It seemed tranquil enough at first sight. It also appeared quite spooky. The residents didn’t seem to mind, after all they were used to it. It was the outsider who would occasionally visit their neighborhood by the sea. It was the outsider who got queasy when he set foot in the neighborhood. It was the outsider who wouldn’t return from whence he came. It could be the outsider who might become a permanent resident if he didn’t end up dead.

You see, the residents were very selective as to whom they invited into their little neighborhood by the bay. It didn’t matter to them that it was haunted. That just added a bit of allure to the area. No, it wasn’t the Twilight Zone. It was just a little haunted neighborhood by the bay.

By what or from whom is it haunted you might ask? There have been rumors scattered around for years but nobody knows for sure. Seems like around the late 19th Century, a shipwreck happened upon the shores of what would become this little neighborhood.

The wreck was the result of a horrendous storm that destroyed the ship and caused the crew to abandon her. As the storm ravaged on, some of the crew was lost at sea with only a handful of them surviving and eventually making it to shore.

Once there, the remaining crew found refuge in an old abandoned shack from where they would ride out the storm.

As the story/rumor goes, the fledgling crew mates did what they could to survive but kept a low profile in the neighborhood. All appeared to be going okay for the neighborhood until about one year later.

That was the year, in fact the exact day, a year later when another massive storm hit the area and completely wiped out many in this shoreline populace. Including the house in which lived the crew mates. The house still stood but the crew was gone.

No signs of anyone, anywhere. No belongings, no nothing. They just vanished.

THREE YEARS LATER

One night as a couple of the residents were out for a stroll, one noticed a distant light coming from one of the houses on the edge of the neighborhood. As they got closer they discovered the light was emanating from the long abandoned house that was vacated after the bad storm several years prior. But how could that be; no one had been living there since the previous and only occupants from the ship wreck and they had completely vanished after the storm hit. They were all thought dead.

Through a bit of trepidation and curiosity, the couple decided to investigate and moved closer to the house. Because the house had been abandoned after the storm and not been kept up, it was in a state of disrepair and looked dilapidated. Nevertheless, the couple nervously managed to walk up to the front steps near the entrance. Then they froze as if they had encountered an invisible wall. They couldn’t move. The only thing they felt was cold, extreme cold as if from a meat storage locker.

Although they stood there frozen in place, they could still see their surroundings but it was as if time itself had stopped. That’s when they saw it. Slowly but ever so gradually the front door began to open. As they stood there they felt the expectation of finally seeing someone answering the door, albeit under very strange circumstances. But as the door creaked open, they saw no one. An empty space in the entrance way.

What to make of this? They didn’t know what to think. Or do. How long would they remain frozen in place?

It seemed like it was just a blink, a millisecond in time before they found themselves inside the house standing unfrozen in the entranceway. Though they could move, they did not. They just stared at one another as if to silently ask “what do we do now?”. They were in total darkness except for a tiny light at the end of the hallway. This couldn’t be the light they saw from outside. That one, they surmised, must have come from the upstairs. But how? Were these lamps, candles set ablaze. There had been no electricity turned on since the storm hit and as far as they knew, the house was abandoned.

Or was it? How were the lights on? Even if the light source was a candle, it would have to be lit. Like it or not, further investigation was in order.

So the couple slowly made their way toward the flickering light at the end of the hall and just as they approached it they suddenly felt immense cold, as if they had walked into a freezer. It was just like they’d experienced when they reached the front door.

Simultaneously at that point the light flickered out and they were standing in complete darkness. But for a moment. There, just a few steps away and up what appeared to be a staircase, flickered another light as if beckoning them up the staircase. Interestingly the cold seemed to immediately dissipate when they began walking upstairs.

But as soon as they approached the light it moved. It was as if someone or something was leading them somewhere and holding the light as they traversed the curving, spiral staircase. Even in this twilight setting they could see no one. The light seemed to be moving on its own, always staying just slightly ahead of the couple.

When they finally arrived at the top of the stairs, they discovered open air, no rooms or walls, save for one partly dilapidated door that lead to an empty, what was left of a bedroom.

The light was still flickering but just barely, given the slight evening breeze from the adjoining bay.

The couple just stood there, frozen, afraid to step anywhere for fear of the timbers giving way. It was at this moment that they felt an uncontrollable sense of movement like they were being pushed toward the large opening on the bay side of the house.

There was nothing here but open air and a drop of about 300 feet down to the rocks below. No one could survive that fall. But why were they standing there now, right on the precipice of falling to their death?

They were once again standing there in total darkness. No sound except for the uneasy beating of their hearts. Their pulse raced, blood pressure climbing and anxiety rising to new heights.

Could they have outstayed their uninvited welcome? Did someone want them dead? Who the hell was behind these flickering lights? Was this a convoluted prank or sick joke? In any event they were more than ready to take their leave.

Because of their unsure footing they slowly started backing away from the open air portion of the storm-torn wall and began to turn around and walk out.

That’s when they heard it; a scraggly old voice that sounded more like a whisper.

“Where are you going? You can’t leave now, the party’s just begun. Besides you just got here,” voiced something quite invisible to their eyes. As they were still trying to adjust their eyesight in the dark, a candlelight appeared right in front of them, seemingly floating in mid-air.

There was no one present. This time, though, instead of a rush of very cold air they felt only a slight chill. As if a door had simply opened to the night air.

“Who’s there?” blurted out the man. No one answered.“ I said, ‘who’s there? Show yourself or at least speak and answer me.”

Silence.

Finally, the man turned to his lady friend and urged, “come on, let’s get the hell out of here.”

They began to walk but the flickering light stayed just in front of them, floating in mid-air. Whenever they turned, it turned. Always in front.

When the couple reached out in front of them to see if they would feel anything, all they felt was air; nothing.

“I don’t know who or what you are but we’re leaving; we’ve had enough,” said the man. Just then the light seemed to move out of their way as if to let them by. As the couple made their way out of this “semi death trap” their way out was lit by another floating light.

They made their way safely down the stairwell and into the foyer and out the door. Once outside they stopped and just looked at each other. Totally perplexed but relieved they would now be on their way back home in the neighborhood.

While the couple was walking away, the door gradually closed and the soft sound of quiet laughter could be heard from within the house.

Then a distant voice, “you think they’ll be back?” “Oh, I’m sure of it,” said another voice. “And we’ll be ready.”

***************

Over the course of the next few weeks, the couple queried several of their friends in the neighborhood and told them of their encounter in the apparently abandoned house at the end of the block overseeing the bay. Not one person they talked to knew anything about the house and had understood it had long been empty, that no-one had lived there since before the storm hit.

After one such neighborly conversation, the couple returned to their abode where they had been residing for just the past six months. As they discussed with each other their various conversations with their neighbors, they agreed that something was amiss. No one knew anything and/or no one was talking.The couple suspected their neighbors knew more than they were letting on.

During these last few weeks the conversations with their neighbors did reveal circumstances about the shipwreck over a year ago and that some survivors did make it onshore to seek cover from the storm. It was at this time that the survivors sought refuge in the old house at the end of the neighborhood. This fact was confirmed by the neighbors who recalled that time. After that, however, no one could recall anything. On this topic the neighborhood grew silent.

As the couple thought back on their eerie encounter inside the house, they began to wonder if they hadn’t experienced the presence of the survivors in ghostly form. They didn’t really believe in that sort of thing but at this point it seemed a viable explanation. Or one very elaborate hoax. But why? And, what’s with the neighborhood acting clueless?

One thing was sure: The couple wouldn’t get any clarification from their neighbors. They’d have to further investigate on their own. So, by mid morning the next day the couple set out to walk down the neighborhood “streets” – if you could call dirty, muddy avenues streets – to end up at the old house on the edge of the neighborhood overlooking the bay. They anticipated a different experience that time of the morning in contrast to their initial visit late at night.

Before they even got near the house, they thought it was extremely odd that the neighborhood was so quiet. There wasn’t a soul stirring, no dogs barking, nobody out for a morning jog. There was . . . no life at all present. It was as if everyone and everything had died.

As the couple approached the house, the hairs on the back of their necks rose up and a genuine sense of anxiety increased within them. When they got to the front door, they stopped cold. They heard voices, although somewhat muted, coming from inside. It sounded like a gathering of people were having some sort of meeting. They knocked, politely of course, but no one answered. Then the door creaked open ever so slightly so they cautiously opened it and stepped in. There was no one inside and no noise whatsoever. What happened to all those voices? Where had they gone?

As they stood there in the foyer, seeing nothing, they heard a voice very distinctly say, ” Welcome. Nice to see you again. We’re having a little get-together of the neighborhood and discussing future plans for the area. Won’t you come in and join us?”. The couple hadn’t moved but said, “uh, sure, we’d love to join you.”

As they both continued walking into what appeared to be nothingness, the man let out an agonizing groan and immediately dropped to his knees. His wife, looking on with startled amazement, gasped as she saw a huge silver sword driven into her husband’s abdomen. Not knowing what to do at that instant, she started to kneel down beside him when he let out an horrific scream as another silver, razor-sharp sword was being thrust into his back, killing him instantly. As he fell to his side, she tried to embrace him but looked up at where she thought someone stood above her and yelled out, “Why in God’s name have you done this? What did we ever do to you?”.

The invisible voice soon took shape, as did the rest of the characters in the room, and remarked “We want to welcome you two into our neighborhood. Our neighborhood of ghostly beings, our disembodied souls who still want to live and rejoice.”

As the woman muttered, “but I don’t understand; why did you have to kill my husband?” “Simple,” the ghost said; “you need to be dead before you can enter into our neighborhood.” Just then the woman muttered in disbelief, “but I’m not dead.” Upon hearing that, the rest of the gathering shouted back to her, “Yet, deary, but you soon will be.”

Looking upon them with mystified horror, the woman, still bending down beside her dead husband, started to say something when everything went black. No noise, no voices, no feeling. She was numb except for an unknown sense of disembodiment. Turns out she hadn’t felt when her head left her body as it rolled down the floor in the foyer. She subsequently collapsed right beside her dead husband, blood spilling profusely from her body.

The “main ghostly figure” proudly announced to the group, “Behold, the newest members of our neighborhood. We shall call them Joe and Karen, such a sweet couple.” The group responded with an energetic round of applause. One of the ghost members added, “they will make such a nice contribution to our neighborhood.”

And with that the applause continued, thundering down the hallway into the misty night air. The Manor by the bay had done its job. The neighborhood would grow quiet again. Until the next time . . .

For other stories of mystery and the macabre, check out my collection at ideasnmore.net/gallery