Hiller House

HILLER HOUSE

Jeff Grant groaned as he left the classroom where he´d just had English with Miss Giles. The young teacher had decided that since Halloween was just around the corner, the students would spend two weeks researching Lone Creek´s rich supernatural history, and then write a four page essay on the subject that had been chosen for them. Jeff got Hiller House.
Hiller House was named after the woman who once lived there- Helena Hiller- who had been burned as a witch after several of the towns´ young men had disappeared, and had been found buried in her garden. The bodies were all perfectly preserved- even the ones that were several years in their graves- except for one thing. They were all missing their eyes.
“ Great!” Jeff huffed.” I don´t even believe in this stuff, and I have to sit in a stuffy library for ages reading about it! As if I don´t have better things to do.”
He walked down the hall to get to his girlfriend Amy´s classroom, thinking that if he asked her nicely she would probably do the essay for him, when he was pushed to the side by somebody bumping into him.
“ Hey, watch it!”
“ I´m sorry.”
Jeff looked up and saw Jasmine Hart, the school freak, who sat behind him in English.. Jasmine was heavily into supernatural stuff, and with her long red hair, pale skin and flowing black dresses, she looked like a vampire.
“ Maybe you should look where you´re going the next time,” Jeff said.
“ Somebody pushed me,” Jasmine answered with her deep, almost whispering voice.
“ I´m sure they had a reason,” he smirked and turned away from her.
“ I wanted to ask you something!”
Jeff turned around, making sure to look annoyed by her mere existence.
“ What?”
“ Well, I was thinking that maybe I could help you with your essay.”
“ Why would I want your help?”
“ I know everything about Hiller House.”
Jeff thought for a minute. If he accepted, he would get an A on his essay and he wouldn´t have to miss out on seeing Amy.
“ OK,” he nodded.
“ Great,” Jasmine said, her deep green eyes glittering. “ You´re gonna have to meet me at the house, though.”
“ But you´re gonna do the essay, so why do I have to go to that old dump?”
“ Because Miss Giles is bound to ask you some questions, and if you don´t go there and see it for yourself, you won´t be able to answer them. She´ll know you´ve cheated.”
“ OK, fine! When?”
“ Today, after school. I´ll meet you there.”
“ Sure.”
Jasmine looked at him with that weird little half- smile she had, then she turned around and walked off.



A little after five that afternoon, Jeff stood outside Hiller House. It was a medium sized cottage with a nice little garden in the front. Nothing spooky looking about it. It actually looked like something your grandmother would live in.
“ Hi.”
Suddenly, Jasmine was next to him. Where did she come from?
“ Hi,” he answered.” So, this is it, huh? Not very scary looking.”
Jasmine gave him a look, again with the half- smile, then she walked up to the front door.



“ Are you coming?”
“ We´re going in? Isn´t that trespassing, or something?”
“ The door is open,” Jasmine said and pushed open the door.” What´s the matter, Jeff? Are you scared?”
That got Jeff going. No way he was gonna let a freak like her call him a wimp!
“ No, I´m not scared!” he said, pushing past her .
Inside, the house looked completely different. There wasn´t much furniture- only a round table with three chairs, a rocking chair by the fireplace, and three bookshelves. Looking closer at the bookshelves, Jeff saw that instead of books, they were filled with different sized bottles, and glass jars with contents he didn´t really want to know about. On the mantelpiece were ten glass jars. They contained the eyes of Helena Hiller´s victims.
“ Yeah, as if they´re real!” Jeff laughed, pointing at the jars.
“ Everything in here is real, and just as Helena Hiller left it,” Jasmine said, stroking one of the jars with her forefinger.
“ It can´t be! That all happened, like, a hundred years ago, so how could it all be in such good shape?”
“ Ever heard of magic?”
“ Yeah, right!”
Jasmine´s face was blank as she looked at him, then she smiled.
“ OK, I´m only kidding,” she said.” Come on, let´s get some work done. We can sit over here.”
They sat down at the table, and Jasmine took out some lemonade from her bag for them to drink while she told him the story of Hiller House.
“ You forgot to tell me one thing,” Jeff said when she finished.” How did she kill all those guys?”
Jasmine smiled her half-smile again.
“ She lured them into the house, and poisoned them by giving them some home-made lemonade.”