Justice House

The building had originally been a courthouse, but the actual courts had been moved to a modern structure on the east side of town twenty years ago. The old courthouse sat empty and might have fallen into disrepair if it hadn’t been bought by a developer and turned into upscale apartments. Justice House, they called it—studios and one-bedrooms, with a clubhouse in the basement that still had an iron-barred jail cell in the corner. A trendy place to call home.

Jack didn’t care about being trendy, but he had an idea the women he hoped to date would, so he felt lucky to get into an apartment there. It seemed to work. At least one of the women he talked into coming home with him after the bars closed only did it because she’d always wanted to see the inside of the place. “Can we go down to the jail cell?” she asked. “Maybe mess around some?”

It was an interesting night, to say the least.

Despite the perks, living at Justice House had its downsides. The pipes were old. The windows were drafty. And after a month or two, Jack started to suspect there were ghosts.

He didn’t get the feeling they were malevolent, despite the fact they haunted a courthouse, which probably meant they were either criminals or unjustly accused innocents. Jack never felt like he was in danger. He just felt he wasn’t alone, that something he couldn’t quite see was watching him.

He felt it most often in his bedroom. He never saw any ghostly figures, and he never felt an unearthly chill. He’d lie in bed, trying to sleep, and feel the undeniable presence of someone else in the room.

Being Jack, he decided to take advantage of his ghostly infestation. He called the woman who’d been so thrilled by the idea of messing around in the jail cell and asked how she felt about messing around while ghosts watched them.

“Ghosts?” she said. “I’ve heard every story out there about Justice House, but I never heard it was haunted.”

“It sure feels like something’s watching me in my bedroom”

She laughed. “So that story is true! I heard the builder cut peepholes in some of the walls, and left hidden passages available to use them.”

Absurdly, Jack felt less bothered by the idea of his builder peeping at him than he was disappointed to discover he didn’t have ghosts.

It turned out okay, though. His woman friend wasn’t disappointed by the idea of humans rather than ghosts. In fact, she seemed to like the idea. A lot.

Even without ghosts, living at Justice House had its perks.