Heather The Haunted

Chapter 1: A Conduit of Trust

Case file #67

May 5th, 1974

Chicago Illinois, Johnson family home

Reports of strange happenings in the home and behavior exhibited by daughter Heather. Reported to the clergy by an anonymous source, Father Gordon contacted Lorraine and I to investigate the home for possible spirits or indeed possession. Strictly ordered to investigate but not engage.

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Knock knock knock.

A 16-year-old girl was sitting on her bed but now her head whipped up from the ratty textbook she had been reading. An overwhelming feeling of dread accompanied those knocks and the girl listened intently to the muffled sounds of her mother greeting someone at the door. Even as she felt it, this feeling confused the young girl. It wasn't as if she had been expecting someone or knew who was at the door, yet she couldn't shake the anxiety that was forming a pit in her stomach.

Biting her lip, the young girl tried to think of what could be causing her sudden uneasiness. Perhaps it was lack of sleep as ever since her mother made them move into this dump of a house she had found it increasingly hard to get a good night's. The house was an old victorian or so her mother kept going on about, not that that meant anything to the 16-year-old who at the time cared more about the fact that her life had been uprooted than the damn house. The girl hated her mother for demolishing their old life just for her to 'follow the painting muse' as Mrs. Johnson exclaimed the night she announced they were moving from California to the outskirts of crummy Chicago.

She missed her boyfriend, her friends, hell she even missed her old school. And that was something Heather never thought she'd say. Her mother had taken her sweet time installing the landline, something about electrical problems, but even when it had been finally installed most of her calls were answered by parents saying their kids were out doing something fun without her. Of course, that's not what they said, but it felt like it. Jason was often at baseball practice and once home he said on more than one occasion he was too busy with homework to talk. Kimberly, Lisa, and the rest of her girlfriends, though they called constantly when she first moved, within the passing weeks it got less and less. Leaving the young girl with nothing to do but sit around and sulk. Eventually, they would call with excuses, just like Jason they had been busy living their lives but it never made her feel better. She used to go to those baseball practices, she used to go to the mall and gossip with her friends. Now they were doing all of those things without her, moving on like she never existed in the first place.

It wasn't until weeks later, tired of sulking, that the girl allowed herself to get over her anger and snoop around the sprawling place. But even then she found the house more creepy than 'antiquely charming' as her mother gushed.

Now casting aside her homework the girl tried to convince herself this strange spell was just the result of lack of sleep. Though even as she did so a thought nagged at her. She knew deep down this feeling was all too familiar.

"Heather, get down here! Come on! On the double!" The girl's mother shouted, causing her to jump. The thoughts of dread and lack of sleep scrambled to the back of her mind. At least for the moment.

Heather knew that annoyed hiss in mother's voice well as it had become a constant fixture in the past months. Not wanting to piss her mother off Heather did as she was told, jumping off the bed she ran down the grand staircase. It wasn't until she reached the landing did it occur to Heather that something felt off. A man and a woman whom Heather had never seen before stood in the foyer. The woman stood slightly in front of the man with her arms folded eloquently in front of her. The man however was partially blocked from Heather's view but from what she could see he had his hands resting on the woman's shoulders. Though they looked nice enough Heather's anxiety hitched, this time even stronger than before.