Closets Are For Ghosts And Gays | Chanbaek, Chansoo

The Trials And Tribulations Of Summoning Ghosts

Halloween isn't a holiday. It's a lifestyle.

It lasted all month, from October first till the thirty first, overshadowing every holiday that followed. People around these parts took it very seriously, spending every dime and penny on embellishing their houses with plastic skeletons and renting scary movies every Friday night. Not much of a problem for a rich family like the Park's, who went above and beyond to make their month long Halloween a memorable one.

Mr. and Mrs. Park made most of their money from their own hard work, but it helped to have stupid rich parents sticking silver spoons down their throats since birth. With all that money, they invested in various houses; one for themselves, the others for rental. One in particular came into their possession around the eighties. Real estate agents kept bitching because they couldn't get anyone to take the house. Supposedly, previous owners complained of it being haunted, and while most people in their little town liked the idea of ghosts, it was a hassle to clean up after spirits from beyond the grave who seemed to keep themselves entertained with vandalism.

Mr. and Mrs. Park saw the perfect opportunity. On the side of their own jobs, they took an interest in ghost hunting and were strong believers of the paranormal. Brokers nearly dropped to their knees begging when they expressed interest in buying the house. A few documents later, the keys were dropped in their hands and the plot of land was theirs.

Of course, they didn't live in it. They lived deeper in town, closer to work. Being rich meant owning multiple houses was both possible and surprisingly beneficial. While touching up the house to satisfy their taste, the Park's came to realize it was indeed haunted. It raised no concern, instead inspiring them to profit off of their friendly little nuisance.

Apparently, many residents didn't want to live in a house with a ghost in their day-to-day lives, but they were all for renting the place to stay for a while during the Halloween season. It quickly became a hotspot for paranormal fanatics and enthusiastic vloggers. They even had a few movies filmed there whenever a horror movie needed a haunted house as the setting.

The Park's rarely stepped on the property for longer than a few hours, but Halloween needed more than spooky decorations and spider shaped cookies. Their seventeen year old son, Chanyeol, had only seen the inside of the house a few times in his life, particularly when he was younger and didn't have the most stark memory of it.

What better place to spend the Halloween season than their very own haunted house? Chanyeol had to wonder why his parents never used it for their own seasonal celebrations before. They always talked about turning their own house into an attraction when the kids went out for trick-or-treating, so why not just drive twenty minutes out to the edge of town to stay in a house already meant for tourism?

The house hadn't been booked for the month yet, so Mr. and Mrs. Park were quick to put a hold on requests and save the lot all for themselves. They moved in at the end of September to be all settled in before the start of October. The interior of the house frequently changed depending on who had temporary ownership of it, leaving it up to the Park's to do their own renovations.

Moving trucks went in and out of the driveway for days. Mr. Park warned the hired helpers as well as his son not to cause too much ruckus while unpacking; they didn't want to disturb the supposed ghost residing within the old fashioned abode. However, while exploring the place and feeling a spark of nostalgia whenever a memory returned to him, Chanyeol found nothing haunted about the place. He couldn't remember having any ghostly encounters as a kid, nor did he expect to upon moving in. The house was silent and empty, like a living soul (or a dead one for that matter) hadn't stepped foot on those creaky wooden floorboards in decades.

His mother, being a self proclaimed ghost expert, informed him ghosts didn't show up at random; he either had to summon one or wait for one to act on it's own. They always encouraged him to believe in the paranormal as much as they did, but he was hesitant to take everything they said seriously. The most unusual encounter he'd ever experienced was when the lights flickered for a fraction of a second.