Page 8 of Halloween Haunting
“Not at all,” Anna said as she turned back to the walkway. “My twins used to come down here and play outside the house.Something about it made them feel safe, though I never quite understood it. Years on end, I found them out here.” Anna laughed lightly as she pushed open the front doors and gestured for Grace to enter first. “I’m sure you’ll understand why very soon.”
Grace stepped over the threshold with wide eyes. The house had a vast, open floor plan with its angular ceiling, allowing her to see the upper floor without needing to go up the staircase. The roof met at a point high over her head, with an extra room stowed away on the second floor. A circular living area was at the very center, the kitchen’s long island counter acting as a standing bar and a natural divider between rooms. Windows stretched across one entire wall, giving a wide view of the entire lake. The back door was within the living room, opening up to a back porch and a trail toward the old wooden docks.
The loft Grace recognized from the pictures was visible from the front doors as she walked in. A warmth echoed out from that side of the house, urging her to come closer without any rhyme or reason. Grace waded toward it like a blind man, eyeing everything she passed and never realizing where her feet were leading her. Halloween decorations adorned the inside of the house as well, radiating comforting colors like rusty oranges and mellow yellows. She passed by a tall entryway, where she stole a peak at the master bedroom and the ancient wooden furnishings already inside before continuing on to a staircase.
“You’ve already found the prize of this house,” Anna called out from behind her.
Grace blinked and realized her feet had brought her to the staircase leading up to the loft. Without thinking, she climbed the staircase until she came to the small loft and the wall of windows that looked out onto the lake. There wasn’t much in the loft, not that there was much space up there for much of anything. It was more of a decorative space, where theHalloween decorations only multiplied and the famous Lantern that earned the house its unique name sat.
The lantern itself was an old thing, looking as though its wooden fixtures had been hand carved out of a mahogany tree. Glazed glass sat on the four walls, encompassing a pearl white candle at the very center. It had a permanent spot beside the long window, placed upon an elaborate table and venerated with a plethora of shorter candles. Grace began to reach for it, but something drove her hand back to her side, even made her take a small step backwards.
“Lots of people find that the Lantern makes them feel strange,” Anna chimed as she stood beside her.
Grace shook her head. “I wouldn’t call it strange.”
“No?”
“Not strange at all. It’s warm, isn’t it? Familiar even. Like I know it, or Ishouldknow it. Like I have known it.” Grace blinked a few times and shook her head till everything was rattling in her head. An embarrassed laugh slipped out as she rubbed the back of her neck, avoiding Anna’s friendly and curious expression. “I-Ignore me. I have no clue where any of that came from.”
Anna watched her for a moment, the silence spreading till Grace felt the awkward need to laugh again. But it wasn’t like Anna carried the intent of embarrassing her, or to tease her. There was a different look in her eyes, one that seemed to say:I understand. I hear you.It was uncomfortable because it was unfamiliar, and that realization was more haunting than Grace expected it to be.
“Have you heard the story of the Lantern yet?” Anna asked.
Grace shrugged one shoulder. “Not fully. I know about the couple who once lived here, when it was first built. And the wife used the lantern to guide her husband back home, didn’t she? When he was out hunting?”
“You got it,” Anna replied. “No matter the weather, no matter the conditions, the Lantern’s light was capable of shining as bright as the sunrise itself. The husband was bound to return to his wife, through rain or shine,” but there was a solemn note to her words.
“Something tells me he didn’t make it back to his wife.”
Anna laughed. “All things that are living are destined to be taken by death, Grace. No matter what.” She stepped closer to the Lantern, letting her hand hover over the glass, over the unwavering light. “The story goes on to say that the husband perished in the lake. But the woman continued lighting the lantern for him, illuminating the way home, as if he would one day return to her.”
“That’s sad,” Grace murmured, her eyes glued to the Lantern.
“When the woman’s time came to pass on,” Anna continued in her story, “people say she simply walked out of her house, crept into the lake, and disappeared.”
“She drowned?”
Anna shook her head. “She walked into the lake and disappeared.”
A shiver ran down Grace’s back, as though a hand left an airy trail against her sensitive skin. She trembled as the words hung in the air, her eyes looking out the window and seeking out the surface of the lake. There was no figure hovering over it, though she half-expected to see a shadowy woman looming at the shore’s edge.
Grace jumped into the air when Anna’s ice cold fingertips touched her arm.
“Boy, you’re spooked!” Anna giggled. “Don’t worry, Grace. It’s only a story!”
Grace pressed her hand against her chest as her heart throbbed relentlessly. She took a moment to catch her breathand stretch a placid smile across her face. “It’s a creepy story, that’s for sure.”
“Well, there’s plenty of those to go around in Holiday Hollow.”
“Really?”
“Of course! Strange stories are the backbone of our odd town.” Anna grinned and wiggled her brow. “Isn’t that just exciting?”
As Anna eagerly led the way back down the stairs and toward the back door, gesturing for her to follow, Grace kept her arms tightly wound around her torso. Something about Anna made her feel as comfortable as she did with Caroline, but she couldn’t forget how cold her fingers felt. Cold like the sea, cold like the dark waves that never knew what the sun’s warmth was like. She shivered again as they stepped into the backyard, a stone trail leading down to the rickety dock. A small boat sat at the edge, securely tied to one of the tall posts.
“A lot of the houses on the lake have porches on the back instead of the front,” Anna explained as she motioned to the nearby homes. “For the lake view, you know!”
Grace slowly felt the jitters of the unusual story drift out of her. The neighbors were closer than she expected, but that was hardly anything to complain about. If anything, she only hoped they would like her and her to like them. There were no plans to go anywhere else, so it needed to work. No matter what, it would work. Caroline resided in one of the houses, which was more reassuring than Grace thought it would be.
