Jocelyn leaned back into the old dusty upholstery, ignoring the tiny pitter-patter of what was surely a family of mice that lived under the sofa. She took a sip from her drink, staring absently into the moonless night, visibly shaken...
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She'd arrived with her husband and son around 9 pm. They had rented an old farmhouse on a secluded road, with about four acres between them and the nearest neighbours. It was late October; the evenings were quiet and the sky was already layered with shades of grey when they arrived. The darkened bricks of the house were covered with crawling ivy. Withered leaves fell like confetti from the crackling branches of the overarching trees that lined the walkway, and there was an eerie chill in the air as they approached the large wooden door. Immediately, the hairs on the back of her neck rose.
When they booked Midsommar Manor there had been a lot of excitement about the size of the three-story building - it was quite a step up from their cramped flat. But when they arrived in the middle of the night, all those glowing features just seemed like the perfect ingredients for a haunted house: a cold, dark basement, four-poster beds, creaky stairs, a study decorated with heads of stuffed animals. Despite this, everything had seemed fine until Jocelyn decided to explore her new digs while Jason put Tucker to sleep. As she descended the stairs to the large foyer in front of the front door she felt something move around her. It was hard to explain and impossible to comprehend, but Jocelyn froze and the hairs on her arms stood at attention. She got the unnerving feeling that she wasn't alone. Something had disturbed the eerie stillness that had greeted her when she first arrived. And that was a very, very scary thing indeed.
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Goosebumps peppered her skin as a cool breeze wafted over her leg. Jocelyn swallowed nervously, her eyes darting around. She tried to shake off the thought and pretended to relax into the sofa, feigning comfort to a presence that she knew didn't exist. She noticed something change, the air rippled as if there was something else occupying the space around her. She felt it move over her and she immediately knew that it was the same chilling phantom she felt out in the foyer.