What Can Be Done?:

What can be done about China House? The neighbors have tried to purify the monster of a house after an incident in the 1960’s. The basic details of that night in question go like this: a group of teenagers broke into the house for a loud party. As predicted, it didn’t go so well. Two of them are still missing this day. The police found the bodies of three girls pinned the living room walls. New Orleans tried in vain to keep the story out of the news. That was the point that the neighbors tried to drive the evil out of the house. In the course of twenty years, there was seven tries to purify China House. All of them ended in failed.

Attempt One:

Days after the “Party Massacre,” the neighbors called in a Catholic priest to exorcise the house. The oldest man in the neighborhood showed him to the house.

“Just up this way,” he said. The priest held his bible as he walked down the block. All of the neighbors watched from their closed windows. They waited with bated breath as the priest passed them by. The men made it up to the front door. He looked behind him when he heard the old man dash behind him.

“It’s okay, sir,” the priest told him. “It’s just a house. It cannot hurt him.” The old man tried not to give into fear after hearing those words.

“If you say so,” he murmured. The priest walked up to the front door. His guide stayed in the yard, waiting. Be careful, father, he thought. The priest disappeared into the house as the door slammed shut behind him. Not a single soul came outside that day. The old man bit on his hand. Several hours later, it grew quiet around him. An uneasy feeling formed in his stomach. He wanted to go inside and check on the priest, but his nerves wouldn’t give.

No! I need to have faith in the father. The old man stayed in that yard all night. By morning, he was joined by two more neighbors to investigate inside the house. At first, inside of the house looked normal.

“Father?” the old man whispered. A warm drop landed on his face. He froze and put his hand to his cheek.

“What the--?” he asked. Against their judgment, the three men lifted their heads. To their horror, the father was pinned up to the ceiling, bleeding with his mouth wide open.

Attempt Two:

Six days later, they called another priest to try and exorcise the house. Again, the neighbors didn’t leave their homes. They hoped that this time, it would work. Everyone waited by their phones for the news. When nothing come through for three days, the neighbors feared the worst. The priest had never been seen since he went inside the house. The only thing left of his was his bible with the pages torn out. Only the book of Revelation was scattered around the living room floor soaked with blood.

Attempt Three:

A month later, the neighbors turned to another religion for help when the church refused to help them. A voodoo priestess stared down the villainous house. The neighbors kept their distance as she went inside. She took less time inside of the house than the two priests did. Some of the neighbors stood around in the lawn, holding their breaths.

“Well?” another old man asked her. The priestess’ eyes looked so cloudy.

“Priestess?” a mother of two asked. The bottle of alcohol hit the ground before the priestess did.

“Priestess!” they shouted. The police hauled away the body an hour later.

Attempt Four:

The neighbors called a psychic for the house. She had already heard about the other three failed attempts. Still, she just had to take a challenge.

“Good luck,” one of the neighbors whispered as she stretched her neck side by side.

“Ah, I don’t need it,” she said. The psychic walked straight into the death trap. Only three hours passed before she ran out of the house, screaming.

“This house is evil!” she cried. “Burn this devil to the ground!” The psychic ended up locked away in her apartment in the city never coming out again.

Attempt Five:

A couple of the neighbors decided it was time to take matters into their own hands three months later. They put up charms to drive out the spirits. They stuck special rods into the ground around the house. One man even put salt around the inside and outside of the house.  Their wives didn’t feel this was a good idea.

“Are you sure this will work?” one of them asked. Her husband gave her a rather grim look.

“I hope so…” he said in a low voice. However, the charms and salt all vanished the next morning.  Those neighbors couldn’t figure out what caused this. They tried two set everything back up again, but when they put the charms on the wall, they could feel their hands burning. The salt burned rings into the floor and grass. So much fire sent the men running scared.

Attempt Six:

With no other options to turn to in the 1980’s, the neighbors called ghost hunters from out of state. They even offered a reward for anyone who can exercise the house. Different teams of ghost hunters flocked in from the country to New Orleans in all ways possible. The neighbors tried to act normal and not think about it while they got to work. They had never seen so much traffic in their neighborhood in their life.

Suddenly three days later, everything went silent. The neighbors waited for something to stir from the house. Only one ghost hunter came out from the house, half naked and shaking. The neighbors rushed to him.

“What happened?” they asked. He broke down shaking into a scream. He collapsed to the ground, dead. Everyone raced to their houses and locked their doors.

Attempt Seven:

In the end, the neighbors tried to burn down the evil China House. The men brought gasoline and poured it all around the house. One of them pulled out the matches. Before he could strike, his hands went numb.

“What the--?” he asked. The other men felt their bodies going numb with the feeling of little ants running up and down their bodies. A siren wail filled their heads. The pain grew to be too much for them and they abandoned the whole plan altogether.

In the end, China House still stood. Today, there is a young couple touring the house and the woman is pregnant.