I had not considered the idea of ghosts. All I knew then was that the property was cheap. I remember standing on that old front step for the first time. I remember standing there, pondering on the events that had led me to such a low point. The graduation, economic prosperity, the new corner office, I wanted to pause my life story right there. Everything was perfect. A little too perfect. I was on top of the world, and the only one who could bring me down was me. One drunken binge later, and I landed myself in litigation land. Thousands in court fees with a year of appointed AA later, and there I was. Sober but near broke, with nothing but a dilapidated house to my name. Without the meager employment opportunities provided by this small town, I wouldn’t even have had that. At least the house came fully furnished.
I grabbed the handle of my old suitcase and crossed the threshold. The porch creaked as my weight left its wooden planks and moved to the interior of the house. Before today, I’d barely had time to poke my head in before the previous owner swept me away to the local café to talk numbers. He had practically begged me to take the house off his hands. In the moment I felt like I was lowballing him. Seeing the manor interior in all its splendor told me that I may have actually done him a favor. The house looked as though it had smoked three packs a day for twenty-five years. The yellow wallpaper was peeling and stained. Light filtering in through the dirty windows seemed to highlight the unusual amount of dust floating above the ancient floorboards. I moved to a small table in the living room and stuck my charger into the nearby outlet. My phone vibrated as I plugged it in, and I left it there while I explored the rest of the house. From what the last owner had told me, the house was divided into three floors. The main floor held the living room and the kitchen while the upstairs was exclusively bedrooms. The cellar had apparently housed hundreds of bottles of wine back in its prime but now was mostly empty.
Apart from a few cobwebs, the kitchen held no surprises. Faux granite counter tops with faded brown cabinetry held more than enough storage for my lonesome self, and an old rotary phone hung on the wall. A relic of its time, it’s only use would be as a decoration. The dining room was another story. Upon entering I was immediately greeted by, well, me. A full, floor-to-ceiling mirror spanned the entire wall opposite the entry way where I stood. I startled for a split second before recognizing my face, and my thoughts turned from danger to wonderment.
“Who would ever put something like this in here?” I shrugged it off as being a trend of decades past and turned my attention briefly to the object between us. The dining room table was near ebony in color, with six chairs distributed evenly around it. At some point, a family must have lived here, but decided they were better of finding a new table in a new land. Their loss would not be my gain, as I did not want to exacerbate my loneliness by eating at a massive table alone. I made my way back into the main room and glanced at my phone on my way to the basement stairs. No messages, typical.
I remember thinking during that first descent that the cellar was exactly like any other cellar I had seen. In my previous life I had rubbed shoulders with many affluent people. If there’s one thing affluent people love, it’s showing off their wine collection. The empty racks still stood as if brand new, ready to resume their duties at a moment’s notice. What made this wine cellar unique however was the furnace located through a door at the opposite end of the room. Where the wine cellar had been a somewhat pleasant room to be in, the room housing the furnace was the opposite. Dark and full of cobwebs. The old grizzly thing must have been installed when the house was first built, because it looked like it hadn’t been used in decades. The access panel was rusted and would not budge no matter how hard I pulled. I didn’t want to imagine the spider’s nests housed within, so I left without trying too much harder. Another trip up to the ground floor, another quick look at my phone, and I was off to pick my room upstairs.
As I reached the top floor it dawned on me that apart from the throw rug in the living room there were no carpets in the house. I was a big believer in hard wood flooring but the water staining in the first room was a bit of an eyesore. If I ever had guests I would have to find something to cover it up. I laughed morbidly at the thought. There would have to be someone who wanted to see me first. Upon inspection of the second habitation it became clear that four of the five bedrooms shared the same design. About 11 by 12 foot rectangles each with a set of drawers and a writing desk built in to the wall. The fifth space appeared to be the master bedroom. It was much larger and, on top of the expected complement of desk and drawer, housed a large walk in closet. This room had water staining like the first, but in a much more aggressive pattern. Most of the space along the back wall was stained, as well as a pattern cutting out at 90 degrees from the wall to around the middle of the room. It was as if it was marking out the spot to put a master bedframe. The last owner had mentioned that the beds were the only things not included as he had decided to donate the mattresses. Luckily My pillow-top was one of the few things I’d been able keep from my old life. I could slum it without a frame until I got somewhat back on my feet.
The one advantage to having barely any possessions left was the ease of moving. Unloading the trailer and putting everything in its place took barely an hour. After placing the last pan in its cabinet, I took a long sigh of acceptance. This was the bed I had made, and I was prepared to lie in it. Maybe this could be some form of atonement, and maybe I could make the best of the situation. I went to the living room and sat down on a chair next to the small table. Pizza sounded good, and the little shop I had passed on the way in advertised free delivery. I reached for my phone to search the number, but my hand met only desk. My stomach dropped as I realized that my phone was not on the table at all. I was sure I had left it there to charge, but things had been a little hectic in the moving process. I had probably picked it up and left it with one of the boxes. I instinctively thought to call the device in order to hear the ringtone but quickly shot that down.
“Yeah, try the rotary, idiot.” shaking my head, I got up to search. The smaller bedrooms were all empty, and the master, though now somewhat furnished, remained phone-less. From downstairs I suddenly heard the sound of plastic and glass vibrating against wood. I was getting a call. I ran down, hunting for the source of the noise. Through the kitchen I finally spotted my phone placed neatly in the center of the dining room table. I must have left it in there when I was unloading the kitchen boxes. I looked down at the smart device to see a missed call from an unknown number. Probably spam. I put my phone in my pocket and looked up, once again contemplating the loneliness of my new life here. As I looked into the mirror however, I realized that I wasn’t alone at all. Around me, seated at the table, were six other people. Staring into the mirror. Staring at me. I screamed and twisted around to remove the intruders from my newly acquired home, but they had vanished. The seats were as empty as they had been when I’d arrived. The mirror displayed the same, with the exception of my now ghost white complexion. I breathed a long sigh of anxiety and frustration.
“I must be tired.” I wasn’t wrong. At that point it had been nearly 24 hours since I had last slept. The long drive here had not afforded any time to rest. Hallucinations were common on that kind of awake time. Or at least, so I had heard. I resolved to go straight to bed and get some food in the morning. At this point I began to be aware of how exhausted I really was. While there was nothing I wanted to do less than stay a night by myself, I had no other choice. I carried myself up to my mattress and fell into the dark of sleep.