Inspired by This Discord Has Ghosts In It, a roleplaying game by Adam Vass and Will Jobst.
Start at the threshold. Open the door, ready the equipment, decide to split up. Always keep the walkie talkies on.
Explore.
Floorboards creak under feet. Walking. Running. Stomping. How many feet should there be?
There are a lot of footsteps.
(This house has ghosts in it.)
“Are there any spirits here?”
“What’s your name?”
“Will you tell us why you’re here?”
No, bleed the walls.
(This house has ghost hunters in it too, now.)
Check in—
“Found anything?”
A black-eyed face grins from the mirror. Static crackles like laughter on the radio. The whole second floor smells like smoke.
out of our house is burned into the carpet.
(Does haunting a house make it yours?)
There are tools for this. Try one.
C-A-N-Y-O-U-S-E-E
“See what?”
The lights flicker—the lights flicker—the lights stop.
(Inside the wall, wires curl into a snarl.)
Check in—
“What do you think?”
Paper folds into an anatomical heart. A bird’s skeleton nests in a clock. The typewriter clatters, missing letters.
Carved beneath the bed is an open grave.
(Ghosts eat at rooms, floor and wall, ceiling and door. They’re a little like termites that way.)
The mold under the sink almost looks like a house.
Who did that one? etches itself along a pipe.
Wasn’t it you?
(This house has had so many things in it.)
Check in—
“Where are you?”
Chess pieces in the game room spell out FORFEIT. Something rattles in the basement, sounding somehow sharp. The well outside is screaming.
The third bedroom has always been here. Of course it has. Don’t worry about it.
(Every room in the house is labeled. It’s important to be clear about these things. Kitchen. Living room. Threshold, like a broken promise.)
“What’s that door?”
“What door?”
What door?
“It’s blank.”
(This house knows all about parasites.)
Check in—
“Can you hear me?”
Scratched into a table: we can hear you.
(Bait helps.)
The walkie talkie is on. Isn’t it?
“Hello?”
Scratched into a table: we can hear
we can
we
The table is gone.
So is the door.
(This house had ghosts in it.)
The Junction Journal 