Haunted

• Naomi Skinner, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2010

One warm Autumn morning, a single mother named Lucinda and her two children (Liam who is 4 years old and Carter who is a 12 year old girl) moved into an old house. They moved into a house in the woods so their neighbours, who always threatened them, couldn’t find them. But there was something quite mysterious about that house….

When they were settling in, Liam kept thinking he was seeing dark, black shadows rushing across the dirty, blue walls of the old house.
The next night Liam was awake in his bed when he saw the black shadow so he went into Carter’s room and told her all about it. The next day they went to tell their mum but she didn’t believe any word they said.

The next day was stormy and rainy but there was also something else to it. As soon as midday struck their mum went missing. The kids thought the only way she could have gone missing must be something to do with the shadow.

So they both set out to find her thinking it will be a long, boring journey.

On the way Carter found a whole shrub full of berries. She tried one first and said, “It’s ok to eat.” so she and Liam took a few to eat on the way.

A little later hey found a track of the same type of berries except the ones on the ground were dirty and brown. They both agreed to follow the berries but it took them a while to find the end of the track. After two whole days of searching they finally came to an end where the ground was muddy and wet.

There they found the body of their mum and nothing else. It was too late!