The doors and windows on the ground level were nearly impassable with creeping vines; I'd have to head up the steps to a side porch, and through a screen door, if I was gonna go in. And, I wasn't too sure that I really wanted to. See, this place had such a very spooky, watchful vibe... I couldn't shake the feeling that it was not empty. And ya know, you never know who (or what??!!!) can be lurking inside of any dark desolate abandoned old place. Still, curiosity, and the cat, and all that...... I could not resist.

I entered the gloomy house- anemic sunlight trickled in through ragged window shades, barely providing any light at all. Continuing on, I found a small, cluttered kitchen- it was a mess, stuff was strewn all over the place. A window-like opening in the wall gave a glimpse into the murky living room, which hadn't fared much better. All throughout the place, I could smell the fetid scent of something decaying and... dead.

Down a dim hallway I found a dust-shrouded bathroom, and a pitch-dark room filled with debris. Climbing a set of stairs, I discovered a very tiny, low-ceilinged, attic-like room with a sloping roof decorated with a childlike border of dinosaurs; a window looked down onto a deflated child's pool lying half-buried in the tangled yard below. There was not much else to see in the empty little room so I went back down to the main floor, where I found a narrow stairway which led down to the ground level. I headed down...

I found myself in some sort of rec room, where pieces of a tattered board games and faded bingo cards littered the floor. For some reason this part of the house felt even more oppressive, as if someone was hidden in the shadows, watching. I felt distinctly uncomfortable, and began to want to get out of there. I checked out the doorway that I had seen from outside, but it was firmly enmeshed with vines and foliage and couldn't be opened, so I had to head back upstairs, which felt somehow much spookier now.

This time I didn't linger in the stifling, creepy interior... I headed back outside onto the raised side porch and back into the fresh air. From the higher vantage point, I could see remains of a tattered old basketball hoop in the yard, and bits of some ramshackle buildings out back. I headed down into the back yard and waded through waist-high greenery to get a peek at a decaying swing set nearly obscured by wild plants. There was something both sad and foreboding about all of the child's toys lying discarded around the abandoned home. Through thick leaves and brambles I noticed the structures that had caught my eye from the porch, and headed over to check them out.