The house on the hill
Linda was eleven years old. [Note--as I had the tendency of making my characters around my age, if this were so here, this story would probably date to 1987.] Her best friend was Marie. When Linda wasn't with Marie, she was watching John and Mike play baseball with other boys. Sometimes she even joined them. She was a very good runner.
Linda liked to go exploring with the boys. One day they went to a large, black house. It looked like it would collapse any day. "Come on, let's go," said John. "What? Are you crazy?" shouted Linda. "You're not going to get me to go in there for the world!" "Then we'll just have to drag you in," said Mike. He and John tried and tried to get Linda to go in, but she was too strong. Finally they gave up. "What's so scary about that house?" asked John afterward. "It's a strange , eerie house, that's what!" said Linda. "You're not, I repeat, not, going to get me into that house!" But the boys kept trying and trying to get her to go into the house, and finally she gave in. "I give up," she said, "because it's not fair. There's two of you and one of me." [Note--I guess I didn't yet understand the rules of paragraph construction regarding starting a new one every time a different person speaks.]
That night all three went to the house. "Why did we have to go at night?" asked Linda. She tried to hide it, but her teeth chattered. "Yeah, why at night?" asked Mike. "Because it's more fun at night. The moon is full..." Linda looked up at the large, white moon. Her teeth chattered even more. "Wolves howl..." John continued. Linda heard a distant howl. She looked up at a cliff far away. A frightening, gray wolf was on it. "And witches fly around on their brooms turning everyone into frogs!" Linda almost fainted. She was happy she didn't see a witch.
When they opened the door it creaked loudly. They all stepped in. The door slammed shut behind them. Linda shrieked when it did. At first Linda didn't notice anything, but when she passed a broken window with the moonlight shining in, she looked at the floor. Ugly, black rats scurried around. She screamed and ran. She heard John and Mike shouting for her to come back, that she might get lost, but she didn't listen. She kept running deeper and deeper into the house, and also deeper and deeper into trouble.
[Illustration: Linda, Mike, and John, underneath a warped, broken window with moonlight streaming in; a rat is scurrying across the floor. Linda, with long blond hair, a white longsleeve shirt, and pink pants, is running away, her hair streaming out behind her; Mike and John, both with brown hair and blue pants (Mike wears brown shoes and a longsleeve shirt, while John wears sneakers like Linda's, and a T-shirt that says "John" on the front and sleeve), are looking after her with worried expressions, Mike raising his arms to entreat her to stop. The room is dark and dingy.]
[Illustration: A rather cute-looking black rat.]
No comments:
Post a Comment