The House Next Door

~ Liz Charnes

pexels-photo-750319.jpegThe house next door to me is empty. Neighborhood gossip says that the previous owner died in it. I have no idea if that’s true or not.

It went on the market a while back and took forever to sell. It did, eventually, and the new owners have had a construction crew in for almost two weeks now.

I have yet to meet the new owners.

Today, while I was out gardening, an unmarked white van pulled up in front of the house. The following occurred.

The truck driver approached one of the workers. “Do you live here?”

“No, I work here.” The construction worker scratched his head. “Do you need something?”

“I’ve got a delivery. It’s got to get inside, out of the sun. Can you move your truck?”

The construction worker turned. “Boss, he needs you to move your truck.”

At that point, a large – like, six foot long, four foot high crate… not box, crate… was lowered out of the truck. The truck driver started looking a little agitated. “Seriously. We got to get this inside.”

I turned to my significant other. “Honey, we got ourselves a vampire for a neighbor.”

My significant other, a sweet man, but not up on his vampire lore, shook his head. “It’s a couch.”

“Do couches have to get out of the sun?” I pointed at the crate. “Do they come crated?”

“It’s not a vampire.”

“You don’t know that.” I threw down my hoe and grabbed the car keys. “I’ll get the garlic. Carve a few stakes while I’m gone.”

“Maybe it’s a nice vampire,” he shouted after me. “You know, like, Vampire Blogs, or what that show was you used to watch.”

Vampire Blogs? I don’t even know. “Carve the stakes.” I checked the time. Still a few hours before sunset. Behind me, my S.O. had gone back to gardening.

Why am I the one who has to do the saving?

 

5 thoughts on “The House Next Door”

    1. Omigod, it was just like in Fright Night, when the kid sees the crate going into the basement. I was like, that’s a freaking crate. My SO didn’t think that was such a big deal, but everybody knows that crates always hold the native earth of the undead. Everybody.

      And Salem’s Lot is so, so good. I might have to read it, too, except that I might be living it… *turns up TV so as not to hear the scratching at the windows*

      Liked by 1 person

    1. That seriously happened, with the exception of me dashing off for garlic, because we have plenty of garlic here. And my SO says it’s a refrigerator. But there may be, especially if I only see them out at night… *clutches crucifix comfortingly*

      The photo’s yours, BTW. It’s on Pexel. Search term old houses, I think. Maybe haunted houses? Something like that.

      Like

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