creative Prompt #189 - Creative

[comicfan]

You moved into your new place a few weeks ago. You fell in love with this classic old building the moment you seen it. Once you thought you had the whole place the way you wanted it you noticed something was off. Things kept being moved around, furniture rearranged, and even pictures moved to different rooms. At first you were willing to think maybe you were just that forgetful but as you describe your new place to someone who has lived in this town their whole life you get a different story. Your new home is the site of a famous murder and it is suspected to be haunted. Who is your ghost?

[Mark92]

"Don't forget not a word to Stuby," I put my finger to my lips drunkenly, "Shush now, hic!"

Cassie and Joann were giggling as they helped me out of the car.

"Oh god! Don't let him fall on me," Cassie groaned.

"Don't let him fall on me either, the big galloot!" Joann laughed.

"Where's my buddy KC? He's supposed to be my back up," I slurred as they walked me down the path.

The house stood as a dark sillouette against the moon lit sky. One turret that was walled with glass, gave out an eerie glow.

"What the heck was that! Did you see it girls?, I swear I just saw someone in that top window with a candle!" I was fully alert now, the events of the past week made my hairs stand on end. I stopped dead and the girls groaned again as they held me upright.

I pulled myself from their grip and sat on a large ornamental boulder. Placing my hands over my face.

"I know I promised you both a good time, but this place, I wish I'd never bought it," I held out my hands so they could see I was shaking.

The girls stood each side of me, soothing me with gentle words and rubbing my shoulders. I felt myself beginning to stir and I grinned up at them,

"Okay, who's first?" I lifted Cassie up into my arms and staggered to the front door.She giggled and screached and clung around my neck. Joann grabbing my black ankle length coat.

"Don't drop her Marky!"

I kicked open the front door and turned to flick on the light, nothing happened. I carefully placed Cassie down as a large BANG!! resounded upstairs.

I felt around for the shelf that always held matches and a candle and sighed with relief as I found them. I carefully lit it, holding my hand around the flame so it didn't go out.

"There you go!" I laughed looking around to find the girls gone. The sound of the car engine drifting away.

"Pussies!" I called out to the now closed door.

The candle flickered out as a cold breath hit the tips of my fingers. I dropped the candle and froze as icy fingers ran over my hand. Someone was whispering but I couldn't make it out.

I could feel the goose bumps erupting over my body, my ardour now vanished and I licked my dry lips,

"Who's there? Come on show yourself or I sell this house tomorrow!"

I then heard the smallest of giggles, just enough for me to recognise the voice.

"KC!!!! I'll damn well murder you!" I bawled.

"Don't blame KC baby, it was all my idea." The lights went on, and there stood Stuby a grin on his face.

I grabbed him and hugged him tight, and then kissed him deeply.

"Time for bed now is it Marky?" KC giggled.

"Shame the girls left we could have had an orgy," I laughed carrying Stuby upstairs, KC close behind.

[CassieQ]

Unfortunately, that is a pretty accurate assessment of how I would react

[Mark92]

Awwww what a shame, I actually thought I would get a bollocking for not making you stronger.

[joann414]

And, I would already be in the car with the motor running by the time she got there Marky!

[joann414]

" I can't believe we agreed to buy this house from Marky. Being in the country is great, but I still think it is pretty spooky." Jo Ann spoke to Cassie as they unloaded boxes out of her truck.

 

Cassie dropped her boxes to unlock and door and said," Look on the bright side. We got it for half of what it was worth and they had done all of the repairs that were needed. Stuby even hired someone to clean it before we moved in. The only drawback is having those two idiots as neighbors."

 

" Having them as neighbors is bad enough, but that haunted crap still bothers me. After all, Mark admitted a few wierd things happened in the six months that they were here. Let's put the last of the boxes upstairs and light a fire and eat our pizza in front of it. There's a couple of bottles of wine in the fridge that KC sent over by Mark as a housewarming gift."

 

" Sounds good to me girl because I am tired from lugging these damn boxes all day. The unpacking can wait." Cassie replied.

 

A couple of hours later the two girls had finished the pizza and the first bottle of wine. Pushing herself up from the floor, Cassie took the empty pizza box to the kitchen and retrieved the other bottle of wine. Pouring both glasses full, she clinked hers to Jo Ann's and said, " Here's to perfect roommates and new beginnings." She jumped when she heard a loud thump from upstairs. " Those guys better not be in this house trying to scare us. If they are, they are going to have hell to pay.

 

Jo Ann got up to retrieve her pistol from her purse, hoping that it was the guys so that she would not have to use it. Tip-toeing up the stairs, the two half drunk girls stopped when they heard noise coming from one of the bedrooms. Opening the door of the room a frigid wind greeted them because the window and shutters were open. Hurrying across the room to shut them Cassie shrugged and said, " I guess we left it open when we were airing everything out yesterday."

 

Staggering a little as they went back down stairs, the dug out their sleeping bags, grabbed a pillow off the couch, and settled in front of the fire to watch tv and finish the wine. After an hour or so, the sound of glass shattering tore the girl's attention from their Christmas movie. Putting the wine glasses on the hearth, both headed to the kitchen, tiptoeing as carefully as two drunks could tiptoe. Jerking the door open, Cassie and Jo Ann gasped when they saw the tall whispy man standing in their kitchen. " Who are you and what do you want?" Jo Ann demanded.

 

Turning toward them, the man replied. " What happened to the two guys that lived here? I got to live out my wildest fantasies watching them every night and now they are gone. Please, I am in limbo and until I can find happiness and contentment, I will not be able to crossover to the other side. I was the victim of a homophobic hate crime and my soul was finally finding peace when the boys moved in and I got to watch them live happily the kind of life that I had wanted for myself."

 

Jo Ann and Cassie looked at each other, both fighting tears at the spirit's admission having no doubt of the validity of his story. Both reached for his hand, eyes widening when their fingers only passed through his, not feeling anything. Motioning for the spirit to follow them, they led him to the big picture window in the side wall of their kitchen. Drawing the drapes, Cassie and Joann pointed to the newly built cabin a couple of hundred yards away that was brightly lit with multi-colored Christmas lights around the edge of the roof and had a large decorated pine on the front lawn. Following the apparition out onto the front porch of their house, they could hear the loud Christmas music coming from Mark and Stuby's house and even see the two of them through the window as they danced happily to a catchy rendition of " Rockin Around the Christmas Tree." The ghost danced happily toward the house and the two girls dropped their wine glasses onto the porch as he danced right through the logs into the boy's cabin.

 

The next morning Cassie turned in her sleeping bag to see Jo Ann putting wood on the fire. " Was it a dream, or did it really happen?"

 

" It really happened. We gave our ghost to Mark and Stuby. " Merry Christmas to the three of them."

 

" Mimosas?" Cassie asked.

 

 

[Mark92]

wtg Jo

Stuby even started singing when I read it out to him.

Very well done

[CassieQ]

I'm always up for mimosas

[comicfan]

My run on this.

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/story/comicfan/thepromptyousay/21

[Former Member]

Ooh I like this one.

 

How to make it romantic though

[comicfan]

And sex wins out over ghost story. lol

[JamesSavik]

 

The House

 

I waited years for the house to sell. Even then, I had to act through an intermediary. If David's parent's had known that I wanted their old place, they would have burned it down rather than see me get it.

 

They were like that. They hated my guts. They blamed me for everything about David. They blamed me for turning him gay. They blamed me that he got wanderlust and caught HIV and of course they blamed me when he died. Hell, they didn't even allow me to attend the funeral after I had taken care of him through those two horrible years as he died slowly.

 

It had been twenty-five years and it still burned,

 

To be honest I never knew whether they were so galled that their son was gay or that he loved a white trash kid from the wrong side of the tracks.

 

Didn't matter anyway. The high and mighty Whytes would be spending the rest of their days drooling and wearing a diaper in a nursing home.

 

It had been a long, hard struggle but I had won. I had finally won.

 

As I drove up the drive way the memories came flooding back. The pines towered along the front of the property and Lombardy poplars lined the drive. The old two story house with white columns across the front sat outlined by azalea and gardenia bushes with the lake and boat house behind it.

 

The memory of visiting David out here when we were ten was strong . We had trekked through those woods and skinny dipped in the warm August waters of the lake. It was there in those waters by late summer star light that we had our first kiss. Afterwards, we always had to sneak around but with each new discovery we found ourselves closer and closer. Just like his name, he became my beloved.

 

I parked by the garage behind the house and entered the house through the kitchen. My kitchen furnishing sat in four boxes in the corner. The house was empty for the most part. It swallowed the furniture I had in my old two bedroom apartment. Everywhere was the smell of fresh paint and in a few places the workmen were still attending to maintenance and repairs that had accumulated as the house sat empty.

 

The afternoon sun cast long shadows in the big downstairs rooms. I thought long and hard about the furnishings and drapes. Furnishing this great place would be a long term project. My IKEA and Wal-Mart stuff just didn't look right here. I didn't look right in this place but it was mine. After years of toil, struggle and self-denial, I had won despite them telling me that all I would ever be was a bar-tender or a prostitute.

 

I passed by the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of champaign that I had chilling and a glass. Bollinger, 1976. It had cost $400 but it was damn well worth it.

 

I went upstairs to the master bed room. Again my meager belongings were dwarfed by the house. The room was huge. Bigger than the whole apartment that I had lived in for years. I turned on the television and opened the French doors to the balcony overlooking the lake. The smell of pine triggered another memory.

 

David had just turned sixteen. His parents were in Europe or something. We had a bottle of cheap champaign and made love down there in the boat house.

 

I sat down in a recliner and took in the view. I popped the cork on the champaign and took a sip. It was sweet and dry. I drank the bottle as the sun set over the lake and the stars came out.

 

Somewhere along the way I went to sleep.

 

David came to me in a dream. He looked like he did when we were in our teens.

 

He said, "What are you doing here?"

 

"I own it now. It's all mine."

 

"Oh Jimmy, how could you?"

 

"What did I do wrong?"

 

"You didn't move on. Now you are as trapped in this place as I am."

 

I woke with a start.

 

Funny how a place so grand could suddenly feel like a prison. Cold, dusty and lifeless.

 

It was a prison that I chose because I could not change. I could not move on. I had to win and now I dwell with the rest of the ghosts.

Edited December 11, 2012 by jamessavik

[joann414]

Wow, what a great take on the prompt. Thank you!