I don’t like to be scared. Which is funny, because I keep seeking out creepy experiences that would seem scary. Like visiting cemeteries in the middle of the night. Or camping by a lake where people have repeatedly seen La Llorona. Or broke into abandoned sanitariums. At night. Alone.

I know, you don’t believe the “I don’t like to be scared” part. But it’s true. It’s not about being scared, it’s about getting a glimpse of the paranormal with my own eyes. And so far… I’ve been a little disappointed.

The cemeteries definitely have that creepy factor, but I mostly just got cold. And a twisted ankle when I tripped on a root. No La Llorona, at that night around the lake. Thought I did catch a trout for breakfast that morning. Maybe there’s a fish ghost out there now?

The sanitarium was probably the closest. There were unexplainable sounds… flashes of lights I couldn’t explain. Doors even opened and shut on their own – when they were out of view. Did I actually see anything? No, no I did not.

So, when I made a reservation at the Golden Sky Inn for room 319 I had high hopes (I always had high hopes), but no real expectations.

First, though, they tried to talk me out of it.

I made the reservation online and specified the room. This room was well known in the paranormal community. On the message boards numerous people reported to have been prodded or jostled in the middle of the night. One woman woke up to a shadowy man sitting at the end of the bed staring at her. A man recounted a sleepless night when the bed shook and bucked and even hovered a foot off the ground before dropping violently. One terrified guest said she tried to open the bathroom door but it was stuck shut and as she tried to open it, she heard the sink faucet turn on by itself.

Almost immediately after I submitted the reservation my phone rang. It was the hotel. The man was courteous and tried to get me to change my room. I explained I knew what I was getting in to and, yes, I was quite sure room 319 was the room I wanted to stay in. He tried valiantly, offering free breakfasts, another night… part of me wanted to take him up on the offers and mentally noted if I needed to stay here again to book room 319 with no intention of actually staying there, but every intention of getting freebies.

I don’t bring a lot of equipment. When I arrived that Friday night I had a normal overnight bag and my backpack with nothing more than my laptop and a digital recorder. I left the recorder running in the empty room while I went to dinner and reviewed the two hours of uneventful taped silence when I got back before taking a shower and turning in for the night – recorder again on.

Just after midnight I was jostled awake – literally, something jostled my foot. I was about to scream, but I opened my eyes and the scream froze in my throat. There, at the foot of my bed sat a bald man staring intently at me and smiling. Only, I could see he wasn’t completely solid. My initial fear that this was an intruder were replaced with real terror that this was not just a ghost but a full-bodied apparition… and it was staring at me.

And then it spoke. “Good,” it rasped, “You’re awake.” If being awakened by a full-bodied apparition wasn’t terrifying enough, to have it then speak… “It is now time…” it started, “to party!”

Instantly the dark room was awash with flashing-colored lights and the prismatic reflections of an unseen disco ball. Deafening electronic dance music filled the room with a thumping bass beat. The bald-headed man was standing now, gyrating with the beat. But he wasn’t alone. I looked around and could see other figures – most not as defined as the bald man, but clearly entities – dancing to the beat. More than see them, I could feel the bodies around me moving and dancing.

“Get up and dance!” the bald-headed man took my hand and pulled me out of the bed like I was weightless. With the ease at which he pulled me I thought at first this must be a dream… right up until I stubbed my toe on the bed. I bent over grabbing my foot and the bald-headed man was right there next to my face. “Are you okay?” he asked, concern on his face.

“Uh…” I stammered, “Yes… I mean, my foot hurts but it’s fine. I’m more concerned with what the hell is going on here.”

“It’s a rave!” he said straightening up and bouncing to the beat.

“Yeah, I can hear that,” I yelled back over the pulsing beat. “But why? Who are you?”

“Why? Because you’re here!”

I couldn’t help but start moving to the beat myself, but asked, “Me? What about me?”

“You’re the right mix.”

“Mix?”

“You believe, but you’re not hunting. You’re open but you’re not inviting. And you’ve got a little pinch of psychic ability that pulls the whole thing together.”

“I do? So, what?”

“So, your energy is like a key that allows all of us to just let loose!” he danced and spun in a circle.

A disembodied head of a woman apparated near my head and spoke, “We’re so tired of the normal turning-on-the-faucet routine! We needed a break!”

From the other side a figure existing out of dark smoke spoke, “Even the dead need to get funky sometimes!” Its incorporeal smoke pulsing to the beat.

“But who are you guys?” I asked.

“We’re the ones that haunt this room,” the bald man said.

“All of you?” I asked. The room seemed quite crowded with energies bouncing and moving.

“Well,” a headless torso spoke, “I haunt 237, but I heard the party was here tonight!”

“Almost all of us haunt this room,” The bald-headed man said.

Just then three loud knocks came from the door to the room. “Hotel Security!” came through muffled through the door. I moved to the door doing my best not to touch any of the dancing entities around me. Reaching the door to the room I flipped on the lightswitch and opened the door. Immediately the music stopped and when the security guard looked into the room, he saw an empty room and me in my pjs.

“Is there a problem?”

He stared at the empty room behind me without speaking.

“Sir?”

“Uh… yeah, we’ve gotten a number of noise complaints – something about a dance party going on in this room?”

“Well,” I said opening the door wide. “You can see there’s no one in here but me. I was just sleeping.”

“Sleeping? With that noise?”

“What noise?”

“I could hear it when I knocked on the door – electronic music?”

“From this room? Are you sure?”

He stared around at the room. My laptop was still in my backpack and aside from the day’s clothes on the floor, there was no visible indicators that anyone else had even been in the room. “I’m… I’m not sure about anything right now. You have a nice night,” he said and turned around.

“Thanks,” I said and closed the door. I flipped the lightswitch off and the dance music and strobing lights started again with all the ghosts dancing like nothing had interrupted them.

“Go Laurie, it’s your birthday!” the bald-headed man chanted, and a number of other entities joined in. I couldn’t help it, I gave in and danced the night away with the ghosts.

Annie and Jay stood on the front porch in front of the door. Jay clutched a nice bottle of zinfandel while Annie clutched a glass trifle bowl like it was a life preserver.

“Jay, press the doorbell,” Annie said with more bravado than she felt.

“You press it,” he returned.

“You’re right there,” she countered.

“I don’t want to be here,” he said. “No one wants to be at this house, ever. How they’ve managed to stay here for six months…”

“And what kind of neighbors are we that we never even said hi?”

“No one has stayed in this godforsaken house for more than two weeks. The fact that they’ve been here so long is solid evidence that they’ve clearly sold their souls to the devil.”

“That’s not fair, Jay.”

“You’re right, not even the devil would want to be here!”

Annie rolled her eyes and reached across Jay’s body and pressed the button for the doorbell.

When she did, the porchlight went out and the doorbell emitted a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream.

Jay screamed shrilly and leapt behind Annie. For her part, Annie knocked frantically on the door.

A moment later, the door opened to reveal a woman with wild tangle of red hair held in place by a pair of chopsticks. “Oh! Hi Annie!” the woman beamed. “Oh, did you try the doorbell? It hasn’t worked since we got here. It’s on the list for Jason to fix, but you know how it is? With so many things, it hasn’t gotten to the top of the priority list! Come in! Come in!”

Annie, still shaken, clutched the trifle glass in both arms as she gingerly stepped over the threshold.

“Trifle? Oh, that looks delicious,” she started to take the glass from Annie who didn’t seem capable of releasing it. After a moment of gentle tugging, she said, “Well, okay, you hang on to that.

“And you must be Jay? I’m Samantha, she reached out to shake Jay’s hand, but he had gripped the neck of the bottle holding it like a club, cocked back to beat someone. “Oh, you brought wine, too! That’s so sweet!” Samantha reached out and plucked the bottle from Jay’s hands. “Come in, come in, both of you!”

Jay stepped in still shaken.

Samantha closed the door behind them and called upstairs, “Jason! Annie and Jay are here! I’m going to decant this lovely zin they brought. Come on down and say hi!”

From upstairs they heard, “I’ll be right there!”

Samantha flashed them a big smile and said, “Make yourselves at home. I’m going to get this decanted!” And she disappeared into the kitchen.

“I take back the sold-their-souls thing – redheads don’t have souls!” Jay whispered.

The cruelty snapped Annie from her reverie. “Jay!” she snapped a whisper back. “You be nice! I’m sure that doorbell just… malfunctioned.”

“Uh huh,” he said. “It accidentally opened a portal to hell!”

Annie was about to argue but they both heard footsteps start to descend the stairs. Both turned to greet Jason, but instead watched in terror as a man covered in blood staggered down the stairs, caroming from banister to railing and back, missed a step and fell forward, the body tumbling the remaining steps to land with a sickening thud three feet from them. Annie could see the head twisted at an unnatural angle as blood started pouring from the mouth. Annie opened her mouth too scream but…

“Hello!” Jason said as he started down the stairs. “I’m so glad you guys could make it,” he rushed down the remaining steps and stepped on… nothing. Nothing at the base of the stairs. Annie and Jay looked up to see the blood prints, but the stairs were unmarred and clean. “Did you hear that thump a minute ago? We’re still working on the pipes…Hope you didn’t have any trouble finding the place,” Jason said and then laughed uproariously at his joke. When neither Annie or Jay reacted he clarified, “It’s funny because you live next door… See…. Nevermind…. I’m Jason,” he said reaching for Jay’s hand and shaking it vigorously.

“Uh, pleased to meet you, Jason,” Jay managed to say.

“And Annie is it?” Jason said, reaching for her hand. She stared past him at the empty landing again and then snapped out of it and shook his proffered hand.

“Yes,” she started unsure, “Uh… Yes. I’m Annie. Pleased to meet you, Jason.”

“Great to meet you both,” he said realizing Annie hadn’t let go of his hand. “Umm, dinner has a little longer if I know Samantha’s cooking. Please, let’s go sit in the family room.”

They all started into the family room which looked… really cozy, Jay thought. He stepped down into the sunken room which had plush tan carpet and was decorated in a very modern style with leather couches that  flanked a brick fireplace with built- in bookshelves and tasteful recessed lighting lining the walls behind the couches.

“Wow, this is a gorgeous space,” Annie said echoing Jay’s thoughts.

“Thanks,” Jason said. We’ve been working room to room. This was the first to really feel like… home.”

“It’s really nice,” Jay said settling onto one of the couches. 

“Thanks! Can I get you anything to drink? Wine? Beer? A drink?”

“I’ll have a glass of wine,” Annie said feeling herself start to relax.

“Beer?”

“I’ve got a really nice hazy IPA. That work?”

“Sounds great,” Jay said.

Jason and Samantha returned with the drinks and everyone sat in comfortable silence for a moment.

Annie started, “I just wanted to say sorry that it’s taken us this long to visit.”

“Yeah,” Jay agreed. “Most people haven’t stayed in this place long,” Annie elbowed him in the ribs.

“We’ve heard that,” Jason said. He looked at his wife and said, “We can’t figure out why! This place was priced well below market value and the listing had been forever when we stumbled across it.”

“It’s a really mystery,” Samantha agreed. “Do you guys anything about this place?”

Jay looked at Annie, worried about getting any more elbows in the ribs. But she nodded instead. “Well,” he said, “we were wondering about the turnover so we looked into the history of this place a little.”

“Yeah,” Annie said. “We’ve only been here a little more than five years, and already this place went through four owners.”

“That’s crazy!” Samantha said.

“What did you find?” Jason asked.

“Well,” Jay started. “It turns out this was the site where the original English settlers executed Native Americans in particularly brutal ways.”

Jason and Samantha flinched.

“Later, the building that occupied this site was owned by a butcher who is widely regarded as the first mass murderer in colonial America.”

“Wow,” Jason said. “That explains the reputation…”

“Oh, we’re just getting started,” Annie cut him off.

“Yeah, after the townsfolk stormed the butcher’s house and burned the place to the ground, they set his head on a pike as a warning.”

“I always wondered where people got pikes, you know?” Samantha started.

“It was a stop on the underground railroad,” Jay started.

“Oh, that’s hopeful!” Samantha said.

“Until a group of slave catchers caught wind of the place and burned the place to the ground with a at least a dozen people inside.”

“Oh.”

“Then the new building served as the amputation house during the Civil War.”

“That’s interesting, because it was under priced and didn’t cost us an arm or a leg,” Jason said with a big smile. “Nothing? Really?”

“The trees out front were used for lynchings…. Numerous times,” Jay said solemnly.

“Well, I’m glad we’re going to take those down. We’re thinking of replacing those with Xeriscaping,” Samantha said. “Way less watering.”

“Oh, totally,” Annie agreed.

“That’s it, right? Nothing else dark about this place, right?”

“That was it… until the sixteen-year-old boy of a family of nine butchered his whole family with a pickaxe about fifteen years ago,” Jay said.

“Oh my God,” Jason said. “They had a family of nine in this place? I mean, did they stack them like cord wood? I mean, I guess they probably did after the whole pickaxe thing…”

Everyone started at Jason open-mouthed.

“What? Too much? Sorry, sorry… The truth is, Samantha and I just don’t believe in ghosts or hauntings.”

Jay and Annie watched as a figure with long greasy hair obscuring his face stepped into the room behind the couch Samantha and Jason were sitting on. Vibrant red blood streaked his filthy clothes as he hoisted a bloody pickaxe over his shoulder and started in towards them.

“Right,” Samantha agreed. “Where others saw superstition and bad luck with this place, we just see opportunity!”

The boy staggered forward and raised the pickaxe overhead…

“I mean, do you guys believe in such things?”

Jay and Annie stared in paralyzed terror as the boy started to bring the pickaxe down in a killing stroke into Jason’s head. Suddenly a buzzer went off in the kitchen and Jason turned around to look at the kitchen – and right through the boy with the pickaxe.

“Is that the roast?” he said, starting to get up.

“I can get it,” Samantha said setting her wine glass on the coffee table.

“Nonsense, Sam. You sit. I’ve got this.” He stood and walked around the couch past the boy with the pickaxe. The boy hoisted the pickaxe and started after Jason into the kitchen. “You guys settle in. This roast Samantha made? It’s to die for!” he disappeared into the kitchen followed by the bloody boy with the pickaxe.

Samantha watched him go into the kitchen. “That man,” she laughed. “He just slays me!”

Annie downed the glass of wine in one swallow while Jay emptied his beer likewise.

“Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him—and it was still hot,” Jakob said making sure Elli could see the last page before he closed the well-worn book.

“That’s my favorite,” Elli said with a yawn.

“I know, Sweetie. That’s my favorite, too.” He set the book down on the nightstand, then stood up and tucked her in and kissed her forehead. “Goodnight, pumpkin.”

“Good night, daddy,” she said and nestled into her pillow, holding her stuffed alligator tightly.

“Hey, El? What do you say we turn off your nightlight?”

“No, daddy, you can’t,” She said, suddenly awake and wide-eyed.

“Elli, didn’t you just say the other day that you didn’t need the night light?”

“I know, daddy. I don’t. Really! It’s not for me.”

Jakob looked puzzled. “It’s not for you?”

“No, daddy. I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m a big girl,” pride evident in her voice.

“Okay…” Jakob thought she was just afraid to admit she really was afraid of the dark. “Is it Sherman? I know stuffed alligators sometimes don’t like the dark.”

“Daddy,” she said in a voice that sounded a lot older than six, “alligators live in dark swamps. And Sherman is a stuffed animal” she emphasized. “He doesn’t care whether it’s dark or not. Just as long as he’s under the covers and warm.”

“Sensible Alligator,” Jakob nodded. “Then why can’t we turn the night light off, sweetie?”

Elli gestured for her dad to come closer. He kneeled next to her bedside and she whispered to him, “It’s the ghost. He doesn’t like the dark.”

Jakob thought he was ready for any excuse, but he was caught aback by this one. “Honey, first there’s no such thing as ghosts. And second, ghosts are all about the dark.”

“Daddy, this ghost very much exists and he’s ascared of the dark. He told me.”

Jakob stood and crossed too the door. “Honey, if there were ghosts, they thrive in the dark. Let’s try it just this once.”

“Daddy, I don’t think this is a good idea…”

“I know, El. Let’s give it a try…”

She didn’t respond except to pull the covers up so just her worried eyes were visible.

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” he said, switched off the nightlight, then switched off the overhead light. Backing into the hallway he closed the door most of the way.

“What was that about?” the voice in the hallway whispered.

Jakob startled and jumped a little. “Oh, sorry, Jeannette, I guess that ghost talk got me a little, uh, spooked,” he replied as they padded to their room down the hall.

“Where’d she get the notion about ghosts?” Jeannette asked.

“Beats me,” Jakob said. “Maybe something on YouTube?”

“I don’t think so,” she replied climbing into bed. “I check everything she watches, and I’d nix something like that.”

“Even something like Casper? I mean, maybe it’s something like that?”

Jeannette shook her head, “Not likely. I’ll go through the history again. Weird…”

“Well,” Jakob said switching off the bedside light.

Jakob had managed to quiet his thoughts and had nearly fallen asleep when the scream erupted from Elli’s room. Instantly he was on his feet and in the hallway, Jeannette just footsteps behind. He threw open Elli’s door with one hand, flipping the lights on with the other.

“Honey, what’s wrong?!”

“See, Daddy? I told you!” Elle said, scrunched up on one side of the bed against the wall. Closer to the edge of the bed under the covers, a mostly translucent figure huddled with terrified wide eyes mostly under the covers, a translucent teddy bear clutched close to its chest.

“I’m sorry I doubted you, Elli,” Jakob said.