The Mansion

• Khoi Dang, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

Andy was not your average ninth grader. He was energetic and hyperactive. Sometimes, these traits can symbolize a good or bad overall feature. In Andy’s case, he was cheeky and disobedient to his teachers and relatives. Little did they all know, Andy himself included, that he would save his friends one day... 

One ordinary day... wait, should it be ordinary? It was the last day of school, sorry. Everyone was pumped for the holidays, pouring junk into the bins. Andy had already planned with his friends what they were doing for the break. He was so excited that he obeyed his parents, cleaned his messy room, and did loads of other stuff that he usually would not do before loading his chat software to discuss certain things with his best friend Luke, like their plans for the holidays and loads of other stuff. 

The next day, Andy was off to a great start. Some of his first day’s highlights were going to the arcade, playing his favorite video game, and other stuff. The next day, it was still great. But the day after that, things changed... 

It started when Andy and his friends planned to visit a creepy mansion. It had been there the day Andy moved here. Rumor has it that a vampire lived there. Most of his friends did not listen to the rumors, but Luke brought garlic and a wooden stake, just in case. When they entered the mansion, nothing happened. Moving on, nothing has changed. Everyone was wondering if this was just an ordinary mansion. Suddenly, the torch went out. Another light turned on, and they were standing in front of a complicated-looking box. A hidden voice rang out: "Welcome to the mansion. Now that you have entered this building, you won’t escape again." This stirred up the kids until the mysterious voice started laughing cheerfully. "I’m kidding. "You can escape if you open the box in front of you." The voice stopped. 

Luke wasted no time trying to find the first puzzle. The others followed suit. Suddenly, someone cried out, "I found the puzzle!" "It's on the box!" Everyone rushed over. It was quickly recognized as a Sudoku puzzle and solved as quickly. This gave everyone hope. The next few puzzles were also straightforward. Before long, they were up to the last puzzle. And that is where they met their biggest obstacle yet. 

A quiz flashed up. The kids all jumped to look at the tiny screen. Soon, everyone was looking at the screen quizzically. The quiz was easy enough at first, but things got harder. It got to the point where the last question was impossible to answer. They puzzled over it for eternity. Suddenly, the link was connected by Andy. Without anybody noticing, fearing that they wouldn’t trust him, he pressed the correct answer. 

Suddenly, the box clicked open with a key inside. The kids rushed to the front door and opened it, running outside to freedom. From that day on, Andy would be more careful with his choices.