Writer's Block: Available: 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with hot and cold running chills

[athelind]

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Would you live in the perfect house or apartment rent-free if you found out a brutal murder had taken place there and it was rumored to be haunted? Why or why not?

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the house, really—and not just the quality of the physical structure.

You see, I've done "haunted" before—at least twice.

One place was still one of the best places I've ever lived, even with the plainly-visible phantom who regularly walked through the front door and down the hall in the evenings.

No, seriously. My wife and I would both see the Walk-In at the same time; the living room sofa that faced the TV also had a clear view of the entrance hall. We were seeing the same thing, too; she caught clearer glimpses of him than I did, but we both saw Plaid Shirt.

I don't think the Plaid Man had any connection to the body that was found just down the road about six months after we moved in. That was a fairly recent occurrence, and the Plaid Man felt like he'd been Walking Through for a very long time. that whole area had something of a haunted air: former military family housing turned student housing, smack in the middle of a creepy oak forest full of gnarled, twisted trees. I don't know if any of our neighbors had similar experiences ... and it doesn't really matter: I'd move back into that apartment, or any of the near-identical ones in that neighborhood, in a snap.


On the other claw, I've also lived in a place that definitely wanted us Out Of There. I don't know what the previous tenants were up to before they got evicted, but it took four or five coats of paint to cover up the cryptic symbols and arcane writing on the walls of one room, and even after that, the house did everything short but whisper "GET OUT".

In fact, as we were packing up the moving truck, I made one last sweep through the house to make sure we didn't forget anything ... and on the way out the door, I said, "... and good [bleep]ing riddance."

And it definitely responded in kind. The low-level Bad Vibes that always plagued the place immediately cranked up to eleven. I moved very quickly out the door, jumped in the truck, and said, "Go. Now."

Really, I've watched enough movies to know better than that.

... damnation, now I get to to to sleep with this stuff fresh in my mind.

And so do you.

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Comments

[silussa.livejournal.com]

I know someone that would consider that there that would consider that someone had been murdered there a positive point.

Of course, she bought her current place because of two deaths there, although they were both of the more conventional type.

Goths. :)

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

I guess she thought if you moved into a weird enough place, eventually you might find Beetlejuice. ^.^

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Don't say his name thrice!

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

Hastur Hastur Has... Oh, you mean the other guy. Or was that Candlejack, because that one is pur

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Do I hear a theremin, Min?

My Sister and Niece both claim to sense whether a house is a happy house, and to see apparitions.

I can't. Don't know whether this is a good thing, sometimes I think not, But if I don't empathise with living beings, how can I with non-living?

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

With 'haunted' stuff and my beliefs...it's a weird mix. I believe that a soul will be tied to its former life and, more than likely, the former living place the soul considered 'its own'. And, of course, depending on the soul, it's going to vary how it manifests. Like the Plaid Man, perhaps it's just some soul that wants to remain where it is, without really acting aggressively, and sometimes it brushes against our reality and becomes visible. With other, more aggressive spirits...yeah, if someone forcibly dragged them there or they're possessive, watch out. Ye gods, come to think of it...if I really felt attached to the place that I lived in, and I am that type of person...I very well could end up one of those spirits myself. Seems a bit dragon-ish of me. :)