Jasmin's House

Jasmin’s House 

The house had an eerie feeling as the thunderstorm roared outside. Lightning flashed through the windows as Jasmin walked around. She couldn’t believe her older sister and two younger brothers wanted to sell this place. She loved it here. However, since her mother passed away, they were talking about selling and splitting the profits. She had other ideas, she wanted to stay here. This house has always been her home.  

“Hello,” she yelled throughout the house.  

A smashing sound came from the kitchen. Jumping at the sound, she warily made her way into the kitchen. A woman with her back to her leaning down to pick up the pieces of a jar off the floor. As the woman turned around, Jasmin’s eyes widened. 

“Oh, Doreen, I didn’t know anyone else was here. How long have you been here?” 

Doreen was the oldest of the 4 of them.  

Straightening back up to her 5’8 stature, “I didn’t know anyone was here either. That’s why I dropped the jar”, she said throwing the remnants of the jar into the trash.  

Pushing her short black hair back off of her forehead, I always loved to cook in this kitchen with Mom as we made meals for the holidays. Remember the German potato salad, we all used to fight over?” 

“That was my favorite dish of all,” Jasmin melancholy stated. 

“Yes, we all knew that which is why we made double as you would fill your plate with just that,” she said laughing. 

Slow moving footsteps could be heard coming down the staircase. Jasmin and Doreen exchanged glances. 

“Are one of the boys here?” Jasmin asked. 

Doreen shrugged. 

Thunder banged shaking the house to its core when Zack appeared at the bottom step. He was the oldest of the two boys. 

Lightning flashed across his face as Jasmin and Doreen gasped.  

“Zack! When did you get here?” Jasmin questioned. 

“A while ago. I’ve been checking out the bedrooms. They’ll going to need a lot of work before we sell this place. I guess Mom really couldn’t keep up with the repairs after Dad passed away.” 

“Yeah, well, I was thinking,” Jasmin hesitantly stated.  

“Yes, we know what you were thinking and the answer is NO!” Zack firmly stated.  

“You need to move on from this house. You’ve been here too long as it is,” Doreen agreed. 

Jasmin sighed as Doreen and Zack exchanged glances. 

“Look, we don’t want to be harsh, but you’re better off if you leave here. There are better places for you besides this rundown house.” Doreen said as she put her arm around her shoulder trying to console her.  

Zack shook his head as he headed down to the basement. Doreen and Jasmin followed him. A musty smell filled their nostrils as they descended the steps to see boxes all over the floor space.  

“This is going to take some time, looking through this stuff,” Zack commented as he headed into the garage.  

There sitting in one of the old beach chairs was Brent sipping on a beer can, the youngest of the foursome. 

“Brent! It figures you would be down here,” Zack stated. 

“Yeah, I was looking through Dad’s old tools.” 

“Well, it’s a good thing Mom didn’t get rid of them as we’re going to need them to fix up this house before we sell it,” Doreen said. 

“Sell it, I thought we were here to....” 

Zack and Doreen gave him a look that stopped him in mid-sentence.  

“Oh, yeah, right! Sorry guys I forgot.” 

Jasmin glanced between Zack and Doreen and wondered what Brent meant to say. Maybe they were considering letting her stay here. She could fix up this place the way she wanted.  A whole house to herself.  

“Anyway, remember the last time we were all together,” Zack said. 

“Yeah, it was the night of that concert. It was a horrible rainy night, just like the weather we’re having now,” Doreen commented. “I still don’t know how we avoided the head on collision with that truck. He was heading right for us, she said looking at Jasmin. “Remember?” 

“Uh huh,” Jasmin nodded.  

“How did we get out of that? Zack asked Jasmin.  

“I don’t know! Can we talk about something else? I don’t like thinking about that night!” 

Brent looked at Doreen and Zack with a knowing.  

“This isn’t going to be that easy, guys! So, there’s a leak back behind those boxes. A new roof is probably going to be needed,” he said getting up and walking towards the boxes.  

A creaking sound could be heard above them.  

“Is someone else here? Did you two already get a realtor?” Jasmin questioned as she hurried from the garage to go upstairs.  

Upon entering the living room, she didn’t see anybody.  

“Is anybody here?” she yelled up the stairs.  

Walking back to the basement door, she yelled down, “Nobody is up here. Are you guys coming back up?” 

No answer.  

An echo of voices could be heard coming from the walls. She thought it was the next-door neighbor, but the voices seem to be surrounding her. She whipped around every way and saw no one.  

“You have to remember,” a voice whispered.  

“What?”  

She ran back down to the basement into the garage and nobody was there.  

“Doreen?.... Zack?..... Brent?” 

Where did they go, she thought.  

“We’ll still here!” 

“Where?” 

“Here!” 

She walked to the boxes where Brent had gone to check the leak and only his beer can sat on the floor.  

“Well, this would be nice for someone to see if they’re interested in the house,” she said bending over to pick up the can.  

When her hand went right through it, she yelled.  

“What the hell?” 

Turning she saw a sea of faces, some were familiar and others weren’t. 

Racing through the faces, she darted back upstairs to the living room.  

“This place is haunted, maybe I should leave here.” 

She heard Zack laughing but he was nowhere to be seen. 

“Now she thinks the house is haunted when it's her haunting the place,” Doreen sarcastically said.  

“Doreen? Where are you? Stop playing games you guys.” 

She went to go out to the porch when car lights came through the picture window at her. All she heard was screams. Jasmin threw her arm up over her eyes. 

“Now do you remember the night of the crash?” Brent asked.   

“We were killed on impact! We never made it to the concert or back home that night. Well, I should say...... you made it back home!" Zack stated. 

“You have been stuck here this whole time. It wasn’t until Mom crossed over that we could confront you,” Doreen softly said.  

“Stuck here?” 

“Yeah, you never left this house. Think about it, how did you get here today?” Brent asked.  

Jasmin thought for a moment and she realized she has always been here.  

“Oh my god! You’re right.” 

“Are you ready to go?” Zack asked. 

“Where to?” 

“Anywhere you want. The universe is your oyster,” Brent said grasping her around the shoulder and leading her out of the house.