The Haunted House Children Fear

Larry, an ex-Navy gunner and now a software programmer nearing retirement, can still remember those horrifying young days when he, with his two siblings, had to stay at their grandmother's house in Davie country. Those were the days when his father used to travel quite often and her mother's third shift in the hometown, Forsyth County, would keep her away from home at night. Children apparently had to stay at their grandmother's place, which after their grandfather's death was in a shabby and tattered condition. With no electricity in the town, the lantern beam and the moonlight were the only sources of brightness in those dark nights.

Larry still dreads to think of the incidents that took place at his grandmother's place while he was still quite young. One dark night while his grandmother was fast asleep, and his younger sister and brother were also tucked in the bed, Larry made his way to his room to have a sound sleep under his cozy feather covers. Little did he know that that cozy feel was soon to turn into a nightmare!

While still awake, his little body stature started to shiver and he could smell some sickly odor, something so different than anything he had ever smelled. Just then something touched him and he instantly removed the cover to see that there was no one there. He gathered some courage and decided to run off the room, but that thing pushed so heavily against his chest that he could hardly breathe. All his efforts to squirm and turn were proving fruitless. Just when he thought it was taking his last breath, the pressure seized and he wildly rushed out of the room and narrated what had just happened to his grandmother and siblings.

His grandmother dismissed the story, suggesting that he must have seen a bad horrifying dream; little did she know that just a while back this dream had almost killed Larry. When Larry shared the tragedy with his parents, his father concurred that he would also feel something similar when he too was young; however, thinking of it now he believed that he was imagining everything and so was Larry. Poor Larry, no one was willing to believe his true story.

This incident did not stop here. His sister and brother were also victims of that monstrous torture, yet everyone thought that all the kids were imaging things. The kids had no one but each other to support. From that day onwards, every time they spent night at the granny's place, they would all toggle in Larry's bed and would keep these incidents that happened few more times during the year, among them only.

The Children were relieved of this trauma when the family finally moved away to Indianapolis, and their grandmother also later moved to their house after her place got burnt by an electric fire shortly after getting electricity. Larry remembered her grandmother sharing the story about her house where a woman with her young baby was killed by a group of revolutionists who were her husband's enemies. Larry believed it was the same ghost of that woman haunting any young child that lived in that house to take her child's revenge.

When after several years Larry moved back to North Carolina, he realized that Dave County, where his grandmother lived, had changed drastically. He cannot even remember where that old grandmother's house was, which he even was not interested in finding out. He only hopes that the ghost from the past is not tormenting anyone now with her vengeance.