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coziness downstairs. David turned on the light and they stepped inside.
    “ Well, at least it’ll be nice for Auntie Ruth in here, huh, Dad?” said Tyler, placing the suitcase and coat bag he carried at the foot of the bed.
    David set the suitcase he carried next to the other luggage. The room decorated in a mixture of antiques and modern pieces, the mahogany four-post canopy bed was the centerpiece.
    “ Yeah…so it seems,” David agreed, forcing another smile once he noticed the uncomfortable look on Tyler’s face. “We’ll get the gas folks out here after Christmas to check the lines, since the heater still seems a little out of whack.”
    He stepped out of the room and over to the hall thermostat in an effort to further sell the notion. Tyler didn’t buy it.
    “ Like that’s going to make a frigging difference,” he whispered, the sarcastic comment out of his dad’s earshot. “Do you want me to catch the light on the way out?”
    His voice carried a slight edge as he walked over to the doorway where David waited.
    “ Nah, I’ll get it, son.”
    He motioned for Tyler to head back downstairs. He glanced around the room before shutting off the overhead light and closing the door behind him. As he moved to the stairs where his son waited, he thought he heard a low chuckle coming from inside the guestroom. He paused to listen.
    “ What is it, Dad?” asked Tyler. He looked anxious to get the hell away from there.
    David wondered if, like Christopher, his oldest son had seen any recent apparitions he decided to keep silent about. Just then, a loud burst of laughter erupted downstairs, as Ruth and Miriam shared a mirthful moment in the kitchen.
    “ Probably nothing,” he assured him, his cheeks sore from an even bigger smile forgery. “Let’s go get some cocoa before it’s all gone.”
    “ Sounds good.” Tyler grinned, seeming a little more relieved. Still, he nearly ran downstairs, refusing to look anywhere but straight ahead.
    David almost did the same thing, but the temptation to take one last look got the better of him. Just before he turned off the hallway lights he thought he saw something. It could’ve been extra jumpiness fed by his previous experiences and what Christopher said earlier.
    A dark shape hovered outside the guestroom’s doorway.
    “ Dad, are you coming?” Tyler called up to him from the base of the stairs.
    David glanced again at the guestroom’s doorway, but it sat empty.
    “ I’ll be right there, son.” He moved confidently down the stairs, and this time he didn’t look back. Not even when the floorboards creaked on the landing behind him and the small hairs on the back of his neck sprung to life.
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    The light scratching and shuffling noises resumed. This time, Tony Williams, the night security guard assigned to keep watch at Langston Hall, stood up from his desk near the storage building’s entrance and moved down the dusty wooden walkway toward the basement stairwell at the back end of the main floor.
    The first two times he heard the noises, he called out to see if anyone was inside the building with him. Despite the remote possibility he might’ve overlooked someone hiding in the shadows, a closer look wasn’t really necessary. At least not yet. He’d just completed the first required tour of the evening that consisted of a thorough examination of each door and window lock on all three floors of the former dormitory, and then a quick trip to the bottom of the basement stairwell to make sure the thick steel door down there remained secure. A good hard tug on the handle to ensure the door stayed locked tight was the easiest part of the assignment, or so he’d been told the day before by his boss, Vernon Mathis.
    “ Hello?” he called out harshly, hoping the irritation in his voice was enough to get whatever, or whoever, made the noise to take notice. “This building is ‘off-limits’ per the Dean’s office, if anybody’s in