The Shadow
     I took off my Halloween costume, washed the paint off my face, put on my pajamas, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I was almost asleep when I first heard the sound ... three small taps from somewhere in the room. I quickly grabbed a hold on the top of my blanket and pulled it over my head. Although I knew it wouldn't save me from anything, the separation from the "thing" lurking in the dark was calming. I slowly drifted asleep, the memory of the strange sound fading away. It wasn't long until the three taps echoed through the wall once more. My eyes snapped open as I felt something slowly removing the blanket from my grasp. I was soon exposed to the eerie darkness once more. I looked around, but it wasn't any good. I couldn't make out a thing. I sat there, my grasp tight on my thick blanket, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Moments later, I could finally make out the shapes and shadows of my room. I could see my light grey rug lying on the carpet. I acknowledged the clothes scattered about. I glanced at my clock sitting on my nightstand. 1:35 am. "too early.." I quietly moaned. I was about to fall back into my dreams when I noticed my curtain move. Something is in here with me. "Hello?" I said with uncertainty. No reply. This had to be my imagination. I lay back down in my bed. I heard the three knocks again. This time louder. I ignored it. Suddenly, the knocks echoed in my ears again. This time, they repeated. They got louder and louder and louder until I shot out of my covers, and landed swiftly onto my feet. The only sound I could hear was a slight ringing in my ears from the loud knocking. Maybe it had waken someone up? I didn't care. I saw movement in the corner of my eye and shot my head towards the far end of the room. In the corner, was a dark shadow. I could suddenly make out the shape of a tall man, wearing a hat. He reached out towards me and in a voice I can't explain whispered: "Wake up... Wake up... Wake up..." It was slow and.. Creepy. Suddenly, everything started spinning. The shadow made an ear piercing screech that echoed throughout the room. "Wake up, Wake up," he kept saying. "Wake up.." Then everything started playing at once. The knocking, the screeching, "wake up.." I was spinning faster and faster and the sounds got louder and louder until finally I fell face down onto the floor. I opened my eyes, squinting in the daylight that poured into the room. I got up, my body aching. "Was it a dream?" I whispered to myself. Although it felt too realistic to be a dream, I decided I would try to take my mind off of it. After all, I was alive. My heart was racing as I walked over to the door and shakily opened it. I was fine, and it was all behind me now. 

I took off my Halloween costume, washed the paint off my face, put on my pajamas, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I was almost asleep when I first heard the sound of someone laughing. Everyone in my family was asleep, so I went upstairs to see what it was. When I got upstairs, I saw a few figures laughing in kitchen, so I called out "Mom? Dad?" One of the figures turned around and turned on the kitchen light. That's when I realized that the figures were vampires. I realized that one of them wasn't just an ordinary vampire though, she was the prettiest of them all. She had the most beautiful hair I have ever seen and was the average height of a human. She scanned me over a couple of times and then said “Are you Tayli?” “Uh, yeah” I said with some hesitation. “My name is Ophelia and I need you to come with my friends and I to our cave by the river”. As I thought this over I said “I don’t really have choice do I?” “No, not really” Ophelia said. When we got to the cave, she told me to sit down. I sat down on a rock near the entrance in case I needed to make a quick escape. One of the other vampires came and started talking to me for awhile. As we were talking, Ophelia came over to where we were sitting and I realized that she looked really familiar. As she sat down, I study her carefully and realized that it was my cousin! I looked around before I said anything and realized that all the vampires were my friends. Surely they were playing a prank on me. I must’ve had a look on my face because “Ophelia” said “Guys, she figured it out. She knows it’s us” We all started laughing and hung out until we got tired. 

The Closet

Brodie Larsen

                    Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound came from inside the closet. Quietly, I crept toward the door...I was stuck at home all by myself. It was Halloween night, but Mom had said that I was "too old" for trick-or-treating, and that no friends could  come over unless they were coming for candy. and I couldn't get a hold of them because I wasn't aloud to have a phone. "Ugh why are my parents so over protective, and why do I have to stay home handing out candy. Of all things to, I had the perfect costume to scare my little brother a zombie he was terrified of them.

                    Anyway back to what I was doing. I approached the door and slowly reached out and grabbed the handle and twisted, and then screech  my brother's parrot flew out from my closet and dive bombed me. That stupid bird,I swiped at it but only succeeded in clawing the air in front of me. All that dumb bird knew how to say was your stupid your stupid. So I went back into the living room, took a handful of candy,and sat on the couch.
                 
                    All I really did for the rest of the night was hand out candy. There were some cool costumes, I think one boy  named Spencer dressed up like a girl. Oh and later that night I got up on my roof with a five gallon bucket of water and dropped it on some kids. For the most part it was pretty boring, and don't forget never tell your parents you don't have plans on Halloween.

My brother and I were walking through the woods one Halloween day when we saw what appeared to be a short-cut. "Let's go that way," my brother said  "Why, it's not the way home home is in the opposite direction" I told him "Shut-up and come with me. We walked for what lasted forever and ever. Then we were at the old  Bosworth mansion story is that it's haunted there was a party outside not inside. So that's when i asked "why are you guys outside you are all chickens go inside unless your a chicken" so I started making chicken noises. One of them told me to go inside so I did my brother chased me we both acted like we were afraid but, we weren't my moms ma-din name is Bosworth no one knows that the Bosworth mansion is my grandparents house the died 5 years ago so it was vacant but we scared everyone out side they all left and me and my brother stayed the night there and ate our candy.     

Why I hate Pumpkins

“There,” said my Dad, as he handed me the Jack-o-Lantern. “Now just set it on the porch.”

I stared at it and frowned. The pumpkin I’d attempted to carve, one of a ghost, had turned up horribly, and now it would be presented on our front porch, in front of everyone. Though I knew the whole world wasn’t going to see it, I couldn’t help but feel self-conscious at the thought of my friends seeing it. It wasn’t really something I would want to display.

“Carefully take this one, too.” My dad passed me his. He had entered his in a pumpkin contest and won. A giant blue ribbon was pinned onto his pumpkin, which was a perfect carving of the actual Mona Lisa. It looked realistic, too. I have no idea how he did it. The day he carved it he basically locked himself in a room all day and came out covered in pumpkin. He told me he’d failed multiple times, but I was stunned. I remember that day, I’d tried to touch it, but he’d slapped my hand away and told me not to touch it. Afterwards, as punishment for trying, he’d made me clean up the area he’d carved it… which was a mess.

After winning the carving contest, he treasured the thing like it was his child. It was a little bit creepy. He didn’t let anyone touch it, not even my mom. He had displayed it in our house rather than on the porch for the past few days, and put a gate around it so no one could get within five feet of his beloved Mona Lisa. Now, he was trusting me to carry it.

Once my dad left I picked up both pumpkins at once, one in each hand. I couldn’t take my eyes off of my dad’s pumpkin; I had to make sure I didn’t drop it. I finally came to the front porch, and leaned over with the hand holding my pumpkin. I was barely able to pull open the door when I felt my pumpkin rolling out of my arms. Before I could save it, it fell hard onto the tile, a large crack splitting it open.

I was only able to sigh in relief. Not only was my pumpkin broken, but my dad’s wasn’t. I reached for the door to open it, for real this time.

That was when it swung open. My mom had opened it, knocking me backwards in the process. My dad’s pumpkin fell on the ground as I lost my handing on it. I couldn’t keep my footing. Before I knew it, I was falling to the ground, and I fell on my back hard, feeling as though something was stabbing into my back. I reached back, yelping in pain, and pulled back my hand, which was covered in pumpkin mush.

It was my dad’s pumpkin.

My dad had come racing around the corner from all the commotion. He gasped as he stared at me. “Are you okay?” He asked, panic in his eyes.

“I’m fine,” I began. “I-”

“NOT YOU!” He shoved me over on the ground. “MONA!” He stared at his crushed pumpkin, actual tears beginning to form in his eyes.

I stared down at the pumpkin mesh, my hands coming to my mouth. “Dad… I’m so sorry, the door hit me, and I-”

“IN THE CORNER!” He shouted, pointing to the nearest corner.

“W-what? Dad, the last time you gave me this punishment, I was like, five years old! You can’t be serious!” I stared at him in anger.

“Honey, it’s not a big-” My mom began, closing the door.

“No!” Tears were now pouring down my dad’s face. “In the corner, NOW!”

Not wanting to disobey, I stuck my nose obediently in the corner.

“Honey, this is ridiculous. Let her out of the corner.” My mom reached for me.

“NO! Let the pumpkin smasher be punished. She has done wrong.” He glared at me.

“This is ridiculous, Dad!” I shouted. “It’s just a pumpkin.”

“You don’t understand. I carved that pumpkin for hours! It was beautiful! It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever laid eyes on!” My dad turned away to let the tears roll down his face.

“Dad-”

“No!” He pulled open the door and stomped out, slamming the door behind him. I turned to look at my mom, who looked stunned and angry. I looked at the pumpkins on the ground, all smooshed into the tile.

“Clean them up,” My mom demanded, before leaving the room.

So that’s how my Halloween went.

Everyone messes up

I was stuck at home all by myself. It was Halloween night, but Mom had said that I was too old for trick-or-treating so instead I spent the night alone in my bed watching Monsters Inc. Then suddenly I heard the handle on my closet door begin to jiggle side, to side. Being the over thinker that I am I immediately began to think that monsters were trying to break into my room. I quickly hopped out of bed, ran down the hallway into the office, and picked up the nearest weapon in site. Which just so happened to be a... bread stick. A bread stick. A monster is trying to break into my house and i grab a bread stick. So I quickly ate the bread stick as fast as I can, picked up some scissors, and then slowly marched back to my room.

When I got to my room I slowly opened the door and creeper into my room. I flicked on the light switch and began to walk towards the closet. As I got closer to the door the door began to shake very rapidly, and I got even more scared after every step I took. Finally, my hand was on the door handle. As I slowly began to open the door the shaking began to stop. Once the door was finally open… I saw my little brother lying on the floor. It was my stupid annoying little brother that scared me. “What are you doing in here!” I exclaimed. “Don’t you remember” he very quietly croaked “You locked me in here awhile ago and the door wouldn't budge”. So what i'm only human. Everyone messes up!

Dream

Dream

I was stuck at home all by myself. It was Halloween night, but Mom had said that I was too old for trick-or-treating. I had protested, but her decision was final. So instead I am raiding the treat cupboard for treats to eat with my Halloween movie, “Return to Halloween Town.” I grabbed as treats as I could carry and more. When I got downstairs, I dumped them on the floor. By the end of the movie, I had eaten the whole pile of snacks. I am not feeling very well. I stumble up to my room collapse onto my bed. Soon, I heard the sound of my three little siblings coming back from trick-or-treating. My mom called me downstairs, “Ashley we have something for you. Come downstairs right now.” I got up and crawled to the hall. I got around the corner and … woke up. My family had returned. It seemed I had fallen asleep watching the movie. It was all just a dream.

The End

Sleeping beauty

Sleeping Beauty

Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound came from inside the closet. Quietly, I crept toward the door . I paused near the door, afraid. It was Halloween day besides. Odd things can happen on Halloween. I took a breath in, and, ran away. I couldn’t do it. How was I supposed to know what was in the closet? I am not going near it until someone else makes sure that nothing is in it. I walked into the hall and headed to my left. The hall walls were a bright pink with the ceiling and floor, a deep purple. My mom had an odd taste in colors. About halfway down the hall, there was a black door. All our doors are yellow. I walked towards it and gently opened the door. Inside was a spinning wheel. This looks fun. I walked over and sat down, admiring the spinning wheel. I rubbed my hand over it. Ouch, I just accidentally pricked my finger on the spinning wheel. Suddenly, my world started to spin. When I woke up I looked around. “What is your name?” I spun around to find an elf talking to me. I rubbed my eyes, “My name is Sage.” He would have found out anyways. “Where am I?” “The wrong girl. Again. I will have to send her back.” RIght after the elf said this, my world spun again. I was back in my room again, phew. I heard the tapping noise again. Well, nobody else is going to check it. I took a deep breath and opened the door. Inside was another spinning wheel. I gently placed my hands on the wheel, lifted it up and through the window. Then I dropped it. I didn’t watch it go down. Instead, I went to my bed and layed down. I need some more sleep.

  The End

The Halloween Porch Swing

The Halloween Porch Swing

"There," said my Dad, as he handed me our jack-o-lantern. "Just set it on the porch.” I walked out and set it on the porch. I sat down on the porch swing. I love the night. Especially on Halloween’s Eve right before midnight. My dad came out in his cheesy Dracula costume. He carried two plates of pumpkin pie out. He set one in my lap. “Dad, that costume is not even going to scare a two-year-old.” “Well then, it will scare a one-year-old.” My dad said waggling his eyebrows up and down. I couldn’t help but laugh. After we wolfed down our pie, we swung on the porch swing. Suddenly, the scene around us changed. We were now in a jungle with green vines everywhere. I looked around. My dad said, “The stars are beautiful tonight.” I looked up. The trees were covering the stars. Suddenly the scene switched to a desert. The a forest, field, haystack. It kept changing, finally fed up, I stood up. The scene switch back to my house right as the alarm I set went off telling us today was Halloween. I sat back down nothing happened. My dad was looking at me weird, “Are you okay Katie?” I laughed at myself, I probably had a moment of craziness. “Yea. I am just fine.”

Only the Beginning

Stolen

“What is that AWFUL smell?” I asked. Then I saw the cauldron full of bubbling purple liquid; this, was the first memory I had after I woke up chained to a strange wall in a strange room, and I was gagged. You must know that before this I was stolen. I was innocently trick-or-treating when I came upon this weird house, but as you might know, witches lived there, three of them, but I didn’t know that; I mean who would. Before I could say Trick-Or-Treat,(I really don’t think I was going to say it anyways) they spoke in a language that I didn’t understand, there raspy voices were crude and angry, then they raised their brooms and poof, I was down. Then I woke up and saw the cauldron, but you already know that let's move on shall we? “I looked around for a while, then saw the witches by the cauldron. I almost screamed but, all that came out was a muffled cry for help that sounded something like this, “huuuuuuuuupppp!” which doesn’t sound like much I’ll tell you that. The middle one spoke first “it’s alright sweetie we’re only going to suck all the youth out of you and turn you into an old grannie, while we get turned back to our young, beautiful selves.” “First” said the one to the right, “we’re going to make you stay chained to the wall for 3 hours, all the while you will tell us how old you are and all that personal stuff.” “Then” said the one on the left ”we’re going to do our little spell on you and become young again!” After that they all said “Yay!” and danced around in a circle. Then what do you know, the questioning began; it was horrible! Just think about all of your lives secrets, your address, your name, how old you are, even what school you went to all pouring out of you! I knew I was dreading the spell already but, there was no way to avoid it, so don’t blame me after I flinched when they said “It is time.” They blindfolded me, put me in a chair and began the spell. As you know I don’t know the words they speak because, it wasn’t English. They reached their bony fingers out and, I woke up with a yelp and looked around realizing that it was all just a dream, a terrifying dream.

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House

My brother and I were walking through the woods one Halloween day when we saw what appeared to be a short-cut. "Let's go that way," my brother said. “But, we don’t know if that is the correct way.” I would rather be safe than sorry. “This wood is heavy and I want to get home fast.” Father had made us go into the woods to get wood for the fireplace. He was busy doing finances. We would probably have to go without electricity again. “What are you too chicken?” I huffed and ran onto the path. We both sprinted as far as we could then caught our breath. “Where are we?” My brother nervously looked around, I followed his example. “You know where we are right, Kat?” I slowly shook my head. This seemed to make him more frantic. The thing I knew was we can’t go back it would take way too long. When I looked forward, I saw a gingerbread house. Just like the one in Hansel and Gretel. An ugly woman poked her head out of a frosting window, “Come in my dears. You look hungry. Come have a bite to eat.” She had burn marks on her face. My brother, James, started towards the house. “No James.” I pulled him back. “Why not? I am hungry, besides, she looks nice.” James complained. “Looks can be deceiving. Let's go home.” I pulled him along until he ran with me. A few minutes later, a wagon came up the road, our father seated at the wheel with our mother. We jumped in the back and let a breath as we shrugged our packs off. Our mom looked back. With black makeup streaked down her face to look like burn marks. “Come have a bite to eat children.” Our mom said in the same voice of the witch. James and I screamed, looked at each other screaming, and looking forward again screaming.

The End

      Bearstein

      I was stuck at home all by myself. It was Halloween night, but Mom had said that I was too old for trick-or-treating.  Even though I wasn't supposed to, I turned on the TV, which turned onto the news, the show my dad had been watching.  The news reporter immediately caught my attention because he was saying "...we first found the original damage in the old mansion.  We then followed the trail of destruction left by what could only be a huge, enormous, 10 foot, man-eating, bear or maybe Frankenstein, to this neighborhood." The camera then turned to what was unmistakably my street. BOOM!  My back door blew open as if an atom bomb blew up right outside.  Then a don't-even-know-I'm-10-feet-tall-monster walked in the door.  He looked right at me and said, "I eat u." I was so scared I peed my pants, then he chuckled making me do worse things to my pants.  When he stepped into the light I noticed that he was ever so slightly green, with giant blue overalls, and made-by-death-himself shoes.  He laughed saying, "Me run cops. No go zoo. Me hide." I wondered why he had sad 'I eat you' when I realized he was joking and secondly, where was I going to hide a ten foot monster?
      I knew the cops were coming when I heard the knock, knock, knock and a gruff voice demanding "Open up it's the police."  I motioned with my hand for him to duck behind the couch hoping he would understand.  I opened the door to a fat, ugly, hair-everywhere-but-the-head sorta guy.  He questioned me about a big monster. I tried not to sweat as he asked to take a peek around my house.  I led him to the upstairs, downstairs, and when we arrived back to the door he noticed one giant foot sticking out behind the couch.  The cop looked behind the couch only to be greeted by a giant glowing-green head.  He said "ME NO LIKE ZOOOOOO!"  The officer did what most rational humans would do, run.  He didn't even take a step before he got thwacked on the head.  The monster later told me his name was Bearstein. Bearstein to this day lives in Alaska, terrorizing people by stomping on them earning him the nick name 'Bigfoot.'

Lost In The Woods

My brother and I were walking through the woods one Halloween day when we saw what appeared to be a short-cut. "Let's go that way," my brother said.

“Are you sure, Anders?” I asked, “There’s not a pathway, we might get lost.”

“Fine. Go the safe way. I’m going through the woods.” He said.

I sighed as I followed behind him. I can’t let my 9 year-old brother wander through the woods all alone this close to sundown. The frosty wind bit at our already rosy noses while leaves crunched beneath our feet. I had a bad feeling about this. It was 6:32 and the sun would be setting in less than 20 minutes.

“We need to go back. I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Kylie, where is your sense of adventure?” He replied.

“I’m only being cautious,” I argued. “Mom will be worried sick if we’re not home soon.”

“Duh. We will be. It’s called a short cut for a reason, you know.”

“Ugh. Okay” I sighed.

I decided to drop it. Anders would never admit that I’m right. And who knows, maybe it will be a short-cut.

As my feet kicked through the deep piles of orange, yellow, and red leaves, I realized we were getting nowhere. I followed behind anyway, not wanting to interrupt the weird screamo band Anders was listening to through his earphones. I couldn’t chuckling over his music taste. When I was 9, I listened to the Hannah Montana soundtracks.

I suddenly stopped laughing as soon as I heard a rustle in the bushes. I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew this was a bad idea.

“Anders,” I whispered. He kept walking. “Anders!”

He spun around. “What?” he cried. “If you want to turn around, just go! Stop complaining!”

I glanced at the bushes and his eyes followed mine. His striking green eyes were wide when they met my own. Without saying anything, we bolted as far as we could. The adrenaline rushed through us as our legs pulled us through the depth of trees.

When we were what seemed far enough away, he spoke up “You were right. Oh my gosh Ky, you were right.” I gave him the a look as if to say “I told you so.”

The sun had set. It wasn’t pitch black, but it would be soon. We had spent the past five minutes trying to make a plan. We had never been this far into the woods. Anders suggested that we call someone but, we discovered how bad our luck was when we found mine dead and Anders’ with no service. So, without any other ideas our boots trudged through the gravel. That’s when we saw it. Have you ever watched a horror movie and there is a huge haunted mansion. Well, that’s what was lying right before our eyes. When we looked at each other, there was fear in our eyes.

“Should we knock? Maybe this is someone’s house. They might have a phone.” I said. It was worth a try.

“Most people who would let a couple of kids borrow their phone in the middle of the night don’t live in creepy houses in the middle of the woods.” He replied.

“Good point,” I said.  

Rain began to pour down our already freezing bodies. Lightning flashed in the sky and the rumble of thunder followed it.

“It’s worth a try though.” Anders said.

“Ok, let’s go.” I nervously replied.

We walked up to the gate and our hands opened it slowly. Sighing, I walked onto the property, keeping a lookout for anything odd. Anders followed behind me and before we knew it, we were on the steps. I brought my hand up to the door with my fist closed.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

Silence. I looked at Anders. After a few seconds, I knocked three mores times, this time louder and faster than before.

What happened next was the most spine-chilling experience I’ve ever had. A loud cackle came from behind the door. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human.

Our feet stumbled down the steps and back through the gates. We were back in the seemingly endless woods. We weren’t going to stop running for a long time.

“A shortcut? A shortcut! Anders! We’re lost! Do you know how worried Mom probably is? We are never going to make it hom-” I stopped.

“Our street! Our street!” We exclaimed. We could see the opening to our street and we sprinted towards it, down our street, and all the way home.

WE opened the front door.

“Kylie, Anders? Is that you?” I heard my mom’s voice.

She looked at us and said, “Where have you been?!”

So, we told her everything. And she didn’t believe a word.

Delusional

Delusional

Ugh. I think I've eaten too much Halloween candy. My stomach, head, and throat don’t feel good. I think I am getting delusional. I am laying here in bed, but I am also going downstairs and nobody is there. Then my family jumps out from behind me and yell, “Happy Birthday!”

My birthday is on Halloween if you were wondering. I was born right as the clock struck midnight on the day of Halloween. Back to my delusional vision. I am falling down the stairs now and feeling unbearable pain. Then everything blacking out.

My vision returned to normal. I stared at my black and orange striped room. Everything was perfectly set up. the stripes went up and down my walls, ceiling, and floor. Even all my furniture including my blankets. I am going to go ask my mom if she has some aspirin for my head. I got up and walked into the famous Halloween house. Well, the hallway of it, that is. My mom always full-on decorated for each little holiday. It got kind of annoying actually. I got to the fancy staircase banister leading down the steep, long stairs. I am feeling a lot of deja-vu.

I heard some scuffling behind me. I turned around expecting it to be one of my many pets. Instead a bunch of flashlights flashed at me as my family shouted out, “Happy Birthday!” I screamed and took one step back. One too much.

I tripped back and kept going. I flipped over my head, over and over. I landed on my back on the stone tile, all the breath knocked out of me. I couldn’t move any part of me. “Hope!” I heard my mom scream as she rushed down the stairs like she was running for her dear life. Or mine.

My parents and pets surrounded me, many of which were making some kind of sound. My father had pulled out his phone and was urgently talking into it. “Yes. 673 East, Smith Street. She is only 14 years old. Yes. No. It was an accident. Thank you. See you when you get here. Soon.” My dad shut his cellphone. “The ambulance is on the way. What hurts Ol’ Santa?”

My dad always call me Ol’ Santa because Hope shortened is Ho. Which of course, is what Santa says; you know “Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas. I groaned. Everything hurt. I wheezed out as loud as I could, “My leg...my arm...my head...my foot...my hand...my stomach...my throat...my brain.” My parents glanced at each other with worried expressions. I rolled onto my stomach with a crunch.

I yakked up all my candy and dinner and lunch and breakfast and every single thing I ate that day and possibly more. I just kept hurling until the door burst open and multiple EMTs burst in. They gently slid the mat under me. They picked me up and lifted me through the door and into the ambulance. My parents followed me telling me, “It will be okay, it will be okay.”

They were assuring themselves more than me. I passed out right about then. When I awoke, the first thing that registered was that I was in a white room, the hospital, I recalled. I rolled my head to the side and saw my mother watching me with fretful eyes.

“Hope! Doctor she is awake.” Mom called. “It is going to be okay Hope. It is going to be okay.” Mom still sounded more like she was assuring herself. My dad escorted the doctor in. “Santa. You're awake.” Dad let out a breath that made it sound like he had been holding it the whole time.

“Dad.” I coughed out my throat burning. “No. You are not to talk for the next week or so. But then, of course, you will be in the hospital for most of that time.” The doctor said sharply. I opened my mouth to argue, but the doctor immediately shook his head. I let out a sigh of defeat. Then I looked down at the rest of my body for the first time since I woke up. The first thing I saw was the bandage covering a whole half of my body.

I felt my head, that was still throbbing. There was gauze covering a large part of it. Underneath I felt the edges of a sharp cut. “Your head was cut at the end of the stairs.” My dad put in.

“Now Hope, I need to talk with you and your parents. The thing is, we x-rayed your body and,” The doctor took in a breath before continuing, “We saw something at the front of your brain. We think it is a tumor. It is actually good you fell down the stairs, if not, we would have never known about it.” My father and mother were very still. “We will have to remove it soon, you might have to learn everything all over again.” The doc. said with emotion in his voice.

My mom let out one short, loud sob. “I will be back in a moment, let you guys be alone for a while.” The doctor hurried out of the room. I didn’t want to face my parents now. I closed my eyes, relaxed, and pretended to be asleep. I really fell asleep then.

When I woke up again, I was in a familiar car. “Hi Santa. The doctor gave the okay for a home visit because almost right after is, your operation, that is.” We soon pulled up to our house. My dad picked me up and carried me inside.

There was a woman, not my mom, inside. She kind of had a gold arora surrounding her. “Um, excuse me, who are you and why are you in my house?” The woman smiled and said, “First thing is first my name is Kristy, I am Hope’s physical trainer. I heard about her accident. I will just be waiting outside until you are done with your time.” Kristy stepped outside.

“Weird. Oh well, do you want to play Rummikub Ol’ Santa?”  =”Why not?” my dad brought the game by the couch so we could play. An hour or so after we started to play, my father’s phone rang. He answered it then spoke into it, “We will be there in thirty minutes.” He shut the phone and looked at me with sad puppy eyes. “Time to go elf?” I sadly asked. He nodded and took me outside.

The woman stopped us and said, “Stretch then heal.” Then she disappeared and dad silently carried me to the car. He buckled me in and started driving. It was a long drive that gave me time to think. When that odd Kristy spoke those words, all the pain I had previously felt got replace by a cold, chilling sensation. I fell into a peaceful, painless sleep on the drive to the hospital.

When I woke up, I heard whispering outside the hospital room I was in. The doctor looked through the door and saw me awake. He came in with my dad. I watched my dad’s face. It was a face full of relief and joy. The doc. explained my situation to me,

“Hope, I don’t know what happened, but we took an x-ray and we didn’t see any tumor in your brain anymore.” I held my breath hoping it was true. “We scanned your whole body. You, my dear, are completely healed up. Though in some spots you have very massive odd scars.” I looked down at my arm. On it there was two long glowing scars parallel to each other. Am I still delusional?

The End

Haunted House

Haunted House

Everybody said the old Bosworth mansion was haunted, but I didn’t think it was true until I experienced it. On Halloween when it was at its worst.

I was just a little girl back then, perhaps 6 and ½. My name is Lucilia; I was named after a great-grandma that I had never known. Well, until that Halloween. I was not-so-happily trick-or-treating with my brother that was 13. His name was Jake and was at the age where he only liked the things that were “cool.” He was dragging me along house after house. I tried to convince him to take me back to our house where there was pumpkin bread and hot cocoa waiting for us. He didn’t agree. By now my feet were just numb with him pulling me along, me unhappily complaining.

“Hey, Jake!” Shouted one of my idiot brother’s friends. “Come over here!”

“Come on Lucy. Let's go.” He gave my arm a yank.

“Hey fam. Where are we going?”

“The Old Bosworth Mansion. It's gonna’ be sick. We are gonna’ toilet paper it.”

“Cool.” My brother bumped fists with his friend, Jack, I recalled.

“That is not nice Jacob.” I never had wanted to toilet paper a house. He just kept pulling me along. We soon got to the Bosworth Mansion where a group of my brother’s other friends were gathered. They started laughing and joking with each other and making a plan. I looked over the mansion. What was that in the window? It looked like a person! I didn’t know anybody lived in it. I glanced back at the idiots that were still making a plan, laughing, and joking with each other. Mostly laughing and joking. I rolled my eyes and snuck around the enormous house. I heard a creaking sound coming from a door in the back. I looked in and and there was an old woman beckoning me.

“Come child.” She said in a quiet voice. I took one glance back then ducked through the doorway.

Once inside in a comfortable sitting room, she requested, “Now darling child, what is your name?”

“Lucilia, Lucy for short. What's yours?” I said in a curious tone.

“Well, what a coincidence. My name is Lucy Esa Bosworth. I am the mistress of this old house.”

“I will call you Esa. I like that name. Now where is your husband?” I ignorantly asked.

Esa had a soft look in her eyes when she replied, “My husband died a very long time ago.”

“Oh. I am sorry. I didn’t me-”

“It is okay child. Now what are you and all your friends doing in my front yard?”

“They aren’t my friends they are my brother’s. They are going to toilet paper your house for Halloween.” Esa chuckled like there was an inside joke.

“Let us see how that works out for them.” She led me to a front window. The boys just started throwing the fragile paper. The first roll approached the house, but then a few feet away from hitting the house, it bounced back onto the idiots by an invisible force. “Wha-” They all had a puzzled expression on their face. They tried again and again. After a while of it, Esa led me down to the front door and walked out with me.

“Lucy where were you and who is this?” My brother was very angry.

“Well, Jake, I was in the mansion and this is Lucy Esa Bosworth. The mistress of this mansion.

“Oh, I am sorry ma'am  that we were going to toilet paper your fine house.” Jake suddenly became really respectful.

“It is fine, Jake. Now would any of you like a ride home?”

She took us all home with our navigation. She even took us to the door and waited with us until our mom came to the door. My mother took one look at Esa and then threw her arms around her.

“Grandma.” My mom choked out. It turned out that Esa was my great-grandmother that I had never known before. After that we went over to her house nearly everyday of course, we got really close to her. Unfortunately, when I was 11 and ½, on another Halloween, she passed away. She never really did tell me what that inside joke was that she was laughing about on that Halloween day.

The End