The old house sat upon a hill, overlooking Paradise Falls, an equally old and melancholy town in Maine. In the past, the old victorian manor would have stopped people dead in their tracks, gasping at the beautiful architecture and its vast property. However, with age and neglect, the house only attracted the vermin that ran rampant in its walls. The roof became slanted over the years and its once white shutters, hung low blanketed by black and green spores, making the place seem scarier over time. A sign that read “Foreclosed”, rested in the muddy driveway, with only a tattered rope and a broken stick to hold it in place. In the wake of its decay, the ancient edifice was reborn and introduced to its new owners, ones who were unaware of the power it possessed.
Vicky Fuller opened the rusted car door and exited the vehicle. Desperately she wanted a home that her children could be proud of and one that she could retire and spend the rest of her life in. She smiled at that thought, knowing that the world would end if she kicked the bucket. Too much depended on her. She exhaled heavily and without missing a beat, closed the car door and walked, as graciously as she could, up to the mangled front steps of Ravenwood Manor. She was displeased with the condition of the home, but she reminded herself just how broke she was. Equipped with one of her famous fake smiles, Vicky Fuller turned toward the car and used her hand to motion that the coast was clear.
Jeremy was the first of the Fuller children to exit the vehicle and the only one who seemed genuinely excited. He was only eleven, but seemed to be more mature than his two older siblings, who at this point, snarled at the house, as if they were trying to scare the place off of its foundation. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the other Fuller children. They would have to go out and make new friends in a big school. Jeremy, on the other hand, remained to be homeschooled like he always had been, but this time, his mother was the teacher. How odd, he figured. Mom couldn’t even teach Beast, the dog they used to own, how to sit. How was she going to teach him anything? It didn’t matter anyway. He understood why it was best for him to stay home, with him being deaf and all, but it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t hear, at least he didn’t think so. At that moment, Jeremy looked up at his mother, who was standing in the doorway, with her blond hair fixed in a sloppy bun behind her head. He noticed how sad and old this move had made her look and he guessed that there was more to it than a new start and an old house.
What the Deaf Boy Could Not Hear

“I don’t understand mom, why do we have to live here?”, Amy Fuller asked in a harsh tone. Vicky shot an unpleasant look at her daughter.
“I’m sorry Amy, did you want a mansion in California? Or how about a castle in Italy?”
“She’s kind of right ma, this place sucks”, Freddie added, not helping the situation in the slightest.
“It may not seems like the most ideal place for you two, but we need to make it work. Besides you guys should use this to reinvent yourselves and it’s just high school anyway. It’s not like I took you out of your comfort zones and moved you to a foreign land.” That made Vicky smile, hoping that a little sarcasm would help the situation.
After trying to order out, Vicky noticed that the telephone line was dead and that she had to go into town to pick up dinner. At least it would give her the opportunity to explore their new environment a little and so she called the children down, requesting for one of them to retrieve Jeremy along the way. Naturally none of them wanted to go into town with her and maybe that was a good thing, she wondered. She could definitely use some time alone. Vicky finally left the house, only after several reassurances by her children that the place would not be burned down and that all would be fine when she came back. She felt that in her absence, all hell would break loose, but they needed to eat regardless of what she thought.
The children dispersed into their own areas of the large house. Freddie stomped down to the basement, Amy ran up the two flights of stairs to her room, and Jeremy chose to explore the interior of the building. He hoped that in his excursion, no cabinet would be left untouched. He started his journey in the kitchen, which housed the basic items that all boring kitchens had. Unimpressed, he moved on from one room to the next, unable to find anything interesting. Nobody died here? No old ladies that left their fortunes under the floorboards or in a closet? Jeremy frowned and scanned the front entrance of the house, desperate for entertainment. The boy retired on the bottom of the staircase, with his head nestled in the palm of one hand. Just then, Jeremy Fuller felt a dark force push past him on the steps, headed directly for the kitchen. At first he assumed it was Amy, but after pondering on the thought for a second or two, he could swear that he was able to see right through the figure, as if it was made of smoke. With a brand new interest, the young boy lifted himself from the stair and followed it into the kitchen, hot on its heels.





What the Deaf Boy Could Not Hear

“In this we are one. In this we are all.” A dark figure of smoke appeared at the the top of the stairs. It was intrigued by the sack of skin and bones and flesh perched on the lower steps of the winding aisle descending to the first floor. In hopes to gain the boy’s attention, the Being raised its voice and repeated the chant of the house, with a little more depth in its moan. “In this we are one. In this we are all.” It grew angry and charged down the steps, almost knocking the child down in the process.
Immediately entering the kitchen after the apparition, Jeremy noticed how much darker the room was. The air smelled old, even for the house; and salty too. It was like the house was located in the middle of the sea, instead of on a hill, quite a distance from any body of water. Naturally, the Being had vanished from the boy’s sight and he grew impatient. How could something like that happen he wondered. Just then, as if to ease his troubled mind, the cabinet under the sink flew open and a pale little girl, around his age crawled out. Jeremy Fuller came face to face with a girl whose big black eyes, achromic face and drenched, dirty blond hair reminded him that of a doll. She smiled at him and waved with a gentle hand. Jeremy was astounded at how calm he was in the presence of a ghost. It was a ghost wasn’t it? The girl looked past the boy and contorted her face into an abnormal frown, with one side of her mouth sagging farther down than the other, backing away from where he stood. Both unnerved and curious, Jeremy turned slowly in order to see what the girl was afraid of. The Being stood directly in front of the child and swung its murky arm, sending the boy into the air, whose flight was abruptly stopped by a decaying wall.
A large thud was heard downstairs and Amy Fuller was tired of Jeremy’s ridiculous curiosity. He always seemed to break something and how could she even yell at him? Annoyed and wishing that she learned sign language specifically for disciplinary purposes, Amy sighed and exited the room. By the time that she reached the landing on the stairs, she realized that something wasn’t quite right. For one thing, she didn’t hear anything, in a household that was always loud and secondly, something smelt salty. Before she could continue descending the steps, Amy Fuller was pushed by a malevolent force and sent tumbling down the staircase. The teenager landed on the floor, face first and was instantly knocked unconscious.
“What the hell is going on up there?”, Freddie asked aloud. The oldest of the Fuller children was working on one of his paintings in the basement, when he heard a lot of banging coming from the upper level of the house. He knew that if anything was wrong, Amy would handle it before he had to get involved. She knew how to deal with Jeremy and although he was jealous of the boy favoring his sister, Freddie figured it was best to stay out of whatever his brother had gotten himself into. He raised his paintbrush once more and continued his New York City skyline. He missed the city and the oddities it held in its grasp, unafraid to show the world that crazy was also creative and innovative. What did they do in this place for fun? Freddie’s thoughts were put on hold when he noticed the paint on his canvas began to turn black. Even the dried paint bubbled up and popped, like it was boiling. Freddie Fuller lifted his finger and touched one of the festering blisters of paint and just then, as if waiting for its prey, an atramentous hand reached out of the canvas and pulled the Fuller boy through the picture and into a world that was no longer his.

Upon entering the house, Vicky felt her stomach unsettle and she knew that something was wrong. She called out for the two older children and scanned the front entrance for her Jeremy. After putting down the food and other bags on the nearby table, Vicky Fuller rushed to the stairs to call out once more in hopes that her kids were preoccupied or ignoring her in fear she needed some help with the groceries. Before she could even raise her voice, Vicky slipped and fell in a thick liquid on the floor. Flushed with anger, she cursed aloud and lifted herself from the ground and came to the realization that she was standing in a small puddle of crimson fluid. A wall of utter shock hit the frantic woman. She screamed at the top of her lungs, desperate for one of her children to answer her cries for help. From the corner of her eye, Ms. Fuller caught a glimpse of a small figure hiding in the corner of the downstairs hallway. It moved slowly and on all fours in her direction, seeming timid to show itself. As it moved closer to her, Vicky noticed how the figure was shaking, terrified. With a sigh of relief, Vicky realized that the silhouette belonged to her youngest son, who reached for her face, as it to see if it was really her and not an imposter.

Jeremy was elated to see his mother, especially after all that happened to him. Of all the things he could have signed to his mother, informing her of the events from that day, he decided on only three words. Ghost. Dead. Run. He waited for her nod of approval and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her toward the front door. When they both ran down the weak steps of the building, Jeremy pointed to one of the bushes by the side of the house, where a blue shoe was sticking out. His mother gasped at the sight of her daughter, who had dried blood on her head and was passed out in the shrubs. The two helped lift Amy Fuller into the car and started the engine.

Freddie, Vicky Fuller signed to her young son. He bowed his head, unable to look his mother in the face. After a few seconds, the boy raised his head and shrugged his shoulders. She knew that Jeremy went back into the house to find his brother, even after pulling his sister outside for safety. She still didn’t understand what was going on. Ghosts? Dead? Was this a prank gone wrong, or did her son actually believe he saw something that no longer belonged to this earth? She turned toward the house in preparation to go back in for her oldest child. In the doorway of Ravenwood Manor, Vicky Fuller saw a little girl, who looked as if she stood out in the rain for a while. The child moved from the entrance, unblocking the threshold and presented a rather large and distorted smile, almost like she was inviting Ms. Fuller in. The matriarch of the Fuller family jumped in her car and drove off, desperate to find help for her oldest son, who was still in the home with that childlike presence.
The sky grew dark and Vicky became frightened of it all. The town, which seemed so nice a while ago when she picked up dinner, the house, which held her son captive, and the fact that there was probably no one in Paradise Falls who could help, let alone believe her. She stepped on the brakes and stopped the car directly in front of the large mechanical doors of Eden Hospital. Vicky got out of the vehicle and carried her daughter into the emergency room.
Jeremy sat in the room his sister was given after being admitted. He was afraid, but willing to do whatever he had to and save his siblings. This stupid town and its haunted houses. How many were there? Did all the buildings of Paradise Falls house some savage monster or ghost? The door to the room opened and his mother greeted the doctor.






What the Deaf Boy Could Not Hear
“Is she going to be alright doctor?”, Vicky asked nervously.
“It doesn’t look great right now, Ms. Fuller, but miracles do happen.”
“What seems to be the problem? Will she be able to walk or breathe without tubes?”
“We can tell right now, but our biggest concern for the moment is make sure she does not have severe brain damage or internal bleeding. You should go home, we’ll call if anything changes”
Vicky Fuller was exhausted and still couldn’t fathom what happened. It was her fault. Her bad luck. They couldn’t last one full day in a new house, without all hell breaking loose. She hurried down the hospital hallway, desperate to get out and go anywhere that supplied safety. She could hear laughter from one of the patients rooms and she suddenly felt at ease, calm. She peeked into the doorway and saw a small, dark man sitting in one of the visitor chairs. He was talking to an old lady in some type of language Vicky was unfamiliar with and the old woman laughed, as if he was telling jokes in an ancient language. The man raised his head and made eye contact with Vicky, whose face began to turn red with embarrassment for being caught eavesdropping.
“It’s the language that my people used to speak”, the main said, as if Vicky asked him aloud.
“I’m sorry to intrude. It’s just you seem to have made her so happy. I was curious I suppose.”
“Yes, well I merely told her a prayer to keep away evil forces and called upon good ones to accompany her during the surgery tomorrow”
“Evil forces? Like ghosts? Do you really believe it will work?”
“It’s all mind power. If you believe it works then it shall. She seems to be in a better mood.”
“Oh”, was all Ms. Fuller could muster
“I’m Dr. Bruja by the way”, the man raised himself from the chair and shook Vicky’s hand.
“Vicky. Vicky Fuller. Very nice to me you Dr. Bruja”
“Thank you. You seemed troubled if you don’t mind, may I ask what the problem is Vicky Fuller?”
“I don’t suppose you would believe me Dr. Bruja, but I am faced with several dilemmas, all of which were created by my house and the things that reside on the inside.”
“I see. What did you happen to see? A shadow or a footstep was heard from upstairs?”
Vicky could sense the sarcasm in the man’s voice and sighed.
“It’s a little girl spirit, with an odd mouth and my son is still in there. I know he is”
Dr. Bruja’s eyes grew wide and he became unnerved.
“We must go to you house now Ms Fuller. No time can be wasted”
At that, both the doctor and Vicky, along with Jeremy, rushed out of the hospital and into their cars, with Dr. Bruja following the Fullers
He knew this house and the power it held. He knew of the secrets it kept hidden well within its walls. He was here before and Dr. Bruja was no fan of this house. He scanned the front entrance. Its door was shut, despite Ms. Fuller swearing it was open when she left. He dealt with many houses and entities, but never did he deal with such insidious things as the ones housed in the edifice of Ravenwood Manor. He could wait no longer and before he went inside, he felt it was best to tell Vicky Fuller about the house. About how no one ever lasted more than a week. About how it was one entity who controlled the others. About how one person was always sacrificed to the house and never returned, or if they did, it was only remnants of what was left of that person. A broken spirit.
Equipped with holy objects and a prayer book, Dr, Bruja asked Vicky to collect her things while he kept the spirits at bay and to leave when he told her to. They entered the home and they both immediately felt a presence. One that did not want them there. When he started his prayers, all of the spirits came to watch the doctor fight the Being. They hovered over banisters, hung from chandeliers and hid under tables. However, they were not opposed to the two being in the house, they were just the remains of those sacrificed. Dr. Bruja was not threatened by the these entities, but he began to sweat at the sight of the Being standing at the top of the stairs. In unison, all the spirits made their presence known by screaming the chant of the house. “In this we are one. In this we are all!” The doctor grew weak and felt he was being drained of his own spirit and he called for Vicky to run. The woman appeared from the basement and covered her head with what looked like a painting. The two just made it outside of the house, before the door was slammed and locked behind them.
It took several weeks, but Vicky Fuller and her two kids finally settled in an apartment in Maryland. She unpacked the last of the belongings, all of which were new since Ravenwood swallowed up their previous items. She kept in contact with Dr. Bruja and was told that the building was torn down in order to build luxury condos. Vicky’s life was different after that night, all of their lives were different. Jeremy ended up being enrolled in a school for deaf children, which he looked forward to and Amy, after a full recovery, applied to colleges in other states, in need of a new start. As for Freddie, he was less fortunate. Vicky went to the living room closet and pulled out the last painting that her son made. It was a black New York City skyline, but it was twisted. The running black paint, the lack of color in general intrigued Vicky. At the bottom of the painting, right where the buildings met the Hudson, Vicky could see a small figure that resembled, for whatever the reason, her oldest boy. It was the only thing that possessed color in the picture, and it made it seem as though the figure was standing out in a place where you can so easily be lost. She smiled and hung the picture on the wall in memorial to her son. She could’ve sworn that Freddie lived on in the picture, back where he belonged, New York.