by S.C. Kleinhans

Created on: July 27, 2011   Last Updated: August 08, 2011

It had been a terrible tradition. Handed down through generations of unwilling participants. A yearly ritual of misery and a minor bit of mayhem. A family trip to Henderson’s Haunted House. Hank and Hugo hated that hulking monstrosity.

Although they were twenty-two, they were still forced to attend the fall festival at the rotting horror near the local cemetery. The Hendersons had to show up. It was their shindig. Hank’s wife stayed behind with their newborn triplets. Hugo’s girlfriend didn’t want to go. Until he bribed her.

The Henderson Family had always been atypical. Their festivities had nothing to do with Halloween or any activities associated with autumn. They chose October because of the mild weather. The adults decorated the old horror while the children ran amok.

Hugo and Annie showed off her new ring while they rested. Neither of them really liked to work. They were lazy. Annie felt uneasy. Someone had been following her all over the old mansion. Annie voiced her fears and complaints but Hugo hadn’t been paying any attention to her. Her fiancé had been surreptitiously flirting with his former flame.

Annie soon stalked off after she saw Hugo hugging Fiona. Another ex-girlfriend. Annie wandered down narrow hallways and in and out of musty rooms. She giggled as she saw little girls teasing little boys. The family trip seemed like fun for all the little Hendersons. But Annie was upset. She’d gotten lost. The house had five different levels.

She still sensed the presence of someone else. Annie turned around. Fiona, Julie and Suzy were all standing side by side. Hugo’s last three ladies. One produced a knife, the second one toyed with a real gun and the last lady held an axe.

Then Hugo and Hank appeared. They looked somber. They mumbled something but Annie couldn’t understand them. She stumbled out of the room. Hyperventilating her way down the hallways. Bumping into things and breaking antiques and other artifacts as she fled the haunted house. The twins had really enjoyed their practical joke. Although Hugo resented spending all that money on a real engagement ring.

The pranksters made their way back to the grand ballroom where they mingled mischievously with the rest of the guests who had flooded the old house while they had been tormenting Anxious Annie.

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