Brownie, Coop and I met in fourth grade and had been friends ever
since. Ms. Zimmerman was unconventional and arranged the students
alphabetically by first name instead of last name like all the other
teachers, so we three boys named Matthew got put at the same table.
For a while, we tried calling ourselves "Matt," "Matty" and "Matthew,"
but that didn't stick. For the most part we were "Matt B.," "Matt C."
and "Matt R." I kind of liked that, because my name came out sounding
like "Matter," which is still a nickname I use with most people.
Unfortunately the other guys decided they wanted to go by last names,
which was okay if you're Cooper or Browne, but not so great when your
family name is Rose. It was bad enough with everybody calling me a
flower, but then Coop decided that Brownie's E shouldn't be silent,
and that led to them inevitably calling me Rosie. I tried getting
back at them by calling them Chicken Coop and Junior Girl Scout, but
neither of those nicknames caught on with the other kids.
I cried a lot in middle school. My dad tried to show me that our name
could be very masculine by turning me into a major Pete Rose fan,
making me wear an official jacket all the time and even got me the
stupid bowl haircut. It didn't help. He thought maybe Rosey Grier
would be better, but after I found an interview where he talked about
knitting, I vetoed that plan. He just couldn't find any athletes
named Rose except guys from a long time ago, so I gave up on that. I
just worked to develop a thicker skin.
By the time we got to high school, we'd pretty much stopped seeing
each other all that often. For the most part we kept to our own
cliques. Puberty had been very kind to Coop and he turned out big and
tall and strong, and he gravitated to hanging with the jocks. He was
a second-string lineman on the football team, not very coordinated but
he looked the part.
Brownie's hormones were just as active, but they were making him the
first guy in our class who needed a shave. It also must have amped up
his pheremones or something, because he was real popular with the
girls and just generally charming with everyone. He ended up getting
elected president of our class a couple times. He joined all the
clubs for the popular kids, and was pretty much on Easy Street.
As for me, I was on the lowest rung of the social ladder. I wasn't
smart enough to be a nerd, but I was still a dork. I was in the
concert band, the drama club and the A/V crew. I really liked messing
with audio equipment and tried not to notice how unpopular my hobbies
were. I was scrawny and never really filled out much, and very
awkward around people.
Then in our junior year of high school, I started getting harassed.
Every few days I'd go to open my locker, and there inside would be a
red silk rose. I got my hopes up by imagining that some girl was my
secret admirer, but then one day I didn't hide it fast enough and
someone in the hall saw and pointed, and said they thought it was one
of those "panty roses." I didn't know what that meant, so I stood
confused while they grabbed the rose and ripped it off the stem and
unrolled it and I saw that the fake rose was really a pair of lacy red
satin panties.
A girl wouldn't be sending me panties unless they were her own, and
these were new and clean, so it wasn't an admirer, just some asshole
making fun of my name. Once I found out they were panties, I was
torn. Instead of throwing them out like I had been, part of me wanted
to keep them. I'd have been able to imagine them on some girl, and
then touch them when I was masturbating and make it sexier. I only
ended up keeping a few.
But then on Valentine's Day, they kicked it up a notch. My locker had
been completely filled with them, and they just kept spilling out.
While my attention was on cleaning up the mess, I didn't notice the
sign taped to the back of my locker door. On fancy lacy stationery,
in big red magic marker letters it said, "Roses for my Rose, the best
Cocksucker in the school!"
The kids around started laughing and pointing and whispering amongst
themselves, and then this guy Jimmy Riley comes over to me with his
hand on his zipper and nods towards the sign and asks me how much. I
looked up from the pile of panty roses I was hopelessly trying to
contain and saw the sign. I lost it. I just started bawling my eyes
out and then I stood up and screamed furiously that I had had enough
of that shit and I wasn't going to take anymore, and I just wanted to
know who the hell had been sending me the fucking panties and why the
fuck they were doing it.
I got in trouble for shouting and swearing and got five weeks
detention. Three days into my punishment, I was joined by Brownie and
Coop of all people. We passed a couple notes where they apologized
for not having my back before, but it had been taken care of. Brownie
had caught Eddie D'Amico bragging about "driving that little pansy
nuts," and he didn't even have a reason. He just thought that dweebs
like me were there to be messed with. But Brownie told Coop and he
went after Eddie and said he was going to beat the crap out of him.
Eddie got so scared he wet his pants right there in front of everyone,
so Coop didn't actually have to hit him.
But it was enough that when Eddie told on them they both got thrown in
the dungeon. I thought it was great that my friends remembered me.
We all got kicked out of our respective clubs and teams to boot. On
the plus side we started hanging out with each other again, but it
also threw a wrench into Coop and Brownie's college applications.
That's how we all ended up going to State, and part of me felt a
little guilty about the other guys having to be there with me. In our
freshman dorm, Coop and I were roommates and Brownie lived next door
with a guy from Canada who moved off campus in October and didn't tell
the dorm office, so he effectively had his own room.
Brownie's charm didn't work quite as well on college women as it had
on high school girls, so when Coop got a girlfriend in the spring
semester they switched rooms so he could have the single. Jess was
pretty cool. She was a cute redhead from Oregon who was majoring in
environmental science. I never did find out how she ended up going to
a third-rate school in the middle of Massachusetts.
My favorite neighbors were The Fox Twins, Betsy and Lisa. They lived
on our floor and they had me come over to help hook up their stereo,
since I'd mentioned my electronics hobby in the orientation meeting
where the RA got everyone on the hall together and made us each say
something about ourselves.
They were tall, slender blondes with clear blue eyes and really pale
skin. Their parents must have had a crazy sense of humor, since they
named identical twins Elizabeth Lynne and Elisabeth Lynn. The girls
liked to play the whole twin thing for all it was worth, having two of
everything in their closet so they could always dress in matching
outfits. They were sometimes a little too close, like when they'd get
free drinks in bars by making out.
I spent enough time with them that I was one of like six people on
campus who could tell them apart. I developed a major crush on Betsy
but for some reason the few times Brownie and I doubled with them for
concerts and stuff I ended up getting paired with Lisa. She was nice
and all, but her sister was the one I wanted. Betsy just had a
different attitude about things; she was planning to get her poli sci
degree and go work for a non-profit to make the world a better place.
Lisa was more practical and thought about going to law school.
At the end of our freshman year, we were already sick of living in the
dorm. So when Brownie said we could pool our money and rent a big
house in town, Coop and I jumped at the idea. But the places we could
afford all looked like crap. We told our realtor the kind of place we
were looking for, and she showed us this great four-bedroom place in
an older neighborhood. Even if we could get a fourth person to split
the rent, it still would be really steep, but we said we'd find a way.
Brownie said I should ask the twins if they wanted to move off-campus.
I didn't think they'd go for it, but it was definitely worth a shot.
The one downside to leaving the dorm would be not having girls around,
not to ogle or anything like that, but just to have a feminine
presence in our lives. Imagine my surprise when they actually agreed
to do it. My goddess would be living in the same house! I was
overjoyed.
And then Coop told us that Jess would be coming along and sharing his
room, which seemed kind of quick to me, but what do I know about
having a girlfriend? That made it a six-way split on the rent, so
there'd be no problem affording it. We thought everything would be
smooth sailing from there. How na?ve we were.
***
With getting everyone settled in, unpacking and getting ready for
school, it took a while for us to notice that something was just a
little off in our new neighborhood. At first it was just a nagging
feeling of unease, but after spending a weekend staying in and working
around the house, I figured it out. Everything seemed normal and fine
until I happened to look out a window into the front yard, and then I
would be filled with a profound sense of dread.
It took me a little longer to find out what it was out there that was
so unsettling. At first I thought it was something to do with the
ancient oak tree in front of the house next door - it was so full of
grackles that it looked a little creepy. But that was just regular
creepy, not sublimely creepy. Then I caught something in the corner
of my eye and a shudder ran through me.
Some experimenting showed me that from the right angle I could see the
top of a house behind the one directly across from us. It was taller
and must have been on a higher ground to be so visible. There was a
round tower or garret or whatever you call it projecting out from its
upper storey at an odd angle that didn't seem physically possible.
You couldn't look at it directly without getting vertigo.
I made sure to avoid looking in that direction and for the most part I
was okay, but the uneasy feeling didn't go away completely. In the
back of my mind I knew that house was still there, and I could still
picture it vividly.
I tried to warn my housemates when they came home, but I probably
would have been better off keeping quiet. As soon as I told them not
to look at the bizarre house behind the neighbors, they all started
looking for it. And one by one, as I heard the girls shriek or the
guys groan, I knew they'd found it.
We all took different approaches toward dealing with it. Jess would
make Coop close all the blinds in the house every time they came home.
Their room was the master bedroom and it had a bay window right in the
front. She put up blackout curtains and lost the entire view just
because part of it was disturbing.
The twins' room was in the back of the house, and their solution was
to just avoid the front rooms during the daytime. They took to
leaving in the morning from the kitchen door, even though it was
further from their parking spot. I thought they were sleepwalking the
first time I caught them going down the stairs with their eyes closed
to keep from looking out the window at the top of the stairwell.
My room was also in the back, (I shared a wall with the twins and
sometimes I heard noises that would make me wonder if they were doing
something more than sleeping in their double bed, but that's not
really relevant) so my windows weren't a problem. I just worked on
keeping from looking in the wrong direction through willpower alone.
Brownie took the complete opposite approach. He put all his spare
time into learning more about this mysterious house. He found the
road that led over there and went to see the rest of it. Then he did
some research into the local archives to find out more about its
history and whose house it was. Every day he'd try to share some new
tidbit with the rest of us, but we mainly just wanted to forget the
place existed.
Brownie, the twins and I went out for a pizza and he was driving us
home and took a different route back. We went the long way around the
other end of Summer Street and took a left onto this little road where
that didn't seem as modernized. He explained that back in the
colonial days when that part of town was the village of Verity, it was
the way to the meeting house. He pointed out the empty lot where it
used to be. Beyond that was a really old cemetery, and then past that
was The House.
I spotted it before the girls in the back seat and told them not to
look. Then I read Brownie the riot act. He stopped the car and got
out, taking the keys with him. I had to follow him if I wanted to
keep yelling at him. He was to show me that the place had a really
interesting history, but I didn't want to hear it; I was too mad at
him for tricking us.
I heard the car doors and then the twins came over to where we were
arguing. Lisa put her hand on my shoulder and said that the house
really wasn't so bad from up close. She even thought it was kind of
interesting. Betsy came up behind me on the other side and told me I
didn't need to be so mad. So then I had to stop yelling at Brownie no
matter how much he deserved it. You just don't disobey your Dream
Girl. I tried to smile and told him I was done yelling, but he took
that as permission to tell us all the whole history of The House.
***
Brownie had spent some time at the library rummaging through old
journals, and his old charm was in top form when he talked with Miss
Bitterly, the president of the local Historical Society. He managed
to put together a fairly detailed account of the house.
The original village parsonage, a simple three-room cottage, had been
built on the site in 1641. In 1687, the minister died and a new one
came down from Boston. Jeremiah Trumbull stirred up the fear of God
in the people of Verity, and the town began to prosper like never
before. He was a bachelor, but kept up a correspondence with a girl
he'd known in the city, the daughter of one of his wealthier
congregants.
In the spring of 1690, Prudence Edwards came to Verity to visit her
swain. She was sweet and lovely and the entire village fell just as
much in love with her. She was not quite as enamored of Verity, and
in particular found his little hovel to be quite beneath her city-bred
tastes although she tried to hide her disappointment.
The congregation worked together to gather funds for a major
construction project, then made improvements to the parsonage. They
brought in a master carpenter, a Dutchman who'd worked down in New
Haven to make a plan, and then many hands set to work building an
extension on the house that essentially involved making the shell of a
larger house around the original one. It grew into a rather
impressive manse, with three chimneys and a gabled second storey and
even a full porch across the front. They named the new edifice
Prudence House, officially after the Cardinal Virtue but everyone knew
they were naming it in honor of the beautiful girl they hoped would be
living in it.
In the fall of that year, they sent for her just before the harvest.
She thought the house was perfect, and agreed to be married to
Reverend Trumbull within a month. The whole surrounding county turned
out for the wedding. It wasn't the traditional floral exuberance of a
spring wedding, but it did have the distinct color and tone of a New
England autumn.
The newlyweds settled in to a delightful new life together, and
Prudence was very popular in the village. She showed a talent for
languages, discussing changes to her house with the carpenter in
fluent Dutch, using their native tongue with the French traders that
came by every so often, and teaching some of the village children some
German Christmas songs. When a band of unfamiliar Wampanoags showed
up at the edge of the village, she was able to work out a way of
communicating with them to figure out what brought them; it turned out
their people had had a fire and they'd lost some of their harvest and
were looking to trade.
She also had a knack for numbers. When helping with some of the
village's accounts, she was able to keep accurate totals in her head
faster than the clerk could work the figures out on paper. By today's
standards she'd probably be considered a genius, but by theirs she was
unusual and remarkable and restricted by the roles a woman was allowed
to play in their society.
In 1692, the happy couple was elated to become pregnant, but when the
baby came out on a cold November morning, the joy turned to sorrow.
Accounts described the newborn as "a hideous two-headed creature,"
what were probably really conjoined twin girls, or perhaps a mutation
or severe anomaly. At any rate, the midwife panicked and fled.
Rumors spread like wildfire through the village about the demon baby
born to the Reverend's wife.
One version of the story says he was trying to baptize the evil out of
the infant they had named Temperance. Another says he just wanted to
be rid of her. But they agree that Jeremiah took his firstborn to the
river and needed to cut a hole in the ice before he could hold her (or
them) underwater until they drowned.
Prudence was heartbroken, but her tragedy didn't end there. The mob
decided that she must have been consorting with the Devil to have
borne such a monstrosity. Too many people insisted that she needed to
be punished for her apparent sins. They held a trial and all of her
intellectual gifts were presented as evidence that she was in league
with demons.
Worst of all, her husband was her judge and prosecutor instead of
sympathetically defending her. He even claimed that she'd bewitched
him into falling in love with her.
She was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging in the third
week of 1693. Jeremiah's sermons took a major "Fire and Brimstone"
turn after that, and he never remarried. It's said his heart had also
frozen that day in the icy river.
The minister who followed Trumbull, Caleb Johnstone, preached much in
the same vein. He was a lifelong bachelor who lived alone in the
large house and didn't even bother heating most of the rooms. An
older pastor Arthur Bannister took over for Johnstone, and shortly
after moving into Prudence House his wife had a heart attack, but it
wasn't seen as anything other than a sad coincidence at the time.
But the next residents were Reverend Thomas Lowell and his family. He
and his wife Emily and their three children seemed to be settling into
the House nicely at first, but Emily got badly burned in the kitchen
after four months in the house and was left horribly disfigured. Two
years later, their fourteen-year-old daughter Rebecca fell down the
stairs and broke her neck.
Prudence House seemed to be collecting deaths. After the Revolution
they had three more preachers living there, and some kind of tragedy
occurred for each one. There was such a strong sense of evil
associated with the house that when the meeting house burned down in
1843, the congregation mostly moved to the new church in Butcher's
Crossing, and they sold Prudence House to a rich banker.
After the new owner William Hale had lived there for several months he
decided to make some changes to try to erase all the negativity
associated with the place. He added a third story, built a carriage
house, and expanded out the back of the kitchen to make better
quarters for servants. But then he went South to make a profit from
Reconstruction and left the house vacant for a few years.
Hale returned with Lynette Clayton, a bride he'd found in Georgia and
their new baby Imogene, along with Candice, a nursemaid who had been
Lynette's back when she was still a slave. When Candice moved into
Prudence House, she felt that the place contained an angry spirit, and
dedicated herself to keeping her mistress and her young charge safe.
She used a number of secret tricks to keep the spirit at bay, and life
was relatively normal. Candice lived to a ripe old age and died when
Imogene was away at finishing school. Lynette was sent away to a
sanitarium shortly thereafter. It is said that she had tried to set
fire to the house. Imogene did not want to inherit the house after
her father passed, and she sold it.
It changed hands several times in the beginning of the twentieth
century, with no one choosing to live there for very long. During
Prohibition, it had been owned by a bootlegger who operated a
speakeasy, and when he went to jail it remained vacant for many years.
In 1976, the Bicentennial celebration caused a renewed interest in
American history amongst the general public, and Miss Bitterly's group
had purchased Prudence House in the hope of turning it into a museum.
They did some work remodeling and modernizing the place, but it had to
close after the cleaning woman drowned in a rain cistern in the
cellar, where she shouldn't have been cleaning anyway. They'd tried
reopening the place several times, but none of the volunteers would
work for more than one day.
I thought the whole story was too absurd to be real, and Brownie was
probably just trying to tease the twins. They actually did seem moved
by his words, and Lisa was even weeping a little. We walked around
the grounds and peeked in a few windows. When we started getting
uncomfortable, he finally agreed to drive us home.
***
In the last week of September, we were hanging around the living room
watching late night cable and a local ad came on promising "The
Scariest Haunted House Anywhere" would be opening for the Halloween
season over in Preston. Betsy made a comment that if we wanted to go
to a haunted house, we had a real one just down the next block.
Brownie got a weird look in his eye, but I didn't think anything of it
at the time.
But a few days later he gathered all the housemates into the living
room for a meeting. He said he'd come up with a plan for how we could
all make a bunch of extra money, since we'd all been complaining about
finances in one way or another.
He said that we ought to rent out Prudence House for October and run
it as a Halloween haunted house. We'd only need a few costumes and
props and some ambient sounds, and we could be good to go. Most of
the work would be already done for us since the house already had a
reputation for being haunted. All we'd have to do is tell the actual
story in an entertaining way.
He even had some details worked out. He'd already spoken with Miss
Bitterly about renting the place, and had asked at town hall about
what kind of permits would be required. It would cost $600 plus he
estimated a few hundred for extras, so if each of the six of us
chipped in $150 we should have enough. Then if we opened the place on
weekends and Friday nights through October, we'd only need to average
$70 per day to break even. If we charged $8 a head (about the same as
the movies) we'd be profitable if we only had ten patrons each day.
We talked about it, and it sounded a little shaky as far as business
plans go. Coop seemed into it, and Jess agreed and thought it might
be fun. It felt like Betsy and Lisa were just eager to see the inside
of the house and thought $150 wouldn't be too bad a price to pay for
the opportunity. Ever since Brownie had told them all about the
place, they seemed to have a strong empathy for poor baby Temperance
and her twin. I think they hoped she was the ghost that was haunting
the place. I expected that it would all end in a terrible mess, but I
seemed to be outnumbered, so I caved in and went along with the plan.
We pooled our moneys and the next day Brownie got a lease from Miss
Bitterly and applied for permits. The day after that, we all went
over at lunchtime and checked the place out. He'd gotten a key so we
had no problem getting in.
It didn't seem as weird as I was expecting. It was old and dusty,
and smelled a little, but for the most part it seemed like a house.
There were some changes the museum people had obviously made, but they
would suit our purposes wonderfully. The place had relatively modern
wiring, and although most of the plumbing wasn't up to code, there
were a pair of functional restrooms on the first floor.
They'd also installed a counter in the foyer where we could set up our
greeter to collect their money and usher them into the house. A space
off to the right probably would have been their gift shop or
something, and we could let people wait in there before we had a guide
come to start their tour of the house.
We decided that we'd have a "wicked witch" taking the money and
selling some traditional old-fashioned Halloween refreshments like
popcorn balls and candy apples, and warm spiced cider. The witch
would tell the beginning of the story of Prudence House and show them
through the study and the front parlor and then "summon a spirit" by
opening a door to show one of the twins in a ghostly costume.
That twin would then take the tour up the stairs to the second floor,
take them through the bedrooms, the sewing room, and the music room.
She'd then take the group to the stairs and tell them she'd meet them
on the third floor, but really the other twin would be there. And
then she'd take them through the playroom, the library and the
upstairs maid's room, and then send them down the back stairs to the
kitchen. In there, Coop would be dressed as an angry Grim Reaper and
chase them out of the house.
I was assigned the job of taking Brownie's notes on the house's
history and writing a narrative for the guides to follow. I thought I
did a decent job. I decided that the wicked witch would also be named
Prudence, and she could say, "Welcome to my house," and then tell the
people about original Prudence. I thought I did a decent job. I even
wrote two versions of the script; one for earlier in the day when we'd
be doing the show for little kids, and one for later at night when we
wouldn't let in anyone under thirteen.
I also worked on assembling a system with speakers in various
locations, and put together a mix of spooky music and sound effects
that we could play throughout the house to set the right ambiance. I
thought that would be the end of my responsibilities on the project.
I'd thought they were talking about Jess playing the "wicked witch,"
but it turned out she had to work weekends for her work-study program.
They actually wanted me in the role of the witch, since I had a minor
in theatre. It was the fault of my counselor, who thought I could get
over my terminal shyness by forcing myself to be in public speaking
situations, but I mostly liked working on the backstage crew.
I really didn't want to do it, but I did owe Brownie and Coop big
time, and I was really the only one of us who could believably pass as
a witch. Finally I figured that being an old hag would be okay, so I
agreed to do it.
Somewhere in between accepting the job and going through with it, the
girls had been talking and changed the role. Instead of an ugly old
witch, they thought we should have a young and pretty witch greeting
our customers. They thought it would be more reassuring for the
little kids, and might get more of the teenagers to tell their friends
and come back for more.
I said no way, but when three cute girls are trying to make you do
something, and one of them is all you ever wanted in the world, and
another one is her identical twin sister, what chance did I have?
***
So that's how I ended up four days later being "fitted for my costume"
by the three girls. They brought me into the big bathroom in our
house and had me take my clothes off. I was really embarrassed about
being in my underwear in front of them, so they joined in and stripped
to their underwear too. It was funny that Betsy and Lisa still
matched, wearing identical bras and panties. They then put on yellow
rubber gloves like your mom uses to wash dishes and it made them look
even sexier.
They were going to work on taking the hair off my body, so I had to
get completely naked and stand in the tub. I got self-conscious and
tried to cover myself with my hands, and said that it would only be
fair if they joined in. I very nearly passed out when they called my
bluff and the bras and panties came off. Jess did keep her underwear
on, since she didn't want Coop to get upset with me.
Betsy and Lisa even had identical moles on their left butt cheeks. I
didn't think that was even possible; at least one of them was probably
a tattoo, which seemed like taking the twin thing just a little too
far. And then they turned around and I saw two matching perfectly
triangular bikini areas, and four magnificent breasts, and my brain
stopped working.
Jess stuffed my hair into a shower cap, and then I had to stand with
my arms straight out and my legs spread, like that famous DaVinci
drawing. Each twin took one side of my body and smeared a strong
smelling lotion all over the surface of my skin. And I do mean all
over. It drove me absolutely wild when their fingers ran over my
tender parts.
I had to stand there for a few minutes until it started to tingle, and
then they rubbed me down with wet washcloths, and all my body hair
came off. They used the handheld shower hose and rinsed me off with
cold water. After being lightly patted dry, the twins took off their
rubber gloves and gently massaged a soothing lotion into my stinging
skin.
That just proved way too sensual for me, and Jess pointed out that the
erection I was then sporting would be totally out of place on a female
witch, and told the twins to "take care of it." On each side of me,
Betsy and Lisa began to stroke one of my aching and reddened nipples
with one hand and used the other hand to fondle my tingling genitals.
They were perfectly synchronized and must have done something similar
before. It was completely out of nowhere and I was too turned on to
have any time to react to the total strangeness of it all.
Their upper hands moved to hold my shoulders in place, and their lips
took over on my nipples. A fleeting thought ran through my head,
wondering if Prudence ever got a chance to nurse her twins. I felt
something touching me, and it seemed like Jess was pressing her
breasts against my back. The twins bit down a little and really
pinched hard, and jerked me faster until I exploded completely.
As soon as I was flaccid they cleaned me off with a fresh washcloth
and had me sit on a towel on the toilet lid. Something was rattling
and tickling the top of my shoulders and it got worse when I turned my
head to look. Jess let me look in a hand mirror to see that she had
pierced my ears while I was distracted. The earrings were very
elaborate and looked appropriately gothic.
I now had these black metal posts going through my lobes with dark red
crystals in the center. Three chains went down from that part to
suspend a semicircular or crescent shaped piece in that same black
metal, worked to look kind of like lace. Four teardrop-shaped red
crystals hung from the bottom of that part.
I wasn't sure I wanted to be stuck wearing them for the entire month
of October, and Jess explained that they could detach the chains and
leave me with simple black studs with red stones when I wanted to be
out of costume. It wasn't my usual style, but there were other guys
on campus with earrings and she promised I wouldn't seem too out of
place.
Jess had this paper with a diagram and some instructions for pushing
my testicles up into the space they originally came out of when I was
little. Lisa was very willing to try to help me, but Jess insisted
that I be able to do it myself in case I had to go to the bathroom
while wearing my costume. It took me a while to figure out what they
meant, but I got my parts safely hidden away. It was uncomfortable,
like the feeling you get a half hour or so after getting kicked in the
crotch.
They had me step into this special undergarment that would keep me
flattened out. It was like a pair of black thong panties with extra-
strong elastic. I was okay with wearing panties as long as they
weren't red like the ones that humiliated me so long ago. Jess
explained that they'd gone to this store in Auburn that sells
everything a dude who wants to look like a chick could possibly need,
and that "gaff" was just the beginning.
The next thing they put me in was a black satin corset with a zipper
in front and laces in the back. It was scalloped out in the front
with underwires that would go beneath breasts if I had them. And
bizarrely when they tightened up the laces I actually got boobs! It
was like the "Freshman Fifteen" flabby pounds that I'd gained the
previous year were all squeezed in and pushed out over the top of the
corset to a cute set of little girly boobies. The twins liked the
look, too. They gave my reddened and swollen nipples a few more
tweaks, but then Jess told them they could put their lingerie on since
I already had mine.
I was a little disappointed that they'd be getting dressed, until they
came back in wearing sexy little white lacy things that somehow made
them sexier than when they were naked. Jess was putting this strong-
smelling shampoo in my hair so my eyes were closed, but when I looked
up I saw two lovely angels standing before me. Jess put the shower
cap back over my hair and turned on a portable kitchen timer.
Lisa and Betsy went to work using this magic liquid powder stuff to
make my fingernails longer, and Jess used clippers and files and
buffers and pointy sticks on my toes before painting them a shiny jet
black. I had two coats of nail polish on my feet and one on my hands
when the timer went ding.
They helped me sit on the floor hanging my head over the edge of the
tub. They got the shower hose back out and gave my hair a thorough
rinsing. I was pulled up to a standing position and then led back to
my seat. My hair got toweled dry and I got another look in the
mirror. My hair was now a kind of purple-maroon color. It seemed to
go well with the spooky black fingernails.
I had no idea how I was going to hide it when I went to class, but it
was too late to do anything about it. They rolled my hair into hot
curlers and put a hairnet over them. Then they finished the manicure
and pedicure. They put this tinted topcoat over the nail polish, so
they looked black from most angles, but when the light hit them right,
there was a blood-red iridescent sheen to them.
Lisa took hold of my itty bitty titties and pulled, while Jess untied
the laces of my corset only to pull them tighter and then retie them.
It gave me an even smaller feminine waist and I think my bust was up
to nearly A cups. I finally got to leave the bathroom, and I was glad
the other guys weren't home to catch us in the hallway. We went into
the girls' room, where the rest of our clothes were.
The twins sat on the edge of their bed and rolled filmy white
stockings up their legs and clipped them onto garters that hung from
their bustiers. Jess had a pair of fancy black ones for me, with a
spider web pattern to their weave. I tried to do it myself, but my
fancy fingernails got in the way and I couldn't even open the package.
A twin on each leg helped me get them on. My feet went into a sexy
pair of black lace-up ankle boots with delicate 3" heels. Betsy and
Lisa put on knee-high white ones that made their legs look incredible!
I didn't want to think about how my own legs looked.
Jess sprayed a lightly floral deodorant under my arms and then it was
time to put on my first bra. It was more black satin, and had little
pads in the cups to push my little booblets up and squish them
together. It was a strange feeling to look down and see my own
cleavage, and then she stuck more little pads in there to make my
chest look even bigger. I stepped into a petticoat of black lace and
netting that Jess tied around my waist, and then she pulled a pretty
black slip down over my head. The twins got white petticoats of their
own, but no slips.
My dress was red velvet with black lace trim. It had wide lace bell
cuffs at the end of the sleeves and black ribbons that crisscrossed in
the front to make it even cleavagier. The skirt part had a slit that
could be strategically arranged to show off all the lacy layers
underneath. The dresses the twins wore were strapless white gauzy
things that seemed more like fancy underwear than dresses.
Jess brought up three chairs from the kitchen and had us sit in a row
while she did our makeup. It gave me an odd sense of pride when she
said I didn't need the false eyelashes the girls were getting and
volumizing mascara would be enough. She went through a bunch of
liquids and powders and tubes and pastes, and I lost track of what was
what. All I was sure of was that she seemed to spend way too long
painfully plucking my eyebrows.
Jess finished up by spraying a puff of gardenia-scented perfume behind
my ears and down my front. She hung a necklace around my throat that
was in the same style as my earrings. The hairnet came off and she
got my hair out of the curlers. She brushed it out a little and made
a couple little cuts with a pair of scissors, and then put on a little
headpiece that hung another one of those red crystals right in the
center of my forehead. Jess gave me a couple tips on how to fix my
powder and lipstick and I tried to get a look at myself in the little
compact mirror before she put all the implements into a little bag
that tied onto a little button at my hip.
She brought me over to a full-length mirror and when I opened my eyes
I got my first good look at what she'd done. I saw a gorgeous Goth
girl with a hot body in a tight dress. Darkly lined eyes with smoky
sultry lids peeked out from under a lovely mass of wavy burgundy hair
that was nothing like my old mullety brown mop. Bright red kissable
lips stood out in sharp contrast to her pale complexion. I couldn't
help but stare at her heaving bosom as she hyperventilated. I needed
to sit down and practice breathing in a corset.
Betsy and Lisa looked even lovelier. They had that same heavy-
eyeliner, pallid face Goth look, but Jess had made them look even
spookier by shading their eyes to appear more sunken, and giving them
black lipstick to amplify the effect of bloodlessness. All three of
us got long flowing hooded cloaks to wear instead of coats over our
outfits, mine in black and theirs in white.
We went over to Prudence House to meet the guys, to rehearse some of
our parts. I wasn't confident about driving in heels so we took Betsy
and Lisa's car. Jess said she felt plain compared to the other three
babes in the car, and I wasn't sure how to react. On the one hand I
liked that my disguise was impenetrable, but on the other I didn't
want Betsy to think of me as less than a man.
I'd spent enough time watching girls that I could figure out how to
walk like a woman by copying them. It was just a matter of hanging my
arms loosely at the elbow, swiveling my hips as I moved my legs, and
taking tiny steps. We got out of the car and I followed the
legitimate girls up the steps and across the porch to the front door.
Brownie saw me first and said, "Damn, Rosie! You're a fox!" Coop
let out a little whistle and told Jess she was lucky he saw her first.
I was totally embarrassed by all the attention. Lisa gave me a sneaky
pinch on the ass and whispered that I looked cute when I blushed.
We had the electricity turned on, and the boys had already checked the
fusebox. We'd decided not to buy fuel oil, and were using electric
space heaters in some rooms. We thought that having some chilly
spaces would help add to the haunted house aspect, since "everyone
knows" that you feel cold when a ghost walks by you.
The front space with the main entrance and the waiting room would be
heated. I liked that, since I'd be working there most of the time. I
gave my opening speech for the others, and the breathless whisper the
corset forced me into made me sound sexy and passably female. I did
the kids' version of my speech first, and then went into the one for
the older crowd, with more romance and violence. When I finished,
they applauded.
I then took them through the first couple of rooms for my part of the
tour. I set up the underlying tragedy of Prudence Trumbull and
explained about how her misfortune tainted the house that bore her
name for all the generations that followed. Lisa pinched my butt
again, or someone else did since she was getting into place for her
part.
I did my little "summoning a helpful spirit" bit, including the
special rhythmic knock we'd worked out, and Betsy opened the door. It
was one made for servants entering the dining room, so you couldn't
tell it was a door until it opened. It was a great special effect,
and we didn't need any fancy Halloween stuff to do it.
Betsy and Lisa both knew their whole part, so they could switch off
when they got bored. They spoke all their lines in unison, which was
cool and creepy, and it was too bad they couldn't do that in the real
show. I'd assigned the various historical deaths to the different
bedrooms pretty much at random, and the twins told the story with the
right amount of pathos and melancholy. It was so sad I had to check
with Jess to see if I could weep without getting raccoon eyes.
Fortunately my makeup was waterproof.
Brownie actually put his arm around me when he saw how moved I was by
the story, but he got a big static shock when he touched my shoulder
and had to pull his hand away. There must have been something about
the fabric of my cloak that built up a charge. Speaking of cloaks, I
mentioned that the ghostly duo should probably keep theirs on for the
kids' tours, and got really bashful when it turned out I was the only
one who'd noticed how their wispy white dresses showed prominent
nipplage in the chilly spaces.
Betsy calmed my embarrassment with a "Thanks, Girlfriend!" and slipped
a couple fingers into my bodice to see if the cold rooms were giving
me any difficulties. I was seriously pushing the elastic on that gaff
thing to its limit, as my Best Friend was prevented from trying to
stand up and take notice of her attention. I also had to focus to
remember how to breathe without passing out.
We got to the part where the girls would be switching off and they ran
ahead, the rest of us followed on up to the third floor. I was the
last in line, but I still felt like someone was behind me. It was
hard to shake it off. The twins started the second part of their
presentation, taking us into rooms where the guys had set up our
spooky props. In the playroom we had a jack-in-the-box that the tour
guide could trigger to pop by remote control. It would be sure to
trigger a startle response.
In the library, which as it turned out was the round tower room that
started our interest in the place, were spiraling bookcases
running around all the walls. Our gimmick in there was a hidden wire
that would move a rolling ladder along the stacks to a spot where
another motor would make a book fall off the shelf. And it was a
trick book that could only land open to an old woodcut image of a
grinning skull-faced Angel of Death.
That would trigger the guide to urge the tour group to flee before the
House decided that someone else needed to die. The twins led us
through another secret door into the chambermaids' quarters, and
ushered us down the back stairs. They emptied out in the kitchen.
Coop wasn't even in his costume and hadn't gotten into place for his
cue, but he still disappeared into the shadowy corner, and I got a
little scared when he jumped out and said his lines about being called
to slay all who remained in the house. He'd only be working the late
shows for the older kids. For the young ones, the twin would follow
them down the stairs and just tell them it was time for the living to
leave, and she would have to return from where she'd come, and then
walk thorough a hidden door in the back of the kitchen.
On the whole the rehearsal went well. I was also supposed to work on
setting up the sound system, but that was kind of hard to do with the
way I was dressed. I ended up directing Coop and Brownie on where to
put stuff, which was kind of fun except for that they kept calling me
"Ma'am" or "Miss Rose." It was kind of weird when Brownie pinched his
thumb in a cupboard door and wanted me to kiss it better. I did to
humor him, but there was another big static spark. It zapped me a
little, but he acted like it seriously hurt him. He looked at me
funny and blamed me for building up too much charge. I said it was
his fault since the twins had been touching me without getting
shocked, and one of them pinched me again to punctuate my point, but
she was gone before I could call her as a witness.
We got everything set up and I tested the music and stuff and it
seemed like it would go okay. Brownie was supposed to be running the
board, but he wouldn't let me show him what to do, since we'd have to
touch buttons together. I had to show Jess how it worked, and then
she did it for Brownie with me out of the room. I thought he was just
being silly, but it worked without any static problems.
It was late when we finished, and I got outvoted when everyone else
wanted to go out to dinner. We went to Paisan's Spaghetti House and I
had to pretend I was a real girl. I didn't have any money with me,
and Brownie said he'd pay for me. I kidded him that I didn't put out
on the first date, and he'd have to behave himself if he even wanted a
good night kiss. He remembered the "shock treatment" he'd gotten
earlier and said he wouldn't be trying to get anywhere with me.
I was very nervous and had to eat tiny bites to keep from being found
out and had to excuse myself in the middle of the meal to go to the
bathroom. The girls all came with me and made sure the coast was
clear in the ladies' room for me. We even took turns in the stalls.
They gave me a little advice for how to deal with all the clothing in
my way, and Lisa even needed to come in and show me how to unfasten my
garters. She went further and ran them under my panties and
refastened them so I wouldn't need her help again when I was done.
It was scary doing my business with my hands full with all my layers
of skirts; I couldn't see what I was doing. And like a good girl I
had to wipe myself when I was done. Then my poor little guys had to
get shoved up in there again, and I had to pull my panty up with one
hand and hold everything in with the other and still not drop my dress
in the toilet. Female clothes are way too complicated.
When we got home, Lisa and Betsy helped me clean all my makeup off,
and gave me a hand getting undressed. Lisa offered to lend me a
nightgown if I wanted to have an all-girl sleepover in their bed. I
wasn't exactly sure what that meant, or if she was just kidding, so I
told her I needed to get up early and turned down the invitation.
***
I got a few weird looks in my classes, and I had to explain what we
were doing, but it kind of ended up as providing some publicity for
our show. We were expecting just to get townies, but now word of
mouth on campus was growing. The school paper asked for an interview,
but we put them off until our permit came through.
We had both Miss Bitterly and a town safety inspector over one morning
for a run-through of our show. The inspector didn't find any
violations and approved our permit, and while we weren't absolutely
historically accurate, Miss Bitterly thought we were paying decent
tribute to the legend of Prudence House. We got full approval.
The housemates voted and made me stay in costume and had the school
paper guys come over that afternoon. They sent both a reporter and a
photographer, and they took a few pictures of the house, and some of
me. I explained that we were opening a haunted house amusement in an
actual haunted house, or at least one with a legitimate reputation of
being haunted, and told the guy a rough version of the story of
Prudence. He seemed interested, but he also seemed interested in
looking down my dress. I considered telling him my real name, but
figured it would be better for business if potential customers thought
they could come see some hot chick. I simply stayed in character and
said that for the time being he could call me Prudence the Witch. I
think I might have smiled too much or something, because he slipped me
his number as he was leaving.
With official paperwork, we took out an ad in the local paper.
Following the pattern established with the school article, we decided
to play up the "hot chicks" angle. Betsy edited together a photo of
me in full costume on the left and Lisa on the right, flanking a
smaller image of Prudence House in the middle. At the top it said
"Experience a Real Haunted House" and at the bottom it gave the
address and our hours of operation and prices.
The first day we were open was a Saturday. We didn't get too many
kids coming through in the afternoon, but the ones that did seemed to
be having fun. We also sold a lot of candy apples. One flaw in our
setup is that I had to lock up the cashbox and the refreshments before
starting every tour. It was awkward, but there really wasn't a better
way to do it.
The last group of kids we had that first day included one sweet little
girl that started crying halfway through Lisa's section. She was set
up for texting Betsy to tell her details about the tour groups, but
she had no way to talk to me. Betsy had to come running down the back
stairs to get me, and then I went up to fetch poor little Susie. I
picked her up and she gave me a big hug and said I was a pretty lady.
I said that it was okay for even big girls like her to cry sometimes,
so she didn't need to be embarrassed. Fortunately her mom was in our
waiting area, and I winked and told her that Susie had been worried
that she'd be lonely waiting by herself, and wanted to come join her.
Mom thanked me and said I'd make an excellent mother myself some day.
We broke for dinner and the boys worked on setting up the stuff for
the older show. I held down the fort by just eating a salad at my
desk so I could keep an eye on the door. A sadly sweet piece of music
came on the speaker, and I turned it up to listen to it better. I
closed my eyes and sat back in my chair and just let my mind wander.
I had a strange kind of daydream. I was still wearing my costume, but
it fit a little differently somehow. I wasn't in the house. There
was a floor under my feet but I didn't see any walls or floor; there
was some kind of mist or fog in the way. I could hear the music
playing, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. A tall man in
an old-fashioned looking black suit walked out of the fog toward me.
He was a well-built ruggedly handsome man but with a sadness behind
his eyes. He had long sideburns but no other facial hair and his hair
was a little long.
He bowed and asked if I wanted to dance. For some odd reason I said
yes. His hand was surprisingly soft, and he led me through something
that wasn't quite a waltz. It seemed more like a folk dance, but I
knew exactly how to do my part. I felt kind of sad when the music
ended and he let me go. Before releasing my hand, he brought it to
his lips and I felt a tingle in my skin and a rush in my heart. I
could even sense my vagina starting to moisten - wait, what? I was
imagining myself as a woman! This costume was totally messing with my
mind. I snapped out of the reverie and saw that I was standing in the
middle of the room.
I noticed Brownie standing in the corner and he applauded, saying that
I was quite a dancer. I hadn't been just imagining a dance; I'd been
actually dancing. It was really bizarre, and I tried to be mad at
Brownie but it really wasn't his fault. I just stuck my tongue out at
him and pouted. He said, "Is that tongue a promise or a threat,
Rosie?" I tried not to laugh too hard when he tripped as he left the
room. He said that things were almost ready for the evening crowd.
The first mature tour group was mostly high school kids, but there
were a couple older ones. The three girls shot daggers at me, as
their boyfriends all kept constant eye-to-breast contact. I went
through my lines anyway, and they started almost paying attention, but
I was grateful when I got to pass them off to Betsy. I was still kind
of shaken from my dream/fantasy/whatever it was.
The next couple of tours were pretty much the same, but then I got a
surprise. The reporter from the school paper showed up and kept
hitting on me the whole time. He said stuff like if the original
Prudence was half as pretty as me her husband was a fool for letting
them kill her, and he kept following me very close, so he could brush
up against me. When it came time for him to go off with Lisa, he
quickly turned around and stole a kiss from me.
I was so steamed at him for doing that. He had to run up the stairs
to catch up with the group, and somehow he lost his footing while
trying to take them two at a time and he came tumbling down. His foot
ended up in an unnatural position, and we had to call an ambulance to
take him away. Just in case we sent everyone else home and shut down
for the night.
We went through the house making sure all the heaters got shut down
and the lights were all off, and sat in the front room to talk about
what we were going to do. When Brownie put the plan together to open
the place he didn't include getting insurance. If that reporter guy
sued us, we could lose everything, and probably Miss Bitterly's group
would, too. Lisa joked that since he liked me so much, maybe I could
convince him not to sue if I agreed to go out with him. At least I
hope she was joking.
I said there was no way I'd be doing anything with that guy and in the
corner of my eye, I thought I saw an angry face suddenly smile. I
said that it was fun while it lasted and we hadn't come anywhere near
making our money back, but maybe it would be better for everyone if we
just shut down for good and never came back. It then suddenly started
raining heavily. There was even a flash of lightning and the lights
went out in the room we were in.
We decided we'd just go home and continue the discussion, but the
front door was stuck.
It didn't seem safe to go wandering around this big spooky house in
the dark. Coop tried to call Jess to have her bring us a light, but
his cell wasn't working. The rest of us tried and none were working.
This sudden storm must have taken out a tower.
I remembered that there was a flashlight in my toolbox, but I'd left
it with my gear in the sound room we'd set up in a closet on the
second floor. I volunteered to try to go get it. Coop tried to say
that he'd do it; I think he was having trouble remembering I was
really a guy. I said that I was the only one who knew exactly where
everything in the toolbox was so I was the best to go do this. Lisa
and Betsy each gave me a kiss for luck and I was on my way.
I didn't want to trip on the staircase that had taken out my wannabe
boyfriend, so I took the steps slowly and clung to the railing. But I
did that old thing at the top of the stairs where you pick up your
foot but there are no more steps, and I lost my balance. I went
crashing forward into the hallway and bumped my head and blacked out.
When I came to I put my hand to my forehead and there was no lump or
anything. I seemed fine. But then I looked around and realized I
wasn't in a dark house anymore. I was sitting on the ground, on
slightly damp grass. The guy I'd danced with was standing over me.
He reached a hand to help me to my feet, and there was that tingle
again, that extended to places I shouldn't have had.
He said there was something he needed to show me before we could
continue. He led me down a hillside and along a well-worn path.
There was a large crowd of people gathered around something. It took
my eyes a moment to adjust to the flickering torchlight. Then I saw
that we were in something like a village square, gathered around a
large platform.
A man was standing there who could have been the twin of my companion,
and a woman knelt at his feet. He forced her to stand, and a rope was
pulled down and a loop brought over her head. I realized that the
platform was a gallows. The man spoke, "Prudence Edwards, you have
been found guilty of conspiring with the forces of Darkness, and
sentence to hang until dead. Do you have any last words to say before
God before His judgment is carried out upon you?"
She looked up at him with plaintive eyes. "I've consorted with naught
but you, Husband. If there be a demon in this household it is not I.
I've broken no promises; if I've sinned it is only that I have loved
you too well. I beg of you, please don't do this. You'll never find
another who will give her heart to you as completely as I have. I
pray that your soul shall not be at peace until you have found another
love as great for you as mine."
This was Prudence, so the guy with her, the guy beside me, must be
Jeremiah Trumbull. We'd thought she was the one haunting the house,
but we were wrong. I looked over at the man next to me and his eyes
were crying. The guy up on the gallows pulled the lever and my
companion squeezed his eyes shut.
He whispered to me in a ragged voice, "My Dear, this was the moment of
my greatest victory and also of my greatest defeat. I needed to show
you this memory that I may be completely honest with you. Long have I
sought solace in the arms of another, but you are first who did not
flee my embrace."
He seemed so sad that I reached out to take him in my arms and hold
him. He collapsed into me and turned his face to mine in a hungry
kiss. I felt my heart go out to him and let my lips part to accept
his probing tongue. Suddenly we were back on the hillside and he
pushed me back onto the grass. He removed his jacket and lay on his
side next to me.
His fingers toyed with the laces at my bodice, and my hand dealt with
the silver buttons on his shirt. Somehow my undergarments had become
much less elaborate, since as soon as I'd been unlaced my voluptuous
bosom spilled out. His soft hands played across my sensitive areolas
and thick, engorged nipples. He brought his lips to one of them and
suckled me gently. I ran my fingernails through the dense thatch on
his chest.
The scene changed again and he lifted me up to place me on the bed. I
felt a growing urgency to have him inside me! I shimmied out of my
skirts and he wasted no time unfastening his breeches. I was slippery
and waiting for him. He was firm and standing proud and ready. I
kissed him and asked that he be gentle with me, as it was my first
time.
His strong hands grasped my slender waist, and he guided his manliness
between my eager lips. Even as he tore me open, I smiled up at him,
letting him know I was completely willing to be his. He thrust into
me and I felt like I was on fire, and again and the ground erupted,
and again and the stars were ripped from the heavens, and then I could
feel our hearts were both soaring together.
***
I woke up on the floor of what had once been the master bedroom. My
head was throbbing, my costume had been shredded, and I was dripping
with sweat. I saw that the lights were back on, and I heard the
voices of my friends. I called out hoarsely where I was and tried to
find a way to cover my nakedness. I pulled my cloak around me and
hoped it would be enough to keep Brownie from staring at my breasts.