Several months passed before anyone looked at buying the house on Briar Wood Drive. The whole town knew about the Keitz family and what had happened to Maddison. All of the children who lived near the house were too afraid to walk by it. As the summer season went by, the house remained unoccupied until a lady from out of town was interested in buying it.
Sandy was the woman's name and she had a nephue named Bryan. He was 16 and had had a hard life. His mother abandoned him when he was 4 years old and henever knew his father. However, he loved his aunt dearly. Bryan had problems with some of the other kids that he went to school with, so Sandy decided it was time to move on to bigger and better things. The first time Sandy looked at the house she could not believe how spacious it was for the selling price. She decided that it was a major bargain and bought it.
Bryan was excited to have a fresh start at school. He made friends quickly. There was one problem with his friends. Every time he invited them to his house they all seemed to be busy. He could not figure out why no one wanted to visit him at home. One day at lunch he decided to ask his best friend, Chad, what was going on.
Chad hesitated, "Well, man, everybody thinks that your house is haunted!"
Bryan did not know what to think. He did not believe in ghosts or haunted houses. He reassured Chad that nothing unusual went on in the house, "Chad, are you kidding me? I stay up late doing homework almost every night and nothing every happens. I have not even heard a creaking door. You guys need to man up, and come over and hang out!"
The next weekend the guys decided to spend the weekend at Bryan's house. They were embarrassed about being afraid, especially since Bryan made fun of them the week before. As usually, nothing strange happened that weekend except a lot of guy time.
Bryan decided since his friendships were going so great that he would have a Halloween party. He wanted to make the first half of the party a haunted house. The guys thought it was a great idea and helped to pass out fliers at their school. As Halloween approached, the guys had everything planned out for the party. Some of the guys were going to chase people out of the house with chainsaws and others were going to take part in the different scenes in each room. Bryan was going to stage a hanging in the basement with Chad as the lynch men.
Later that Friday night, the haunted house got started. There was a line more than 30 minutes long. A lot of people just wanted to see inside of that spooky old house. Each scene went as planned. Chad decided to take a quick break and Bryan was going to do the scene by himself. As Chad left the room, Bryan turned around, with the noose around his neck, and slipped on a patch of water. He could not scream as the noose tightened. The next crowd came through the basement. Everybody was amazed at how life- like the hanging was. Twenty minutes later, Chad came back to the basement and found Bryan hanging by the noose. He thought Bryan was playing around until he touched his lifeless body.
Bryan was pronounced dead at the scene. Chad went into shock. The police had to notify Sandy because she was at her mother's house. Sandy could not believe what had happened to Bryan. She put the house up for sale and moved back to her home town. As she left, she felt as if the house was laughing at her. She was never the same again.
This Story is 100%
TRUE!!
Author's Notes
I wanted to try and keep the story as close as I could to the original version. I added a lot the details like the names of the characters and the house. However, the original hanging did happen in the basement of the teenage boy's house. I also added the details before the actual hanging. The background information was created by me.
I was amazed in my research that people have actually died from trying to stage a hanging. I found 5 different stories that were true. Who in their right mind would want to fake a hanging? Personally, I would be afraid of something going wrong. It turns out that in most cases something does go wrong and death is the result. I thought this story fit my story book ideas the best. On a dark side, in one of the hanging stories the man hung in the haunted house for days, until someone realized he was missing.
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Teen Dies During Halloween Hanging Stunt The Gallows
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson by Noose, 1991. Shakespeare, New Mexico
Website: snopes.com Website: Radeka Photography
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