A Haunting Gentleman - Teaser

“Dude, you gotta check this stuff out.” I sat on the hardwood in front of the bed, where Kristin had sprawled out the contents of the top shelf of Grandma’s closet. “Here, read this.” She handed me a leather journal, and she had already marked the page with the ribbon bound to the spine. I read a page and a half before I looked up. I must have had a look of disbelief painted on my face, as Kristin said “I know, right?”

“My grandmother thought this place had a ghost?” Great. I hadn’t even spent the night in this new house and already it was haunted.

“Yeah. And look at this.” She flipped a few pages, and pointed to a name. “She named him.” This page was a detailed description of a man named Henry that only appeared to my grandmother on the top floor of the house. He was apparently always dressed in an old Union blue uniform. “Creepy shit, huh?” Kristin seemed to enjoy this news more than me.

“You’re smiling like it’s your birthday.” I wasn’t.

Kristin quickly fixed her face. “Sorry, but this is cool. I’ve never been a part of anything like this before. Look, here is another one.” In her hand was a much cheaper black and white journal. It was the kind you might find at a dollar store. Grabbing it from her, I noticed the front cover simply said Henry and was completely written in all the way to the last page. I poured us each a large glass of wine.

This journal was something else completely. The pages were written as a continuation of thoughts revolving around Grandma Maude’s infatuation for Henry. She spoke about conversations she had with him, including her dreams and desires, and she paid him compliments on how well he received her most intimate thoughts. It seemed she truly believed she loved him. It was all very, very weird. We spent another couple hours looking through these journals, and even had our own debate on whether we thought ghosts were real. I’ll be honest, I never believed any of the stories, but now I had a weird feeling. Seeing the documented ghost story come to life through the eyes of someone I knew to be completely sane, I found myself struggling to hold onto my skepticism.

Kristin got a call that seemed to rattle her a bit out of nowhere, and informed me that she couldn’t stay the night with me until the next night, but offered to let me crash with her Aunt again if I needed to. I assured her that I would be fine, though I’m not really sure why. I had to convince myself that even if there was a ghost in the house, it didn’t seem like it meant any harm. What a silly thing to even have to tell myself.

As soon as I closed the front door and locked it, I pulled out my phone to call my Mom, and stopped short when I heard “Finally.” I spun around so fast I lost my balance and had to catch myself against the back of the door. Standing at the balcony of the second floor was what looked like a man. Or at least, the silhouette of a man. The light was on in the hallway behind him, so I couldn’t really make his face out, but he was definitely staring straight at me. I could feel it.

I froze. Obviously. I had no words, and my muscles didn’t seem to work. I just stood there, balanced against the heavy front door, with my hand on the knob. All I had to do was turn the knob and run, but as much as I tried to send those signals to my body, they were rejected by fear. This moment seemed like ten minutes, but must’ve only been seconds, because the man spoke again.

“You must be Maude’s granddaughter. She told me of you.” His voice, strangely enough, wasn’t frightening at all, nor was it ghostly, whatever that means. I expected it to echo or something. I don’t know. “I expect you know of me now, as you’ve read her diaries.” My mouth was dry. I was able to relax enough to pull myself upright. I mustered a word.
“Henry?”

“Yes, dear. And you are Katelyn. Pleasure to meet you.” Was I seriously talking to a ghost right now? Hitting send on my phone was an option, just to see if Henry’s voice could be heard on the other end of the line. For fear of upsetting the spirit, I thought better of it.
“Um, nice to meet you too?” What could I possibly say to him? I had no idea what to do but let him lead the conversation, and try not to make him mad. Or was I being ridiculous? What I read in the journals gave me no indication Henry was at all an evil spirit.

“Is that supposed to be formed as a question, my dear?”

“I… what?” Henry was either being coy about his true purpose of showing himself to me, or he was just a passive ghost with nothing but time on his hands.

“You formed your response as a question, but I don’t believe you intended to. As a result, I won’t feel compelled to answer. All the better, as I don’t know how I would have answered such a question at all.”

“Can I help you?” On with the show. “I don’t mean to be rude, but why are you here?” I had overcome my stage fright at this point. Maybe the wine helped with that.

“I live here, of course,” was the reply from the darkness in the form of a man. It bothered me I still couldn’t see his face. “I suppose you do as well now, so we might ought get to know each other.”

There was something traditional about his speech. It was like something out of an old movie. I started laughing. “You talk funny.”

“My apologies. I haven’t had much of an opportunity to learn the updated lingo of today’s world. I don’t get out much, you see.” The way the man stood so still up there was something I hadn’t picked up on till now.

The conversation carried on for quite a while. Every question I had for him, I got an answer for, yet at the end of it all, I still had no idea what he wanted. Somehow I had missed asking him the important question. I have no idea why, but I felt safe when we ended our chat, and he turned and headed down the hall. I still never saw his face, but I did get to verify the blue uniform he was wearing as he walked away. I stood in the foyer for a few minutes, trying to wrap my mind around what had just happened.

By the time I had realized I was just standing near the front door mumbling to myself like an idiot, I passed the stairs, into the back bedroom of the first floor, where I locked the door and laid in bed for what seemed like hours before at some point falling asleep.