Welcome to Hennessee House. Upon entering you agree to follow five rules:
Walk straight into the kitchen.
Retrieve your picnic basket.
Go upstairs, turn left, and enter the primary bedroom suite on the right.
Stay in your suite until sunrise.
Do not explore the house for any reason.
—Xander
4
Three different kinds of dead bolts stood between Lucky and her goals. That felt excessive. Xander must have been worried about break-ins, but…why? The maintenance schedule ensured someone would be on-site at least once a day, every day of the week, not to mention the installed over-the-top security system.
Motion detectors guarded the house’s exterior and both yards. Cameras recorded every entrance and window. Xander had spent a solid half hour going over the location of each one, hammering it home that there wasn’t a single unmonitored spot outside of the house.
She’d laughed and asked, “Why stop there? Why not have cameras in the house too?”
He’d pursed his lips into the unhappy grimace she’d come to know, love, and openly mock during preproduction. “Because they all mysteriously stop working within a week.”
“Maybe someone is breaking them.”
“No one has lived there as a permanent resident in years.Because of its unfortunate location and…proclivities, the most my family has ever used it for were temporary getaways. Every repair tech reports the cameras are functional during tests and for the first six days post-installation. Something makes them go offline on the seventh.”
She’d begun vibrating with excitement by that point, barely able to hide her fascination. “Wow. How long has that been happening?”
“We made the decision to stop trying a few years ago.”
As soon as Lucky opened the door, the alarm began beeping directly on her left. She entered the code on the first try, brought her suitcases inside, and shut the door, pushing firmly against the old wood despite the latch sliding home without resistance.
Not a creak, not a groan, not a hint of warped wood to be found.
She’d read somewhere that dogs understood everything their people said, and relatedly, that plants responded to warm, soothing voices. An alleged haunted house might appreciate the effort as well.
“Hello, Hennessee House.” She smiled. “My name is Lucky Hart.”
