Scaredy Cat

• Katherine Dixon, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2012

SCAREDY CAT by Katherine Dixon
“Ok kids come inside now” grandma Bessie said showing her lipstick stained teeth. Today my best friend Sally staying for a sleepover at grandma’s house. Sally and I were two totally different people; Sally is always cool, calm and collected, whereas I’m more of a wild adventurous person. Somehow we balance each other and we’re best friends.
I had never really liked grandma’s two story mansion. It felt really ghost-like, especially the spare room that had once been grandpa’s bedroom before he died. There was a massive wardrobe with a creaky door. Gran’s tabby cat Oscar was always sneaking around that room, his yellow eyes as wide as saucepans.
Grandma told Sally and I to sleep in the spare room. When nightfall came, Sally and I stayed up late, eating midnight snacks and telling ghost stories. The ghost stories weren’t a good idea because then we started to hear a peculiar noise.
It was soft at first, but it got louder and louder. I glanced around. It must be coming from grandma’s wardrobe. The door started moving but it was too dark to see much.
“Do you think it’s grandpa?” I asked.
“Don’t be stupid” Sally replied, rolling her eyes.
“If you’re so scared, I’ll go and take a look myself” she said,
“Fine then” I said quickly. I had a bad feeling about this, but I didn’t want Sally to think I was even the slightest bit scared. I watched as she tip-toed across the wooden floor, the floor boards creaked and sounded like groaning monsters. The wardrobe sat there still and lifeless then Sally reached out and touched it. She gave me one of her ‘told you so’ looks, that quickly turned to shock as the wardrobe started to shake.
I jumped back. Pictures of zombies and aliens flashed in my mind. There was a growling sound that came from the wardrobe as it shook. Now even Sally was scared and hid in the corner with me. The growling was coming closer; It sounded like a werewolf in that wardrobe. Then the strangest thing happened.
A huge fat creature with glowing yellow eyes came running out. It was small but looked deadly and had something in its mouth. It was too dark to see what it was when it came running towards us. Sally and I screamed! I shut my eyes, but re-opened them when someone turned on the light switch. It was grandma giving a big fury creature pats and cuddles. I realised it had been grandma’s cat Oscar the whole time! The thing in his mouth had been a mouse he’d caught in the wardrobe. Grandma was in her pink fluffy nighty with leopard skin slippers and she said “Oh Oscar, you good boy, I’ve been trying to catch that mouse for months “. I looked over at Sally, she was laughing as hard as I was. This was one sleepover I wasn’t going to forget!