Bryan, Kyle, and Maria set up their sleeping bags on the second floor of the old Carmichael mansion. On the outskirts of town, the dilapidated structure had stood surrounded by a chain link fence for as long as any of them had been alive. Everyone, it seemed, had a story about why the old place remained sequestered behind the fence, rotting through year after year of wind and weather without so much as a caretaker attending to the place.

The old man Carmichael had killed his wife there and hid her body on the property somewhere.

No, it was his wife that killed him and buried his body on the property.

No, no, neither – there was an intruder, see…

But there were strange lights in the place at night – lit windows when the place had been without power for years. And noises when walking past the fence at night – creaking wood that couldn’t really be explained by the house settling.

Bryan knew it wasn’t some other kids exploring the place because, first, the fence was the only thing seemingly well kept-up about the place. Second, though, if someone had been investigating the Carmichael place, news would get out in their small town.

Kyle had the idea for the them to spend the night. They were all into ghosts and had all been intrigued about the place since they were kids and heard older brothers and sisters tell about the lights and noises.

Bryan had found a corner of the fence he could pry up while the others shimmied under, onto the property. In the end, Miguel backed out, Keisha said she had a bad feeling about it, and Isabella said she wasn’t going if Melissa wasn’t.

Maria was amazed at the layer of dust everywhere as they entered through the front door once they pried off the boards. Thick and undisturbed, they kicked up little dust clouds as they worked their way upstairs. 

They found a room that looked like it had once been a library, but all the books were gone and one of the heavy bookshelves had fallen over. Because of the copious floor space, they decided this was the place they were going to spend the night. They crawled into their sleeping bags, turned off their lights and lay quietly in the darkness.

At first they thought their night would pass uneventfully as all three fell into deep sleep. But then the footsteps started.

“Did you hear that?” Maria whispered.

“How could you miss it?” Bryan whispered back.

“I was worried I was just hearing things,” Kyle confirmed.

All three listened as footsteps sounded on the first floor. They walked the length of the great room, and then back. Then they started up the grand curving staircase and walked down the hallway past the library where they were camped and kept moving to the end of the hall. Then the footsteps came back and paused in the doorway of the library.

Maria could hear Kyle’s rapid breathing and wondered if she, too, were breathing crazy like that – she was petrified.

Then the steps retreated back down the stairs and resumed walking through every room downstairs. As the steps kept treading, Bryan whispered, “Did you look when the steps were at the door?”

“No!” Maria replied quietly.

“I did,” Kyle admitted. “The doorway was empty.”

“That’s what I saw, too,” Bryan confirmed.

And then the steps were coming back up the stairs again, and again they came to the library where they were huddled in their sleeping bags. Pause. Then back down the hallway…

This went on for what seemed like hours. None of the three thought to look at their watches to see how much time had actually passed while they listened to whatever it was perambulate around the mansion. At some point they managed to fall asleep again and only awoke when the sun shone in through the spider web-covered windows.

“Oh my god, I’m so glad that’s over!” Maria said.

“I know!” Kyle agreed. “Let’s get out of here,” he said as he started stowing his sleeping bag.

“Hey, do you guys know where my shoes are?” Bryan asked.

Maria looked around and said, “I don’t see mine either.”

“What the hell? My shoes are gone, too,” Kyle said.

They finished putting away their bags and padded back down the stairs in sock feet. At the foot of the stairs, all three pairs of shoes were carefully set neatly side by side each other in a precise line. In the dust just in front of the shoes something had been traced in the dust: “Thank you for keeping me company,” the message read.

The three looked at each other for a moment, then grabbed their shoes and ran for the door.

It’s becoming a tradition now. At least once every October I get a little overwhelmed and have to call a ghostly audible for the night. I’m pretty happy that this month has been pretty consistent despite being a super busy schedule. So I don’t feel too guilty pulling out the spooky haikus tonight. I hope you find them spine-tingling!

1.
Moonlight paints shadows
Whispers heard in the cold wind
Ghosts roam the night’s hall.

2.
Eyes unseen yet felt
Chilling presence in the dark
Eternal unrest

3.
Ancient house stands still
Echoes of forgotten laughs
Phantoms in the walls

4.
Stairs creak with no weight
A spectral hand beckons forth
To the world beyond

Michael thought he was ready for his 30^th high school reunion. He’d missed his tenth because he had just started a new job out of town. He missed his 20^th because he was going through a bad divorce and just didn’t want to have to explain it to every one of his former classmates who would inevitably ask, “So, how’s your wife?”

But as his 30^th approached he felt all the stars were lining up – long-time job is going well, new marriage is going great… Perfect time to revisit his youth. Coming in from out of town, he booked an Airbnb in the neighborhood he grew up in and went to the restaurant where the reunion was held… and left early.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t that. Turns out, the people who went to the reunions were all the people he never hung out with. And even then, they were in their same isolated groups. None of his people from high school showed and he ended up having a few whiskey sours at the restaurant’s bar by himself and then took an Uber back to his Airbnb.

When he got out of the Uber, he started up the walkway to the little cottage surrounded by innumerable McMansions and stopped. His elementary school was just around the block. He wasn’t sure if it was the disappointing reunion, returning home, or the whiskey sours, but he decided to walk over to his elementary school.

When he arrived at the dark campus he was greeted with another disappointment – the place had been completely remodeled and from the front only the sign announcing “Hollyhock Elementary” was the same as when he’d gone there so many years ago. But he ventured into the dark hallways out to the playground. Of course, the enormous wooden jungle gym he remembered had been replaced by a brightly colored plastic play structure that didn’t look like a kid could so much as scrape a knee on it.

But next to the ultra-safe playground, somehow the old swing set still sat on the edge of the yard, long chains rustling invitingly in the light breeze.

Michael smiled as he stepped into the sand that ringed the swings and sat on the thin black rubber arc of a seat. His feet firmly on the ground, he rocked back and forth and thought back to when he and his friend, Dave, would see who was brave enough to jump off the swing at the highest point and soar farthest to land in the sand. Much older and more responsible, Michael snickered at how fearless kids could be. Then he drew in a deep breath because he hadn’t thought about Dave for a long time. His playground friend never made it beyond fifth grade, cut down by an errant driver that ran a stop sign as Dave was riding his BMX home from school, this school.

From behind him, in the dark of the trees that bordered the school grounds, Michael heard children’s laughter echo his own.

He froze at the sound.

He waited stock still, listening for the laughter again, his body tensed between frozen terror and reckless flight. He stayed perfectly still listening to just the night wind in the pepper trees so long that he wondered if he had hallucinated the sound.

Slowly he started to relax – it had to have been the alcohol and the memories of this place. That’s all. Or some animal making a noise that sounded like children’s laughter. He was being ridiculous.

He even pushed off the ground and let the swing arc him back and forth lazily in the darkness. As he swung he stared at the gleaming new buildings that replaced the 1950’s structure he remembered. He let his mind’s eye remember back to what this looked like when he was a kid swinging at recess. He swung higher now – maybe not as recklessly high as he did when he was young and invulnerable, but still high enough to get a little thrill again. And then as the arc hit its zenith, he pushed off of the swing, and felt gravity pull him down to the sand.

It hurt more than he remembered, but he didn’t think he bruised anything. As he knelt on his knees in the sand, he had to admit it was still fun.

“Welcome home, Michael,” Dave’s voice spoke right next to his ear.