The Old Miller House

The Old Miller House

         The sun was setting on May 23rd, the day of Jacob Morley's thirteenth birthday. The party had ended, and all of his friends had gone home. Jacob's parents finally decided that he was old enough to learn the truth -- they weren't his real parents. That night, his mother walked into his bedroom with a tattered cloth in her hand, an old stained white bib with the faded word "JACOB" printed on it. On the bottom right, it read, "5-23-1980".

         "We adopted you when you were very little," she said. "No one knows who your real parents are; you were found one day and brought to a foster home."

         Jacob's mercurial temper couldn't handle it. He felt that he had been lied to his whole life. "Get out!" were the only words that came from his lips as he screamed at the woman he had always thought was his mother.

         Eventually, Jacob got over the prospect of being adopted, but he never quite regained his trust in people. He never was the same. He had distanced himself from his friends over time, and he just barely graduated from high school. Jacob attended a community college and was able to become a realtor. Since he couldn't find belief in people, he preferred to work with material things, like property.

         After receiving his degree, he went into the business of buying old, run down properties to fix up and resell. He had some trouble profiting from the first two houses that he had reworked, but the third house looked promising. An old, dilapidated mansion sat on 102 Walker Avenue. The lot was huge, and there were plenty of trees surrounding the property. Whoever bought this house from him would be sure to have plenty of privacy. The house sat in the middle of the woods with no other nearby houses. Yet, with all these qualities that would be major selling points for a house, Jacob was able to buy it remarkably cheap. One explanation was that the house had been condemned since it's ancient wood paneling had started to rot.

         But the most important reason for the property's low cost was the mysterious circumstances surrounding the previous owners' deaths. The property was known locally as "The Old Miller House", named after the former residents who were murdered there. Some of the townspeople even argued that the Miller's never fully left the house. For a while after the murders, there were reports of ghost sightings in the house. There were so many that the house changed hands multiple times and eventually sat unused and left to deteriorate. Jacob, however, had no real belief in ghosts or anything of the sort. He was going to fix up this house just like any other one and make a huge profit, no matter what.

         Since the house wasn't in livable condition like the previous two that he had fixed, he had to rent out a room at a local motel. Every day, Jacob would work in the house, and go back to the motel to sleep. And so it continued, without any ghost sightings. One day Jacob was heading up to his hotel room for the night when a curious worker stopped him. Trying to follow the recommendations of the motel, the worker decided to be friendly and ask Jacob a little bit about himself. When he learned exactly what Jacob had been doing every day, the worker's mouth dropped open.

         "You're what?"

         "Fixing up the Old Miller House to resell."

         "That's crazy! That place is haunted. I'd never step foot in there. You do know the story about the house, right?"

         "No, but it's all the same to me."

         "Well, the rumor is that the Miller's used to work in the mafia. They were in good with a mob boss, but then they got out of the business when Kathy Miller finally had a baby. However, there was some internal conflict with their organization and the Millers were victims of a shooting one night."

         "So how does that lead to the house being haunted? That kind of stuff happens everywhere."

         "Well, when the police finally arrived and searched the house, they found the dead bodies of the parents, but not the child. As the story goes, the restless ghosts of the parents can never find peace because they endlessly search for their child."

         "Well, I don't believe in ghosts, and I have yet to see any." Then showing his great people skills, Jacob said "And if you don't mind I would like to get back to my room now. I have a busy day tomorrow and I don't want to spend the night here talking." And with that, Jacob retired to his room for the night.

         The next day at work, Jacob had nearly finished remodeling the old master bedroom in the mansion. Just as the sky stated to grow dark, Jacob was getting his stuff together to head back to the motel. As he was about to leave he caught sight of a faint trace of movement flowing through the crevices of the wall. Jacob froze still and just stood and watched. Between the cracked boarding of the walls he started to recognize a crawling figure. As it emerged and slowly crept into the light, Jacob realized that it was a wretched, old dog. Jacob laughed a little bit and said to himself, "Nothing to be afraid of."

         The dog was very timid, so Jacob approached it slowly. He had some saltine crackers in a package in his pocket that were left over from lunch. He gave them to the dog and said, "I bet you never met your parents before either." He felt a connection to the poor animal. Something in the back of his mind told him that he should keep the dog. Eventually he was able to get the dog to follow him into his car, and he drove it to a veterinarian' office to clean it up and make sure that it wasn't sick. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to keep the dog in the motel, he went into a store and got some dog food, two dishes, and some bottled water. Then, he brought the dog back to the Old Miller House. He left the newly groomed dog in the master bedroom and parted for the motel.

         The next day, Jacob got all of his stuff together and packed it into his car, then moved into the Old Miller House. He had finally done enough work on the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen in order to make the house livable. He was also able to get electricity back in a couple of the rooms. Now he could go back to work on touching up the rest of the house without the commute. The dog was pleased to see Jacob, and it would follow him around wherever he went in the house.

         That night, Jacob went to bed in the old mansion for the first time. Lying in newly purchased sheets, he set his alarm clock for 7AM. Then he went to sleep with the dog on the ground at his side.

         He had a strange dream. He was in the house looking at the spot on the wall in the bedroom where the dog had been the very first time he saw movement, but he was closer than before. He saw the movement and turned around. He then saw himself standing where he had been just yesterday, then looked back at the wall to see the dog emerge. Everything happened eerily similar to what had occurred the previous night up until the point when he gave the crackers to the dog. By this point, Jacob had got bored of watching himself and turned to walk away. As he turned around, he saw movement once again in the wall, only he was sure that the dog wasn't there. He turned around to check and make sure, and he saw himself petting the dog just like last night. A little unsure he turned back around to look at the spot in the wall when he saw the dark silhouette of a an obviously masculine human standing inches away from him. He woke up from his dream in a cold sweat. The alarm clock read 11PM. He looked over at the spot on the wall quickly and thought he saw movement. He rubbed his eyes for a second and the movement was gone. Convinced that it was just the aftermath of a strange dream, Jacob pet the slumbering dog at the side of his bed and went back to sleep.

         But another strange dream occurred. Jacob got up out of the bed and saw the dog barking at the spot in the wall. He walked over to the wall, each footstep taking an eternity. When he got to the wall he looked into the crevice and saw a face emerge. Everything was silent. The dog's barking no longer made any noise, all he could concentrate on was a woman's face hovering in the shadows. In silence, Jacob watched her mouth move as if to say something, only no sound came out. He could barely make out the syllables as he tried to lip-read what the ghostly woman was saying. "Jac.....ob.....M-" before he could even figure out the second word, the entire world around him started to fade as he became increasingly dizzy. He could hear the barking of the dog in the background.

         The barking had woke him from his insane dream before he could read what the woman was trying to say. He could make a good guess that the ghastly figure was calling his name, Jacob Morley, but why? It was now 5AM. He leaned over the side of the bed to tell the dog to be quiet, only the dog wasn't there. He rubbed his eyes and realized that the barking was coming from the other side of the room. The dog was barking at the spot in the wall. Now that the grogginess had faded away, Jacob sprang out of bed and yelled at the dog to get away from the wall. He picked up the first tool he saw on the ground -- an axe. He rushed over to the wall without thinking and began to hack away at it. The dog stood by his side, barking as the hole in the rotting wall grew larger and larger. By the time Jacob realized what he was doing, he had cut clear through the other side of the wall. Jacob dropped the axe and backed away from the wall to go sit on the bed. the dog ran over to him. Somewhat stunned about his rage, Jacob just sat and thought for a couple minutes.

         Jacob just sat and pet the dog as the sun slowly crept up into the morning sky. Jacob looked back over at the wall, staring at what he had done, when something caught his eye. As the sun peered through the hole from the outside, a dull metal surface was illuminated inside the wall. Jacob slowly got off the bed and walked over to the hole in the wall. He picked up the hatchet and knocked some loose timbers out of the wall so he could fit his hands into the place where the box was. Finally, he was able to grab the box. He brushed off the dust and noticed the word "MILLER" was engraved into the top of the box. There was a lock on the front of the box, but the rusty safety device was no match for Jacob's axe.

         Opening the box, Jacob revealed a bunch of old, faded papers. They were ancient stock and bond certificates that were issued to Aaron Miller. "These would be worth millions of dollars today," Jacob thought to himself. Next, Jacob found an old photograph of what he guessed to be the Miller family. He could see Aaron and Kathy, who looked disturbingly like the ghostly figures he had seen in his dreams. There was an infant in the photo too. Both Aaron and Kathy Miller looked somewhat familiar to him, but the baby didn't.

         There were still a couple of pieces of paper left at the bottom of the box. Jacob pulled them out. There were three birth certificates. The first was for Aaron Miller. The second one was made out to Kathy Phillips, which he assumed was Kathy Miller; however, when Jacob saw the print on the final certificate, a chill ran down his spine. The last birth certificate read: "Jacob Miller. DOB: 5-23-1980".



         The Old Miller House was never haunted again.