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Authors: Aaron Polson
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grinned. “You, Mr. Bloom, are an important piece of this entertainment puzzle.”
Howard walked in step with Ben toward the baggage claim, following the thick, swaggering form of Wayne Johnson and stooped, boney shoulders of Nick Carney. “So, this is some kind of ghost hunting show you’re putting on?”
“Not exactly,” Ben said.
“Big spooky house. Six residents… So what’s your angle, then? Can’t be a rehash of Big Brother and the locale isn’t exotic enough for a Survivor spin-off. Got to be a Ghost Hunters knock off, right?”
“Let’s just say, Mr. Bloom, I’m doing a little experiment with fear.”
“Fear. Gotcha.” Howard Bloom stopped and scratched his stubble. Ten feet away, a young woman in a bright blue dress squealed and wrapped her arms around a tall, dark-haired man. “You know, good ol’ human beings aren’t a whole lot different than a pack of wild animals, given the chance.”
Ben’s smile widened. “That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Chapter 10: Arrival
Kelsey drove with a stack of printed and stapled Mapquest directions in her lap. She didn’t own a GPS and felt rather foolish about needing so much help in finding the house. After all, it was the location of a cornerstone moment in her life. A horrible moment, but life-changing. Driving through the rural countryside, she was a rat in a different kind of maze, not driven by fear but toward it. Her lab animals would never go toward the object of terror like she was. She forced a smile to chase away the frost of doubt.
The car, her hand-me-down Honda Accord, ancient and rusting, crested the final hill. The house rose from a cluster of trees like a cancerous lump: rust-red and awkward and out of place. She hadn’t remembered the trees before. They’d found the house in a snowstorm and perhaps the white world bleached those grey, slumbering limbs into something less evident. Perhaps she’d been blinded by the need for shelter. During the spring or summer, the trees would shield the house from the world, burying it in shadow. But with the limbs naked, it peered out from its prison. It was big—at three stories a monster of a building in the middle of nowhere. Kelsey steered her car onto the shoulder. The tires scratched against gravel. She scanned the roadside for the turn off, found it, and pointed the wheels toward the house.
Twelve thousand dollars would keep her research going.
Twelve thousand dollars would keep her father’s dream alive—he’d wanted his little girl to be something, hadn’t he?
She wasn’t a rat. All the rats could expect was a tiny bowl of food pellets for their effort.
Kelsey understood fear as an academic concept. She’d written her research proposal on the topic. She knew fear was one of the oldest human emotions and one people shared with most of their animal brothers and sisters—the mammals at least. She understood the physiological effects of fear. Feeling those effects—feeling her heart quicken and her breath catch in her throat, feeling the uncomfortable, cold, clammy sensation in her stomach and the sweat form on the palms of her hands—was different.
She steered toward the house’s front porch. Three stories of ancient brick loomed like a monster of a maze about to swallow a tiny rat named Kelsey.
~
Ben stepped from the porch, hands outstretched and wearing his best Hollywood smile. “Kelsey! I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you’ve decided to join our little show. After our conversation last fall, I thought I’d lost you.”
Kelsey stood behind the driver’s door, using it like a shield. She could still turn around, drive away, and put the house behind her. She closed her eyes and saw her father’s face, but it was her mother’s words which came to her: he believed in you, Kelsey Ann. A lump swelled in her throat as she opened her eyes. She needed the money. She needed to do something of which her father would be proud. The house
Howard walked in step with Ben toward the baggage claim, following the thick, swaggering form of Wayne Johnson and stooped, boney shoulders of Nick Carney. “So, this is some kind of ghost hunting show you’re putting on?”
“Not exactly,” Ben said.
“Big spooky house. Six residents… So what’s your angle, then? Can’t be a rehash of Big Brother and the locale isn’t exotic enough for a Survivor spin-off. Got to be a Ghost Hunters knock off, right?”
“Let’s just say, Mr. Bloom, I’m doing a little experiment with fear.”
“Fear. Gotcha.” Howard Bloom stopped and scratched his stubble. Ten feet away, a young woman in a bright blue dress squealed and wrapped her arms around a tall, dark-haired man. “You know, good ol’ human beings aren’t a whole lot different than a pack of wild animals, given the chance.”
Ben’s smile widened. “That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Chapter 10: Arrival
Kelsey drove with a stack of printed and stapled Mapquest directions in her lap. She didn’t own a GPS and felt rather foolish about needing so much help in finding the house. After all, it was the location of a cornerstone moment in her life. A horrible moment, but life-changing. Driving through the rural countryside, she was a rat in a different kind of maze, not driven by fear but toward it. Her lab animals would never go toward the object of terror like she was. She forced a smile to chase away the frost of doubt.
The car, her hand-me-down Honda Accord, ancient and rusting, crested the final hill. The house rose from a cluster of trees like a cancerous lump: rust-red and awkward and out of place. She hadn’t remembered the trees before. They’d found the house in a snowstorm and perhaps the white world bleached those grey, slumbering limbs into something less evident. Perhaps she’d been blinded by the need for shelter. During the spring or summer, the trees would shield the house from the world, burying it in shadow. But with the limbs naked, it peered out from its prison. It was big—at three stories a monster of a building in the middle of nowhere. Kelsey steered her car onto the shoulder. The tires scratched against gravel. She scanned the roadside for the turn off, found it, and pointed the wheels toward the house.
Twelve thousand dollars would keep her research going.
Twelve thousand dollars would keep her father’s dream alive—he’d wanted his little girl to be something, hadn’t he?
She wasn’t a rat. All the rats could expect was a tiny bowl of food pellets for their effort.
Kelsey understood fear as an academic concept. She’d written her research proposal on the topic. She knew fear was one of the oldest human emotions and one people shared with most of their animal brothers and sisters—the mammals at least. She understood the physiological effects of fear. Feeling those effects—feeling her heart quicken and her breath catch in her throat, feeling the uncomfortable, cold, clammy sensation in her stomach and the sweat form on the palms of her hands—was different.
She steered toward the house’s front porch. Three stories of ancient brick loomed like a monster of a maze about to swallow a tiny rat named Kelsey.
~
Ben stepped from the porch, hands outstretched and wearing his best Hollywood smile. “Kelsey! I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you’ve decided to join our little show. After our conversation last fall, I thought I’d lost you.”
Kelsey stood behind the driver’s door, using it like a shield. She could still turn around, drive away, and put the house behind her. She closed her eyes and saw her father’s face, but it was her mother’s words which came to her: he believed in you, Kelsey Ann. A lump swelled in her throat as she opened her eyes. She needed the money. She needed to do something of which her father would be proud. The house
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