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This is my short story for english class~~
Is that you, Ginga?
At around seven fifteen the five of us have arrived at the building. It’s a large mansion that seems pretty nice on the outside. It’s painted white and has flowers growing along a pathway up to the door. The door is absolutely huge and has a big knocker handle on it.
“This is some haunted house,” Meli says sarcastically. “Way to pick ‘em, Allison.”
“Aw, come on. It’ll be better on the inside,” I say.
We walk up to the door and Shelly grabs the knocker and slams it on the door and the door creaks open. Shelly peeks inside.
“Hellooo?” she calls. There’s no answer.
“It’s probably for, um, dramatic effect,” Cory says.
“Let’s just go in!” Avery says. Shelly marches ahead and leads the group in. The door creaks shut behind us, leaving us in pitch-black darkness.
“Okay, buddy system time!” I say and shuffle around with my hands in front of me. I run into something.
“Is that you, Ginga?” The person says in a wobbly old woman voice.
“Oh jeez, who did I just run into?” I ask
“Cory!” She says in her normal voice, giggling.
“You’re my buddy,” I say, grabbing her hand. “Does everyone else got a buddy?” I ask.
“Yeah!” Avery and Meli say together.
“Oh yes I do!” Shelly says.
“Wait…there’s an odd number of us. Shelly… who’s hand are you holding?” I ask cautiously.
“Meli’s, I think,” She says.
“Nope, that’s not me.”
“Then who is it?” Shelly asks.
I reach into my pocket and pull out my cell phone. I open it up and shine the weak light around the room. From what I can see, we’re in a living room sort of place that has many hallways branching off from it. Also there’s a spiral staircase straight ahead. Then I see shelly. She’s standing against the wall holding the hand of a skeleton.
“Hey, who’s the dead guy?” Meli asks casually.
“Dead guy? What are you…HOLY SUGAR NUTS!” Shelly screeches and drops the hand like it’s hot coals on her skin. “Oh my gosh, I am so out of here!” She dashes to the door and pulls it with all her might.
“Shelly, calm down,” Avery says soothingly.
“I will not calm down! I was just holding hands with a dead guy and now this stupid door won’t open and you want me to calm down?!” She turns around and kicks the door.
“Wait, it really won’t open?” Cory asks.
She walks over to it and tries to help Shelly open it. It doesn’t help at all.
“Okay, so we’re locked in. No big deal,” I say coolly, “There’s another exit I’m sure. We’ve just got to find it.”
“But what about the dead guy?” Shelly asks, “What if there’s a killer on the loose?”
“Oh, relax,” Avery says, “It’s probably just fake. They just wanted to decorate the place.”
“Good point,” I say. “But you know, it’s really weird that they’d have a haunted house so dark. You can hardly even see all the decorations then. And where are all the people, anyways? I can’t be the only person who got an invite. Ah well, let’s keep going.”
They all pull out their cell phones and we shine them around, trying to figure out which direction to go.
“Okay, let’s go this way!” Shelly says, pointing down a long hallway.
“ No, I think we should go up the staircase,” Avery disagrees.
“What if we split up?” Meli asks.
“Ha, no,” Shelly says looking scared.
“Okay,” I say, “What if we just-”
“Aaah!” Someone screams. Which makes everyone scream.
“Mama llama jama, what was THAT?!” Shelly shrieks.
I shush her and we all listen quietly.
“Well, now we know that we aren’t the only ones here,” I say.
“Which might not necessarily be a good thing,” Cory adds.
“Well, if whoever that was is out to get us they wouldn’t scream. It would give away wherever they’re hiding. Then they wouldn’t have the element of surprise,” Avery says logically.
“So whoever that was probably needs our help.” Cory says.
There’s another scream.
“It sounds like it came from this direction!” I say and we rush down the long hallway. The hallway has a dark red carpet going down it. It’s lined with at least a dozen doors down each side with shiny golden doorknobs. There are spider webs hanging from the ceiling and every step we take kicks up dust. It’s like no one’s been here in years.
“We’ll all split up and go look in all these rooms,” I direct.
They nod and everyone goes to open doors. I go to the first room on the left. I turn the doorknob slowly and step inside. The floorboards creak under my feet. I see a pink canopy bed up against the wall next to a window. In a corner of the room is an old rocking horse, and on the opposite side is a closet. I walk over to the bed and see an old doll. It’s one of those ones where the eyes close when you lean it back, only it’s so old that one of the eyes is open and one is closed no matter which way you tilt it.
“How creepy,” I mutter under my breath.
“What’s creepy?” Cory asks loudly, making me jump out of my skin.
“Holy mittens, you scared me!” I whisper.
“Whoa, a window!” Cory jumps on the bed and tries to pry the window open, but it’s no use.
“What’s up with all these things being stuck?” I say, frustrated.
“Hey, I found someone!” Meli calls.
Me and Cory look at each other then rush out the door at the same time, squishing each other out of the way.
“Over here!” Meli says peeking her head out of a door. We go in the room and see a girl sitting in a chair tied up.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Someone attacked me and knocked me unconscious. But I’ve got no idea how I ended up here,” The girl says.
Cory starts untying her when shelly bursts into the room.
“Whoa!” She shouts, “We’ve got another person! Now I can have a buddy too!” She claps her hands and jumps up and down. The girl tied to the chair just stares at her, confused.
“So what’s your name?” Cory asks.
“Charlie,” The girl says.
“Charlie?! That’s a boy’s name!” Shelly giggles.
“Shut up, just shut your mouth!” Charlie says fiercely.
“Uh, so where’s Ave?” I ask, trying to change the subject.
“I don’t know,” Meli says.
“Okay, lets find her,” I say.
We all split up and open the doors calling “Avery!” the whole time, but none of us can find her.
“Oh, no. Oooh, no!” Shelly says.
“Shelly. Stop it,” Meli tells her.
“Oh, no. OH, NO!” Shelly keeps repeating. Charlie just rolls her eyes.
“Should I slap her?” Meli asks.
That makes Shelly stop.
“Ave couldn’t have wandered off too far. Let’s try looking upstairs,” Cory suggests. “She did say she wanted to check up there.”
We walk back down the hallway and start up the stairs. I let my hand trail along the banister as I go up. After about three minutes later we stop to catch our breath.
“Oh, wouldn’t it be great to slide down this banister?” Shelly sighs longingly. She lifts herself up and sits on it. I hear a soft creak and look at Shelly.
“What was that?” I whisper.
“I dunno,” Shelly says carelessly, swinging her legs. Then there’s a louder crack and Shelly stops swinging. She tilts her head to the side, listening.
“Shelly. You should get off of that,” Cory suggests.
Shelly raises her eyebrows. “But why?” She whines.
CRACK! The sound echoes all around us as the banister falls out from under Shelly.
We all scream and try to grab her, but none of us are fast enough. She totters backwards and starts to fall, but grabs onto the edge of the stairs with one hand. She stares at us, wide eyed. I grab her wrist and try to pull her up, but I’m not strong enough.
“Someone help!” I say through gritted teeth.
Charlie grabs hold of Shelly’s wrist and easily pulls her up. I stare at her in awe.
“If you’re that strong how did you get attacked?” I ask in disbelief.
She shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess I was taken by surprise.”
Shelly sits on the stairs, shaking. “This is not a fun haunted house.” She declares.
“It’s okay now, Shelly, “ Cory says.
“I know you just had a huge scare, but we’ve still got to find Avery,” I remind her.
“Yeah, okay,” she says slowly and stands back up. We continue ascending the stairs until we finally make it to the next floor a few minutes later. We stand there for awhile catching our breath and taking it all in. We’re standing in a circular room with three doors on the wall. There’s a chandelier dangling from the ceiling, and the distinct smell of…cats?
“Do you guys smell that?” I ask.
“Ew, yeah,” Shelly says holding her nose.
“Meow!” a black cat jumps in front of Shelly and stares at her.
“Don’t I already have enough bad luck?” she moans.
“Oh, stop being so dramatic,” Charlie says.
Cory kneels down and pets the cat and it purrs loudly.
“Let’s try the door on the left,” I say.
Cory gets up and we all go in the door. The room looks like a modern day girl’s bedroom.
“That’s weird. That means someone must be living here now,” Cory says.
“Avery?” Meli calls. We don’t hear a reply.
“On to the next one,” I say and we pile out.
We go to the door in the middle and open it. This one is completely empty of furniture, but it’s not empty. Far from it. This room has about fifteen cats watching our every move.
“I don’t think Avery’s in here either,” Meli says backing up to the door.
“Eek!” Shelly shrieks as a glass falls from seemingly nowhere and shatters at her feet.
“Where did that come from?” Cory asks.
“I don’t know! It’s… it’s haunted! It’s really a haunted house!” Shelly says and spins around and heads toward the door. She shoves Meli out of the way and tries to open it, but she can’t.
“Is this some kind of a joke?!” she shouts.
“It’s the ghosts!” Shelly looks around frantically. The cats creep closer and their meows keep growing louder.
“Move,” Charlie says. Shelly looks confused but gets out of the way. Charlie runs toward the door and kicks it open. She runs out and we all follow. I slam the door behind me.
“Oh, freedom!” Shelly sings.
“Shelly, get up. We’ve got one door left.” I tell her.
She stands and we all get ready to go in the next door.
“I don’t want to go in there.” Shelly says.
“Anything could be in there!” Cory adds.
“Yeah, but Avery might be in there too.” I look around at all their faces, “And if she is then so is her kidnapper. We’ve got to- wait, where’s Meli?”
They all look left and right.
“Is she still in the cat room?” Cory asks. I run to the middle door and fling it open.
“Meli?!” I cry, but there’s no response. “How does this keep happening?” I burst. “That’s it, we’re going in that room!”
I march over and open the door with what’s left of the group trailing along behind me. There’s an old woman sitting in a chair surrounded by cats, and beside her are Meli and Avery, tied up.
“Well, it’s about time,” she says in a crackly voice.
“Who are you?” I demand.
“Oh never mind that,” She brushes off my question, “That’s really not important. But what is important is that you’ve got something that I want and I’ve got something that you want.”
“You’re crazy. We’ve got nothing!” I deny.
“Is that you, Ginga?” the woman asks, leaning slightly towards Cory.
“What are you talking about? Her names not Ginga!” Shelly says.
“Tell me, what’s in your friends purse there?” she points a wrinkled old finger at Cory. Cory looks around at us then pushes the purse behind her back.
“Nothing. I’ve got nothing.” She says quickly. A muffled sound comes from her purse.
“What was that?” Shelly asks.
“It wasn’t anything it’s just, um-” we all stare at her purse, which is now wiggling around. Then, wonder of wonders, a cat jumps out. We all gasp.
“Ginga!” the old lady cries joyfully. The cat saunters over to her and jumps up on her lap.
“Cory how could you?” I ask.
“I didn’t know it belonged to someone! I just saw it all alone. I thought it was homeless! And it was so cute, I couldn’t just turn it away!” Cory says desperately.
“Well, you’ve got what you want now. So give us back our friends,” I say.
“Oh, I don’t know about that…” The cat lady trails off.
“That’s it! Charlie, go take her down!” Shelly says stamping her foot. Charlie walks over to the woman, but she doesn’t take her down. Oh no, she just stands there beside her and reaches her hand out to Ginga.
“I’m so glad to have her back, Grandma.” Charlie says.
“GRANDMA?!” We all say in disbelief. Charlie grins evilly.
“You didn’t really think I was on your side, did you?” she says. “I just wanted my favorite cat back.”
“But what about our friends? What do you want with them?” I ask.
“Oh, I don’t know yet. I’m sure I can figure something out,” She says. Just then Meli jumps up from her chair, dropping the rope that once tied her hands together and the floor. She knocks Charlie down and Shelly rushes to help, Cory rushes over to untie Avery, and I snatch Ginga from the cat lady’s lap.
“If either of you move, I’m taking the cat!” I threaten. Charlie glares at me from down on the floor and the cat lady just sits in the chair staring at me intently. Cory finally unties the knots and Avery gets up. Meli and Shelly slowly back away from Charlie, and I back up too. Once we’re all standing in the doorway I drop Ginga on the floor and slam the door shut. Meli pushes me out of the way and locks the door with a key.
“That’s why everything wouldn’t open,” She says. “Lucky for us, I grabbed it in one of the rooms where it was left out.”
“Come on! Let’s get out of here!” I say and we all run down the spiral staircase and Meli unlocks the front door. We go out into the sunlight and all breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s the last time we listen to you, Allison.” Meli jokes.