Round House on Square Hill

by Aunt Molly

Amanda adjusted her backpack and her sleeping bag under her arm. She brushed a lock of long black hair behind her shoulder. She turned to her friends. "Last chance to back out."

Brandi pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. Sara fidgeted with one blond pig tail.

"Are you sure there are no ghosts there?"

Amanda put her hands on her hips, "What fun is a haunted house with no ghosts?"

Sara then looked down and fidgeted with her pink skirt, "Well, it wouldn't be as scary."

Brandi adjusted her backpack, "You don't have to do this if you're scared."

"No - cuz then you and Amanda would be talking about what a baby I am."

"Sara, you *are* a baby."

Amanda gave Brandi a disproving stare. "Sara, if it were dangerous, my mom wouldn't let us stay here. She says that weird things can happen in any house and that by random chance some houses have more weird things happen than others."

She turned back to the Round house - shaped like a large three tiered wedding cake with large windows. The house was built in the eighteenth century by Joseph Hill - the place had been known as "Hill hill" then "Hill squared" then "Square Hill."

Amanda imagined the front two windows on the second floor were eyes, and Amanda stared them down.

The sun was setting - it would be no fun going to a haunted house when it was light out.

Amanda's mom was a real estate agent - and with the housing crisis it was hard enough to sell any house, let alone a reputed haunted house.

But being able to look her clients in the face and say, "See my daughter and her friends stayed over night and nothing happened to them," might help alleviate the fears of prospective buyers.

And besides Amanda loved horror movies, ghost stories and all that.

She pulled out the key her mother had given her and unlocked the door. A simple modern looking kitchen, nothing too special about it except that the room kind of looked like a slice of pie with the pointy end bit off.

Amanda stepped inside and waited, nothing leapt out at her, she folded her arms and turned to her friends.

Brandi came in next, again nothing leapt out of the gloom.

Finally seeing her friends were safe, the cautious blond stepped inside.

There was a door as the "point" part of the pie wedge shaped room, and beyond it a circular room containing a spiral staircase.

They crossed the stair room and opened another door, presumably the living room. Wall to wall carpeting, and a fireplace. The room seemed to take up a full third of the circle of the lowest level of the house.

Amanda dropped her backpack and her sleeping bag onto the carpet.

"This is a good enough place to set up camp."

Sara looked around, "I thought there'd be cobwebs."

"My mom may not be able to get people to live here, but she can get folks to clean the place - during the day."

Brandi dropped her backpack, "Water? Electricity?"

"No - but I brought toilet paper and wetnaps, and hand sanitizer and water."

Brandi opened her pack, "I brought my portable DVD player, my mp3 player, some flashlights."

Sara opened her pack, "I brought snacks and juice boxes."

Amanda smiled, "Sweet we have a half-descent sleepover, even without ghosts."

Sara dropped down to her knees, "What kind of ghost is supposed to live here? ", she then rummaged through her pack and handed out boxes of apple juice.

Brushing back long jet black hair she took a deep breath before beginning her story. She was half Irish and half Korean giving her an almost goth look without her even trying.

"Well - it is said that Joseph Hill was a a reaver - a kind of Scottish bandit. He was certainly no Robin Hood. He was a man of great appetites - money, food, clothes, girls. Many a daughter's father chased after him seeking revenge for soiling their sweet child's virtue.

He escaped his well deserved punishment by fleeing to America - building his house round so he could see if any man was coming for him.

His lust burns even after death - no woman or girl - so the story goes, can stay here without being twisted in some way."

Sara sucked on the straw of her juice box.

Amanda continued, " There was one incident in particular - a Nun named Mary Peter built an orphanage for girls here about a hundred years ago. She felt that her faith could protect them from any long dead bandit She even had a special blessing that would protect her girls - but no no avail.

All kind of weird things started happening. All kinds of shocking deviant things. You see back then folks didn't trust the Catholic church much. Some of the locals thought she was some kind of witch tempting the girls and leading them down the path to deviancy. They broke in and killed the nun and even some of the girls the locals thought were beyond saving."

Brandi sat with her knees up against her chest, "Remember that this was a hundred years ago - they probably thought kissing was deviant."

Amanda smiled, "Its just a story."

Brandi stretched out her neck, "Besides the last owner left because of the housing crisis - not ghosts."

Amanda smirked, "Two gay men, and their adopted son."

Sara heaved a heavy sigh, "Can we watch a movie that doesn't have ghosts in it?"

Brandi opened the player and slipped in the disk. "My dad just got Avatar."

"Fine - just no ghosts."

The movie plays and the sky darkened and the three girls for a time forgot about Joseph Hill and ghosts and all of that.

It was halfway through the film when Amanda noticed Sara squeezing her legs together.

"Sara do you have to go pee?"

"No maybe, but I can hold it."

Amanda gave her friend a motherly stare, " Do you want us to go with you? We can put the movie on pause."

Brandi shrugged, "It's portable we can bring the movie with us. You can watch it on the potty if you want."

She squeezed her legs together, she seemed unsure. "I don't want to have people watch me pee."

Amanda put a hand on Sara's shoulder, "Brandi and I will wait outside," then Amanda's cell phone rang.

Amanda's cell phone was - sadly - just a phone. Her mom wouldn't spring for an iPhone or Blackberry.

She opened it, "It's Mindy - I have to take this," pushing the talk button, "Hi sweetie!"

Brandi got up, Grabbed a flashlight, "Come on - I'll take you to the potty, I'll wait right outside."

"OK."

The two girls went off in search of a lavatory.

Amanda's voice softened, Mindy was a girl that Amanda normally babysat on Saturday nights. The little girl was beyond adorable.

"I thought we agreed there were no closet monsters."

The voice at the other end voiced a high pitched protest.

"Well what I want you to do is to throw open the door to your closet and tell that monster you are not afraid of it. A closet monster will not hurt anyone who is not afraid of it."

"No sweetheart - I'm in a haunted house right now you'd be even more scared here."

The voice on the phone seemed to perk up.

"Well you see my mom has me clean out all the closet monsters of any home she is going to sell so little girls will have nothing to be scared of. Yes it is an important job. My friends Sara and Brandi are checking out the bathroom right now."

Amanda chuckled, "Now how can you help me with closet monsters here - if you can't even face your own closet monster? Hmm?"

Amanda sighed, I will be there on Wednesday. No thats not long, you will see me before you know it. And you need to get to bed before your mom is mad at both of us.

"Yes, I love you too. *mwah!*"

Amanda put the movie on pause - then set it back to approximately the place were Brandi and Sara had left. Amanda had seen it in theaters so it was not a big deal.

She grabbed another flashlight and made her way upstairs.

Up the spiral staircase she saw a dim light shine from under what Amanda assumed to be the bathroom door.

"Is she still peeing?"

Brandi put a finger to her lips. Then using that same finger, she mimed what their cute innocent little Sara was doing in the bathroom.

Amanda shined the light on her own face so she could mouth "NO!"

Brandi slide over to the staircase and leaned in whispering, "She's really going to town. She's already climaxed twice."

"Wow - I'm jealous - I'm one and done."

"We should so tease her about this."

"No - she'd probably die of embarrassment."

"She seemed nervous about having me up here, maybe she was afraid I was going to molest her."

"No - Sara trusts you." Brandi had came out to them about a month ago, and Sara and Amanda had encouraged her to come out to her parents. "And you know I trust you."

It seemed outright anti-climactic when her parents told her they'd figured that out when she was three.

She confused the boys too - not because they were homophobes. They just thought lesbians were either butch man haters, or slutty exhibitionists. Brandi was so - normal.

A loud moan escaped escaped from the bathroom, then audible slippery noises, "She's going for four? Now she's just showing off."

"Kelly has been asking about you."

"Yeah well, she's nice a guess. But not really my type. Not like Eliza."

"Eliza is a senior, and she's straight. And she's a stuck up bitch."

"But she's - she's amazing. She's a sex goddess. I don't even need to be her girlfriend - I just want to drop to my knees and worship her."

"Way to go for the completely unattainable."

The moans were loud and constant now - there was no way Sara could believe her friends could not hear her. Or maybe she just didn't care anymore.

Amanda banged on the door "Will you come already?"

Then Sara started screaming.

"I don't care if she's embarrassed - that does not sound healthy."