And Then It HAPPENED!...

The Haunted House!

  On the edge of our town there is an old house that has been abandoned for years. When we were younger Gordan's dad told us many stories about the house. He said that the house was possessed and any kids that entered it NEVER came out again. To prove this, Gordan's dad would point out how there were fewer kids around these days and he said it was because they had gone into the abandoned house.

  Of course, now that were older, we knew that the wasn't really haunted. Gordan's dad just told us all those stories to keep us away from playing near the house, which was dangerous because it was old and falling apart. It was Gordan who decided that it was time we finally explored this long-abandoned house and Paulo and I agreed. Even though we didn't really believe the was possessed or even haunted, we had all seen enough horror movies to know that when you explored an old house, you better come prepared for the worst, just in case. Naturally, we had a plan.

  Setting out for the abandoned house the following day, we carried flashlights and about 10 metres of heavy rope. The plan was to tie the rope around Gordan's waist and let him climb through a broken basement window that we had discovered. We figured Gordan could prowl around the basement and if anything happened to him, he could yell or yank on the rope and Paulo and I would pull him back up through the window.

  Arriving at the house, Gordan climbed down through the broken basement window and swept his flashlight around the room. Seeing nothing dangerous, he began to explore. Outside, Paulo and I fed him more and more rope as Gordan ventured further into the basement. A couple of minutes passed, and then the thing that Paulo and I had been dreading happened. We felt two frantic jerks on the rope, our signal that Gordan was in trouble! We immediately began to haul on the rope, pulling him back towards the window. We could still feel his body bouncing of the door frames and walls as we pulled him to safety.

  Suddenly, out of the darkness of the basement a headless human body appeared. Paulo and I shouted and jumped back from the window, and then we laughed as we realized that it was only an old store mannequin.

  Gordan's own body popped up from the basement window. ''Gotcha, didn't I?" he laughed. ''I found our friend here in the furnace room. There's all kinds of great stuff down here. Come on!''

  Turning on our flashlights, Paulo and I lowered ourselves into the basement and followed Gordan. The basement was damp and musty. There was water in one corner from last night's rain. Old broken-down furniture was scattered about the floor, gnawed at by mice or rats. There were rusty tools , old tires and cans of paint. Everything was covered in cowebs.

  We shone our flashlights on the stairs and cautiously climbed to the first floor, carefully testing our weight on each step as we went. Because most of the windows had been boarded up, the main floor of the house was almost as dark as the basement. In the kitchen, bits of broken dishes crunched under our feet. The kitchen table had been knocked over. Laying next to it were two broken chairs. The rest of the house was just as bad. There were moldy beds covered in moth-eaten sheets, holes in the walls and piles of junk everywhere. Upstairs, the attic was the same-dark and cluttered. There were trunksof old clothes, dusty books and magazines, and a large mirror on a stand. Propped up in a corner was a huge portrait of a sinister-looking man with a beard staring straight head.

  ''Hey, look at this,'' said Paulo. '' This guy's eyes seem to follow you when you move around the room!''

  That gave Gordan an idea. '' Hey! You know how our school is trying to raise money for charity this Halloween? Well, I'll bet we could make a really great haunted house here and charge admission!'' he said. ''Our class will raise a ton of money and we could win that pizza party for sure!''