“Melody, it’s dinner time. You need to come in.” She yells out the kitchen door and scares me nearly to death. “If you want Sydney to eat with us, I can call her mom.” She says when I'm almost to the door.
“No. Her mom isn’t home, just her brother and he won’t let her. He’s mean.”
“Oh. Well then let’s get you cleaned up, so you can eat.”
After washing up, I sit down at the table and we say grace. “When is dad coming home?” I look at mom and she glances down at her watch.
“Dad said he will be home late tonight. So, it’s just you and me, kiddo.”
We eat and when I’m finished, I excuse myself from the table. She looks up from her food and says while smiling, “You need to clean up your room, your bed is a mess.”
I had forgot about that. “O.K. mom, I’m going to do it right now.”
It’s starting to get a little dark out, so I turn my light on and look around my bedroom. This morning I didn’t pick up my covers because I was so hungry, but now I have to make my bed or my mom will keep yelling at me. Noticing something shiny on my pillowcase, I inspect it and realize that it’s a gray hair. Freaking out, I run out to the living room where my mom is sitting in her recliner.
“What’s up? You look like you just saw a ghost?” Concerned, she stands up after putting her book down and cups my chin with her hand.
I cling to her and she kisses my forehead as she notices that I am not acting normal at all. Honestly, I haven't acted this way since I was eight years old. Not being able to look her in the eyes, I say, “Mom. I thought I had a nightmare last night, but now I don’t know.”
I glance up and look into her eyes, seeing what I already knew and feared. The same eyes I saw last night, peering back at me. Suddenly, I feel her cold bony fingers on my chin and I shrink away from her touch. She grabs my arm with her other hand and squeezes tight. I try to fight, but she seems to have inhuman strength.
“You aren’t going anywhere. I want you to get ready for bed, you look so tired. Besides, when dad gets home he won’t want to see you like this.” She says with that dreadful voice that chills my very soul.
When I look back up at her, she doesn’t look like my mother anymore. Instead, her face has transformed into the old woman’s. Trying to free myself, I almost succeed but she has such a tight grip on me that there is no way to get away.
“Did you honestly think I would let you escape?” She shows her fangs and growls at me.
Crying, I give up all hope and collapse to the floor. When I do, she is forced to let go of my arm. It takes me a minute, but then I finally realize that I am free. Within two seconds, I’m up and running for anywhere safe.
I reach my parent’s room and slam the door quickly behind me. Hearing the old woman scream, I slide down against the door and sit on the floor. Trying to breathe, I gasp for air and find it harder than I thought. I look down at my chest and see why. Blood is seeping out of a gash the size of a half dollar.
She pounds on the door and I hear her nails scratch the wood as she tries to get in. The door is locked, so I'm safe for a moment. I stand up and look around, noting where the windows are and then I freeze in place.
On the bed, both my parents lay dead. They look like their internal organs have been sucked out by a spider. From behind me, I hear the door start to give a way against her constant pounding.
I look over at the window and I feel a flicker of hope, till I hear the door shatter and she bursts through it grabbing ahold of me. Why didn’t I run to the window and get out before she caught me? This is all I can think about as she drags me through the hallway to my bedroom.
Feeling pain, I glance down at my finger and see that one of my nails is hanging by a thin piece of skin. I must have caught it on something when I was fighting her in the hallway. I take my other hand and pull it off, wincing as I do.
Right now, I suspect that she is going to kill me and there simply isn’t anything I can do about it, except for fight her till the end. When she gets right in front of me, I grab ahold of her hair and yank as hard as I can. She lets out a blood curdling scream and slams her fists into my sides.
I hear my bones snap and pain shoots throughout my body, but all I can think about is getting free. Maybe, just maybe I can distract her so I can escape. I jam my thumbs into her eyes and hear them pop as my fingers penetrate them, feeling a slippery goo coat them before pulling my thumbs back out. She screams even louder and claws at my clothes.
While she keeps trying to get a hold on me, I bolt for the front door. It’s locked and I have a hard time with the chain, but I finally get it open. When I do, I hear her screaming after me. I run and run, till I can’t anymore. The pain in my sides stop me and I find myself looking around for anyone to help me.
An older man is sitting on the porch down the street and when sees me he stands up, asking, “Is everything alright?”
“No, I need help. My parents are dead and someone is trying to kill me. Please help me.”
“O.K., let me call the police.” He takes my hand and I feel his cold bony hand as he leads me inside. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, I promise.” When his mouth forms a crooked smile, I notice his two teeth.
"Are you O.K.?" My roommate Shanna asks looking concerned after she knocks on my door and sees me sitting in my dorm room alone, crying on Halloween.She is a big girl, about 6 foot and stocky with dyed pitch black hair and wearing heavy black liner. She looks like the type of person you don't want to meet in a dark alley. In reality, she is actually very insecure and unsure of herself. Not at all what you would think.Glancing up at her, I fake a smile. “Yeah, just in one of those moods. You know how I get.” I say mournfully and the frown that follows, tells all.“I completely understand. So, what happened today with idiot?” She replies as she picks up a piece of trash off of the floor and throws it away.Shaking my head, I say, “He tried to apologize, but I blew him off. I hate it when he gets that way.”Standing up, I turn the depressing music off and
Looking at me like I was absolutely crazy, he lets me come in and sit down. “Are you O.K.?”“No, there is something in my room and I think it's a ghost. The skeleton on my door just moved it’s arm up after I asked for my brother to do something to let me know if he was there. I could understand if it fell down, but no it just freaking moved up.”“Well, let’s go see. I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation for it.” He stands up and grabs something before returning to the room.I glance at him and I could tell right away that he wasn’t taking me seriously. “You know what? Just never mind, you’re right.” I say as I try to just blow it off as me acting nutty because of Halloween.“No, really. Let’s go.” He says as he walks to the door and motions for me to follow him.I stand up and start walking
"Scrrratch. Scrrrratch" Scanning the room, I try to decipher where the scratching noise is coming from, but I can't tell till I get off of the bed and walk around. I discover the closer I get to the closet, the louder it gets. Opening the door, I scan the empty space and then hear it again. I'm satisfied for the moment that nothing is going to burst through the wall, when I take a few seconds further to inspect it and ultimately decide that it's safe. Just to make sure, I put my ear to the wall and jump back startled when it sounds like something impacts with the other side and I feel the wall shake. Right at that very moment my mom walks in, “Where are you?” I hear her rummaging in my drawers and it makes me start to get aggravated.
Should I go with my parents? Or just deal with it and stay home like any other normal teenager. Thinking about it, I realize that it isn't really all that bad. After all, I am 13 and it isn't a big deal. I look down and see Bubba pushing my door open slowly with his big head. He bounces over to me and licks my foot. The whole time I keep picturing one of those cartoon dogs bouncing along, going "Boingy, boingy, boingy." When he is done, he curls up on my bed and falls asleep. Looking at him sleeping sweetly, I just know that having him around won't be much good. If someone decides to break into the house, he would just lick them and demand attention. Working up the courage to do this, I go in and tell my mom, “Becky just called and she can't c
It's late afternoon when my brother Billie walks into my room carrying something behind his back. He has a smirk on his face and says, "Guess what I have for you?"Shrugging my shoulders, I ask excitedly "What?"Pulling it from behind his back, he shows me the doll cradled in his arms. Now this isn't just any doll, it's a Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist doll. If you don't know what that is, you need to get your head out of the your butt and look it up.He hands it to me and right away I get this feeling that this doll isn't just a doll. I examine it closer and strip it of it's top hat, monocle and tuxedo. Underneath, the body is made up of cloth and a soft stuffing inside. His arms and legs flop around very easily and yet it intrigues me even more wh
"Anna" I hear as soft as a whisper and then a scraping noise coming from my closet. Cautiously uncovering my head, I am so scared that I feel myself shivering, but I still climb out of bed and stand up. Hearing the scraping noise again, I take a step in the general direction of the closet. However, when I hear my name again being called, I run back to the security of my covers and hide underneath them. Shaking uncontrollably, I stay under the covers and listen carefully for any sounds. What I hear next chills me to the bone and I find myself peeing the bed. Next to me, I feel a slight disturbance in the air flow and then I hear it. "Anna." A distinctely male voice screeches. It hurts my ears because it is so close and when I end up covering them with my hands, it pulls the covers off of me quickly. Revealing the source of the sound, my heart stops for a beat and then I black out. Waking
I start to rifle through the old musty smelling box of books that had been left on my porch, when I notice a little children’s book. I see the symbol of the Golden Children’s Books printed on it, then a little sticker on the binding indicating that it belongs to the library catches my eye. Examining it closer, the pages are bent back and discolored, but the book is still in suitable condition. My nails peel at the tape as I fidget and try to figure out what to do next.Taking a deep breath, I open the cover to discover that there is a single name on the inside. Nelli Stillson. Looking over the name and tracing it with my fingers I wonder how the book found its way into this box.“Should I return it to the library or to the little girl? Most likely the library has written it off a while ago as missing and bought a new one. So perhaps I will find the little girl’s family and return it to he
We continue the rest of the tour until we come to the stairs. “Upstairs, is Nelli’s part of the house. She has her own library, a playroom, a gaming room, an indoor pool and anything else she needs up here. You will notice that she doesn’t ever come downstairs. It’s just best that way. Now let’s go meet her. I do ask one thing. Don’t ever directly look into her eyes. It tends to upset her. She also might be quite sleepy because it is getting close to her bedtime.” “Ok. Sure.” I give him this not so happy smile as I am not sure after all this that suddenly I want to meet her. Something is quite off about all of this. By now the hairs are pricking the back of my neck so hard that I could swear I was shocked with an electrical current. Suddenly I see a flash run down the stairs and to the front door. I look at Mr. Stillson shockingly as he falls backwards and topples a couple steps