The house was haunted, or at least, that’s what everyone said. No one in the neighborhood had ever seen the ghost themselves–but everyone knew the stories. The children made up their own tales to terrorize, gleaned from small, true details overheard from hushed whispers–the rattling of chains, the screams of pain coming from the basement. 

It never stayed vacant for long–a young couple would move in, convinced that with some hard work they could have the dilapidated old building looking good as new–and the price was always such a steal. They would move in, and the neighborhood would watch. The wife would leave within a month, driven away by the specter and their suddenly intolerable husband. They always became demanding–abusive, with a new desire for doggy style and the wife’s back door, yelling at empty spaces, spending days in the basement all by themselves.

No one knew where the husbands went. One day, they were just not there anymore, a new “for sale” sign up within a week, luring in another victim, another master to sate house slave’s endless desires.