The Haunted House

The Secret

"The evil queen Laverna once ruled over the entire world and poisoned the protectors of earth." the book said, "Then one day she was caught and sentenced to burn at the stake with many other witches, but she escaped. Many years later Laverna was once again captured by six mysterious young girls. Knowing that Laverna was too powerful to defeat, the girls trapped her inside a magic mirror and sent her cat familiar to spend all eternity trapped as nothing more than a small ebony statue, neither would ever to be heard from again. Although legend has it the queen will rise again. The future is never certain, but this contains only two options. Laverna will rise to conquer this world and countless others unless a new group of young girls comes to defeat her once and for all."

Suddenly the room in the mirror dissolved and was replaced by concrete walls that surrounded a narrow staircase. The staircase looked like it had been around for centuries and was on the verge of collapse.

"What is this place?" Amanda whispered.

"A very old staircase." Twila replied.

"I can see that!"

"Well, so can I."

"You know what I meant"

"Why are you whispering?"

"Why do you care?"

"I'm just asking a question."

"So am I."

"Why don't you answer then."

"Because...Because... Uuuuuuhhhhhhh......"

"Stop it!" yelled Caroline causing total silence and almost shaking the stairs, "Thank you. Now I'm gonna say this once. We are trapped here and the only way out is down those stairs. We have to get down there and we can't do that with you two fighting the whole way down. You can argue all you want and when you're done you'll still be in the same place with the same problems and one more: I won't be here to help you get through this! Now unless you want to rot here I suggest that you make up and be friends again!"

"Alright," said Amanda, "Truce?"

"Yes," Twila said before whispering to herself, "For now."

"Good." Caroline replied.

So off they went down the old creaking steps to a single door that looked beautiful. It was an ornate black door with strange red markings all along the edge with one big shape in the center. The shape didn't look like anything in particular but when a person looked at it they would sense a feeling of beauty, evil, and power.

The door led to a large room. This room was actually more like a dungeon except for the fact that it had some things in it that you will never find in any dungeon no matter how hard you look for them. The first of these objects was an enormous statue of an angel with one hand outstretched. In the angel's hand, there was the second of these objects; an adorable ebony kitten.

"Whoa." Twila whispered.

Slowly Amanda walked up to the hand and picked up the small ebony kitten. In her hands, the small object felt as light as air and as cold as death. It was creepy so she immediately passed it to Caroline. The minute it touched Caroline's fingers it started to glow and float. It went higher and higher until finally there was a flash of light and the cat was gone.

"Well, that was weird," Twila said

Suddenly the scroll began to glow gold and green then opened itself. Once it was open they realized that it had transformed into a map.

Suddenly a black cat walked into the room.

"Did your cat follow us in here," asked Abbey.

"No," Emma replied, "I don't think so. But he looks like mine."

The cat purred and seemed to like them.

"Aww." they all said together.

The cat ran over to the wall and jumped on to something. Then the cat walked across it and sent dust everywhere. When the girls finally looked up they saw a cupboard.

"Should we open it?" asked Caroline.

"Yeah, we should," Sarah replied.

Inside the cupboard, they found an old journal with a bright red flower on the cover and a key with a black heart on the end. Then the cat jumped onto the floor and rubbed itself on the wall. When the dust cleared the girls saw a locked door. It was black and they half expected it to jump out and attack them at any moment.

"That's what the key's for!" Amanda said.

"Yeah, Who knew," Twila responded sarcastically.

"Should we open it?"Emma asked.

"It's not like we can get out of here anyway," Sarah replied.

"C'mon what do we have to lose?" asked Amanda.

"Okay," Emma replied.

Emma unsurely put the key in the lock and turned it. It didn't work.

"Why didn't it open?" Abbey asked.

"Let me try," said Caroline.

"Why would that make any difference?" asked Emma.

"I don't know," Caroline said, "But, somehow I think it will."

Emma handed the key over to Caroline. She slowly put the key into the lock. Suddenly the door swung open and they stepped through. This door lead the girls to...