I’ve read Hill House a few times, and there’s one scene that I often forget about and then it strikes me as so odd whenever I reread it. Part of it is that it’s so surreal in the midst of all the gothic ghost goodness.

Nell and Theo go on a walk at night and somehow end up running into a family picnic where Theo sees something so horrible it almost drives her mad. What are everyone’s theories?! What did she see? Was the family an echo of one of the families who had passed through the house? A warped version of a family memory from Theo? Just another trick of the house? Excerpt below:

The path led them to its destined end and died beneath their feet. Eleanor and Theodora looked into a garden, their eyes blinded with the light of sun and rich color; incredibly, there was a picnic party on the grass in the garden. They could hear the laughter of the children and the affectionate, amused voices of the mother and father; the grass was richly, thickly green, the flowers were colored red and orange and yellow, the sky was blue and gold, and one child wore a scarlet jumper and raised its voice again in laughter, tumbling after a puppy over the grass. There was a checked tablecloth spread out, and, smiling, the mother leaned over to take up a plate of bright fruit; then Theodora screamed. “Don’t look back,” she cried out in a voice high with fear, “don’t look back—don’t look—run!”