sliceitwithwind | Haunted Housing

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Haunted Housing

In any given town there is always at least one house with a Certain Reputation. In the case of their town the house had two reputations, making it an excellent place for teenagers of all kinds to go hang out.

Yup, the local abandoned house was a haunted brothel. Drab on the outside, but the tales of the inner furnishings promised over-abundant decadence, and it was something of a rite of passage to go there. Break in during the day for hanky-panky, stay overnight for courage.

The brothel had been abandoned a good thirty years before, but nobody could ever figure out, through the tangle of legal red tape, who even had the right to tear it down. So it sat out on the inland edges of town.

Which is of course why Braig decided that since he and Dilan were back from college for the first break, they needed to drag Aya along to the haunted brothel as a bonding activity to make sure she knew that they still were a trio.

Cue camping gear, dusk, and Dilan giggling nervously.

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"Maybe we could take pictures and make a dress like them?" Aya offered, fingering a sleeve. Some of them were pretty, but they were in rough shape. Nothing she wanted to climb into right now.

"Hey, what up there on the top shelf? Boxes?" She stood on tiptoe, trying to see up into the shadows above her.

"Sure, babe. We can come back up tomorrow." Braig agreed casually, "Here, let me get a chair."

"Will the flash hurt the dresses do you think?" She asked, worried as she backed out of the closet door, clearing up room for a chair. "We could make it a Halloween costume! Or maybe just a nice dress for when we have to go to your parents parties and stuff..."

"That's why we'll come back in the morning, plenty of soft daylight." Braig explained. Dilan was just bustling around dusting, so it might as well be the two of them. The chair, wooden, no seat any more, was set so she could balance on it with Braig holding her waist.

"We'll have to get those drapes away from the window then." Aya noted, climbing up and balancing. She trusted Braig to keep her from falling as she rocked back up onto her toes again to reach further. "There's a lot of boxes up here. I can pass them down!"

"Dilan, dude, snap out of it. Take the boxes." Dilan stopped wandering around and got in position to take boxes from Aya as she passed them down.

There were round boxes and square boxes, all with the lids carefully tied down with string. They smelled of must and slightly of some flower, a ghost of perfume that made Aya sneeze. Behind most of the large boxes there was one smaller one, a cigar box. "Okay, that's it I think. You want to hope up Braig, see if you can see anything I missed?"

"Nah, if we don't find it all then there'll be mysteries left if we come back with others." Braig pointed out, as he helped her down. "Lets open them."

Dilan stood back again. Duuuuust.

"Good point." Aya agreed cheerfully. "Thinks it's old games and stuff like your parents have in the top of their closet?" She asked, tugging on one of the knotted bits of string.

"More likely hats and cards." Braig said, "I mean, this place is OLD."

"Good point." She admitted as the string gave away and she pulled a lid off. "Hat! A...really tall hat." It filled almost the entire box it was in!

"They made them like that." Dilan said from his position wiping the mirror clean gently.

"But who would want all that on her head?" she reached into the box and very carefully lifted the surprisingly heavy hat out. Gilt edged feathers sprouted from an age dulled brooch that held a nest of wrapped fabric together on the hat itself. "Look, isn't this crazy?"

"It was fashionable at the time, dear."

Blink.

Bliiiiiiink.

"You guys said it was just us." She was going to kill them. And whoever was whispering through the walls.

"I swear on my life, Aya, we're the only living things in this building." Dilan

"It never gets old, does it?"

"You take too much pleasure out of this, Veronique." Braig said, tapping his foot.

"Suuuurrrrrre." Because she was the gullible little sister right? Wrong. She carefully set the hat back in the box before she looked up to glare at the boys. Then she saw the ghost of course. Or rather, saw through the ghost.

A woman in a dress that might have been a rich, pettable velvet once but was now the faintest hint of dusty color. Most of her body was defined by the curves of the drapes she'd stepped through, shadows hinting at a figure that would make most women weep with jealousy. Dust drifted slowly through her, never reaching the floor, but held in her body like gentle static. The greatest amount of color the woman held was in her face and hair; those eyes were still a brilliant sapphire, those lips painted perfect red, and those dusted cheeks held the flush of good health amidst the soft waves of dark black hair.

Aya muttered something that sounded much like "Eh?"

"Aya, Veronique. Veronique, Aya Brea."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Brea. Your family is new, I take it?" her voice was like the colour of her dress; faded but soft. She smiled at Aya, and it was the kind of smile that you get from old friends who have just pulled one over on you.

Rather exactly like the ones that the boys were wearing. "She's cool, Aya! She's been here a long time!"

Aya swatted Braig's (he was closer) shoulder, hard. "You could have warned me!" Jerks. Both of them. Her skin was slowly trying to climb off her bones and they were smiling.

Manners, manners..."Uh...hi? Yes, my dad and I came here when I was six?"

"Nope, we couldn't."
"It's the way things are done Ayay!" Dilan informed her, moving closer and giving her a hug.

"Just one of those small-town coming of age things, deary."

Hello Dilan, Aya was going to cling, yes, after delivering his swat too. Her goosebumps had goosebumps and it wasn't exactly pleasant. She'd be okay, probably, as long as the ghost lady stayed over there!

"That's dumb." She pointed out. "What if I'd been holding a candle and dropped it?! warnings are a good idea!"

"This place has been burned a lot. We've got water with us." Dilan said while patting Aya's shoulder, "Anyway. Want to keep poking around, or go tell stories now that Veronique joined us?"

"I want to see the rest of the hats?" They'd gone through all the trouble of getting them down, it seemed like a shame to not open the boxes, ghost lady or no ghost lady.

"Umm...we...we're going to make a dress? Like these? Do you have a good one to recommend?" Aya asked, trying not to be rude to the new arrival.

"Okay!" Dilan was fine with that, although, "Ayay? Can I breathe now?"

Braig just laughs and laughs.

"None of the ones in this room, deary. The last room on the left, this floor, has some that are more fancy, less suited for a brothel."

Aya loosened her grip on Dilan a little, and kicked Braig's ankle for good measure. Yes, he could keep laughing, but it'd cost him!

"But...these are pretty?" Aya noted, then the last word sunk in. "We're in a brothel?!" The city haunted house was a whore house?! Bzuh...

"....the dresses are still pretty. I don't think I want to have a big hat like these though for the dress we make."

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