ＣＲＵＳＨ {Zach Cooper}

5

The three all entered the house going up the stairs quickly but quietly.

Once they made it to the top Zach spoke.

"It's coming from that room" Zach said and they walked towards the doors.

Zach slowly slid it open and turned on the flashlight again.

"Hannah?" He whispered while Tessa and Champ stood behind him looking into the room he walked forward and the two followed behind him.

They jumped at the sudden sound they heard and Zach instantly turned his flashlight towards the noise, hoping to catch someone.

But no one was there. It was just a book shelf filled top to bottom with books.

"That's weird" Zach said was they begin to walk towards the book shelf "it's like the noise is coming from this book case" Zach said.

"Yea, well it's an old house" Champ said "how old?" Tessa asked.

The girl didn't know anything about her best friends house, she just knew that she live there and she had never visited over once.

Champ shrugged his shoulders at Tessa's question as he turned a random knob that made a clicking noise.

"Woah.." he said and Zach looked over at the boy, Tessa already looking.

The book shelf then had lights, and they were able to see the books.

"The scarecrow walks at midnight, the ghost next door, night of the living dummy, these are all goosebumps mani scripts" Champ said "what's he doing with a bunch of kids books?" Zach asked "these aren't kids book-ok-kids books help you fall asleep, these books keep you up all night" champ said "well maybe if you were younger they would" Tessa added.

"R.L. Sting, whatever happened to that guy?" Champ asked and Tessa shrugged "I don't know, he disappeared one day..does it matter? Let's go" Zach said in a rush but Champ was occupied with another book.

"The abominable snowman of Pasadena, my grandma lives in Pasadena and I stopped visiting after reading this book" Champ said making Zach sigh "ok" Zach said and snatched the book away from the boy.

"We're not here for book club" Zach said "I know, but why are these books locked? Who would lock a book?" Champ asked "maybe a paranoid person" Tessa said and shrugged as she looked around "maybe there's like a key or something to unlock it with" Champ said and Zach snatched the book out of his hand and walked over to the glass compartment and lifted up.

"Look, if it really matters that much..look at this alright" Zach said while unlocking the book with the key he found that was in the glass compartment "mystery solved, now let her back to-look out!" He yelled and Tessa ran over to Champ, who was currently standing in front of Zach.

She tackled them as something swung over their heads then the lights came on, slowly falling off of the two boys.

"Zach, Tessa?" Hannah spoke and Tessa looked over Champ to see him hugging Zach with his leg over Zach.

"Heyyy..." Zach said while pushing Champ off of him "what are you doing in my house?" Hannah asked them "I thought you were chained up, possibly" Zach said "why would you think that?" Hannah asked "because I heard you scream and then I called the...police" he said and soon felt stupid once he said it out loud.

"Ok, look. You guys need to go right now" Hannah said and they all nodded "yes, okay" Zach said and he started to leave "wait-" Champ said and held him back "one second-hi, Im Champ, nice to meet you. Hey! We're going to the semi-formal later tonight and uh, I don't know-you should come, and invite a friend...I really don't care what she looks like" Champ said and Tessa sighed.

"Did you open a book?" Hannah asked Zach "yeah, I did. I'm sorry..it's around here somewhere, I dropped it and uh, I'll put it back where it belongs-look here it is-" Hannah cut him off "no! Don't open it" she said and the book flung across the room then opened making them all back away.

"what's happening" Tessa yelled over to Hannah the book then powerfully pushed them back making them fly back in all directions.

Bright glowing fog surrounded the room as the lights flickered.

They watched in fear as a loud roar noise became present and a huge black blob started forming into something huge.

Once it formed they all looked at the abominable snowman in shock as he walked around the house.

Champ backed up in fear, bumping into the light that was on the table, but it fell off the table making the large abominable snowman head snap toward Champ and Zach.

It charged towards Champ, as Champ screamed not knowing what to do so Zach tackled the boy and the abominable snowman went flying out of the window.

"My dads gonna kill me" Hannah said while getting up "and that's normal to you!?" Tessa asked as Hannah got up and grabbed her book and ran out of the house Tessa then got up running after her, and then Zach.

"Wait Tessa! Zach!" Champ screamed as he ran after them. They followed her out, already being tired but still trying to catch up to the panicked girl.

"Wait-Hannah!" Zach yelled and they ran after her and stopped her.

"Go home.." Hannah said "you wanna tell us what's going on?" Zach asked "no, I can't explain I have to go" she said and pulled her arm away from Zach and started to running.

Tessa sighed as they begin to run after the girl again.

-

Tessa, Champ, and Zach walked up the the ice skating rink to see the door broken open.

"She went in there.." Zach said referring to Hannah "she definitely went in there.." Champ said "Zach, flashlight" Tessa said and he nodded turning on his flashlight as they begin to walk inside.

"Dude, we should call the cops" Champ whispered "have you met the cops in this town?" Zach asked "no we shouldn't, my dads a cop-and if he found out we didn't actually go to the dance, I'm going to be grounded for lying" Tessa said and Zach looked back at Tessa "no offense to your dad" Zach said "he's the only sane one, I guess" Tessa said with a shrug.

Zach turned off his flashlight because it was now visible and they looked around at the messed up place, what the abominable snowman had crushed, so they followed the path.

edited