The House Next Door Read Online Free PDF Page A

for such a steal. When she was ready to sign on the dotted line, she stopped by the house for one final visit to snap some pictures to send to her family.
    â€œSlowly, she checked each room. There was nothing suspicious. She made her way to the attic. The small room was once used as a bedroom. It struck her that it must’ve been a little kid’s room because it still contained a tiny neatly made-up bed, a small desk, a single nightstand with a harmonica on it, and some old-timey wooden toys around the floor. She felt a little sad, looking at the room that once belonged to a child, but nothing was out of the ordinary, so she decided that all the rumors about the house being haunted were just that, rumors.
    â€œShe turned to leave when she heard a small knock coming from behind an old chest of drawers on the far side of the attic. It was a pattern of knocks, like a code. Tap, tap-tap, tap. Tap, tap-tap, tap.” Paul knocked his knuckles against a nearby table, mimicking his words. Tap, tap-tap, tap. “Over and over, like someone was there, trying to get her attention. She slowly made her way over to the dresser. It was dark, too dark to see anything. So she flicked on her flashlight, and a beam of light lit up the area. She was shocked by what she saw. . . .”
    Paul stood silent in the middle of the room. Several pairs of eyes glared back at him.
    â€œWhat?” Amanda asked. “What did she see?”
    â€œNothing,” Paul replied.
    â€œYou’re so annoying, Paul,” Alyssa told him.
    â€œAll I said was that she didn’t see anything in the attic,” Paul said defiantly. “But a few days later, on her way to the bank to finish signing the papers for the house, she swung by the drugstore to pick up the pictures she had developed. This was in the olden days before digital cameras were invented. She reviewed the photos of the house while she was still in the store. In each photo, the figure of a girl, a ghost, stood in the background.
    â€œWhen she reached the end of the pack, she screamed and dropped all the pictures, leaving them on the floor of the drugstore when she ran out. The woman never showed up to the bank to sign the final papers and was never heard from again.”
    The room was quiet. Alyssa was stunned and speechless.
    â€œNo way!” Anne shouted, breaking the silence. “That kind of thing happens all the time! Haven’t any of you guys ever seen those ghost hunting shows? They always debunk the ghosts in pictures as being tricks of the light.”
    â€œI wouldn’t believe the story unless I trusted the person who told me about it,” Paul countered. “The woman who developed the photos was my aunt. She thought the same thing about tricky lighting, maybe the person was experimenting or something. But when my aunt saw the woman’s face, she knew that the images terrified the woman. My aunt tore up the photos the woman dropped, and threw them away, never wanting to see them again.”
    â€œI don’t believe it,” was all that Alyssa could mutter.
    â€œNeither do I!” Carrie agreed. She looped her arm through Alyssa’s. “And besides, who cares about that dumb house? Halloween was two months ago, Paul. We’re here tonight to have a rockin’ New Year’s Eve party. What do you guys want to do next? More dancing?”
    Alyssa let out a small sigh of relief. Within a minute, Carrie was practically dragging Steve into the middle of the room, completely ignoring his resistance.
    The Peterson sisters remained in a darkened corner of the room, watching their friends dance. Anne was getting into the music and was just about to join their guests on the dance floor when she heard Amanda whisper, “They’re just rumors.”
    Alyssa and Anne turned to look at their sister. She still had a phantomlike complexion.
    â€œOf course they are,” Anne told her, and skipped off to the dance