Well, I've had no fewer than 8 requests for more, so here's a good one....

The Haunted Duplex

Across the street from the fair grounds is a row of older housing authority duplexes. They are all somewhat run down, and the population in the area consists mainly of recently unemployed or unemployable persons. One of these units, on the East side of the second building from the corner, had been re-rented 16 times in the space of two years, often by people who moved away to identical units in the same row. A friend of mine was hired to clean this unit and re-do the kitchen floor, so he brought along his usual staff of 3 people in addition to himself to do this.

When they arrived, things seemed normal enough. All of the surrounding units were empty and waiting to be re-furbished in the same manner as this particular one, so it was very quiet. The bathroom upstairs needed some serious help, so my friend went upstairs with the other two men to see to it, while the woman they had brought along to help worked in the kitchen.

While washing the floor, she moved aside the stove and under it was a blood- stain. It looked as fresh and new as if it had just been spilled. She tried to scrub it off, but every time she succeeded, she'd turn her back while the water was drying and it would re-appear. After three times doing this, she started to get freaked out and called the men to come down. They all agreed that it was strange, so they ripped up the linoleum. This solved the problem... for about 20 minutes. Blood started to ooze from the floor- boards, looking 'half-congealed'. She couldn't believe it. She yelled for the men to come down again, and they did. They agreed to go home and try again the next day, saying it was probably a dead or dying cat or dog.

The next day, they returned. The blood-stain was ont he floor-boards, so they decided to re-cover the floor. This took the morning, but when they were done, the floor, one solid piece of linoleum, looked as shiny and new as a showhome. Satisfied, they returned to cleaning the upstairs.

After about 15 minutes, the woman in the kitchen dared to look at the floor again. It was back, but that wasn't all... That section of the linoleum had somehow reverted to the dingy, grey, dirt encrusted look of the previous lino. She dropped the bucket she was holding and tried to scrub it clean. Of course, it didn't work. But, as she was scrubbing, the sobbing and screams of a young boy made themselves heard. The men upstairs heard them too, and came rushing down the stairs. They found the woman fainted on the kitchen floor, so one of them stayed with her while the others went to find the source of the cries. The sound didn't exist outside, or in the adjoining or surrounding duplexes. Only in that one. They quickly gathered their gear together and left. My friend dropped off his workers at their homes, then went to talk to the people at the housing authority.

It turned out that that unit, which had been built in 1936, had been occupied during the 60's by a young single mother and her eight-year old son. They lived relatively quietly until the boy's father came by one day to see him. The father had an argument with the mother, and a struggle ensued. In the melee, the father's gun went off, killing the boy. Both parents ran, not wanting to be charged with murder or manslaughter, leaving the boy to bleed to death alone on the kitchen floor. The linoleum has been changed in the duplex 12 times since that happened, but the blood always comes back. None of the tenants who have lived there since have stayed longer than a month, some of them preferring to live on the street.

Well, there's the end. My friend only went back once, just to see. The last renovations included two layers of lino. It hasn't helped.

Lizard