The Ghosts of Hanson House: A Haunting In Kingston Novella (The Hauntings of Kingston Book 5)

by Michelle Dorey

  The old man turned his dark eyes to her and nodded. He always looked so stern and serious with heavy lines pulling the corners of his lips down. He finished the rest of his coffee, rose and as he strode across the room called over his shoulder, “Thanks for breakfast, Abby. See ya out there, Dan.”

  Julia picked up the empty plate and mug and set it in the sink before flopping down in the seat that Frank had left. She turned to Grandpa, “He sure doesn’t say much, does he? Does he talk to you, Grandpa, when it’s just the two of you? Have a conversation even?” She sat back as Nana placed a plate of pancakes and sausage in front of her and Emma.

  Grandpa smiled and patted her hand. “Yes, but I agree he’s no chatterbox. It works for us. We’ve known each other since we were your age. When you know someone that long, you can almost read each other’s mind.”

  Julia nodded and poured syrup over her pancakes. She grinned up at him. “It’s hard to imagine you, let alone Frank, as a kid. Did they even have bicycles back then?”

  Nana let out a whoop from where she stood rinsing Frank’s plate in the sink. “Bikes were invented before cars, Julia! We’re not that ancient!”

  Grandpa reached over and his hand mussed the hair on the top of Julia’s head. “You think you’re funny! Just for that I ought to make you clean the pigpen and slop the hogs with Frank!” He laughed and looked over at Emma. “What do you say? Should we make her do that?”

  “Yuck! The pigs stink so bad and Frank kind of scares me. Yeah, for sure, Grandpa. Julia should have to do that. I’ll take a picture even!” Emma laughed seeing the grimace on Julia’s face before she popped some food in her mouth.

  Grandpa smiled. “You two remind me of your dad and aunt when they were your age, teasing each other.”

  It was like a light bulb going off in Emma’s brain. Her father! Of course he was raised on the farm! Why hadn’t she thought of this before? He probably knew all about the Hanson house having grown up here. She’d call him later and see what she could get out of him about it.

  ***

  After lunch that day, Emma and Julia got their bikes from the barn. They were riding up the dirt path to the house and driveway when Grace and Lily emerged from the back door.

  “Where are you two going?” Grace slid her dark sunglasses over her eyes and looked up at the sky which had been clearing steadily all morning.

  Lily looked like she was about to cry seeing Julia setting off without her. She wore an over-sized green T shirt and spandex shorts that only served to highlight her spindly legs. “Can I come with you?”

  Emma’s heart went out to her young cousin. “Of course. We’re just going to the village to get an ice cream or soft drink. It’s just something to do to break up the day.” She smiled when Lily perked up and raced off to the barn to get her bike.

  “I suppose, I’ll come along too. I’ll just finish putting sunscreen on, and be right with you.” Without waiting for an answer Grace spun around and went back into the house, her long pony tail of blonde hair swaying imperiously over her shoulders.

  “I don’t remember asking her to come with us.” Julia sneered over at Emma and her toe kicked at the dirt while she straddled the bike.

  “Shush! Lily’s coming.” Emma turned and smiled at her young cousin. “We’re waiting for Grace. She’s gone to put sunscreen on.”

  Lily rolled her eyes and stood with her bike propped up against her hip. It was the first time Emma or Julia had ever seen Lily communicate any annoyance at Grace. It felt good to have an ally, even her.

  She rolled her bike closer to Julia and murmured. “She’s probably getting changed as well. She wouldn’t want anyone to see her in just a shirt and shorts. I bet any money, that she’ll come back in a skirt and silk top.”

  “Why? It’s not like we’re going to a Broadway play or something. It’s just the village store.” Julia giggled and pantomimed plumping a hair-doo, holding her nose high in the air.

  Lily burst out laughing and Emma couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was when she did that. It was like the sun appearing from behind a cloud. Lily’s eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed pink beside a perfect set of white teeth. Even her gold, unkempt hair seemed fairy-light and free.

  “Careful, you two. She’s going to be back in a minute. She might catch you.” Emma sidled closer to the other two girls, watching the door.

  Sure enough, when Grace appeared, her lips were glossed and her hair was combed and flowing loose over her shoulders. In a white set of shorts and silky red top, she could have stepped off the cover of a magazine. She was definitely over the top for a visit to Sloan’s Country Emporium.

  Julia and Lily shared a look and then both looked down at the ground to hide their grins.

  “What?” Grace pulled the glasses lower on her face and looked over the rim at the rest of them. “Just because I’ve got some class...” She lifted her glasses and her chin, taking small mincing steps in the princess heeled sandals going to the barn to get her bike.

  Julia nudged Lily with her hand. “Which class is she talking about, second or third?” She turned and shook her head, chuckling and watching Grace.

  Even though Emma smiled, she cautioned, “Enough, you two. Be nice.” She turned and watched Grace mount the bike and ride up to them, passing them with a small fluttery wave of her hand. The kind of wave Emma had seen videos of the Queen make.

  ***

  When they finally rode into the village, Grace wasn’t quite as poised and regal as she’d been when they set out. Her hair was limp, hanging in damp strands and beads of perspiration rolled down the sides of her face. Emma could identify with the feeling. The day had turned muggy with not a breath of air to cool off from the long ride. All of them were hot and sweaty.

  They parked their bikes alongside the two story frame store and then ambled around to the front of the building. Emma fanned her forehead before noticing the two teenage boys with cans of soda, sitting on the platform running the width of the building. They turned their heads, watching the girls approach.

  Emma’s breath hitched in her throat. The guy closest had ice blue eyes and a carefree brush of brown hair, kissed with gold at the ends. When his lips spread in a smile, she felt her face flush. He rose to his feet, his white T shirt showing tanned muscular arms and slim, jean fitting snugly on his long legs. From the looks of him, he was probably a couple years older than she was.

  She couldn’t help smiling back and turned to glance at the other guy who was still seated. He had the same set to his eyes and mouth but looked even older. He was probably sixteen or seventeen. That one’s attention was firmly on Grace as she sashayed by.

  “Hi! You girls visiting the island?” It was brother number two, directing his question at Grace.

  She paused and stepped closer to him, smiling down. “We’re staying with our grandparents, Dan and Abby Baker. Do you know them?”

  Brother two rose to his feet, towering over Grace by a good four inches. He nodded and extended his hand. “I’m Barry Morton and this is my kid brother, Mike.” His fingers laced through his hair and he looked down for a moment smiling. “We’re islanders.”

  Grace was all poise when she introduced herself and then turned to add, “This is my sister Lily and my two cousins, Emma and Julia.”

  Emma couldn’t help sneaking glimpses of Mike. He nodded and threw a shy smile her way.

  “Can we go in now? I’m dying of thirst.” Julia stomped by the others and pulled the screen door of the store open wide. Lily scurried behind her, looking down, folded into herself.

  “We’d better go in. I’ve got the money and well...” Emma’s voice was almost a croak and it didn’t have anything to do with the long ride and how parched she was. She smiled at Mike and then stepped away following the other two.

  Her heart beat a little faster as she walked over to the cooler of drinks where Lily and Julia stood, basking in the cool air wafting out. Behind her, she could hear Grace’s footsteps. She grabbed a soda
and held it to her forehead, closing her eyes for a moment. The chill of the air conditioned store was nowhere near as good as the icy cold oozing from the can. She needed something to clear her head, immediately.

  “They’re kind of cute, don’t you think?” Grace’s low voice was a purr in her throat as she her arm slinked by to grab a cola from the cooler.

  Emma looked away. For a second, Kyle’s face flooded her mind and she felt her stomach fall. Kyle was the guy she’d had a crush on, like forever. Mike might be good looking, but she wasn’t interested. Not really. Okay. Well...maybe a little.

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Emma nudged Julia and they walked over to the cash to pay.

  The store was filled with a hodgepodge of dry goods, touristy things, a fishing and hunting section, greeting cards and even a refrigerated room for beer and wine. It smelled of wood and honey. The woman behind the counter was a well worn, middle aged wraith in a stained blouse and slacks. She took the bill and with a wan smile she shoved a few coins across the counter at Emma.

  When Emma emerged from the store, Mike and Barry had moved over to the shade of the awning hanging over the large window. It was obvious they’d been waiting, as both of them pushed off from the window sill that they’d been leaning on when she appeared.

  Mike stepped closer to her and his smile again was shy. “So...how long are you staying on the island? We don’t live far from your Grandfather’s place.”

  “Until the middle of August. Then it’s back to Ottawa for Julia and me. Grace and Lily are here from New York. My grandparents wanted us all to get together for their last summer. You know they’ve sold the farm, don’t you? Well, I mean it will be sold at the end of September at least.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, we heard.” He grinned at her. “Word travels fast around here.”

  Grace and Lily stepped out of the building and were immediately joined by the older brother, Barry.

  His grin bordered on being a smirk when he looked at Grace. “So, how you enjoying farm life after living in New York City? Big change, I’ll bet.”

  Surprisingly, Grace dropped her sophisticated air and her smile was kind of flirty when she looked back at him. “For sure! It’s kind of fun, actually. The quiet at night is weird but I’m getting used to it.” She laughed. “Not to say anything about having a haunted house as a neighbour. Now that’s weird. Do you know anything about the Hanson farm?”

  Lily’s head swiveled to watch her sister but just as she was about to say something, Barry took the bait, hook, line and sinker.

  He sidled closer to Grace and his voice became lower, “I know everything about that place. It’s creepy all right. A bunch of us went over there one Halloween. You know, a truth or dare kind of thing. I went inside. I was the only one with enough guts to do that.” He straightened and his chest puffed out like a peacock.

  From the corner of her eye, Emma noticed Mike shaking his head and looking down at the wooden floor with a smile. Obviously, he’d seen his older brother trying to impress other girls with that story before.

  Grace stepped closer, leaning into him “Really? Did you see anything odd or spooky? What was it like?”

  Barry’s eyebrows rose high. “Scary as hell! You know the history, don’t you? A whole family was murdered there and then years later some kid got killed there too!”

  “What?” Julia stepped over to Barry and Grace. “What place is this? Can we go see it?”

  Emma’s shoulders slumped and she sighed. But it was bound to happen, that the younger girls would find out the history of the Hanson house. She turned to her sister, “You’ve already seen it. It’s that old house across the fields from Grandpa’s.”

  Julia’s mouth fell open and her eyes lit up. “Oh yeah. The one Grace mentioned to grandpa. Are we going to—”

  “No. We’re not. Grandpa has forbidden us to go over there. It’s falling down and dangerous. He doesn’t want us to get hurt.” Even as she said it, she knew there was no way that any of the others would heed the warning. Julia was already sold on the idea, always looking for an adventure and even shy Lily looked like she was about to explode with the thrill of it. As for Grace...well, she’d been just waiting for the first opportunity.

  “Yeah, that night was the scariest time I’ve ever had.” Barry’s head fell to the side, signalling with a nod for the gang of them to go to the side of the platform where a picnic table with a bright yellow umbrella providing some shade, was perched. He led the way taking a seat and smiling when Grace sat facing him.

  “What happened?” It was now Grace’s turn to take the bait, leaning forward and staring intently at Barry.

  Emma barely dared to breathe sitting next to Grace and waiting for Barry to continue. He seemed to be enjoying all the attention everyone was giving him, pausing and looking at each of them before beginning the tale.

  The only one who stood casually to the side was his brother, Mike. He grinned and his hand rose high, fingers fluttering, “It was a dark and stormy night and—”

  “Piss off, Mike! You weren’t even there, I was. I’ll tell it if you don’t mind.” Barry turned back and his eyes bored into Grace’s. “It was actually twilight. It was something a gang of us had talked about doing at midnight but when the day came, we changed it to early evening.” He chuckled. “We were brave but not that brave.”

  “So what happened?” Emma blurted. He was trying her patience with all the build-up. Plus, there were no such things as ghosts and haunted houses...right?

  He glanced over at her and the smile fell from his face. “We rode our bikes over there after supper. The place is all boarded up and locked now, but at the time it was still open. Anyway, when we got to the gate, the wind made the front door clatter against the side of the house, and with the curtain in the front window flapping through the broken glass like a ghost...well, we kind of lost our nerve.”

  “Thought you said you went in.” Julia snickered and took a long sip of her drink.

  His eyes were narrow when he turned to her. “I did go in! Will you just wait to hear the story?”

  Emma felt her neck muscles get tight at the sharpness of his voice and his harsh scowl at her sister. He didn’t know them well enough to take that tone with any of them. She glanced up at Mike who bobbed his eyebrows and then looked down at his feet. At least he had the decency to look a little embarrassed by his brother’s rude tone.

  Grace turned and shot a dirty look at Julia before turning back to Barry. “Go on.”

  “Well, none of us really wanted to go in...but no one wanted to be the first to turn around and leave either. We just stood watching the house for a while and then Jimmy Hofsteader made the dare.” He glanced up at his brother and shook his head. “You know Jimmy...his dad being the rich jerk he is and Jimmy being the big shot as usual...” He turned back to Grace. “He said he’d give twenty dollars to the first guy to go inside the house.”

  “So you took him up on it?” It was the first time Lily had spoken and Emma spun to face her. Immediately, Lily’s cheeks began to flush and she looked down at the soft drink she was cupping with her hands. She looked like she wanted to slip through the seat and disappear.

  Barry shook his head and smiled, “It wasn’t just the money. The other guys were older and I wanted to show them.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, prolonging the suspense. “I was all alone walking across that yard. I felt like I was about to enter the gates of hell, shaking like a leaf and hoping like crazy it wouldn’t show. But it was getting dark and if I was going in there, I sure didn’t want it to be at night.”

  Emma’s eyes were wide and she leaned in, just like the others. A shiver ran down her spine despite the heat of the day. Of course it had to be pretty creepy to do that, walk into an old abandoned house when it was getting dark. You’d never catch her doing something that stupid.

  “What did you see when you went in there?” Grace’s eyes were the size of golf balls watching him.

  He hunched lower ov
er his soft drink and his voice dropped. “The step creaked when I put my foot on it. I just about chickened out right then and there. But I knew the guys were watching my every move, so I kept goin’. A gust of wind blew the door again and it banged so hard against the clapboard, it was like a gunshot. I thought about the dead people... the people that died in there. I swear my knees were shaking so bad, I could barely walk through the door, but I did!”

  His gaze flickered around the table resting momentarily on each girl. “There was a set of stairs to the left of a long hallway—the stairs where that other boy was killed.

  “He was killed on the stairs?”

  Barry nodded. “Yeah, they found him at the bottom of them with a busted neck.”

  All four girls gasped at once.

  Barry straightened in his seat. “I stepped over to the staircase and even though it was dim in there, I saw stains on the bottom two. It had to have been his blood. As I stood looking around, there was a big bang like a door slamming upstairs. Then the sound of footsteps above me!”

  “No way,” said Emma.

  Barry’s face got dark. “Yeah, WAY!” he spat out.

  “Hey, man...” Mike said quietly.

  “It’s the truth and you know it!” Barry said to his brother.

  Julia broke the uncomfortable silence. “Holy cow! What’d you do?” Julia was no longer sneering. She leaned forward and her fingers were white knuckled clasping the soft drink.

  He turned to look at her and his mouth fell open for a moment. “What’d you think I did? I got the hell out of there as fast as I could!” He turned back to Grace. “That place is haunted. The footsteps and banging doors...it scared the hell out of me. I was the only one there so what else could it have been but their spirits still roaming the place. “

  Grace’s hands flew to her cheeks and she was almost trembling she was so excited. “That’s amazing! I’d love to go in there and take a look, see if anything like that happens.” She turned to Emma, “Imagine! Hearing footsteps and all that. It’d be too cool for words!”