[sylvanSpider]

It was dark and cold, not that he could feel it. He hadn't been able to feel the cold, or any warmth for that matter, for a very long time. He could only see, and what he saw was the same thing he always saw. Sheets that were once white covered the furniture and dust covered them in an unmarred blanket that were as thick as the sheets themselves. Cobwebs long abandoned collected more of it in the corners, clinging to chandeliers and in between chair legs, in the cabinets and on the counters. It seemed, too, to stay suspended in the air caught up in the faint rays of light spilling in from the ardent street light, drifting, drifting, drifting only to join the masses on any given surface in the entire house.

The house was empty except for the dust. And him, of course. Benjamin was always there, watching it settle and unable to disturb it. As far as he could see, he'd always be here watching the world on the outside evolve with the times as he yet lingered in these unchanging halls. None had so much as touched the front door for years. No, decades. It had been decades now, he assumed. It had to be. He'd seen the children across the street grow from children to teenagers, teenagers to adults who would visit when the lights were strung up on the houses of the street. Well, every house but his. His would be vacant, except for him of course, and the dust. They were the two constants, and he saw it all.

The last here, he could remember came in 1977. That at least, he could glean from the calendar they put up above the desk with marked and circled dates or mutterings under breath. They were a couple wanting to start a family. In and out at different times of the day, he watched. Attempts at communication, of course, were made. But they were in vain, and ultimately lead to the further abandonment of the home, and he with it.

Now there was nothing to do but wait. Wait for someone else to come and find him, help him. Wait for the house to be demolished and see what happens then, if he'd get stuck or be freed. Hopefully the latter, as the house being demolished began to look more and more likely. Fingers crossed, Benjamin supposed.

[Crystalkitsune85]

The drive was a long, boring, and tiring one. She was relocating herself to an old house that her grandmother left her. Her mother and father had died in a car accident a few years earlier, and her grandmother passed just a few months ago. She was willed the house her mother grew up in as a kid, but when she got married and her grandmother wasn't able to take care of the house or herself anymore, it was abandoned. It was in perfect shape, it was just dirty and needed to be cleaned. A house was a house, and it was free so who was she to complain about a little tidying up?

Once she pulled up the driveway and put her car into park, she turned off the motor and got out. She noticed that the outside definately would need painting, but everything seemed to be in decent shape. No holes in the roof, no broken windows. Whomever watched after this house while it was empty did a good job of keeping it from being vandalized.

She pulled the keys out of her pocket for the front door and unlocked it. She was told this house had been in the family for centuries. Before that when it was first built in the 1800's the house belonged to a wealthy banker, who had lost his son in a brutal murder. His case was never solved, and his family moved away and her ancestors moved in.

She stepped in, and let her eyes adjust to the dark. All of the curtains were drawn, keeping the light out. She walked to the windows and pulled open the curtains to light up the rooms. Dust. It was everywhere. She heaved a sigh and saw how dusty and cobwebby everything was. She'd have her work cut out for her.

[sylvanSpider]

The morning that the door opened was a morning that Benjamin would never forget. After so long in the darkness the blinds were opened with a cloud of dust and rays of light came spilling in. That was the first thing Benjamin noticed, the light. He'd spent so long in the darkness, he'd almost forgotten how beautiful the sunlight was. When he felt a particular need to see the sun, he'd have to drift to the attic maneuver around the mountains of boxes and look through this tiny little window that peered over across the street. The blinds, too, offered little consolation—one was missing a piece that he could look through if need be.

He followed the sound of footsteps to the entry way and saw what was, in essence, his new roommate. ((I'd insert a physical description here, but I don't have anything to go off of, so we'll just say he was baffled at her beauty xD)) Benjamin blinked once, and then again just to be sure. The woman who stood before him was staggeringly beautiful. Certainly, her garb was strange, but it'd been strange for decades. It was...different...than the last people who had occupied the home, but perhaps she was just a product of the times—times that Benjamin Wright had been left out of. It was the first time he'd seen a human this close.

He decided to watch.

[Crystalkitsune85]

April brought in some cleaning supplies she had and began sweeping and dusting the living room. She got hot as she cleaned so she pulled her brown hair into a ponytail and resumed working. She opened some of the windows to help air out the room. She checked the lights to see if they worked and to no avail. She sighed because that meant she'd have to call the electric company to get the electricity turned back on before she would have lights.

a friend she had to help her pack her things from her apartment would be here early tomorrow with the U-haul truck and would help her move her things in. She had the majority of the day today to clean what she could so the furniture could be moved in. She also was left some money from her grandmother so that'd pay for anything else she'd need. The place had a fridge, but it was old and needed to be replaced. The stove looked okay so she'd wait on that. No Microwave so she'd need one of those. She'd have to make a list later of what she would need once her stuff got there.

[sylvanSpider]

Everywhere this beautiful auburn haired woman went, light soon followed. The dust fought valiantly, but ultimately where she was determined to get rid of it, she succeeded. Benjamin followed her about, watching as she swept and wiped things down. He could almost smell the chemicals she used to get rid of it all.

She moved to the kitchen area. When he was a boy, this was one of his favorite places to be. He had a favorite maid, of course, and he could remember the cookie jar that sat atop the cooling box. She would always reach up to it if he'd been particularly nice that day and sneak him the treats while his father and mother weren't looking. He could remember sitting at the island on one of the bar stools kicking his six year old legs, rather than simply letting them dangle, with his head bent over one book or another. Through his education, he'd proven to be the top of his class with a keen aptitude for the written arts. Plays were his forte, and his teachers, as well as Miss Sarah the maid, were his biggest fans.

She'd stayed with the Wrights into his adulthood, and was one of the three to evacuate the house after his murder. Gods, how he missed that woman. She was his greatest confidant and became the sole heiress to their fortune when his parents followed him to their graves. All the better, he could remember thinking, it rest in good hands. Now, his home fell into new hands and he hoped the woman would help him pass on, though exactly how he wasn't sure.

As the auburn haired beauty went about his work, he continued watching, taking a seat on one of the countertops unable to pull out a seat for himself given his current situation.

[sylvanSpider]

((Shit shit shit. I opened this one and put the post I was writing in a word doc for the other one! I'll fix it right away! I'm sorry! xD))

((Edit: Got it fixed so if you are just now looking at this, uh...pay this no mind. If you saw my mistake before, I humbly beg your forgiveness.))

[Crystalkitsune85]

(( The MAID did it! Sorry couldn't resist lol))

April tackled the living room of the dust monsters and then went to the kitchen. She cleaned counters and swept floors. Mopping would come after the initial surface dirt was gone. She still had the dining room, the bathroom, and a study downstairs plus three rooms, another bathroom, a library upstairs as well as an attic and basement. The basement would be the last thing she did, since she hated them. Too many horror movies were based off basements so she avoided them like the plague.

Oddly enough as she worked she got the eerie feeling that she was being watched, but nobody was around. She peered around the outsides of the house through windows and saw nobody so she shrugged it off and kept working.

She would work until the wee hours of the night until she was just too exhausted to work anymore. She had started a fire going in the fireplace in the living room since she had no other way of heating the house until the electricity was turned on. She had taken a break earlier that day to call the electric company to have them turn it on, and their response was it'd be turned on in three days. Yay. So it was food from takeout, and a fireplace and candles for light until then.

She was curled up in her sleeping bag, sitting in PJs as she munched on some Chinese food she had delivered. She stuck the chopsticks into the empty carton and yawned. She checked her cell phone and got texts from her friend who said he'd be there around noon tomorrow. She shut her phone off, to save the battery and then went to sleep shortly thereafter.

[sylvanSpider]

(((**Cough,cough**Ah, the seeds they are a'planting! I'm feeling this one a lot more, so thank you for working with me on this!!)))

Benjamin followed her throughout the day, curiously watching and waiting to see what changes she would pursue. She'd only scratched the surface of the home, and she rarely touched the basement. It was a pity. In life, he rarely went to the basement. Only the cooks or maids went down there as it was merely an extra storage. The wine, too, was kept down there but in his youth he never enjoyed it and that same distaste lingered into his adulthood. Now, in death, he would almost be willing to kill to get a taste of the bitter alcohol if only to feel something again.

The Beauty was tenacious in her endeavors, and he was eager to see what she would do with the current furnishings. Much of what was in the house had seen both his childhoods and the childhoods of a family that lived here long before, used and reused but still kept in pristine condition despite their age. There were a couple of secret rooms that he anticipated even the newest to the household would never find, rooms that worked as an escape for him in life. They held his journals, leatherbound books whose contents had never been seen save by his eyes alone and could never be revisited so long as he was a ghost. Some part of him wished she would find them, help her see him...maybe. But that secret room, his secret room was hard to find. The last family never found it, and he suspected this sole dweller would continue the trend.

He glided up to where she sat, careful to keep his distance enough that the Beauty would not feel the chill that seemed to follow him and permeate the rest of the house. The food she was eating was strange, and she used chopsticks as he'd heard the orientals did, but he'd never used them and was amazed at the ease of use the Beauty had in operating them. He peered over her shoulder at the texts and realized that another would be joining them the following day.

Sighing, he watched as her eyes closed for the evening and he took his place in an adjacent seat beside the fire. It had been another of his favorite seats in the house, when he felt like being somewhat sociable. Sprawled out on the sofa, book in hand, feeling the warmth of the fire on his cheeks.

All was cold now, however. Even in front of the fire the warmth just couldn't seem to reach him. If he wanted, he could put his hand in the flame and it would amount to the same—absolutely nothing.

[Crystalkitsune85]

She woke up to someone knocking on the front door, the next morning. She sat up and was disoriented as to where she was. She blinked a few times to remember why she was sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag, and then remembered that she was at her new house. There was another knock and she got up and walked to the door to open it.

Her friend was waiting there, the large U-haul parked up front. "Forget I was coming?" he asked with a chuckle. She let him in and she yawned "No, I worked until late and I kept my phone off to preserve the battery. The electricity will be put on tomorrow, thanks to the swift service of the Electric Company. I didn't set an alarm." she explained "Lemme get dressed and I'll help you bring stuff in." she said picking up her stuff off the floor and rolling up the sleeping bag. She had a backpack and she took it into the bathroom with her and changed clothes.

She came back, her hair brushed and pulled up and then she pulled on her shoes, laced them and then started helping bring in the furniture. She had a sofa, that was put in front of the fireplace. She didn't have a TV, most of her entertainment was through her computer which was also in her backpack, but no electricity or internet so no reason to bring it out.

Hours later, they paused with the bringing in of furniture to call for a pizza. They sat around until it showed up, and then they sat and ate a late lunch, early dinner. "This place is huge, what are you going to do with all the spare rooms?" Her friend asked. She shrugged. "I dunno. One of the rooms has some old furniture in it, I may keep them or sell them to collectors depending on their condition. And there's more in the attic. I didn't get to go up there but I poked my head in and there's boxes and trunks to go through." she said. "Maybe some good stuff up there."

[sylvanSpider]

Benjamin was at the door before the Beauty even opened her eyes. He'd heard the footsteps and was simply going mad with boredom knowing another person was coming. However, with Beauty's phone off, if that's what it was, Benjamin was stuck with no method of telling the time save for his new sight out of the house and how high the sun was. The sun was already quite high in the sky when her friend came, and when he saw the said friend, Benjamin couldn't help but chuckle to himself. It seems Beauty has a suitor or two after all...

Benjamin did not, however, follow her when she went to change, nor had he the night before. He was, to be sure, still a gentleman in death, as much as he was in life. Instead, he lingered behind with said masculine friend, perhaps occasionally veering a tad too close sending perhaps, sometimes, sending a chill down his spine—if only to remind him exactly how old this house was.

They used their phones, quite nifty devices as far as Benjamin was concerned, and he watched as they ordered pizza. The last inhabitants of the house were fans of the stuff, though in life he'd never had the pleasure of partaking. It was fairly popular though, so he'd added “never getting to try a slice of pizza” to his list of regrets years ago.

He listened to their conversation intently as he tried to process what the plans for the house were. No plans for remodeling, thankfully, it seemed were in the books. Going through the trunks? Now that was a venture even the last ones never bothered with. A sort of time capsule none had ever bothered to open. That, and his secret room—that one hadn't been touched since he still breathed air. Everything was still right where he'd left it, albeit a little dusty.

Benjamin himself was eager for them to start on that. He wanted to know what lay in there that he'd forgotten. One thing was certain. There were no animals. This much was good. The last had a dog...a dog that seemed to always know where he was...and a dog that helped in ruining his chances for escape.

[Crystalkitsune85]

With pizza consumed and a fair amount of soda, they stuffed the boxes into the trash and then they resumed the bringing in and putting things down in the house. Boxes were stored in the study until they could be unpacked. Pieces of her bed were carried upstairs to the bigger of the three rooms as well as the boxes for her room.

It wasn't until dark when they finished unloading the U-Haul. Her friend would spend the night and then drive it back in the morning. "Thanks a lot for all your help. I definitely am glad for your help," she said hugging him. He hugged her back. "Sadly I don't have another sleeping bag readily available but I think I can get a comforter and a pillow at least. We can crowd in front of the fireplace." she said with a chuckle.

They decided to go out to dinner this time. There were some nice restaurants and fast food places in town and they needed to get out anyway. They ended at a nice sit-down restaurant and ordered burgers and fries.

[sylvanSpider]

Benjamin groaned tilting his head back and sighing. Really? People come here and abandon me in the same blasted breath? He began pacing in the newly cleaned living room, grateful, at the very least, that they left the fire going. But then, what good did it serve him? None. He couldn't feel its warmth. The light it provided was useless as well without pages to gaze at, at least any that he could get to. He took his post at the door to wait for Beauty and Man-friend (as he so lovingly dubbed them) and waited.

Since his death, there were good days and bad days. Some days, he could even go so far as moving something, more often than not opting for a book or two on the shelf, should it chance to fall open, he would have a bit of reading material. Those were the days that if he chanced to see himself in the mirror the blood was gone, his lively hazel eyes would have a glint, the dark circles would be gone.

The other days, though, were the opposite. Should he desire a bit of the written word his hands would pass directly through the book as if he wasn't there. Those days, should he see himself he would have to blink back the blood from his eyes. He could reach to the back of his head and look at bloodied fingertips, viscera leaking down his neck, chunks of hair where the ax hit falling down with a noticeable splat on the floor.

The latter he hadn't had for a few weeks. Things were looking up now that there was an inhabitant. He...he hoped that things were looking up.

[Crystalkitsune85]

They returned a couple hours later. She went over to the fireplace and built it back up, seeing that it died down as they were gone. She stood in front of it once it was roaring again. Her friend (Steven) came up to her and held his hands out to warm them. "It's getting colder at night, I'll be glad for you when your electricity comes back on." he told her. She nodded in agreement. "I hope you can stay warm enough in the blankets, sorry there's not room for two in my sleeping bag." She chuckled.

"I'm sure I'll be fine." he said and nudged her playfully. She grinned and then left the fireplace to grab the blankets and her sleeping bag and put her sleeping bag on the floor and handed him the blankets for the couch.

[sylvanSpider]

Benjamin had stood faithfully at his post, reminding himself of the dog that he had as a boy that would eagerly wait by his own door waiting for his return. Unlike his dog as a boy however, he didn't get walked. Or spoken to. Or loved. He'd been alone and cold for so long he'd nearly forgotten what any of those sensations were like. Oh, how he missed even the windiest of days! He folded his arms and blew his hair out of his eyes watching the two flirt. Ah well, two would probably be easier to attempt communications with than one, so he'd try what he could.

This gave him the perfect reason to...linger...beside Beauty's masculine friend. One thing he'd noticed among the living inhabitants prior to now was that if he got too close, they would feel cold, as if no matter how warm they kept the house there would just be these cold bubbles if Benjamin inhabited a certain space for too long. As such, he didn't feel guilty in making Steven? Was that what he was called? He didn't feel guilty in making him at least a little uncomfortable.

Today, as far as he was concerned, was a good day. He'd managed to move another book off the shelf and read the two open pages entirely too quickly. But, the point was that today was one of those days that he could potentially...communicate.

[Crystalkitsune85]

Steven felt a small draft coming from where he was standing, as he was making up the couch. "Hey April, seems you got a draft around here. There's some cold air right here next to me." he said. April got to her feet to feel the cold air and she shivered. "Oh how odd. I didn't feel this earlier when we moving things in." she observed. "I guess I'll have to bring a roofer out here to check for any leaks or holes up on the roof." she said testing the cold air in front of her. "Hmm."

Steven then got a brilliantly evil idea and grinned. "Or you know, it could be a ghost." he teased. "I heard they give off cold air when they float around. This is an old house, maybe it's haaaaaaunted." he said moaning out like a ghost. April punched him in the arm. "Stop it you jerk," she said with mock anger. He just giggled like an idiot.

[sylvanSpider]

Benjamin could almost see the goosebumps prickling Steven's skin and the thought made him giddy. Yes, this might be it! Benjamin made himself comfortable, or at the very least, as comfortable as a ghost could beside Steven. No, no. Not a draft. A ghost, you dunderhead, a ghost! He tapped his chin thinking that maybe hiring a roofer might give her incentive to go through the boxes in the attic (he was quite curious to see what was up there himself).

Yes, yes! That's it! I am! I am indeed a ghost! This place is, in fact, quite haunted! By me! A ghost! He butt his fist against Steven's shoulder assuming that he wouldn't feel it, and sat back scowling when he realized that neither of the two of them were actually being serious. He'd have to try harder. But, patience was key, and Benjamin had nothing but time. He'd ramp it up slowly, slowly but quite noticeably. Yes, that is what he'd do. Hopefully they'd be clever enough to realize that he was not only there, but also not malicious.