call this number.”

We call the number we found on the back of a notebook. My heart is racing as we listen together to the phone ring. We are so close to each other that we are touching. “What if they get angry at us for calling?” I whisper to Hart. “Maybe this is a bad idea. What if they don’t live there anymore?”

“Shhh…” he signals for me to be quiet.

“Hello?” a man’s voice answers.

“Hi, is this Maxwell Parker?” Hart asks, referring to the name we saw signed in one of the letters.

“No,” the person says. “Who’s asking?”

“My name is Jacob Hart. My friend moved in where Maxwell lived and we were just curious about something.”

“Maxwell was my cousin,” the man informs us. “He’s dead now.”

“I’m sorry,” Hart says. “Can I ask…was it an accident?”

The man sighs. “Max was so happy. He was happier than I’ve ever seen him. But then something in his relationship started to go wrong. He went from telling me how they were going to get married someday to crying on me about how he thought his boyfriend was cheating on him.”

“I see. He must have been very depressed about that.”

“He was,” the man agrees. “But I honestly don’t think Max could have ever killed himself. He wouldn’t do it. He had a big family who he was very close to. He never left a note or any signs that he was going to do it.”

“So what do you think happened?”

“Between you and me, I think someone killed him and covered it up. The cops wouldn’t listen to me though. All signs pointed to suicide as far as they could see. There was no real evidence to say otherwise.”

“Wow…”

“Look, I have to go now. Don’t call me about this again.”

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you,” Hart apologizes.

“It’s fine. Bye,” the man hangs up.

“Do you think he was murdered?” I ask Hart.

“I don’t know,” he frowns.

“That could explain why his ghost would still be haunting this place.”

“We don’t know that it’s a ghost Seth,” Hart reminds me.

“Well, I think it’s something we should look into more.”

“Okay, if you want to.”
---

I’ve never seen so many people running through the Hayden House. There’s paranormal investigators and a priest and even a woman claiming to be a psychic medium all packed into this place. Some are trying to communicate with the supposed spirit and some are just trying to cleanse the place of any negative energy. If there is a ghost we all want it to go be at peace.

There’s so much commotion I don’t notice anyone behind me while I’m on the stairs. I’m alone investigating for any more evidence I can find. Suddenly I feel hands on my back and someone shoving me. Next thing I know I’m tumbling down the staircase helplessly and everything goes black.

When I wake up I’m in Hart’s arms being carried. I cough hard, unable to catch a deep breath. “It’s okay,” Hart tells me.

I am thankful I put my inhaler on a thin rope around my neck where it’s at easy access. I take a few puffs of the medicine and close my eyes, burying my face against Hart’s chest. Hart carries me outside to an ambulance. Everyone is standing around looking at the house in horror. Ambulances and cops and fire trucks are gathered with their flashing lights illuminating the night. I finally try to sit up and open my eyes. My glasses are crooked on my face and one lens is cracked but I can make out the flames still rising high into the air.

“He has asthma. He fell down stairs and hit his head,” Hart tells am EMT, placing me onto the ambulance.

“Don’t leave me!” I suddenly reach for Hart, heart pounding with alarm.

“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Just try to breathe,” he assures me.

I’m lucky to not be seriously injured. I’m bumped and bruised and I have a minor concussion but I’m okay. I lie in the hospital bed and Hart sits in a chair beside me, explaining to me everything that happened. During all of the stuff the paranormal people were doing a candle got knocked over and it started a fire. The house is burned nearly right to the ground.

“My whole life was in there,” I start to cry. I’m embarrassed to be crying in front of Hart but I can’t help it. “I don’t have anywhere to go. My family is in Vermont. I have no one.”

“It’s going to be alright,” Hart takes my hand in his. He gazes at me seriously. “I have a good friend Kelly and you can come stay with us. We’ll figure this out.”

I have to stay overnight for observation at the hospital and Hart stays with me. He tells me about how he was originally from New Jersey and worked as a cop. His old fashioned parents were very proud of him during this time. Then a cop he worked with found out he was gay, walked into a bar and saw him kissing another man. The cop told everyone and when a few people got laid off, he was the first to go. He decided to start a new life in New York close to his friend Kelly the hair dresser.

I tell him about growing up in Vermont where my parents were way more proud of my sister than me. I had other dreams and couldn’t stand being in a small town in the shadow of my older sister any longer. I was stuck there going nowhere so I left to art school in New York.

I tell him he doesn’t have to stay with me, that he can go to Kelly’s. But I’m secretly glad he stays. I don’t want to be alone. I fell lucky to have met him and to have had him by my side through all of this.
---

After we get settled in Kelly’s all of the truth comes out about the Hayden House. Maxwell Parker lived in my rooms during the 1980’s. He was in love with his boyfriend Jeffry Woods. At some point, Jeffry started cheating on him with a man named Allen James. Max suspected this but wanted to stay together with Jeffry. He hoped Jeffry would leave Allen. Unfortunately, Jeffry wanted to be with Allen more than Max. He was also afraid, Max would tell people he was gay because he was in the closet still at the time. To go be with Allen and assure Max wouldn’t out him, Jeffry devised a plan to kill Max and make it look like a suicide.

It would explain the ghost who has probably moved on now that the truth got uncovered. The cops don’t believe in the ghost still but I’m very sure about it. They are pinning everything on Alfred. It turns out Alfred is the one who pushed me. He is actually Alfred James, the son of Allen James. He was trying to cover up the case any way he could, including trying to tell me to move out. I know deep down though that he only started trying to cover it up when I started suspecting something and I didn’t start suspecting anything until the ghost came about.

In the end the case is solved and at rest. It’s too bad that the Hayden House had to go down with it though. I lost everything in the fire. All of my prized photos, money, and clothes perished. Insurance is compensating some of the loss though and I should be glad everyone got out alive including Marissa’s cats.

It’s Halloween and Hart sits down beside me on the couch, placing the candy bowl on the floor. Children in costumes have been knocking on the door all night. “What are you doing?” Hart asks me.

I look up from the newspaper at him. “Looking for a new apartment.”

“Why?”

“I can’t stay here forever,” I say.

“I was thinking maybe you could come stay with me in my new place. I already have the first two months rent set to go through.”

“What?” I’m confused. This must be a trick.

“I’m in love with you Seth,” he leans in and captures my lips with his.

I stare at him with wide eyes, caught off guard for a moment. Then I smile and wrap my arms around him, kissing him back. “I’m kind of in love with you too.”