Last weekend, my parents – who are a bit ridiculous – decided to move houses, which wasn’t such a pleasant idea. We have lived at the same house for over a decade, I couldn’t understand why they wanted to leave. The worst part was that we had to move towns, which meant I had to say goodbye to my friends. Once we arrived, goosebumps peppered my arm, the house looked abandoned. Layers of dust filled the walls, cobwebs filled the ceiling and – to make things worse – bones were scattered across the yard! Frozen by horror, I felt a hard slap on my back.
“Don’t worry, child! As the saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover,” my dad chuckled.
He pulled me inside. The sight almost made me faint and my breath grew rapidly. I tip-toed inside, and all I could see were mice scattering across the ripped curtains, cockroaches crawling on the filthy sofa, and creepy paintings with eyes that seemed to follow me.
I tip-toed upstairs to check my bedroom when I heard a loud screech.
“WHO WAS THAT?!” I shouted as I kicked the air. Soon I realised it was just the staircase.
Shaking off the embarrassment, I took a sneak-peek into my bedroom, and to be honest, it wasn’t so bad. Sure, it did have some dust over the floors, and the bathroom needed a wash, but other than that it was fine.It had huge windows with lovely iris-purple curtains, a grand queen-sized bed piled with dark red pillows and a fluffy blanket.Maybe this place wasn’t half bad…or so I thought.
I was peacefully unpacking my clothes, when my mum’s voice filled my room, shouting “Dinner’s ready!”. I quickly dropped my clothes and turned around, only to see a shadow of a tall skinny man. You probably think it’s one of my family members. Think again, I’m an only child and my dad is not so skinny. I stared, while walking towards the shadow, but once I blinked it was gone! I brushed the thought away. As I sat in the dining room waiting for my food, I couldn’t help but think about the shadow.
My mum placed a plate of spaghetti on the table, it looked… questionable. I didn’t know if I was hallucinating or if there was actually an eyeball instead of a meatball, on my plate! I pushed the plate away from me.
“No thanks mum, I’m full”. She shrugged, unbothered.
“You should go explore the neighbourhood” my dad suggested, winking. I had nothing better to do, so I nodded.
I sprinted upstairs, put my clothes on and left the house quickly hoping to not see any more strange sights. I skipped to a nearby park so I could meet some new friends. To my surprise, it was empty – except for one man sitting on the bench. I went up to him.
“Hey sir, do you know why there are no kids at the park?” I asked quietly.
“There’s school today, running till 3:00pm, aren’t you supposed to be at school?” the man said, with a suspicious deep voice.
“I’m new to the neighborhood!” I said with a bright smile. I hesitated to reach my hand out for him to shake it. His face was hidden by a hood, making it hard to not question him.
I walked away, but just then I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I turned around slowly, only to see the man looking down with a huge grin on his face. I’d panicked, realising he was the same shadow I saw at our house. I started kicking with all my might, but nothing worked. Rapidly, I started running out of oxygen. My vision was fading and everything went silent. I had left the world.
Now, I live as a ghost. Scaring people is my job.
It sounds terrible but it’s not that bad.
Moral of the story, never move houses!
