The Haunted Mask

• Alexa Romic, Grade 3, The Hills Grammar School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

I clicked on the basement light and slowly made my way down into the silence. The stair creaked beneath me and I felt a chill down my back. Why was I walking down the basement in the middle of the night? “I CAN’T STOP MYSELF!” Did I say the words out loud or did I only think them? But I couldn’t stop. I was being pulled, pulled against my will. I got to the bottom of the stairs and as I looked around I remembered something. The reason I was walking down to the basement at four in the morning was because of the mask, the mask I put on last Halloween that had turned me evil. When I finally gained the strength to pull it off, I buried it deep in the basement under piles of furniture. Almost immediately it was pulling me to retrieve it and have its evil take over again.
To my surprise, I now found myself walking back to the piles of furniture. I removed the first piece of furniture, then the next and continued until I made it to the safe that I locked the mask in. I picked up the safe and typed in the code. Inside I saw the mask staring into my drowsy eyes and I heard the mask’s rough lips rub against each other. I slowly returned the mask over my face. My hands trembled with fear. Part of me wanted to take it off but I couldn’t stop myself. The pull was too strong. I suddenly felt so tired and I found myself walking down to the bush in our backyard. Why? I don’t know but again I remembered, I needed to get this mask off. As I got outside I found a log and lay down on it. Before I knew it I was out like a light.
Soon it was the next morning and I found myself in my bed which was alarming because I clearly remembered falling asleep outside in the bush. I got out of bed and walked over to my mum and dad’s room and started shaking them. When I heard them waking up I ran to my sister’s room and started trashing it. When I heard her waking up I ran downstairs and ate just about all the food in the kitchen. I was going crazy! Suddenly I heard footsteps creeping down the stairs and I realised it was my parents and my sister. I tiptoed quickly over to the couch and began watching TV like nothing was happening. I looked over my shoulder and saw them standing there staring at me and they were not happy. My sister had running tears.
“What happened and what are you wearing on your face?” yelled mum.
Mum came up to me and ripped the mask off my face “ahhhhhhhhhhhh.”
I woke from my dream lying in the bush and found my dog Winston next to me chewing on the mask.