Free October Ghosts (A Southern Romance Monthly) by CJ Hockenberry

bothering him, something bad enough to trigger an asthma attack that had him weakened. That much she could tell just by touching him. "What did you need to tell me?"  
    Matt pulled her hand from his chest and held it. "I need to tell you about my ex."
    "The one that's not supposed to come within a hundred feet of you?"
    "Yeah. Chloe…she's here in Roswell."  

CHAPTER ELEVEN

    Matt felt he needed to be very careful about what he said in the next few minutes. He didn't want Chloe to kick him out and not do the gig tomorrow night, but he also didn't want her doing something she didn't want to do. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her in any way. He just wanted her to be happy, and he wanted her to be with him.  
    Chloe peered up into his face. "You're starting to look pale."  
    "Yeah…well news of her being nearby is what set off the attack earlier today."  
    "Seriously?" Chloe smiled. "You're that afraid of her?"
    "Remember when I told you just now about there were a lot of accidents in that last haunted house that revolved around me? Well, after the plunge into the well that landed me in the hospital for a few weeks, Margo told me the police had gone through the house and found a lot of tampering. And those stairs had been sawed through."  
    "Oh hell…that could have killed you. Or anyone that stepped on them."  
    He made sure his breathing remained calm and he didn't panic. It was when he panicked about what had happened that he triggered an attack. But just to be sure, he pulled his inhaler out and had it in his hand. "Most of the things in a haunted house work on pressure plates and motion sensors. And I always had a map with me that told me where those traps were, and each display was named something. Like…laughing ghost, flying zombie, popping ripper, you know. So I would know which of my tricks was where in the house. But those tricks started doing things they weren't supposed to do."  
    "Like what?"  
    "The first thing that happened after I started sleeping there was the ghost audio kept switching on during the night. It would wake me up and I'd go turn it off. The third time it came on the popping zombie came at me as I turned the corner. Knocked me into the wall because I was standing too close. Tricks wired to frighten visitors are on different circuits than the normal power usage in the house. Having the separate makes it less likely to blow a fuse or shut down the basic lights. Before I went to bed, I always made sure that switch was off."  
    "Were you hurt?"  
    "I cut my head when I hit the door frame. And you know head wounds bleed like nothing else. Luckily I wasn't the only one in the house. Dennis was there with his wife and we managed to shut it down again before I had to get stitches. But the next night a different trick went off. Just the audio." He shifted and leaned against the refrigerator. "Dennis went to check it out and turned it off. Three times. On the fourth time I decided to check the breaker, but it was off. On my way back up the stairs the hall ghost shut on. I walked right into it—or I should say I stepped into the hole."  
    "What?"
    "The ghost was rigged to come out of the floor. It was little more than gauze and window shear material painted with florescent paint and lights come on. The pressure plates were on the other side of the trap door so that when it came up they would stop and then be steered by the guide to the left. I was behind it and it went off in the dark and fell through. Broke my arm and cracked my head again. That time I ended up in the hospital for a few days. Dennis and his wife did a bit of investigation and found several of the tricks had been rewired, the pressure plates and sensors moved. They found one of Sarah's old baseball caps in the trap I fell into. And her fingerprints were also found on the mechanics. They found the saw used to cut the basement stair supports."
    "Her fingerprints?"
    "Yep."  
    "Did she usually work on the tricks?"
    "Nope.