I sit in my class, tapping my pencil on my desk and chatting with my buddy Jesse, as we wait for our teacher, Ms Henderson, to organize her lesson for today. Social Studies isn’t my best class, but it could be fun sometimes. She does come up with some awesome project ideas.

“So, what are you doing this weekend?” Jess asks, even though it’s only Tuesday. Some days the weekend just can’t come fast enough, and last week I spent the whole weekend cleaning my room, or my mom would’ve killed me! It’s not my fault I get busy with school and… stuff…

“I was thinking about heading to the skate park. It’s been awhile,” I sigh. It really has been awhile. I’ve been playing on my computer for so long I forgot what it's like on my board. I could totally use the exercise… At least that’s what my dad says. He’s been on my case saying I’ve been spending too much time in front of a screen… Well, I guess he may be right… This time.

“Cool! I wanna come! I just need to get outta going to visit my grandparents this weekend,” Jess smirks. Yeah, my buddy is always game for some fun. Sometimes we play one on one basketball, or head to the batting cages. And once in a blue moon, we hit the gym and work on weight training. But, seriously, it has been ages since we’ve been to the skate park.

A minute later, Ms. Henderson calls us to attention. She always takes a little while to get her stuff organized. Not saying she is unorganized, just sometimes she seems a little scattered. That’s why everyone starts chatting the moment we enter class.

“Okay class, seeing as next weekend is halloween, I have a new project for you,” our teacher cheers. She looks super excited about this one. She is practically bouncing on her toes!

I perk up at this. This might be good. What kinda project would we be doing this time?

Once we had to do a service project for the community. Me and my friends made sack lunches of the homeless and handed them out. It was actually pretty fun! Another time we were in charge of setting up decorations for the school dance. The dance was lame, but the set up was pretty awesome! Our theme was “dancing through the decades.” We got to dress up way old school!

“I want you to pick a partner and come up with something spooky. You could go investigate the graveyard, some of the old mines that collapsed, you could even look up the history of our town and write a report on the original founders if you like. Just come up with something fun and be prepared to share it Thursday!” Ms. Henderson gave her spiel with a wide grin.

Actually, that does sound fun! There are so many things running through my head at the moment, trying to come up with the best idea… And then I have it! The perfect Halloween project!

“Hey, Jess. Wanna do ours on our local haunted house?” I said with a smirk. The Peterson house has been rumored to be haunted, but nobody actually knows for sure. It would be cool to find out one way or the other… Either way, it would make a fun Halloween project.

I could tell instantly he was up for it! The sparkle in his eye tells me we could make this epic! A giant smile appears across his face as he nods his head enthusiastically.

“Dude! Yeah! That would be perfect, man. We could get the news articles about what happened to the house, and we can even go explore the burned down house! We can even see if it's really haunted,” Jess teases.

This is why we work so well together. We are normally on the same wavelength and can read each other’s thoughts… Maybe we are telepathic? If we are hunting ghosts, it could happen!

Neither of us believes in ghosts, but hey! What’s Halloween without a haunted house? I mean, yeah, we could do any of those other things Ms Hendo suggested, but how often do you get a grade for looking into an old creepy house?

“Wanna meet after school. You can come over to my house and we can look up those articles. Then we can take my car to the edge of town and go investigate the remains of the house. I’ll bring my camera just in case we see a ghost!” I wink with a chuckle.

“Maybe we can go to the back yard where they are buried? There are three crosses, right?” Jess asks, kinda looking confused. No one I know actually understands the whole story. Maybe they had a dog? I guess that is another thing we will be looking into…

“Yeah, sure. And you are right, there are three crosses… I’m just not sure why,” I admit. I guess we really do need to study those news articles to find out what actually happened to that house. All I know is someone died in it and then it burned to the ground… Well, sort of. It is still (barely) standing. There has been talk of taking it down as it has been deemed structurally unsound, but no one has gotten around to doing anything about it. And… Well, there are three crosses, so there must have been three bodies?

The rest of school went by in a blur. I had my mind focused on our upcoming project. There is just something about the house and the crosses that seemed to be bothering me. I can’t explain it, but something pricked my heart, and I just couldn’t focus no matter how hard I tried! I know anytime I pass a cemetery I feel sad, but this… This is deeper than sad. It’s like… Betrayal? I don’t get it.


After school, Jesse and I walk into my house discussing our project. We are still hyped up about the project. I really am wondering about the whole truth to the so-called ‘haunted house.’ Maybe we can share what we find out with our friends! They love a good ghost story!

I go grab some chips and sodas and bring them over to the table, placing them between me and Jess.

“Danny, this is gonna be so cool!” Jess smiles, munching on some chips. “I love Halloween!”

I love it too, I think absentmindedly grabbing myself a handful of chips and stuffing my face. (I always get hungry right after school.) There is just something about this time of year where getting the crap scared outta you is totally fun! Ghosts or not, I really enjoy it.

I pull out my laptop and open up a search bar for ‘Eliza Peterson’ and ‘haunted house,” because she was the one who is supposed to be the one haunting the house in the first place… There can’t be too many Eliza Petersons haunting houses, can there?

I crack open my root beer as I wait...