Halloween Theme

With Halloween happening, here's a spooky beginning:

It had always been that way, ever since I was a kid. The lawn a tangled mess of briers, the windows shuttered and dark, the door hanging morosely off the upper hinge. The owner, some rich businessman not even living in the country, had inherited it from his estranged father. Old women on the corner muttered how Mr. Fitzpatrick would be turning in his grave, what with the state of his once fine home. He had been a proud gardener; both his flowers and vegetables had won prizes at the agricultural show every year.

But tonight, there was something diferent about it, and I couldn't place exactly what. My eyes were glued to it, trying to figure it out, as I ran down the footpath in the lashing rain. The sodden newspaper I was holding was ripped from my hands by a sudden gust of wind, onto what once had been a tidy front garden. As I bent to pick it up, something bright caught my eye. I straightened up, clasping the pulp-like newspaper.

A single bulb hung inside an upstairs window. Someone was in there...

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