Under My House

• Amelia Mckay, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2020

Crash! Another bolt of lightning illuminates the sky, it is like every other rainy day at my home… there is no reception. “Mum, I’m bored,” I groan from my slouched position on my sofa. “Play your video games,” she suggests, before turning back to her work. Not in the mood for video games I groan and drag myself from the couch. Wandering downstairs, I spy a small rusty door set into the wall. There is a pungent odour escaping through the small gaps in it. I open the door…

As the door, ancient and creaky, swings open I am greeted by a disgusting dank stench. “Hello?” I stammer into the gaping hole that looms beyond the door. Cautiously, I begin to descend the slimy, moss covered stairs. “Oooooh,” a pale, blurry figure appears in front of me, grinning, glinting its shining white teeth at me.

I run.

My heart pounds in my ears as I stumble through the narrow hallways that seem ready to eat me up at any moment. Wishing I was anywhere else, I risk a glance behind. My pounding heart slows slightly as I heave a deep breath in. I have lost the ghost. Quickly, I drag a few of the old musty boxes--that litter the floor--into a small fort. Building a wall between me and the ghost.

Sitting alone on the hard stone floor, I begin to shake. How will I ever get out? My sobs fill the musty space; my fingers are icicles. As I grope along the floor, my fingers suddenly brush against something furry. Is it a ferocious black spider? Or an old teddy bear? Cautiously—with trembling fingers—I reach towards the mysterious object. I pick it up—expecting, something to bite me the moment I do—and run my hands over it.

It is rectangular, with two holes the size of a fifty cent piece, and long strings attached to either side. I know what this is! It’s a mask. As I lift the mask, strange and mysterious, towards my face it is as though it is beckoning me. Tying it loosely around my head I peer to my right, the ghost is staring at me. Its icy gaze freezing me solid. What do I do?

Suddenly—as the ghost is about to lunge at me—a blast of mysterious white light emits from the mask. It stuns the ghost momentarily. Giving the second I need to rush past the foul creature; the mask flying off my face. I bolt up the stairs knowing one thing for certain, I will not be returning to the basement any time soon.