Haunted 25

Haunted

Every Old Home Has A Story To Tell

It'd been a long drive. He'd left New York City eighteen hours ago and was exhausted. When he pulled up to his new home, it looked worse than it had in the pictures. Yes, it was old and rundown. Seeing it under the hot Georgia sun, the house looked like it was ready to fall apart. The inspection said it had good bones. It was called the Wythe House and was built around 1836. They'd advertised it as a fixer. The overgrown lawn, broken windows, and rotting porch all pointed to a much bigger project than he'd expected.

According to the family, Caleb Wythe built a smaller home on the site before the antebellum home was constructed. He'd started a general store in Lafayette in 1830, but that was the first of his business ventures. And Caleb also served as the mayor. His fortune grew over the years, and he was one of the county's wealthiest citizens. Caleb was one of three local businessmen who built the factory in northwest Georgia.

If you stood back and squinted, you could see what had once been a grand home. 150 years ago, it had been a showplace, somewhere a person of position in the community would be proud to call their home. Today, it looked sad and neglected.

The realtor insisted that the reports of the hauntings were phony and that there was nothing to fear from the house other than the extreme amount of work it needed.

The backstory was that during the Civil War, there was a lot of military action in the area. As the battles drew closer, the Wythe family abandoned their home. According to old family letters, Lilith Wythe, Caleb's daughter, insisted on staying because her friend Jacalin was ill. The rest of the family was left with very few belongings. When they returned, they found bloodstains, hoofmarks on the floors, and no sign of Lilith or Jacalin.

The house had been practically a steal because the reports of its tragic history and being haunted were enough to keep most buyers away. But Allen Kincaid wasn't just any buyer. Allen grew up with a healthy appreciation for things others couldn't explain. His belief came from his grandmother's gift of sight. She could predict the future and had even foreseen her own demise. It had been a family secret because people didn't like things that weren't easily understood.

Allen started up the steps of his new home and unlocked the door. The once-grand house had been trashed. It looked like high school kids must have broken in and had a party. The stale smell of beer and holes and graffiti was on the walls. He had a monumental task in front of him to make the place livable again. But Allen never shied away from hard work; he got that from his dad.

There was a majestic staircase that didn't look safe, and that worried Allen. He pushed his fears back and ascended the stairs to the bedrooms above. There were four to choose from: a large master with a sitting area and three almost identical smaller ones. He picked the one next to the bathroom; it was in the best shape. The room was the only one where the window hadn't been broken, and the floor was in good condition.

Allen set his suitcases down and opened the window, letting in the fresh air. The house came with some antique furniture. This room had a beautiful hand-carved bed frame that looked to fit the mattress he'd brought in the moving trailer. His goal for today was to set up somewhere to sleep and to start work on unpacking the kitchen.

Allen manhandled the mattress and box springs to the second floor and was relieved when they fit the frame. He turned to leave the room, and the window behind him slammed shut, causing him to jump. Allen chuckled to himself. He would have to add fixing the window to his growing to-do list. He found a board to hold it open before getting back to work.

By the end of the day, Allen had unpacked his kitchen. He'd also made his bed and unloaded the rest of the boxes from his rented trailer. The power and water companies had stopped by and turned on the utilities. He'd had to let the water run in the sinks and tubs for the pipes to clear. He was grateful to be able to take a shower before going to bed.

Something woke Allen from a sound sleep. He felt the hair on the back of his neck go up like someone was in the room with him. He jerked up and flipped on the light. Allen found a young woman in a poofy old-style dress that could have come straight off the

Gone With The Wind

set, looking down at him. She was all of five foot nothing with long, silky, dark brown hair. The kicker was she had the telltale pallor of a ghost.

"What are you doing?" Allen asked.

Her hand flew to her mouth in shock.

"You can see me?"

Allen loved her sexy Southern accent.

"Obviously."

The young woman's eyes got bigger.

"You can see and hear me. No one has ever been able to do that before. How are you doing that?" she asked.

"I don't really know. My grandmother always had a gift, and maybe some of that passed on to me," he guessed.

"I'm Lilith," she said formally, offering him her hand.

Allen chuckled. It was like she expected him to kiss her ring or something.

"I'm Allen. It's a little late, and I've been up for nearly two days straight and need my sleep. Otherwise, I would love to get to know you better. Perhaps we can talk another time."

"I'd be delighted."

Allen turned out the light and settled back down, but Lilith was still standing beside his bed.

"What?" Allen asked.

"You're in my room."

"You have the whole rest of the house to haunt."

She just stared at him. Then he got it. Lilith was lonely. Who wouldn't be after all these years?

"I'm too tired for this, so I plan to go to sleep. If you want to join me, feel free," Allen said.

She gave him a smile, crawled onto his bed, and laid down next to him with her hand on his chest. Allen closed his eyes and fell asleep.

---

When Allen woke, he thought Lilith might have been a dream, probably caused by the realtor's story. That and being up too long. He found Lilith waiting for him when he came downstairs to make his coffee. He got busy making his coffee without knowing what you say to the ghost.

"A gentleman would have the common decency to say good morning," Lilith said.

Oh, boy! This was how she planned to play it.

"First, I'm not a gentleman. Second, I was up for nearly two days straight. I'm tired, and I have a ton of stuff that must be done to make this place livable. Finally, I'm unsure of the proper protocol for talking to a ghost."

That didn't go over well. Lilith gave him a withering look.

"I will tell you that I'll not be ignored. I'm not sure how long it has been, but there's been no one I could talk to in what seems like an eternity."

Allen sighed. She had a point. He checked the progress of his coffee before answering her.

"I'm sorry, I'm just out of sorts. I hadn't really expected to find I had a roommate when I bought this house. Let me make myself something to eat, get a cup of coffee in me, and then we can talk," he suggested.

She smiled. When she did that, she was beautiful.

"Deal," she said and let him get his day started.

When he was done eating and had his caffeine fix, he sat back and looked at Lilith. He finally felt almost human again.

"We need to figure a few things out. I recognize that you lived here before I did, and you probably resent me moving in," Allen said.

"No. I want my house fixed, and I can be of help. All I ask is that you talk to me," Lilith said.

Allen wondered if his mother might be able to help him rid the house of Lilith if she became too much of a pest. He'd planned to live alone and wanted his privacy. He would wait and see how this worked out.

---

It turned out that Lilith was eager to please Allen. She'd learned to leave him alone until he had his first cup of coffee. Lilith was handy at looking inside walls and telling him if something was amiss. The only little off-putting thing was that she slept on his bed at night.

Through their daily talks, they began to learn more about each other. Allen shared that he was an author and had sold his first book. He'd used his second book's advance from his publisher to buy the house. He wanted somewhere quiet and laid back where he could work on that next book.

Lafayette, Georgia, had been randomly picked, and he'd done some research. He wanted to live somewhere completely different from where he'd grown up in Malibu, California, and where he attended school in New York City. Lafayette was a small town; he'd picked it because his father had told him about growing up somewhere similar.

Another reason he left was that the love of his life decided her job was more important than their relationship. Shae consistently worked sixty-hour weeks, if not more. When she first took the position, she'd promised that she would have to work long hours to get ahead but that it would slow down. After five years, it never happened, so he'd finally had enough.

The other problem with their relationship was she thought he was a 'total slacker and leach.' Shae had called him that when he told her, he was thinking about their relationship and where it was going. He'd always had family money from his father and mother and gained access to his trust when he turned twenty-five. With the success of his book, he now had his own money.

Allen had found that working on the house was therapeutic. It kept him busy and his mind off what he'd left behind. So far, the move had been everything Allen hoped it would be, except for his new roommate. Now that it had been several weeks, he was okay with how that had turned out.

Lilith didn't remember much about before she died. She had childhood memories but said she didn't know what caused her to die. All Lilith knew was that she'd been young. If what the realtor said was true, Allen estimated she'd been in her late teens or early twenties. He also thought it was probably for the best that Lilith didn't remember what happened.

"Why haven't you passed over?" Allen asked.

He was currently under the sink, installing a garbage disposal.

"I don't really know. I feel like I have unfinished business of some kind. Every time I think I should leave, I get this sense that it would be a mistake for some reason."

"I hate to break it to you, but wouldn't that reason have been revealed over the last hundred years?"

"Perhaps. I don't know. I guess that makes sense," Lilith said.

Allen scooted out so he could see Lilith.

"I'm not saying this to be mean. But I would bet that no one who found themselves in your position would want to admit they were still here for no reason. My point is that everyone eventually passes over, and it's just how things are done," Allan said.

"You're sure about that?" Lilith asked.

Allan barked out a laugh.

"No. It just makes sense, is all."

"And me still here as a ghost, doesn't?" Lilith asked.

"We're just talking here. I'm not trying to tell you what to do," Allen said.

Allen crawled back under the sink. He prepared to hook up power to the disposal when he felt the surge of electricity enter his body, and he couldn't let go. Allen hadn't replaced the circuit breakers yet, and, in that instant, he knew he might have just signed his own death warrant. The old-style breaker hadn't tripped, and the current continued to flow through his body.

His eyes rolled back into his head, and then everything turned black.

"Allen!" Lilith yelled as he came to.

Someone tugged on his hand to help him out from under the sink. He sat up and felt Lilith touching his hand. That couldn't be right, could it? It felt strange. Her hand felt sort of tingly. Allen imagined it was an aftereffect of the shock he'd received.

Allen took a closer look at Lilith, and she seemed more vibrant and alive. She wasn't as shimmery as she'd always been before. Then he looked down at his arm, and it was the same.

"What's going on?" Allen asked.

"I don't know."

It came to Allen that he might be dead or close to it. He tried to pull away, but she gripped his hand tightly.

"Please don't, not yet," she begged.

"But I can't stay like this."

"Just a little longer. I can... I can actually touch you," she said as she broke down.

She was suddenly in Allen's lap, and her arms were wrapped around his neck. The sudden contact woke his traitorous cock. He'd had no female contact in over a month.

Before he could decide what to do, the world spun and tilted. Allen felt like he was falling, and right before landing, he looked up under the sink. Allen was back in his body.

His body ached like someone had taken a bat to him. He hurt all over.

"I don't feel so good," he admitted.

He pushed himself out from under the sink and found Lilith hovering over him.

"Did that really happen?" he asked.

"I think you almost died. You should go see a doctor," Lilith worried.

"And hire an electrician. I can't believe I was so stupid. The last thing I want is my spirit to be stuck here and haunt this house forever," Allen blurted.

As soon as he said it, he knew he'd stepped in it. Lilith got a shocked look, turned around, and left.

"Lilith!"

---

What's the saying? You don't realize what you have until you lose it? A week had passed with no sight of Lilith, and Allen realized that his ghost had become a bigger part of his life than he wanted to admit.

After he'd graduated from college, all his close friends had scattered to the four corners of the earth. Allen and Shae had moved to the trendy neighborhood of Tribeca in lower Manhattan. The name was an abbreviation for the 'Triangle Below Canal Street.' Shae had made friends at work. He'd started his first novel and had made some acquaintances but no real friends. That is, if you counted the server at his favorite breakfast place or the guy that cut his hair as acquaintances.

Over the last several weeks, he'd made his first real friend since college. The only catch was she was not of this world, and Allen worried it might be equivalent to having an imaginary friend. The more days that passed by without Lilith reappearing, the more he feared he'd made it all up.

Progress on the house was going well. He'd hired professionals to handle the plumbing and electricity. Allen didn't want a repeat of his near electrocution. He'd also had someone come in and replace all the windows. He was currently painting the inside of the house. Before she left, Lilith had shared with him the original paint colors. She'd been pleased when he wanted to restore the home to its original glory.

He'd just finished the living room when his phone rang. His eyebrows scrunched together because he saw it was his mother. When he'd moved, he'd gotten a new cell phone because Shae had lit up the old one trying to get ahold of him. The only person he'd given his new number to was his adoptive brother, Dave, in case of an emergency. Allen doubted this was an emergency. He contemplated not answering, but he figured he might as well get this out of the way.

"Didn't think your old mother could track you down, did you?"

"Tell Dave he's dead to me," Allen said.

"Leave him alone. I had a feeling you'd given him your new number, so I made him give it to me," Mom said.

"I'm surprised no one else has tried to track me down," Allen admitted.

"Shae has been calling nonstop. Dave told us you need a fresh start, so we left you to your own devices."

"Until now."

"You didn't think I would let this go on forever, did you?" Mom asked.

"I suppose not," he said.

His mom just wanted to check up on him, as mothers did. He assured her he wasn't running around in with his underwear on his head or anything else too crazy. When she was sure he was okay, she was about to ring off.

"Before you go, I have a delicate matter to ask you about," Allen said.

"I hate to speculate."

"Remember grandma's gift?"

"Oh, boy. Don't tell me you have it too. Did you know your father went to a psychic when you were probably a year or so old? He was told that you had undiscovered talents," Mom said.

"I didn't think Dad believed in that stuff."

"Your dad admitted that what the psychic told him was mostly right. You know your dad, though. He might surprise you with what he really thinks," Mom said.

She was right. Allen's dad wasn't the type to dismiss something out of hand.

"When I moved in, I met a ghost. A young lady who I think died during the Civil War."

"Okay," Mom said neutrally.

"Did grandma ever talk about ghosts?" Allen asked.

"You need to get rid of her?"

"Actually, just the opposite. I said something stupid, and she disappeared. I was hoping you might know how to get her to come back," Allen said.

"Three possibilities come to mind. First, ghosts are supposed to go over to find peace, and she may have done that. The second is your grandmother said that ghosts find it unsettling to be seen after so long being unseen. She might just be trying to avoid you. The final one is that she is a woman. Have you tried to apologize?" Mom asked.

Allen rubbed his face in frustration. This was just like back in high school. Then he remembered that even though Lilith was almost 150 years old, she thought of herself as a teenager. When his sister was that age, she could hold a grudge for months. He should have known that was what he needed to do.

He thanked his mom and hung up after promising to call the rest of his family. Dave would get an earful, but he couldn't really blame him for caving to his mom.

"Lilith! Lilith, I need to apologize to you," Allen tried.

He waited, but there was no answer. He cleaned up and made himself dinner.

---

Allen had finally gotten the cable hooked up. Of course, there wasn't anything on during the summer, so he ended up watching baseball. When it was time for bed, he climbed the stairs to his room, and Allen found Lilith sitting on the edge of the bed, looking dejected.

"I was afraid you'd gone over."

"No. I decided to give you your space. You don't need me to bother you," Lilith said dramatically.

She sounded so much like his sister. That brought back many memories of him and his three brothers tormenting her. The only thing missing was the dramatic sigh. Truth be told, she'd been the toughest one of the lot of them. She knew how to use her girly charms to put them all in their place. Allen and his brothers all secretly loved her, and she knew it. He could see that Lilith was trying to manipulate him like his sister used to.

"I'm sorry for what I said. I was upset and scared, and what I said was hurtful. I'm sorry," Allen said.

"I accept your apology."

"In the future, if I say something stupid, please tell me. I think of you as a friend, and friends don't let stuff like that keep them apart."

"You think of me as your friend?" Lilith asked.

"Absolutely. You're the only person I've gotten to know since I've been here."

"That's just because you haven't ventured out much. You've been working on the house. You'll find real friends soon enough," Lilith said.

"Stop pouting. If I make what you call 'real' friends, I can still be your friend," he assured her.

That made her happy. With that out of the way, Allen needed to get his sleep. When he lay down, he smiled as she joined him in bed.

---

As time passed, Allen finished all the major repairs that had been neglected over the years. He and Lilith had been constant companions, and he was surprised to discover that he'd fallen for her. Just his luck to feel that way about someone who wasn't even real.

Lilith had picked up on his feelings and decided to do something about it.

"Remember when you were able to touch me?" she asked.

"Yeah, I almost died."

"I was taught how to use herbs when I was a girl. What if you could take some, and we could be together?"