Veronica Amber had no recollection of her first encounter with the wisps that came as inconspicuous and unexpected, like flurries of indoored dust that float and fly when bathed by a sheen of sunlight. At the beginning of their residence at three fifteen Copacitic Lane, just before their street transitioned into the main road in town. Her home knew a time when it was vacant of the whisps, and the only specters filling the inside of their projections from the old films that her father
would display on dark velvet walls of the house. The walls of their victorian used to hold no haunting tendrils of their existence. The hallways heard no shrills or cuttle walls from a life silenced by death, and the marble floor of their historic home at one point had less of a tendency to send shivers up one's another reagions and into the spine. The whisps were invisible inhabitants of their home, but to the rest of the world they were simply called ghosts.
Veronica Amber's acquaintance with them was far from the horror filled nonsense she'd read about in books. And watched in movies. For the more the whists made themselves known to her, the more annoyed she became. It seemed they were always around, causing mischief, popping out at the most inconvenient times, and filling her ears with macab groans in the dark in an attempt to inflict fear into her soul when she only wanted to have a good night's sleep. And since
then she had scarcely known a moment's peace. Veronica Amber, or Vam, as she liked to be called, awoke on Halloween morning with an abrupt opening of her eyes. She lay on her back in her attic room, watching
the warmth of the dawning sun changed the color of her slanted ceiling. She heard a shuffling of feet, moved her eyes to the foot of the bed, and there stood a lady Wisp looking at her with a cocked head, her spaghetti strands of hair falling onto a ghostly shoulder where the clavicle and humorous were exposed underneath decayed and stretched out torn skin. This particular wisp never bothered Vam like the others did, but the gaze she gave her always made her
feel uncomfortable. Because she knew the apparition was trying to say something through those glassy, unblinking eyes. Perhaps it was due to the dislocated jaw and missing tongue that kept her from saying what was on her mind, but regardless, Vam had no time to feel sorry for something that had the same design as a fart in the wind. It's Halloween today, Peprika, Vam said, lifting her head from the pillow and using her elbows to hold her up as
she faced the wisp. A Van named all the wisps after spices, and Peprika happened to fit this specific one. Not only that, but it's my last time as host now that I'm eighteen. After this, I'm relieved of all duties. Vam gave a quick stretched and moved her body into a sitting position on the side of her bed. She felt the moist hot fogs around her feet, and when she looked down, she glanced at the open mouth of a Reggano, an older wisp who was bodiless and used as old man
head to roll around their home. His gurgly, foaming mouth was stretched wide in an expression that would make any normal humans soil themselves and fright. His crackly lips clung around Vam's feet, leaving strands of ghostly saliva on her ankles. Vam rolled her eyes and wiggled her toes, visible through the rotted eyelids of his head, and she kicked him, making him vanish into nothing.
You're disgusting, she muttered, moving toward the bathroom. Before she reached the toilet time, a young boy, Whisp, who looked about six or seven, popped up from the floor and shrieked like a band sheh. She gasped more from the suddenness of it than from fright as his face collided into hers, and before she had a moment to swat him away, he disappeared.
Time was the one who bothered her the most in as many endeavors to frighten her, and failing to do so, it made him the one she also felt closest to, almost like a little annoying brother, but with maggots crawling out of his nose and ears. It was in the alone hours of the morning that Vam felt the most connected to the house. Her parents, who taught night classes at Nick's University, remained asleep for the majority of the day and It was in their solitude that she learned to speak to the house.
Just one touch to a chimney stone or a beam of wood was enough for the house to remind and speak to her about how it was before their wisps had occupied the space. She would get images of her mother and father, and their pale faces contrasted with the black exterior of the home. The oldest and most abandoned neglected house on Copasetic Lane was the one they had imprinted on.
Could it be genetics? Her father, Professor Victor Ambrose Prior asked one night during dinner over his stake Flambay, many years ago, when VAM had confided in him about the wisps. When we adopted you, we knew at some point your health would become a source of worry for us. He said, well, that is a possibility, my dear, but we must also
not real out the screen time. Her mother, doctor Vivian Amelia Prior, had said, placing a cold paled hand on Vam's forehead, that new iPad we got you for Christmas has become a bit of an addiction for you, darling. Are you sure you aren't hallucinating these images? A young Vam had smiled at them, half lovingly and half disappointed. That her parents couldn't see the wisps, she shook her head. No, mother, I'm not imagining
them there as real as you and I father. I can touch them, I can smell them, but when I try to scream, they disappear. At this point, being scared isn't an option. I just want them to leave me alone. Her mother's plumb, lipstick stained mouth formed a sympathetic frown. I'm so sorry, dearest, I wish there was something we could do to make it go away. That had been many years ago, and since then numerous whisps had appeared to her, as real and as vexatious as ever,
for better or for worse, but not for long. Come springtime, when Van was due to graduate, she'd leave her home seething with whisps, to start a new life and leave the nest, a phrase her father despised and regarded with contempt pishposh. He always said when that phrase was uttered. We aren't eagles, for goodness sake, So I want no more talk about leaving nest and whatnot. I am my darling. I couldn't be prouder of
the person that you become and the one you are yet to be. And like any father, I'm disconsolate at the idea of seeing you go, but exhilarated at the prospects that await you. Not flesh of our flesh, nor blood of our blood, but once you were handed into our arms, the darling child with the eyes as dark as coal, who appeared to us as a stranger, suddenly became the most beloved daughter. A most beloved daughter rang
in Vam's head, and she dressed herself for the day. In the mirror, a young girl, Wisp, who Vam had named Coryander manifested herself beside Vam. She opened her mouth and let out a shrill scream that penetrated the ear drums with a searing intensity, and Vam covered her ears, but ignored her, and quickly placing a clip on her hair, before making her way downstairs to finish the preparation for the night's Halloween party. A most beloved daughter,
she thought to herself again, and a most beloved host. And when Vam was a young girl, shortly after the priors had adopted her, she was given the responsibility of hosting a Halloween evening in their home. Mommy and Daddy have to sleep, dearest and can only join later in the evening. Once we awaken, who will be there to entertain our guests. Well, that is where you come in, said her mother. But I'm only a child, Van had objected. Well, that works to ir advantage, darling.
Her mother had said, kneeling to her level and pressing her pale forehead to Vam's, they are more likely to trust you, and so they did. Every Halloween evening, the priors would appoint Van to welcome guests and passing trick or treaders to their home. At the beginning, guests would question her on the whereabouts of her parents, to which Van would reply, no worries,
they're resting and we'll be with you shortly For dinner. In the kitchen, Van started the hor d'oeuvres, baked brye made to look like mommy and She's and cracker platter with bat and jack o lanern cutouts, a bowl of checks mix and candy for a monster munch, and guacamole with vegetables arranged to look like the face of a witch. It was all coming together, and it was still hours to go until lunch time. By the time it was
sundown, Vam had decorated and set the food in the dining room. A meat loaf shape to resemble the anatomy of a human body was left cooling on the counter when she went upstairs to change, and she opted for a simple black dress that hugged her slender frame. And putting on the final touches of her makeup, she heard a wheezing echoy sound behind the curtain of her shower. Pushing the curtain back, Time jumped at her, squealing and laughing as
she went through her body and exited out the bathroom door another wisp. A young looking male around Vam's age stood staring at her underneath shower head. A harsh cut to the throat revealed a sliced trachea Vam's side and crossed her arms. Do you think you can keep it down, Nutmeg? Our guests are due to arrive soon, and the wheezing is distracting. Nutmeg said nothing but
nodded, watching Vam rolled her tube of lipstick back in. You're lucky, you're a handsome one, even more of a looker, before Van turned back to him, her hand on the light switch of the bathroom, you know. She used her index finger to swipe under her throat in a slashing manner. The sound of the doorbell below made Van return to her responsibilities, and with a clap of her hand, she turned off the light and clambered down
the stairs, remembering the meat loaf and placing it on the table. Before reaching the entrance, she stopped in the fourrier, where above the grinning candlelit jack O lantern hung pictures of the hosts that came before her, The other priors, her sisters, the sisters she had never met, the sisters who had left to start a new life at eighteen once the new host was chosen, just like she would in the springtime, the sisters who had taken the
same vow their parents had taken when they were each adopted into the family. We will take care of you if you will take care of us, they had said. None of the previous prior daughters had been hosts at three fifteen Copasetic Lane, when their nomadic parents state to claim on the property, Vam had been the first one. With each passing year of Vam's life, she was slowly coming to terms with the truth about why the wisps were part of
their home and why they were visible only to her. Vam doesn't remember her first encounter with a wisp, but she remembers when Pepperica, who in her previous life was called Monica, entered in her fleshly human form as a guest in their home. And Oreganea, who was once mister Frank's her English teacher time, used to be Spencer, a classmate she would play with in elementary school, and was the first guest she entertained in her first year as a
host. Nutmeg was a package delivery worker who thought Vam looked rather pretty standing on the porch of her house and her black dress. Last Halloween. He went up the steps to introduce himself and entered, and unbeknownst to him that he would not be coming back out. The whisps were who they were because they had all made the decision to be guests at three fifteen Copacetic Lane. What bound them together other than death was their decision to trust Vam. Another
ring of the doorbell sounded in the fourier coming. Vam called out, straightening her dress. Opening the door, she came face to face with a group of tricker treaters, young and old friend groups and families. No one wanted to miss out on the opportunity to sneak a peek inside the old, creepy Victorian house that sat like a tempting siren on copacetic Lane. Hello, she
exclaimed, putting on an unnaturally inviting grin as she opened a door. We've got candy for your buckets, and if you'd like to stay, we have snacks and food. We hope you can join us for a while this evening. Stepping aside, she allowed the group of guests to walk into the fourrier, directing them with her arm toward the parlor in the formal dining room.
A murmur of excitement washed over the crowd, and they stepped over each other and pushed bodies away to be the first one to explore the house, and within a few minutes, the parlor was full of guests, socializing with each other, stuffing their faces with VAM snacks and cooked meals, and taking pictures with their phones of the interior of the house and ooing and eyeing like museum
lovers. VAM stood and watched the energy that filled the room, and, with no friends or relatives to invite over the prior house was for the most part empty and deprived of visitors. Halloween night was the only time when people wilfully lighted themselves over without arousing suspicion. Outsiders who saw the crowd beckoning to the front door of the prior house didn't have to think twice about coming to a conclusion to explain the number of people entering the abode. It's Halloween,
they'd say, with a shrug. Halloween's for friends and strangers to come and knocking a perfect cover up. As many of the moocher played in the room, causing an uproar with people singing along. Vam slinked away from the parlor and ambled over to a door leading to the basement. Pitch black darkness swallowed up any traces of the light from the main floor. As she squinted in her eyes to see what was below. Father, mother, she called out quietly, it's time to wake up. Our guests are here. The early
bat catches the worm. She heard a stirring in the darkness, and then heard her father speak Hello, darling, as the black tarp laid out in the parlor. Yes, sir, every year I get compliments about the noise that it makes when they walk on top of it, But no grievances from this group so far. They're a pretty good crowd. Not a drop of blood will make its way to the marble floors and the doorbell, camera and
projector. Have you tested that out? It works like a charm. I tried it earlier in the projection of myself passing the sidewalk and coming up the steps was reversed perfectly to make it look like I came back down. Anyone watching our home, we'll see our guests leave after the evening is over. Her mother spoke, now, have you prepared the needles and the collection bags? Yes, mother, they're beside the plastic bends that hold the peroxide and
bleach and enzymes solvents we use for clean up. All the backup freezers have been up and running since this morning. I counted at least forty people who arrived. Once we break apart like ants, it should be enough to fit everyone without taking up space in the basement. It's quite a bit of burgers and steak flambeys ready for us to enjoy for another year. I hope we have more o negatives than we did last Halloween. The flavor, and the
sauces we made just wasn't the same without their kick. Her father gave out a dark chuckle. Should we wear the things I got for us three years ago? My love? He spoke to his wife. Why ever would we want to do that? She responded. Vam couldn't see her father shrug, but felt him do so. It's Halloween. If the people want to see Count Dracula, then who am I to deny them that pleasure? They'll be busy screaming, Dearest Veronica Amber. Has everyone sipped their refreshments, Vam nodded
yes. Mother. In about three minutes, the anesthetic solution will take full effect. If you and father want to make a show of your entrance, it had better be quick before you lose them. Well, that's a good girl, and now run along and see that our guests are enjoying. The party will be there very soon. Vam closed the door and walked to the kitchen. She opened a drawer that held all the knives she had used in previous years. She grabbed a hold of a meat cleaver. This baby was
her favorite, made it easier to cut through the skin and bone. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that the wisps of her home had gathered around her, all the ones she conjured by the work of her own hands. She gave them a sly smile, ready for some new roomies. Shutting the drawer with her hip, she walked past the wisps who were protesting. Hiding the meat cleaver behind her, she clenched it behind the shoulder blades of her back and used her free hand to mute the music. All the eyes of
her guests looked at her, with their ears perked and bodies frozen. I Am smiled at them and gave her final announcement of the night. I just wanted to give you all the big thanks and a grand welcome to our humble little home. My name is Van Pryor, and I'll be your host for the evening.