An Old School Ghost Story
5 out of 5 stars
A quick hitting old-school ghost story. When I say old-school, I mean it. This is an old ghost story and you can tell. You don’t need jump cuts and blood and gore to scare people. Just a well-written story about a house that may or may not be haunted.
What I’m amazed about is the wordsmithing that Stokes was able to give this story. Normally when a story is as short as this one it’s one-dimensional and is missing a lot of sentences that make a story pop. This was quite the opposite. It was full of interesting and powerful sentences (to the point where I highlighted numerous ones.
Stokes’ imagery was perfect too, I think that’s what makes a good ghost story.
Overall, a great, quick ghost story that will leave you scared of the dark at least for a little while.
Do you believe in ghosts? No? How about you visit this house and then decide?
There is a “haunted” house up there that squats like a huge wooden toad behind a thick grove of pine trees on the end of a dead end road. Maybe once it was painted, but now it has a gray cadaver-like complexion, and its siding is sagged and splintered as if the Devil had been poking at it with his pitchfork. Its windows are streaked and stained, and trying to see through them from the outside is like trying to look a skull in the eye.
If this doesn’t get you to believe in the supernatural, read the rest of this short story and you WILL believe; just like I did! WARNING: Don’t read this if you have a weak heart or are subject to night terrors or nightmares! Bill Stokes richly tells the tale of the haunted house in vivid and almost poetic words; as the reader you cannot help but be sucked in. Read if you dare!!!
