The House by the Creek
The house by the creek is haunted
So they say
All the kids at school
The adults who live nearby say it
“That old Miller place is haunted as hell.”
Nothing calls louder to me than “Stay away”.It’s never a scare tactic
It’s a rallying cry
I have to go
I had to go into that haunted house
The rooms are swirling galaxies of dustNebulae of old spider webs
Moonscapes of pitted floors and rotted carpet
Black holes that sunlight swallowed
As all haunted houses are supposed to be
Junk furniture too tired to want to move outBeds that sag beneath the weight of old dreams
An ancient fridge that lurks in one corner
Curtains closed like sleepy eyelids
A house haunted by its own remnants
There’s a big free-standing mirror in the denFaded glass in knotty wood made from dead trees
I stand in front of it
It wants me to see what it shows
No proper reflections in that haunted house
The mirror showed me a different meOlder and bigger and stranger
Standing with horror in my hands
The knife, the blood, the memory of struggle
The me who will listen to the voices in that haunted house
The me I dream of being if I live long enoughThe me the voices love
The me who has a calling
The me who I’ll become
The Miller house isn’t haunted
The mirror isn’t a mirror
The house shows me my purpose
The house loves me for my shadows
Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestseller, 6-time Bram Stoker Award winner; novelist, poet, writing teacher, anthology editor, and editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He writes horror, sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, thrillers, and more, and also writes comic books for Marvel, IDW, and Dark Horse. He is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse, President of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and recipient of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Find him at www.jonathanmaberry.com