The Curse Оf Hollister House

“And what might the legend of this house be?” Brady asked.

I looped my arm through his. “Oh, we don’t need to talk about that right now. Let’s go inside.”

“What legend, Tess?”

I huffed out yet another breath. I’d expected that Brady would need to be persuaded that the house was perfect for our event, but this was turning out to be a lot more work than I’d anticipated. “I guess there may or may not have been an old cemetery on this plot of land before the house was built, and I suppose there may or may not be those who believe the souls whose resting places were disturbed currently haunt the place.”

He frowned. “Why would anyone build a house on top of a cemetery?”

I giggled nervously. “Oh, you know how it is. The cemetery hadn’t been used since the gold rush and land in this area is expensive. I guess what it comes down to is that everyone is looking for a bargain, and a plot of land that was used as a cemetery a century earlier, presented a bargain to the man who built the house all those years ago.”

“So someone actually built a house on top of peoples’ graves?”

“No, silly.” I playfully swatted at Brady’s shoulder. “The remains of those who’d been buried on the land were moved to another location. Now, back to our fundraiser. I think once you see the interior, you are going to love this place as much as I do.” I leaned forward and really put my weight into dragging this tall man, who had to weigh double what I did, the rest of the way down the walk.

“Okay, wait.” Brady froze at the threshold to the front door. “Are you actually telling me that you want to hold our shelter fundraiser in a house built on land that was previously used to house a cemetery?”

I nodded.

“Are you crazy?”

“Do you want a state of the art training facility?”

“Well, yes.”

“And do you want to have a place to offer permanent housing for elderly and hard to place dogs and cats?”

“You know that I do.”

“And if you were the sort who was willing to pay, say twenty bucks, to walk through a haunted house, would you be more likely to fork over the big bucks to walk through the cafeteria at the high school or a real house that folks already say is haunted?”

Both Brady’s brows shot up. “You think people will pay twenty bucks to walk through a haunted house?”

“I think they will pay twenty bucks to walk through this haunted house.” I took in a long breath, held it, and then exhaled. “Look. I’m not thrilled that the guy who built this house more than a century ago built his home on land that should have been preserved as hallowed ground. And I’m not happy that the remains of those buried on that same plot of land a century before were moved. But things were looked at differently back then and not using this house as a fundraiser isn’t going to undo any of that. It makes no sense to pass on the opportunity to raise the money we need to expand our ability to help homeless pets in the area.”