House Of Horror

Chapter One

As dad sat flipping through the lastest issue of The Daily Times, he said interestedly,"Looks like they never did find them." Confused I raised my eyebrows. "What do you mean, never did find them?" I asked.

My dad had instantly put the newspaper down and pulled out a seat next to him. "Sit down, it's a long story." In no rush, I took a seat.

My dad ran his fingers down his thin chin as if thinking on how to start. When he finally figured it out he said joyfully," Ah yes! When I was a kid, round about your age, there was this house that looked really scary. The perfect Halloween house. It had everything the look, the feel, you name it, it was there.

"One day, after Halloween, a couple of kids were found to be missing, their parents had gone around town asking if people had seen them but everyone said they hadn't. Until one of their classmates said to have seen them enter a haunted house. You know, the ones you pay to enter." He stopped, rubbed his chin some more and said," The last place they were ever seen. The parents moved out of town but even so they were never found. And today's issue in the newspaper is just a memorial of those kids."

After that my dad got up adjusted his black work tie fixed his blond hair and leaned down to kiss me goodbye. "I'll see you after school," He said, walking out the room.

I waved goodbye, then pulled the newspaper closer. On the front page there was a big bold headline reading Twenty years later and still never been found, something about that sent shivers up my spine but I didn't have time to think about that -I was already running late for school.

Picking up my schoolbag I threw it over my shoulders and bolted out the house calling a quick goodbye to my mother. I closed the door, locked it, and ran over to my bike.

I knew being late again would cause havoc so I jumped onto my bike and rode to school, I made it just in time.

By the time I was seated in home room I was breathing heavily. Once again, I had just made it.

"Stephanie."
"Present," I answered back taking out my books for first period. Every morning we had English with Ms Mary in the first period and it was just better to be prepared. I liked being organised.

I waited a couple more minutes before the bell rang, and when it did the class let out a sigh, one hour of English class.

Ms Mary walked in front of the class and pulled out a whiteboard marker, she began to write the date: 31st October 2017. With shaking hands she turned around and licked her old, chapped lips. "Good morning children. Please take out your workbooks, I understand that today is Halloween but it is still a normal school day and I would appreciate it if you could concentrate."

She pulled out a textbook from her leather bag and flipped to a page somewhere in the middle of the book. "Please turn to page one hundred and thirty one."

I flipped through the pages until I had the right page. I was confused. We had already done this work. I put up my hand. "Yes Stephanie?"

"Ma'am we've already done this page."
"I am aware. But the majority of you failed you test on this and I'm going to redo it with all of you."

I nodded and slowly brought down my hand. Next to me I heard my best friend, Tiffany, sigh.

I didn't blame her. Tiffany and I were the top students of the class, we knew how to study and we made sure we were top achievers, but even though we were so good with school work we didn't like redoing it. If we understood and the class didn't we studied.

I raised my hand again," Ma'am could Tiffany and I please study?

Ms Mary shot me a look and immediately I knew we had no option to relearn the work.

Angrily I took out my blue pen and began writing the date. "Stephanie," I heard Tiffany say in a whisper. I turned to her and saw a folded exam pad paper in her hand. Carefully I took it and opened it. You guys want to join us for Halloween? Was written in Jake's lumpy handwriting and following after was Tiffany's neat handwriting stating that we'd be happy to come but she wanted to check with me first. Yes, I'm in, I wrote on the paper before passing it back to Tiffany. 

Tiffany handed it back to Jake and turned to me blushing. I smirked and blew kisses to her she turned away from me and continued to write down work.

I looked up at Jake who was smiling at me, he gave me a thumbs up and continued writing. I knew what he had planned, he was going to ask Tiffany to be his girlfriend and it was my job to make sure it was done right.

Tiffany looked up at me and smiled, I smiled back. We both continued to work in silence.

***

Hours later Tiffany and I were seated at our usual lunch table eating our toasted cheese sandwiches. Well, at least I was, Tiffany was busy staring at Jake from across the room.

Getting slightly annoyed I threw a piece of bread at her face, it hit her in the forehead. "Sweetie, we are going to see him tonight, then you can stare until your eyes pop out, but for now we need to discuss what we are going to wear for tonight. Okay?" Tiffany nodded," Okay."

I smiled and pulled out my exam pad where I had created a list of all the possible things we could come as. The list was almost two pages long. "So what have you got?" Tiffany asked leaning towards the paper to get a look at it. "Well, I've got vampires, witches, zombies, cats, Minnie mouse, Marilyn Monroe-" before I could finish saying everything on the list the bell rang. Sighing I shut the exam pad and stood up.

"We can continue after school at my house, see you later doll," I said blowing kisses to Tiffany. Tiffany smiled and blew kisses back.

"See you later alligator," she said.
"In a while crocodile," I finished before turning around and heading to my next class, History.