The Misinterpretation

• Stephanie England, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2014

"Hello?” There was no reply.
”Jase, you there?" Shouted Luke as he opened the door to his friend’s house.
"Jase, come on man, where are you?”
There was no answer, but he did manage to hear a mysterious crackling sound.
“Stop joking around man, seriously!"
He walked through the doorway and into the dark house and moved towards the
lounge room. He knew the house well because he had been best friends with
Jase for as long as he could remember.
When he got close to the lounge room he saw a flickering light and when he
entered he saw that it was the TV but it was just static. That explained the
mysterious crackling sound that he had heard before, but not the darkness.
Unexpectedly he saw that there was someone sitting in front of the TV; he
walked cautiously towards the sitting figure. He got close enough to see
that it was his friend’s dad, Ron, but something didn't look right. Ron
wasn't moving he was just staring at the TV like a zombie. Luke turned
around to go out of the spooky room.
He wanted to run out the door right at that moment, but was worried that
something had happened to Jase. So he had to keep searching. He wasn't
easily scared but the house was so dark that he couldn't see where he was
going; he had to feel the walls so that he didn't run into them.
Finally he felt something familiar, a vase in the hallway that belonged to
Mandy, Jases’ mum. At least now he knew where he was. He walked up the dark
hallway feeling the wall for the light switch. When he found it he flicked
it on but nothing happened. It was like the power had been cut.
He crept down the hallway, when he suddenly tripped over the bottom stair;
he got back up and carefully placing his feet, climbed up the curvy
staircase while holding the banister so that he didn't trip over again. He
wandered into Jases' parents' room but didn't see Mandy, anywhere.
Out of nowhere he heard a "bang", it sounded like it came from the direction
of Jases' room. He hurried to Jases' room and opened the door but the room
was empty. He saw the messy bed so went and sat down.
He jumped up because the bed felt warm which meant someone had used it
recently. He looked to the bedside dresser and found his friends phone with
headphones attached to it. He unlocked the phone and found that it was open
on his friend’s favourite game.
He heard what sounded like the fridge opening. So he rushed down the stairs,
feeling the walls as he went to make sure that he didn't run into anything.
Then he saw a moving light that was shining at a cup while someone poured a
drink.
"Hello?" Said a voice that sounded very familiar.
"Jase" Luke was so relieved to have found his best friend, he ran up to him
and asked why the lights were out and why his dad was like a zombie. Jase
replied "We blew the light circuit breaker and dad forgot to take his pills
so he is a bit weird right now" he also explained that his mum had gone to
the shops to get more fuse wire so that they could fix the breaker. Luke
asked Jase why he didn't come to find him when he called, Jase told him that
he was listening to music through his headphones and hadn't heard a thing.
Luke was just glad the fright was over.