The Keep Out House

• Sri Darshna Deepak Nagapandian , Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2021

The Keep Out House!

The keep out house! I have been stuck in this house for 10 years. I was 5 when all this spooky drama started. Outside the house, you could see a perfect mansion, nothing spooky. Inside, the house, was just darkness. Cobwebs everywhere, and ghosts, witches, vampires and all other spooky fairy tale characters. All of them are true, believe me. Sirens of the patrol cars always fade past, not noticing anything strange. Lost boy, that’s what they call me now, I bet. And no Halloween celebrations as I heard through air.

Ten years ago, 21 of my friends gathered for trick or treats. Unfortunately, 5-year-old me was left alone. Contrastingly, I grinned just because I could earn more candies. We had gone to every house on the street and the keep out house was the last one on my list. As soon as I buzzed the red eye shaped button on the wide-open timber door, a nerve chilling cold air triggered goose bumps! Spiders’ cobwebs and the smell of rotten blood caught my attention, I straightened my shorts and called out, “Trick or treats.” A whoosh of wind was the only reply. The lifeless timber door closed its mouth tight! No other feasible way for me to step out. My frozen body was frightened by the images of witches and grotesque Vampires.

I am a fifteen-year-old now controlled by phantoms. All through these years the ghost souls of this secluded place protected me, with the intention of having a soup made out of healthy human. I’m almost adopted to my daily routine on this gloomy bungalow along with the lifeless ghostly figures. Smoothing face of my mum not just faded off my loneliness, it gives me an idea to escape this horrendous isolation. Yes, vampire defender: Garlic, a fact from a tell-tale story. If vampires are true, is the story of how vampires hate garlic true too? Right that instant a vampire came inside the room and put a cauldron in front of me. Oh no! My fear rise up so much that I can even cry but it was the time to see if a young boy could defeat a meat-eating vampire.

“Hey Mr Dracula! Should have warned you before but block your nose!” I snicker, nervously.

The vampire looks bewildered but right that split-second the smell of garlic sprays across the room. Guess what? He faints right in front of me! Well, that works. Right that moment, a witch came in! But my instantaneous brain senses the witch’s weakness. Great! My brain is better than the cruel-minded witches! I pour the boiling stew, which was in the stew, on the long-nosed witch.

Before sprinting down, the stairs, I see a key in the witch’s pocket and snatch it out, unlock the door and relish the fresh air. Daylight tortures my eyes. I have the great responsibility to find my mum and start a new life!