Haunted House

I was ready. Mum shoved the last bag into the back of the car. ‘Celia!’ I tore down the corridor and looked at my room for the last time. ‘Celia!’ Streaks of sunlight streamed through the blinds. I stood in the middle of my room, as a tear slipped down my cheek. ‘CELIA!’ I darted off towards the front door, and leapt into the car. Dad turned on the engine and we drove down the street. I watched my house get smaller, until we turned a corner, and it was gone.

‘You ready for going to our new house?’ asked Dad. ‘You seem so down.’ ‘I was born in that house, Dad.’ My little brother looked at me. ‘I was born in a hospital.’ He started unwrapping a lollipop. ‘Shove that plug in,’ I said. ‘Celia,’ said Mum, in her ‘I’m correcting you’ voice.

We pulled up in a gravel driveway, and got out. The cottage was small and sweet, pink, yellow and white roses hanging over the door. I walked up the front steps. As soon as I stepped inside, I knew I would like it there. It was warm and comfortable inside. Most of our furniture was already there, in strange positions. I went from room to room, looking around, until I came to my room. It had rose patterns on the wallpaper and happy yellow colored curtains. ‘Thanks, Mum,’ I thought. ‘Just like home.’

‘Like it?’ said a voice. I jumped, startled. It was Mum. ‘Y-y-yeah,’ I replied. A rumbling noise started in the living room. The sound of scraping against the floorboards. It was Dad pushing a bed. My bed. He pushed it all the way into the corner of my room, then moved my bookshelves into the opposite corner. Mum piled boxes on my bed and on the floor. ‘Out,’ she said, so I went outside.

There was a huge forest behind our cottage, so I decided to go explore. My brother ran up to me. ‘Take me with you?’ he asked breathlessly. All light disappeared as soon as we stepped inside. It was dark. We came to a big, abandoned, forgotten house. Haunted? The windows were dark, all of them except one. A white, flickering light reflected off the glass.

I walked up to the front door. I pressed a small, rusted doorbell, and off-key piano music echoed around inside. My brother ran off into the woods, frightened. No one came to the door, so I pushed on it. It opened with a rusty creak. The house was furnished with beautiful tables, chairs and shelves. I looked up the cobweb-covered stairs. There was the same flickering light. As if in a trance, I walked up the steps, closer and closer to the light. It danced on the walls, bright, then dim.

I turned and faced the doorway, gazing into the light. I stepped into the room. I could see nothing but white. Still, I moved forward, slowly, slowly, as a cackle rang out nearby.

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