#20 The House of Long Fingers

Age: 50 Years

Hidden or Lost?: Just Avoided

History: Every neighborhood has that one house. The one that's been abandoned for as long as anyone can remember, the one that accumulates ghost stories and legends faster than the local kids can spread them. The one house that even those who are too old to believe such tales feel just isn’t right, even if they can’t put their finger on why. The old house at 33 Mulder Road, known to locals as ‘The House of the Long Fingers,’ is one of those houses.

As the legend goes, the once-grand two-story house was built by an eccentric antiques dealer as both a personal storehouse for his ever-growing collection of trinkets and treasures, and a home for the family he planned to have with his true love. Of course that's not how it worked out. The dealer’s collection grew faster than his family, and when his wife told him that it was her or the antiques, he hesitated. And she left.

The dealer’s been locked up in his house ever since, killing any trespassers and adding them to his collection, if the local kids are to be believed. The stories vary, but those daring enough to enter the house and lucky enough to escape seem to agree that there is someone or something living among the dusty maze of antiques. People have reported objects that seem to move of their own accord, strange tentacles or vines lashing out and trying to grab unwary visitors, and a longing voice echoing from walls that seem to throb with a life of their own.

The truth behind the house is much stranger. The antiques dealer who built the old house did drive away his wife, but when she left he sought a magical remedy. From his network of shady contacts, the dealer obtained an enchanted flower known as a Wishing Bloom, capable of granting a wish for each of its three delicate petals. The dealer watched one petal fall away as he wished for time everlasting, then he watched the second petal fall as he wished that he could touch his wife, his love, one last time.

Instantly his fingers began growing to grotesque, impossible lengths reaching out for her. They coiled up within the space behind the walls and under the floorboards, and he worried they would never stop growing. Eventually his digits stopped growing, but he has remained trapped within the house ever since, heartbroken, guilt-ridden and too afraid to use his last wish.

Occasionally people have caught a glimpse of one of his digits, giving the house its name, but until someone wishes him free, the House of Long Fingers will remain as one haunted house that’s stranger than the legends know.

1. Foyer In Rotted Gold

2. Parlor of Books & Mist

3. Chewed Porcelain Dining Hall

4. Jewel-Choked Closet

5. The Barren Bedroom

6. Hall of Slithering Linens

7. The Glass Stacks

8. Hostile Furniture Gallery

9. Secret Niche (Wishing Bloom)

10. Her Room

11. Vault of Memory & Regret

12. Crawlspace Squeezed

13. Thicket of Nails

14. The Splayed Man