Author's Preface: Everyone in this story is eighteen years old or older. The story is entirely fictional. Any similarities to real people or events are purely coincidental. Constructive comments are always welcome.
This is my first entry in the
Literotica Halloween Story Contest 2024
.
Enjoy
The Kelly House - A modern Gothic romance
Theta Alpa Beta sorority's Halloween parties were infamous around campus. Sororities weren't officially allowed to throw parties, but no one bothered to try to stop Theta Alpa Beta. It was happening anyway, and they earned more money for charity than any other sorority. Even at their Halloween parties, there was a hefty cover charge, half of which went to charity.
The party was held at a different venue each year. This year it was at a deserted mansion, the Kelly house, 45 miles outside Austin.
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Samuel and Martha Kelly came to Texas at the end of the 19
th
century. They built the house in 1900 on a large plot of land near what is now Dripping Springs, Texas. The house was a mansion even by Texas standards. A year after they moved into the house their daughter Rebecca was born. At that time there were no other houses within miles of the house. Going to the nearest town, if you could call it a town, would take most of a day each way. There was no school for little Rebecca as she grew up. The education she received was from her parents. They had been well educated in the north and Rebecca was brought up with the schooling befitting a young girl in Boston at the time.
New people were moving into Texas constantly and Samuel thought buildings would be built closer to them as more people moved there. He was right but it took longer than expected.
Samuel and his daughter Rebecca, died under tragic circumstances in the house. Samuel was found stabbed to death in the kitchen. No one was surprised by that. Over the last few years, he became mentally unstable and cut himself off from the world. He and his daughter lived alone in that big house in the middle of nowhere.
Once a month, his brother, who lived a half-a-day ride from him, would stop by. On his last visit, he found Samuel's body in a pool of blood. The sheriff came and found a blood trail that led to a staircase below a locked room. The maid was found dead at the entrance to a room at the top of the stairs. It appeared that she had been wounded by Samuel and bled to death. They found a key in her pocket and opened the door only to find his daughter dead from dehydration and starvation. They removed her body and buried her along with her father and mother in the family plot behind the house.
After the deaths, the house was shuttered by his brother who wanted to keep knowledge of the deaths as private as possible. All the doors and windows were boarded up and chained closed, inside, and out.
Samuel Kelly created a trust to ensure the house and land remained in the family. The trust was well-funded to pay for the house's upkeep and taxes. The trust maintained the house, so it didn't fall apart in central Texas. It sat empty and silent until the town began to grow around it. Over the years, the courts allowed some of the land surrounding the house to be sold and now most had been sold off. There were houses within fifty yards of the Kelly house.
The tragic event in the house got out of course and generations of kids who grew up in the area believed the house was haunted and would dare each other to run up and knock on the door. It was a rite of passage. The nearby neighbors were certain the Kelly house was haunted. On every Halloween night, the neighbors heard a woman wailing and crying out, "Help me," from the tower on top of the house. They warned their children to stay away from the old Kelly place. The police were called out many times and they searched the house from top to bottom and never found anything. They didn't bother to go out there anymore figuring it was just some kids playing Halloween jokes.
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The Theta Alpa Beta girls thought a deserted haunted mansion was an ideal location for their Halloween party. No one had lived there for over 100 years. It had been maintained during that time but in the last 20 years, maintenance had become lax, and it had fallen into some disrepair.
It was illegal to enter the house, but they'd had parties at illegal places before. That was part of the thrill. They had planned escape routes if the police came. The girls put a tremendous amount of time and effort into making each year's party better than the last. Theta Alpa Beta Halloween parties were by invitation only. They outdid themselves each year. The girls had a reputation for wearing the sexiest costumes and were proud of it.
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Danny was a regular at Theta Alpa Beta parties. Whenever they needed help, Danny stepped up. He knew all the girls and had dated many of them.
On campus that week, Danny met a woman with long raven-black hair named Ashley. He was captivated by her beauty and something more. It felt like he already knew her. So much so, that he asked her to the Theta Alpa Beta Halloween party. It was rare for him to bring an outsider to the Halloween party. They could be a bit much for the uninitiated.
Danny arrived early because Ashley told him she'd meet him there, but he'd been waiting for quite a while, and she hadn't shown up. If she'd heard about these parties, that was understandable. Plenty of girls from the sorority would be happy to entertain him.
But right now, he wanted to look around. He'd heard a lot about this house. It had beautiful examples of 19
th
-century architectural features, and as an architecture student, he wanted to look at some of the nooks and crannies of the place. It had once been a grand mansion that the family kept adding to. It was tough leaving the party because he enjoyed looking at the costumes the girls came up with, but he wasn't planning to be gone long.
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Danny downed a drink, smoked a joint, and went off exploring. On the second floor, he found a lot of rooms locked with the original locks and later with big padlocks. A couple of years ago on the internet, Danny found lockpicking instructions and got quite good at it. It was a skill that he thought might come in handy from time to time.
This was one of those times. He opened all of the doors but found only conventional architectural features, dust, and cobwebs inside. As he was about to give up, he saw a faint light coming under a thick curved door. The door looked like it led to some sort of brick tower. He opened the lock and found a steep winding staircase. At the top of the stairs, he found another locked door. Behind the door, he heard a woman crying.
Danny knocked and a woman's voice said, "Hello? Please help me."
"Unlock the door," Danny said.
"I can't. I'm trapped."
Danny worked to open the door, but the lock was very old and had an unusual design. It was difficult to pick, but after fifteen minutes, the lock clicked open.
The door swung out, and he saw a stunning young raven-haired woman sitting on the edge of a bed. She looked around twenty years old and was dressed in an elegant ball gown from around the end of the 19
th
century. The top of her dress was made like a corset that barely contained her breasts and the skirt was long and full, with many petticoats under it. It was elegant and too well-tailored to have come from any costume shop. She looked so elegant that she took Danny's breath away.
The room was spotlessly clean with an exquisite but dated look to it. It was round with the same curve as the door. Against one wall was a heavy beautifully carved four-poster bed. The only light in the room came from candles. A nightstand was beside the bed with, curiously, a chamber pot under it. He'd never seen one of those except in old movies. There were two sets of curtains on the wall. One was slightly parted, and Danny saw iron bars behind it. Under the window was a small writing desk and chair with paper and pen.
Danny had dressed as a dapper gentleman from the 1920s and unless someone knew a lot about clothing, they would look like they had planned their costumes together.
"Hello, I'm Danny Johnson. Wow, that's quite a costume you're wearing."
