The boys talked so excitedly that they hadn't even noticed the old man who was sitting on the next bench over. "Excuse me, my sons, but I think you should leave the Bartley house alone. It is very evil...."
At first the boys were a little startled to hear an unfamiliar voice, but when they saw that it came from an old man, the insults started. "Old Fool!" "Ha! What do YOU know?"
"Well, my boys, gather around closer and I will tell you a story about that house...." The boys hesitated, but were really interested in the house, so they gathered around.
"Many years ago," the old man began,"when I was about your age, my buddies and I decided to check out the Bartley house. Old man Bartley had died not too long before this, and we had heard that he had hid away a large amount of money somewhere in the house. Since he had no other family, we thought that we should have the money as well as anyone else! So on Halloween night, there we were, I think, 7 or 8 of us, we gathered at the front gate to the house.
"Well, the full moon was a shinin' down on that house & let me tell ya, it was pretty scary! No one wanted to go in. Finally this one fellow, Tommy Robbins, he says, 'I'm not afraid! I'll go!' So off he went with his lantern. The rest of us watched as his light went from window to window.
"Suddenly there was a SCREAM! And his light disappeared. 'That Tommy, he's kiddin' with us!', we all thought. So in goes a couple other guys. Again we watched as the two lights took the same path through the house.
"All at once there was two of the God-awfullest screams that you EVER heard! Well, that did it, the rest of us took off outta there! We all went home to tell our folks. Well, they got the sheriff up and everyone met back at the house. They searched room by room, but nothing was ever seen of those three boys again."
There was a long pause as the boys thought about what they had just heard. "And you were there...." someone finally said, almost to himself.
"Yes I was," said the old man, "and the interesting part of the story is that of the boys who were involved that night, every one of them either committed suicide, or else went insane.....
"......and since I ain't dead......(the rest of the story)
