A Haunted Place

by Masha Dumanska

David moved to LA last autumn when he passed an interview and got a job as a lawyer in one of the big company. He was thrilled to begin his professional life in such a huge city.
The company was going to provide David with housing, so he didn’t have any problems with its searching. He was settled in a big house near the beach. It was quite old, which wasn’t ok but there were no houses near it, which meant no annoying neighbors too, which was great.
When David finally moved to his new home and put everything in order, he was very exhausted and went to sleep early. David woke up in the middle of the night because of the sudden noise downstairs. He thought that it was wind and continued to sleep. In the morning he discovered that everything that he packed out from the boxes was actually in the boxes. He was confused. When he got to the office, he asked whether it was such a joke for a newcomer. But everybody just looked at him without understanding what was happening. Then there were a lot of things to do in office. As he was a new one, he must learn a lot about his company, serious deals and clients. When he came home, he was exhausted and went straight to bed. In the middle of the night he woke up again from the noise, coming from the downstairs. David was really frightened. He took his bat and went downstairs. There he turned the lights on and nearly fainted – everything in the room was moving with no direction. And then the front door opened and all of the packages with David’s things were thrown away outside. After that he fainted. Next morning David woke up because of the telephone. It was 11 am and office workers asked why he wasn’t at his work place. David told them that he wasn’t feeling well. Then he discovered a strong headache and a big bruise on his forehead. He decided to book a room in the local hotel. But on the next night he couldn’t sleep well. He had a lot of nightmares. There was an old woman and a young boy. There was a conflict and fighting. Then was the scream, hit, blood, rain, dirt and fear. David woke up in his hotel room covered with sweat and saw that woman from his nightmare. She was standing and looking right in his eyes. He wanted to scream but he was paralyzed. He couldn’t say anything. Only after a few seconds he asked “Why?” But then the woman disappeared. After that David couldn’t sleep and he went for a walk. It was a warm summer night. After a small walk he decided to go to his office. In the morning everybody was surprised to see him so early with such a big bruise on his forehead. He told everybody that he slipped and fell in the bathroom. Then he asked his colleges about the previous owner of his house. Nobody knew this information; they just knew that nobody had lived there for a long time. Then David decided to google it but didn’t find something interesting. He only found out that in the early seventies there lived a veteran from the Second World War but then he died in 1979. The next night David spent in the same hotel room. Then there was a weekend and he decided to go to his house. There he discovered that all his things, furniture, books – everything was all over the yard. He wanted to get into the house but the door was locked. He tried his key but he couldn’t open the door. It just didn’t move. He called a fire department to help him. When they arrived, they opened the door with the first attempt. Then they became angry because of the fake call and made David to pay a fine. After they left, David came into the house. It was completely different. Everything there was new. The furniture had bright colors and then came out that woman but she was younger and happy. She called somebody. Apparently it was her son. The boy run into the kitchen. Then everything became darker. It was raining outside. A man came into the house, he was saying something indiscriminate. The same woman begged him. But he said no. Then he started arguing with her, the boy tried to defend his mother but that man pushed him away. The boy fell on the floor and hit the corner of the wall. The woman screamed. The man started punching the woman. But then he noticed David. The woman cried that it was him and pointed at David. The man started walking towards David. Poor man wanted to run away but the door was locked. He tried to open it but he couldn’t. Then he felt a sharp pain in his head. The next morning David woke up near the opened door. It was a real world, not a dream or a vision. Everything was real, even his headache. David was confused and scared at the same time. This ghost or something not only threw away his things but also almost had killed him. That was too much. Then he noticed an opened box near him. There were photographs of woman, man and their child, they were taken in 1959. They were a happy family. Under the pile of those photographs there was a piece of the newspaper with an article about them. It was told that child fell of the stairs and died. His mother denied this version and insisted on that her husband had killed him. But the article said that it was nonsense because this woman was mentally ill and her poor husband (who was a very honorable man) had no choice but to put her into the hospital for the mentally ill people. The other piece of the newspaper was about the death of that woman. She died in that hospital 2 months after the death of her son. The circumstances of her death were under the secret. It was said that one day she just didn’t wake up. David finished reading it and finally understood the whole situation. The woman was normal. It was her husband who was actually mentally ill. But it was 1959. The man had a leading role.