This is a sequel to my story, Girl Crush. Eddie did it! '86 was indeed his year! He graduated and now him and Dani are headed off on their grand adventure for the summer. They are heading west in his van and hitting all kinds of stops along the way...
Dani looked up at the forbidding and dilapidated structure in front of them and shivered. She wanted to suggest that they just leave, but she knew Eddie wasn't going to have it. He was enthralled with the haunted history of this place. There was nothing he enjoyed more than a creepy ghost story and a good scare.
They had already been to the First Unitarian Church, which they learned had been built on top of the site of a church that had been burned down. And that church had been built on top of a Catholic church that had burned to the ground. Both of the churches had been stops on the Underground Railroad. It's believed to be haunted by numerous ghosts, including a pastor who hung himself inside it.
The church was near Enos Sanitarium and you just knew that place was haunted. The ghosts of pissed off patients who'd suffered lobotomies, electric shock treatments, and women who were committed just for having the nerve to think for themselves. There were tunnel systems underneath it that were used for the Underground Railroad as well.
Now, he had dragged her to the McPike Mansion. It was a large decrepit building but you could see how beautiful the place had once been through the overgrown vegetation and deterioration. An iron fence stood in front of the property with a sign reading 'McPike Mansion est. 1869' but there was no gate barring visitors from trespassing onto the property.
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Eddie didn't hesitate, walking right through the opening and onto the front lawn. Dani groaned, hurrying to keep up with him, neither wanting to go anywhere near that place or to be left alone. Reaching into the backpack he'd brought, he handed her a flashlight before pulling one out for himself.
"Eddie..." Dani hissed nervously, "why exactly did you bring flashlights?"
"Dani, this guy at the restaurant told me he broke in here last summer," he explained. "He said we've got to get inside and have a look around. It's supposed to be haunted by the original owner and one of his servants. It's, like, super creepy in there. He said flashlights have died, lights flicker, and you can smell the servant's perfume. It's supposed to smell like lilacs."
"Have you lost your goddamn mind?" she seethed, not believing him. "We're going to break into some abandoned house? Getting murdered by a ghost or arrested by the cops was not on my wish list for this trip."
Turning, he placed his hands gently on her shoulders, smiling indulgently at her. Dani had to fight the urge to slap it off his face. How dare he look like she was the crazy one. She wasn't the one planning on committing a felony to possibly die at the hands of a vengeful spirit.
"Dani, we're not going to get arrested," he assured her. "The guy said the cops don't even bother with this place anymore because it's been broken into so many times. They have too many other things to worry about. And come on, you know I wouldn't let anything happen to you."
"Oh yeah, and how exactly are you planning on stopping Casper from ripping my heart out?" she demanded, her eyes cutting through him like sharpened blades.
