Haunt Episode One: Don't Die

Chapters 1 - 3

Chapter One: Karloff's

Elvira walked out from the kitchen, expertly balancing a tray of entrees while somehow managing to keep her girls tucked away in her revealing dress. She wasn't the real Elvira, but she did a hell of a cosplay. While the Mistress of the Dark served a three-top, the creepy old butler, also known as a host, brought a father and son to a small table near the bar before he left for the night. The bartender's eyes shot a glance toward the replica grandfather clock near the staircase. It was only three o'clock, two more hours until the rush poured in.

Karloff's was a popular bar and restaurant in town, but their peak time of year was always October. Redford had once been a small town, but over the past couple of decades, it had grown to be almost a small city. The main reason for that was the tourism. Everyone from the cities loved to travel to the small Pennsylvania town during the fall to see all of the changing leaves and get their fill of pumpkin patches, ghost walks, and homemade pastries. That alone brought good business to town, but the big boom came after the movie shoot.

An up and coming movie director was visiting humble, little Redford when he decided that the old Franklin Middle School would be a great place to film his next project – a horror movie. It had always been rumored that Franklin Middle School was haunted, but most people were skeptical...until the entire project was suddenly shut down. The official story was that they found mold in the building, but leaked footage of eerie occurrences and inexplicable phenomena painted amore mysterious, spine-tingling picture.

There were those who remained skeptical, people who believed the rumors of hauntings in the building, and those who wanted to investigate the school in order to see for themselves. The Redford Police Department had their work cut out for them for a while after the footage leaked, but they eventually were able to tighten security on the building.

The movie director sold the building back to the town and the town council decided to take advantage of the ghost stories and the fall tourism crowd by opening the school up for tours. Old Franklin Middle School was also one of several stops for the local ghost tours, stopping outside it's stone walls and telling everyone to quiet down and see if they could hear the spirits crying inside.

The infamous haunted school had brought more and more tourism to Redford and that only meant more business for the town which made most people happy. The owner of Karloff's was thrilled at the business the town's new venture would bring.

Karloff's was the only horror themed restaurant in town and the owner was proud to have snatched the marketability of it before anyone else. To further sell the spooky experience, the restaurant was located in an old Victorian house just a few blocks from Main Street. The ground level of the home had been converted into the bar and restaurant while the upstairs was where Mr. Khel's office could be found as well as a few spare rooms he used when he had family in town. It was a beautiful house with a heaping touch of year round Halloween spirit.

All staff at Karloff's were required to wear the costumes of well known horror icons, the only exception being for the kitchen staff. For some people, it was a strange job, but Bridget loved it. She had tended bar at several other places in town, but Karloff's had been her dream job. The owner, like her, was a huge horror movie fanatic. Together, the two had come up with the idea for monthly movie nights for the staff. The restaurant was always closed on Mondays, so once every month, the staff would get together on a Monday night, make each other dinner, and watch a scary movie together.

Even if Bridget didn't get to dress up like Wednesday Addams for work, she still would have enjoyed it. She did, after all, get to work with one of her best friends. Bridget had met Mikey during her second year of college. The two fell in sync with each other as if they were long lost twins. They had each other's backs throughout the rest of college and once they graduated, both of them moved back to Bridget's hometown of Redford.