[1431 Hillside Lane]

It wasn't always like this. Last year, the house on the hill was the same as any of the little cookie cutter models in their neat little suburban rows, with the two little windows and the tiny backyard pool and the brown slate roof. The occupants were a pleasant older couple, well regarded in the neighborhood as a generally genial sort.

And then one cold October day, everyone woke up and the pleasant, modest house was gone.

Cobwebs sway as a cold wind comes whistling through the broken windows, as though the house itself is exhaling. Strange lights come on at night, the neighbors say, will-o-the-wisps dancing in the window like pale fireflies. The owners haven't been seen in weeks. The pumpkins at the door have rotted through, their festive masks distorted and sagging and spewing out moldy guts on the step for the swarming flies to feast upon.

There were all sorts of convenient excuses at first. Why, it was only their Halloween decorations - which they must have put up before they left on vacation, of course, which would also explain why the owners haven't been seen. But in the growing heat of June, and with all the neighborhood strays mysteriously gone from the streets, that's running a little thin.

Something has to be done. It's ruining property values.

Help Needed
House Haunted
1431 Hillside Lane
Moderate Reward Offered