©2023 by DonnerBBQ. All rights reserved. All characters are 18 years of age or older. This story is entirely fictional and intended for the entertainment of adults only. It could be classified as erotic horror rather than E & V, but I decided that E & V was a better fit. Feedback welcome and appreciated.
** Ryan **
Ryan Stone met his fiancee, Kacey, in college. They were both nerds, and admitted it freely. Ryan looked like a nerd, thin, no-build, glasses. No pocket-protector, but who uses those these days anyway? In contrast to him, Kacey did not look anything like a nerd. Not even the hot librarian type. No, she was more the athletic beauty who just happened to have a brain geared for numbers and logic. She was stunning, with medium length brunette hair and a tight body that had been honed through years of running and rock climbing.
Kacey had told Ryan about the many times that guys had approached her and started talking with her. When they found out that she was studying math they often...laughed. Maybe they thought she was joking, but she found it pretty insulting and an obvious turn-off. Maybe that's why Ryan and Kacey hit it off. Maybe Ryan should be thanking those assholes.
They met as juniors in college, moved in together for their senior year and got engaged near the end of that. There was no wedding planned yet. There was no rush. It would happen when it felt right, or when the tax benefits compelled them. They were just enjoying life together while pursuing their graduate degrees, with Ryan's in electrical engineering and Kacey's in math.
Socially, graduate school was a change from undergrad. As an undergrad, you interacted with people from all sorts of disciplines as engineers still had to take some humanities courses, and humanities majors still had to take math. In the later years there was less cross-disciplinary interaction as courses became more specialized, but at that point, people already had their circles of friends.
Grad school, that was different, as you were suddenly thrown into a cohort of people with similar educational backgrounds and interests, and you all took the same classes. Of course, Kacey and Ryan were in different programs, but that was okay. Often times, she would go out and have a few drinks with her friends at the end of the day while Ryan would do the same. Sometimes Ryan would join her with her friends or she'd join Ryan with his. But more often, they kept to their own groups to not interfere with that bonding and camaraderie. Besides, Ryan sometimes found it to be uncomfortable hanging out with her friends as they playfully flirted with her, even with Ryan right there. He trusted her completely and they kept their flirting respectful and good-natured, but it was clear that if she wasn't in a relationship that there would have been a lot of interest in starting one.
The first time Ryan heard about the Derry House was after Kacey had been out at one of these happy hours with her friends. She came home and told him that she knew a way that she could make some extra money. As graduate students, they weren't rich. They both received stipends to serve as teaching assistants, but those seemed designed to provide just enough money to live on, and no more. So they were always on the lookout for opportunities to make some extra dough. Shoveling snow, tutoring, meal delivery, you name it.
"So, a couple of years ago, Ben inherited this house up in Derry. It was his grandmother's house, and according to local lore, haunted. Apparently the previous owners died in a murder-suicide, so everyone decided that it was haunted," Kacey explained.
Ryan couldn't not laugh. "Haunted? So his grandmother just lived happily with tormented ghosts from a murder-suicide. Okay."
"I know, it sounds dumb, but apparently it is even on some lists of the Top 10 haunted places in the US. Anyway, Ben thought about selling, but decided to hold on to it for a while, at least until the market improved. And then he got some idea that he could make some money off it. He didn't want to deal with renting it out, so he decided that he would have people stay there overnight and live-stream them. Turns out, people were into watching that sort of thing, hoping to see a ghost, or if nothing else, see someone be scared, creeping around a house."
"Okay, so you said something about money?"
"Yeah, so now he pays people to stay there for a weekend. I would just have to go there, stay overnight a couple of nights, and allow him to live-stream the experience. And for that, I'll get $500, plus a bonus depending on viewership."
Ryan was dubious. "And so while you're there, they'll make scary noises to try to spook you and make you look like an ass?"
"No, Ben promised that it was all legit. He never fakes anything."
"Or maybe he just wants to live-stream you showering?"
Kacey smiled, knowing that Ryan was looking for ulterior motives. "No, I talked to him about that. I told him I wasn't looking to be any kind of cam girl. But he told me that there was a half-bath downstairs with no cameras, so I could use that one for changing. He did say that almost everywhere else in the house there were cameras, but it was only two nights so I could just forego bathing. That's what everyone else has done."
"So you just have to stay there for two nights, get some studying in, and make $500 bucks. No catch?"
"I don't think so. Oh, I do have to do a pre-stay interview, to help entice people to watch, and a post-stay interview. But yeah, it sounds like easy money."
Kacey agreed to do it. Over the coming days Ryan learned a bit more about Ben's event. It turned out that Kacey would be the seventh participant. Of the six prior participants, four were women and two were men. Not surprisingly, the women were always watched more than the men. It also became clear that Ben was trying to tilt things in that direction, as the last three participants were all attractive women. The most streamed, and the most watched recap episodes were ones with Tina, an adorable blond who walked around at night in a loose nightshirt, sans bra, and panties. She never flashed her tits or anything, but she was sexy as she crept around the house and peeped out little screams when noises surprised her.
As for the ghost, or ghosts, Ryan never saw anything that looked suspicious. The house tended to creak as old houses do, so participants did often look scared but Ryan considered that to be a normal reaction to being in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar sounds, especially when the place is allegedly haunted.
The rules were simple enough. Kacey had to stay at the house alone from Friday evening until Sunday morning. She couldn't bring any electronic devices, including a cell phone. She could bring all of the reading material and homework that she desired, but nothing electronic. Ben hired security to monitor the perimeter in case any of the viewers got a bright idea to go to the house to visit the participant. And of course, Kacey would have to sign a bunch of legal documents to indicate that she acknowledged risks, would hold harmless, and release all rights to the LLC that Ben set up.
There were four primary cameras in the main living areas of the house. Even guests could watch these cameras for free. Then there were twenty other cameras placed around the house for a more submersive experience, and accessible only to a paying audience. As Ben indicated, the cameras covered the entirety of the house, save for the half-bath on the first floor.
Kacey did her homework as well. She watched the interviews and the prior recap videos that Ben put together for each participant. She also researched the house. There were a lot of rumors, people saying they saw shadows in windows or heard the sound of a body being dragged across a wooden floor. But nobody had been hurt in the house since the murder-suicide back in 1985, and Ben's grandparents lived there a long time, apparently without incident. Besides, ghosts? Really?
