The attic door creaked open and I was greeted by an old musty smell, which made me almost drop the box I was holding. The last thing I wanted to do was carry boxes upstairs to the attic of my spooky new house. My family, aka, my mom, dad and me, had just moved to this creepy old house. I hated it. Even though my mom knew that, she wanted me to have some quality time with the house by bringing some of the storage boxes to the attic. Great.
I slowly made my way up the twisting staircase, the stair moaned when I put weight on it. Finally, I made it to the top and glanced around. The room I had stepped in was strangely clean, despite the musty smell which invaded my nostrils. The wallpaper looked freshly pressed on, it's sky- blue color flocked with rows and rows of white birds, perfectly clean and beautiful. The floors were perfectly shiny, like they were recently polished, even though no one had lived in this house for 5 years. I set down the box and glanced around, noticing that goose bumps had crawled up my bare arms. Suddenly, a cold blast of wind made me shiver. I turned around and saw that the window was wide opened. I was startled to see that the window facing the front lawn was wide open. Beside the window, sat a chair and a small table with a lit candle. The cold air chilled my skin. I walked slowly and cautiously toward the window and closed it. After blowing out the candle so the house wouldn't burn down, I walked down the stairs to retrieve the next box at the door. When I returned, the window was once again wide open and the candle lit. I didn't know what to think. It wasn't like I was in the same room as a ghost, right? I set down the box, ran down the stairs and refused to go upstair for the rest of the day.



***


Article from Newspaper

Today, police investigated a murdur of a family on maple ave. The family had moved to the neighborhood a few weeks ago. A neighbor went to welcome the family to their new house, and when she didn't recieve an answer, she found the door opened and peered inside to see the mother and father dead on the floor. she immediantly call the cops, who searched the house and found the family's only daughter dead. She was found sitting in a chair in the attic next to a burning candle. The bodies showed no sign of attack, injury, or blood. No fingerprints were found at the scene. The police had no comment on the accident.


A Different Newspaper Article

Four Years Later

Today, the house on Maple Avenue was burned down after 6 more mysterious murdurs. The locals definatly think there's something evil in the house. Even some of the locals have given the house a nickname: The Dead House. "The fire", says neighbors, "is a gift from God."



***

The house was rebuilt a few years later and a new family moved in, only to die the very same week. The locals freaked out, and the chief of police (who, mind you, wasn't a very clever person) decided to venture upstairs. The next day, he went missing. The police found his body a few days later on the floor of the attic, the window wide open, and a candle burning. The house remained vaccant for 4 years before a new family moved in. The ghost of the young girl who died years ago stared out the open window at the new family. 'Perfect' she thought. she turned to her accomplices, about two dozen other ghosts who had perished in the house. 'We have guests.'



***

The new family's daughter was super excited to be moving into the new house. She opened the door to her new bedroom. At once, she noticed the note on her bed. Picking it up, delicatly between 2 fingers, she read the note, which was written in long skinny letters in ink. A chill ran down her spine as she read,


Welcome to Dead House.
Enjoy your stay, while you can!