By Talitha Kai de Ram Khanlari, Y12
It was October 30, the day before Halloween. I was home alone. The streets were filled with decorations, everyone was preparing for trick or treating. A dusty black car pulled up by my house, an old woman and man emerging from it. Both headed to the house next to mine, it looked as though they were moving in. They had piles of dirty boxes coming out of their trunk and they were carrying them inside. It was a creepy house; the windows were broken and crows filled the overgrown garden. No one had lived in it for the past 15 years – nobody wanted to. There were so many rumours about it that we all just got used to staying away from it.
I watched the couple from my window for most of the afternoon, as I had nothing better to do. There was something eerie about them. The woman had short grey hair and a glass eye, and the man had one of those creepy smiles that never seemed to fade. At around 19:30 the sun set and for the rest of the night all I did was watch Netflix. Suddenly, at around 2AM, I jolted awake after having fallen asleep watching a movie. Blood-curdling screams were coming from the house next door. I peered out my window but all the lights were off. I tried my best to ignore them, but the screams didn’t stop. They were bone-chilling. Somehow I knew I had to help. I braced myself and decided to investigate. Terrified. I tiptoed through the weeds up to the door and knocked…no answer. I knocked again – no answer. I gave the door a slight push and it swung open. The screaming was gone now. I crept up the stairs and tentatively called out to see if anyone was there. There was no answer. Old furniture was everywhere, pictures of the couple and strange paintings were all over the walls. A film of dust covered everything and there were red stains on the carpet floor. Hearing a creak I nervously whipped around. All I could see was my ghostly reflection in a mirror. Sighing with relief, I turned around to head home and was stopped in my tracks. My blood ran cold. I screamed.
The man and woman were both right in front of me. My heart was racing, my legs were trembling. I shoved my way through them, running as fast as possible through the choking weeds into the safety of my house, and locked the door. I leaned against the door, trembling. Looking through the keyhole, I could see the couple just outside. Shaking, I pulled out my phone and dialled 911. Soon the police arrived. I was still in shock. I told them about the screaming, the house, everything I had seen. Both officers went next door to take a look, I waited inside, making a cup of tea to calm myself down. 20 minutes later both of them returned with concerned looks on their faces. They said, “We’re so sorry, there’s nobody in that house, uh, as a matter a fact our records show that this property has been uninhabited since 2005 after the brutal, unsolved murder of two teenage children.” But as they spoke, behind them, through the glass of the kitchen door, I could see the creepy old couple, blood dripping off their hands, laughing at me.
