I went to a family reunion about three years ago in New Jersey. My aunt lives in Point Pleasant and she got permission from this lady who owns a house my aunt takes care of, to host the party there. You see all of my relatives but this aunt are from out of state. (although they used to live in NJ when my parents were growing up) So all the aunts, uncles, and kids packed their stuff and went to N.J. for this big reunion/50th wedding anniversary (my grandparents'). I only know a little about this house. My aunt likes to tease me by telling me only little stories about what happens there. The house is old (it still had servants quarters in the basement and enough rooms for my whole family of 7 aunt/uncle couples and some 30 grandkids). It has four stories if you include the basement/servants' quarters. My bedroom was a small cubby on the main floor, just off the living room.

My brother and I came down late from PA because I had drama practice after school and couldn't miss it. The rest of my family was already there. As soon as my rather stoic older brother entered the house he seemed uneasy. I thought it was just because there were so many people under one roof and he's not over-fond of family gatherings. We exchanged polite chit-chat with our relatives for a while then went to bed.

The next morning my brother asked me if I wanted to go home early, that afternoon in fact. I told him no, it was my first vacation in a long time and I didn't want to cut it short. He shrugged and said he was leaving around two or three. (This struck me as odd at the time but I didn't think much of it. You must understand that my house is 3 1/2 hours from where we were and my brother didn't really like driving alone on the parkway, 'cause it's hard to find the right exits and so on.) After my brother had asked me if I wanted to leave my cousins (who were about 9 or so) came over and asked me if I would go upstairs with them so they could get their books. Now this was really weird, at the time I wasn't overly fond of my cousins and their room was on the next floor up at the top of the stairs, not in some dark corner of the basement. I tried to find out why they wanted me to escort them but they just avoided the question and looked really nervous. I figured I would have to go with them or else they'd be bugging me about it for the rest of the day. So, off we went up the stairs. The stairs have a landing from which you could see the hall, their door was just out of view. The two went behind me up the stairs as if using me for a human shield and at the landing I stopped. I told them I was tired of their charade and that I'd wait for them on the landing. They said that if I didn't go all the way up the stairs neither would they. So we continued on. All this time I'm starting to get a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. I really didn't want to go up the rest of the stairs. But my little cousins were there and I had no good reason to go back, so in order to appear to be the brave and worldly teenager I thought I was I escorted them to their door. I waited in the hall as the two raced inside to get their books. All the time I kept thinking there was someone watching me from the room at the end of the hall to my right. I turned but no one was there. From what I could see the room was empty. So I waited. It was the longest few minutes of my life. I couldn't leave the two kids up there but something was watching me from the room on my right and they weren't happy. It also felt like who/whatever was getting closer. I watched the room. Nothing was there. For a second I thought that my cousins were playing a trick on me, but there was no way they could think up something like this. Besides they were just as freaked out. I stood my ground outside the door all the time willing the kids to hurry. Without a word the pair came flying out of the room and were down the stairs in a flash. I was right on their heels. I'm not proud of this fact but whatever it was, was mighty close to the stairs, our only exit, and I was not happy with the prospect of being cut off from escape. By the time we got to the main floor I was chiding myself for being so silly, there was nothing there. My imagination was just fueled by two silly kids in a strange house. That wasn't the case though. I also encountered cold spots in the basement of the house where there was a room with a ping-pong table. It was so bad that all us kids would go out the back door and up the outside steps just to avoid the corridor.

A few months later I had gone down to my grandparents' house with my mom because my grandfather was sick. I was sitting at the table with my grandmother, my mom, and two aunts (one of which was the one who had organized the reunion.) Suddenly my aunt sue turned to aunt triche, from NJ, and said "I can't believe you did that." Aunt Triche started to laugh. My mom and grandmother looked uncomfortable. I asked what was going on. Aunt Triche explained. The house we had the reunion in was haunted by the ghosts of two brothers who killed each other in a fight. Apparently my Aunt Triche put Aunt Sue in the room where the murders took place. Which, of course, was the room at the end of the hallway to the right. Apparently my maternal family is sensitive to spirits and such and the ghosts wanted us kids to know we were not welcome. Other things have happened in that house according to my Aunt but she won't tell me what things. She says I have to come see for myself. I'm not sure if I really want to go back, but I guess I have to, I'm much to curious to stay away.