Night Of Mystery

• Leen Tabbouch, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2013

On an immensely cold night where I had to go out and collect wood for the fireplace, I unknowing felt a strange shiver down my spine. Suddenly, I heard a mysterious and eerie noise behind me. I began to observe the path behind me and witnessed a colossal shadow. I commenced to follow this mysterious and eerie shadow. So I followed it all the way to the haunted house. The mysterious shadow stopped and went inside, just looking at it made me shudder with dread. I had to know what was observing me, so I took a deep breath and went inside the haunted house.

As I settled in, I could not see a thing, it was swarthy, ancient, spine chilling and it even had spider webs with insects stuck to it. As I walked through the corridor, I heard the same mysterious and eerie noises I heard in the woods. I was very curious and wanted to know what it was, so I went inside. I saw ghosts and vampires in the room. I then screeched from the top of my lungs. I ran desperately for my life, terribly shaken with fear, gasping for air and not knowing which direction to head in. I turned right but ended up in a dead end.

After I caught my breath, I still was curious to know exactly what was threatening me. So I grabbed my special wand which had sentimental value because my aunty gave it to me on my seventh birthday. She said that she got it because I completed my one hundred lessons in Wizard Camp and I turned into a full wizard. I knew it would not let me down in the worst of cases. I slowly crept inside grasping my wand between my two palms. I tried so hard not to drop it as my entire body shook profusely from great fear. I reached an iron door which surprisingly slid open as I stepped forward. My heart trembled with fear and I held my wand close up to my chest. As I walked in I heard an unknown, shaky voice, so I gazed to the left then to the right and then I saw an enormous figure dressed in black from head to toe. It then asked me, "Who are you?" I then mumbled, “E-m-i-l-y.” As soon as I uttered my name, a flash like a flash of lightning nearly blinded me. I thought this was going to be the end of my life. When all of a sudden, the figure slowly revealed its face and a familiar white beard which glistened as I looked upon it. I knew exactly who it was before it uncovered its entire face. I found out that he was the lonely, old man who lived across the street that was known as the 'KIDNAPPER.' I asked him if he was the one who chased me earlier in the woods. His reply was, “I think that will remain as a mystery, mwahahaha," he thundered and put his cloak in front of his face and disappeared into the dark, cold, misty night. Deep down in the bottom of my heart I thought it was the lonely, old man across the street all along. That just made me be even more curious and I wanted to find out more of what happened just now. I forgot that I needed to collect wood for the fireplace so I went to get the wood and gathered them together. When I arrived home with the wood I saw the lonely, old man who lived across the street inside the living room.