Page 120 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
Her partner and her partner-in-crime. Lucky couldn’t even remember the last time her heart felt so full. She spun her screen around for them.
Investigating Hennessee House:
A Study in the Sentience of Haunted Places
“Initially, I believed Hennessee House valued fear. That’s no longer the case,” she began. “Hennessee is a sentient house, and it will do whatever it wants. There’s zero morality involved in its decision making when in pursuit of its goals. However, it does value some things more than others. Value number one: children—young people.”
“Like me?” Rebel asked.
“Exactly like you—little kids wandering around alone outside or teens breaking in for fun. The house will react and guide them to safety.”
Maverick’s gaze slid to Rebel. “Wait.”
“Yes,” Lucky confirmed. “Rebel knew about the square from the pictures, but Hennessee opened the door for herbecauseit would’ve led her straight to you.”
“But I left the library when they called me and you found her instead.” He dragged a hand down his face, muttering, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“Hennessee thought it was being helpful. It didn’t register how much it stressed everyone out in the process because it doesn’t really understand human emotions. Which, unfortunately, is kind of a running theme.” Lucky hit the next slide.
“Value number two: regular people. Specifically visitors, occupants, residents, etc. Hennessee House isn’t trying to scare anyone away. It believes it’s giving us what we desire—the things that will make us happiest.”
Rebel raised her hand as Maverick asked, “If it doesn’t understand emotions, how does it know what happiness is?”
“Hey, I was gonna ask that.” Rebel pouted and Maverick kissed the top of her head.
“You can ask the next one,” he promised.
“Excellent question, Rebel.” Lucky winked at her. “The answer is positive reinforcement. It has a handle on happiness, anger, and fear. That seems to be it for now.” She hit the next slide. “Hennessee’sprimarygoal is to give an occupant what they desire so they will return the favor by engaging with it. The house enjoys having company and socializing. I’ll use myself as an example.
“I said I wanted to find ‘secrets in the walls’; it gave me a crawl spaceanda hidden passageway. I called it ‘myhaunted house’ before; it hadParanormal Activity–style temper tantrums in the hall. I challenged it to up the ante; it showed me specters. The house gave me what I asked for every single time. Without fail.”
“Can we hear another example?” Maverick looked unconvinced, brow furrowed like the skeptic she needed him to be. “We’ve all noted that the house treats you differently. Those things made you happy, but what about everyone else?”
“How about Xander?” she offered. “First, I need to explain the function of a specter and how it communicates.” She hit the next slide, which gave them a thorough overview. “Xander was very close to his deceased stepmom, Brightly. He’s still actively grieving—hewantsto see her again. He’s always thinking of her. So, that’s who Hennessee presents as. Specter-Brightly asks him when he’s getting married and about his job. It’s initiating conversation, which Xander freely engages with, reinforcing the house’s belief that this is a desirable interaction.
“However, Hennessee doesn’t recognize that this is also tremendously painful for Xander. It’s as if he’s being haunted with no understanding as to why. He feels sorrow, but the house doesn’t recognize that emotion. It knows something is wrong, just not what exactly.”
“Okay, wait.” Maverick held up a hand. “If the house talks through the specter, why can’t it explain its motivations on its own? Clear the air for him.”
“It has been—or at least trying to.”
When Hennessee House spoke, it wasn’t cruelly mocking them. It was beingliteral.
“are you not happy” Am I giving you what you wanted?
“will you stay—will you run” Was this right? Did I mess up again?
“give me what I want” Talk to me, please. I’m lonely.
“you will stay” I know you won’t leave me.
Lucky suspected Hennessee House’s sentience was a fairly recent phenomenon that possibly started with Brightly. Because she never lived there full-time, the house had been alone more often than not with no one to teach it. It was still in the mimicking language stage, trying to learn how to express itself.
She continued, “Hennessee presenting as a loved one, deceased or alive, who looks and acts the part perfectly is devastating. Asking someone to stay forever is sinister icing on the uncanny cake.Of course, it makes everyone want to leave.”
“Except you.”
“I considered it,” she reluctantly admitted with a sigh. “The first night I saw my specters, my strongest desire was to be able to share my family with you. Unfortunately, my family talks to me like I’m garbage so that’s what the specters did. The house can only mimic memories. It doesn’t understand that some of the ones it used were painful for me because I kept going. Every night I came back for more.”
