As of 9/21 I have not submitted it yet. So, comments are appreciated before it's due on 9/26.
Wish me luck!
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Some people swore that the house was haunted. Ridgeway didn’t believe in such absurdities. He believed in cold hard cash. Thus, when the Conway house came up for sale at a rock bottom price and no one dared make a bid, he pounced. It would need some work, but that was ok. Ridgeway was well trained. He loaded up his truck with supplies and pulled into the driveway the selfsame day the place closed escrow.Ridgeway had no intention of spending the night. He preferred to sleep in hotels when doing this sort of work. But, when the clock struck ten and he found himself in his boxers covered in drywall, thoroughly exhausted, and having forgotten to book lodging he decided to get at least a few hours of shuteye on the only piece of furniture in the place; an old well-worn leather couch. Within the hour Ridgeway was snoring, wrapped in a comfy blanket he always kept in the truck for just such occasions.
Around one o’clock in the morning he was awoken from a dead sleep by a clatter in the kitchen. Ghosts! No, that’s ridiculous. Had he left a window open? Probably the wind had knocked something over. He heard another noise and was on his bare feet instantly, edging toward the sound. A scraping, like a dead body being dragged upon the hard wood floor rolled Ridgeway‘s direction. He grabbed a broom and gripped it tight, inching forward.
As he reached the kitchen door he spotted a soft glow creeping out from under it that reminded him of the spirits of the dead from that movie Poltergeist which had scared him to death as a child. Whatever was making that light seemed to be in a whirl of motion, dancing around the kitchen. Ridgeway reached out to turn the doorknob, a lump caught firmly in his throat.
He threw open the door and leaped in the room. A bright light flashed directly in his eyes, blinding him. He bellowed. From behind the glare came another scream, high pitched and horrible. A banshee wail! Ridgeway shut his eyes and threw the broom out at the beam. Another clatter! Another painful howl! Ridgeway opened his eyes. It was dark again. He could hear the pitter-patter of whatever foul beast had been with him, running away. Ridgeway ran to the living room and peered out the window. A small boy, no more then ten bolted across the lawn. When he reached the hedges he yelped something or other and a half dozen others appeared. Together they scattered off down the street.
Ridgeway returned to the kitchen where he found a flashlight on the floor. He almost tripped over a small stepstool in the middle of the room. Where had that come from? He picked up the flashlight and switched it on. Above the stool was a horribly gaudy chandelier with fake multicolored crystals dangling from it. One was on the ground below broken into pieces.
Obviously the local dare was to come into the haunted house after midnight and prove it by stealing a bauble from the light fixture. Ridgeway shook his head and then almost bellowed again when the flashlight revealed his own reflection in the mirror on the wall. He was mostly naked and covered in drywall which made him look like the scariest ghost ever.Ridgeway laughed and laughed. He could only imagine what effect that dreaded ghostly vision jumping out in the dark could do to a person. In fact, he guessed for one little boy, nothing was ever the same again after that.
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