Haunt Sweet Home

by Sarah Pinsker

Genres: Ghost; Urban Fantasy

Synopsis

On the set of a kitschy reality TV show, staged scares transform into unnerving reality in this spooky ghost story from multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Sarah Pinsker.

“Don’t talk to day about what we do at night.”

When aimless twenty-something Mara lands a job as the night-shift production assistant on her cousin’s ghost hunting/home makeover reality TV show Haunt Sweet Home, she quickly determines her new role will require a healthy attitude toward duplicity. But as she hides fog machines in the woods and improvises scares to spook new homeowners, a series of unnerving incidents on set and a creepy new coworker force Mara to confront whether the person she's truly been deceiving and hiding from all along—is herself.

Eerie and empathetic, Haunt Sweet Home is a multifaceted, supernatural exploration of finding your own way into adulthood, and into yourself.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Release date: September 3, 2024

Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

Print pages: 192

Sample

TRANSCRIPT

HAUNT SWEET HOME EPISODE 717—ACT V


JEREMY (speaking while driving)

I needed sleep after a hard day of renovations on the Fergusons’ new home, but I was still curious about who or what was haunting them. Why not make a late-night visit and see for myself? It was time to check out their library ghost.

Cut to JEREMY knocking on the door of Cleaveland House. MAGGIE and CONOR greet him in oversized T-shirts and pajama pants.

JEREMY

Hi, guys! I hope you don’t mind me stopping by. I’ve been dying to meet your library ghost. Well, not dying, hopefully … care to introduce me?

MAGGIE

We can’t just make it happen. Come in and sit down and maybe it’ll start—

A loud thump comes from somewhere behind her in the house’s interior. All three startle.

CONOR

Or maybe it’s really eager to meet you.

The FERGUSONS and JEREMY enter the library and flip the light on. The camera focuses on several leather-bound volumes strewn across the floor, some with bindings broken, and loose pages everywhere.

JEREMY

Oh, wow. So, is this what’s been happening?

MAGGIE

No, the other books were dropped flat. They weren’t damaged.

CONOR

Didn’t you call it a cull? What difference does it make if they land in one piece if the point is to throw them out?

MAGGIE

It’s our library, not hers! She can make suggestions, but I should get to decide which books stay or go. If she ruins them first, it’s not much of a choice.

JEREMY

Your ghost is a she?

MAGGIE

I kind of just assumed. It felt right. She can correct me if I’m wrong.

A book hits MAGGIE in the head.

Ow!

JEREMY

Where did that come from?

CONOR retrieves the book and examines the cover.

CONOR

It’s called Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650–1750.

MAGGIE

That’s a good book! It’s not even that old. A really solid piece of scholarship. This can’t be a culling suggestion.

JEREMY

Maybe it’s a clue to who she is.

CONOR

This house isn’t anywhere near that old. I—

A falling book hits his shoulder.

Hey!

JEREMY

Spirit, if you want to communicate with us, give us a sign.

A book wings past his cheek and hits a pillar.

JEREMY

Not that kind of sign. I was thinking more like making the lights flicker.

CONOR

What did she throw at him?

MAGGIE picks up the book.

MAGGIE

Three Men in a Boat. First edition.

CONOR

Do you get the feeling she’s trying to hurt us, or just communicate?

MYSTERIOUS ALTO WOMAN’S VOICE (V.O.)

If I wanted to communicate with you, I’d just speak.

MAGGIE, JEREMY, and CONOR all startle again. Cut to JEREMY at hotel, later.

JEREMY

In all my years on this show, we’d never encountered a haunting with the power of speech. I was eager to communicate, but cautious about upsetting the spirit further.

Cut to library interior. MAGGIE has a hand on the ladder.

MAGGIE

I want to see where the books are coming from.

JEREMY

Do you think it’s smart to go up there? What if it makes her throw even more books?

MAGGIE

I’m gonna risk it.

MAGGIE climbs the library ladder while the others look on. At the top, she holds the rails and surveys her surroundings.

MAGGIE

I don’t see anything out of place. Maybe on the other side?

Somebody screams. Then a second, inhuman scream fills the room. More books fall. The camera whirls upward. A black shape flies off the balcony and crashes into JEREMY. Cut to MAGGIE sliding down the ladder, more books falling behind her. Cut to the bulbs in the chandelier exploding, leaving everyone in darkness. The library door creaks open and the camera whirls again to capture the black shape racing through before the door slams shut behind it. Cut to everyone looking upward as if waiting for more falling books.

JEREMY

Wow. In all my time on this show, I have to say without a doubt that’s the eeriest thing I’ve ever experienced. How are you two feeling?

CONOR

I always thought this show was faked, but that was the real deal!

MAGGIE

There’s no other explanation.


1


If Uncle AJ hadn’t screwed up Thanksgiving, I would never have learned how to haunt houses.

I pulled up at four sharp, just behind Aunt Bea and just ahead of my parents, my hatchback tiny between their SUVs. We parked on the lawn, since the driveway was already full; we’re a punctual family. I recognized all the vehicles except a spotless new Rivian, which had to mean my cousin Jeremy had decided to grace us with his presence. He came in for a holiday every few years so everyone could tell him how great he was.

I reached into my backseat for the case of Yuengling I’d bought for the potluck, only to realize I’d forgotten it at my apartment. A bunch of random plastic grocery bags littered the footwell, so I stuffed those into a larger reusable bag to make it look like I was carrying something. Once I got into the house nobody would remember what I’d contributed; I didn’t have a signature dish, like Aunt Del’s pies or Uncle Gary’s green bean casserole.

My parents and I hadn’t seen each other for a couple of months, since I’d started working nights, and we exchanged one-armed hugs when we got close enough. Dad carried his fiddle case in his left, and my mother hefted a vat filled with her version of Oma’s stuffing, but even without our hands full, we’re a one-armed-hug family.

The brick path had sunken in various spots, and now those spots were filled with icy slush. With my eyes down to avoid wiping out in the dimming light, I didn’t notice the bottlenecked crowd gathered on the porch until we’d reached the step below them.

“AJ’s not answering,” said Aunt Bea. “We’ve tried the door and his phone. All the lights are off too.” She didn’t sound overly concerned. His car wasn’t there, so he probably wasn’t lying dead on the floor inside.

She turned to me. “Mara, you didn’t see him down at the apartments, did you?”

I’d been living at his little six-unit rental property for a few years now. Reduced rent in exchange for mowing the lawn and doing light maintenance and letting my neighbors in when they locked themselves out. I shook my head; he hadn’t come around in weeks.

Aunt Del gestured in the direction of my grandmother’s house on the other side of the tree line. “Gary’s picking up Mom on his way, so we told him to grab AJ’s spare key while he was there.”

Everyone stood around pretending their Tupperware and casseroles and Crock-Pots weren’t getting heavier the longer we waited. Jeremy cradled the biggest bottle of red wine I’d ever seen. My dad asked if it was like those novelty checks they give lottery winners, and Jeremy winesplained to us about bottle sizing and said it was a jeroboam.

“Quantity over quality,” someone joked, but Jeremy looked annoyed.

“Trust me,” he said. “It’s a very nice wine. The production company sent it to celebrate Haunt Sweet Home’s renewal. I’m just sharing the love.”

To which his own mother replied, “Never too rich to appreciate something free,” which might have been either an insult or a compliment, it was impossible to tell.


Copyright © 2024 by Sarah Pinsker