“Just stay there,” Alan said. He hunched down and walked sideways so he could look up towards the stairs as he moved down the hall. Footsteps creaked on the floorboards overheard. A deep voice murmured up there, paused, and then repeated the unintelligible syllables.
“Who’s up there?” Alan called. He thought about how he’d left the boys inside, unattended while he went out and talked to that game warden. Anything could have happened. “I’m coming up. Identify yourself.”
A door rattled shut with a bang. Alan began climbing the steps. He held the broom upside down, with the stick out in front.
“Come on out,” Alan said. His voice echoed in the stairway.
“Dad?” Joe asked.
“Go back to the kitchen, Joe,” Alan whispered. He was halfway up the stairs. He could see the door to the master bedroom and the door to the guest room. Both were closed. Alan reached the top of the stairs and turned towards the master bedroom door. At his back, the hall led to Joe’s room and the guest bath.
I heard a door shut, he thought. The intruder must be behind one these closed doors. What if there’s more than one?
Alan reached forward with the broom handle and tapped on the door to the master bedroom.
“Come on out,” he said. He tried to make his voice sound calm and authoritative. He heard another murmur. It was indistinct. He couldn’t pinpoint which direction it was coming from. Alan braced the broom handle against the door and gave it a good shove. The weird ball-latch popped in and the door swung inwards. Alan sidestepped through the door and turned on the light. Rain pounded against the window—it was coming down nearly sideways now. The lightbulb buzzed and pulsed. He pushed the door with his broom and checked behind it. Next, Alan got on his knees and used the broom handle to lift the bed skirt—nothing but dust under there. He checked the bathroom and closet. Alan stood in front of the little hatch that led to the steep attic stairs.
He heard heavy feet pounding down the stairs—not the attic stairs, the stairs down the first floor where Joe was. Alan dropped the broom and ran. He tore through the bedroom and ran down the stairs.
“DAD!” Joe screamed.
“I’m coming,” Alan yelled. He rounded the newel post and pulled himself down the hall. His socks slipped on the wooden threshold to the dining room and he stumbled, catching himself as he came into the kitchen. Joe wasn’t there.
“Joe?” Alan asked. The dryer stopped and buzzed. “Joe?”
He heard his son’s whimper. The boy was under the table.
Alan pulled out a chair. Joe cringed.
“What are you doing under there?”
Joe didn’t answer. A car came up the drive. Alan saw the barn door go up and Liz’s car pull in.
In the shed, Liz banged on the entry door.
“Come out from there, Joe,” Alan said. He crouched next to the table and held out a hand for his son. Joe took his hand. “Are you okay?”
They held hands and walked down the hall to open the door. Liz was on the other side, soaked.
“Thank you,” she said. “I thought I was going to have to break a window. What happened to you two?”
“My pants are in the dryer,” Alan said. “Joe had a scare.” He let go of his son’s hand. Joe ran forward and hugged his mother. “Why don’t you guys go get in the car and lock the doors. I’ll look through the house.”
“What? Why?” Liz asked.
“We heard something,” Joe said.
“There might be someone in there,” Alan said.
“We stay together. Strength in numbers,” Liz said. She closed the door behind herself. Alan reached forward and locked it.
“I don’t know,” Alan said. “I’d rather not have us all at risk.”
“Too bad,” Liz said. “If something happens, then at least we’ll all be together.”
Alan thought about it for a second and took a deep breath. “You’re right. In fact, let’s just get out of here. Let’s go find a hotel. We can call the police and have them check the place out.”
Liz nodded. “We might have a small wrinkle. The road is washed out completely on the south side, and it’s flooded up near the dump to the north. I had to drive through several inches to get here and they were putting up roadblocks as I was doing it. We’d have better luck in the boat.”
“You’re kidding me,” Alan said. “We’re flooded in?”
Liz shrugged. “I’ve heard of it happening in the spring. It doesn’t happen often, but when we get a lot of water at once…”
“Okay, fine,” Alan said. “Let’s just call the police and wait. Stick together.”
Alan led the way towards the kitchen. He ducked into the shop, grabbed a hammer, and then closed the door behind him. Alan pushed open the door to the kitchen with his foot. He looked around and the ushered his family in. Joe had his eyes glued on the doorway leading from the hall to the dining room. Liz took Joe’s hand.
“Land line is out,” Alan said, setting down the handset. “I guess a tree took down a pole and killed both the power and phone.”
He picked up his cell.
“No signal,” Alan said.
“I’ll call,” Liz said. She fiddled with her phone for several seconds and then slammed it down on the table. “Damn it.”
“We’ll go to a neighbor’s house,” Alan said. He opened the dryer and pulled out his pants.
“Yeah? Which one?” Liz said. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but this road is not very densely populated and we aren’t very popular with the folks who do live nearby. We might have a better rapport with the intruder. Speaking of which—did you get a look at this guy?”
“No,” Alan said. “We just heard him.”
“You heard footsteps from the bedrooms and then heard someone run down the stairs?” Liz asked.
Joe nodded. Alan didn’t respond.
Relief spread across Liz’s face. “Honey, I told you, that’s what the ghost does. Don’t you remember I told you that the Colonel used to tell the story about the first time he heard someone walking around up there? He almost shot out the mirror in the bedroom. Everybody has heard that ghost, that’s why I was so careful to tell you about it.”
“You know I don’t believe in that stuff,” Alan said.
“The ghost doesn’t care if you believe in it or not,” Liz said. “The Colonel was the most skeptical man in the world. Even he eventually accepted the sounds in this house. It’s okay—they don’t hurt anything. Come on, let’s check out the place from top to bottom and make sure nothing is here. All the doors are locked, right?”
“Yes,” Alan said. He was shaking his head, rejecting his wife’s assertion.
“We stick together, start at the top and work our way down,” Liz said. “We’ll close all the doors along the way.”
She tugged at Joe’s hand. Joe used his other arm to hug himself.
“Come on, boys,” she said. “Let’s find out what’s going on around here.”
“It could be dangerous, Liz,” Alan said.
“I understand,” Liz said. “And it could be nothing. Grab your hammer and let’s go.”
“Fine.”
Alan led the way. He flipped on the lights to the dining room and crossed through to the hall. Joe leaned down to look under the table before they approached. Alan paused at the hall. He shot a hand forward and locked the door to the cellar. It was a flimsy old bolt—it looked like it could be snapped with a hard shove.
“Hand me the chair,” Alan said.
“That’s my grandmother’s good Windsor chair,” Liz said.
“Fine, then another one,” Alan said. Liz brought one of the dining room chairs. Alan pushed it under the handle of the door to the cellar.
Alan opened the door to the coat closet and shoved aside the coats and made sure he could see the back of the closet. He nodded to Liz and Joe. They followed him down the hall to the stairs. Alan held his breath as he turned to look up the stairs. He braced himself. They saw nothing. Before they climbed, Alan verified that the front door was shut soundly and locked. He put a finger to his lips and crept up the steps. Liz and Joe followed close.