Haunted Life

Tales of a fire that never happened.....light in a long deserted house....screams that echo at night.....

The house across the street had been deserted as long as I could remember. There was only one person in town I knew that could remember anything about it. Everyone thinks she’s insane though. All she talked about was a fire. A fire she thinks happened almost two hundred years ago. The information collected about the house shows no indication about any fire and the house is still standing strong.
Despite living across from the house my whole life it still gave me the creeps. It had windows like eyes and a rusted metal gate that would swing and creak late at night when the wind blew. Kids at school would dare each other to walk through the gate but nobody ever would. They were too frightened of the rumors, rumors of people that have gone missing. There was one of a girl about my age. She went into the house, not on a dare or anything, she just did, and she never came out, her screams echoing in the minds of everyone that walks past the desolated place now. ‘No! No! No! I have to leave!’
I used to sit in the tree in my front yard and watch the house, trying to solve what so fascinated me about it even as it scared me. Then, one night a light went on in one of the upstairs windows. It flickered like candlelight then two silhouettes passed by. They were dancing. It looked like fun and I smiled despite my thundering heart. Then the cries reached me. ‘No! No! No! I have to leave!’ After that I didn’t sit in the tree anymore, I stayed away from the crumbling house, shut my curtains so I didn’t have to see it from my bedroom and pretended I’d never seen a light in the upstairs window.

I tore myself away from my book and got out of bed. Twirling slowly, I made my way down the stairs and into the kitchen to hug my mum goodbye.
“It’s time to go already?” She asked, looking surprised.
“Yep, school sucks, hey mum?”
She laughed. “For you, I get peace and quite for six hours a day.”
Glaring at her, I backed slowly up to the door, slipping my shoes on and stepping out into the bright spring day. I began walking at a leisurely pace down the street toward school. When I came to the end I crossed the road and walked into the forest. The air changed from normal morning air to sweep pine air, misted over with droplets of water. I pushed branches out of my way and headed down a slow toward a little creek. I jumped it and continued walking up to the other side. My mum didn’t like me cutting through the forest, she said strange things happened there. That was a ridiculous thing to say, I thought, when we lived across from the town’s haunted house. Emerging from the forest, I crossed the road to the school yard where the last few people were jogging into the building. I caught up to my three friends, just stepping through the gate.
“How’re you going Donatella?” Alex teased.
I glowered at him and his face dropped. I made a lunge for him, he sidestepped and I went stumbling. An and Matt laughed at me and I turned on them.
“It’s not very good to anger me.” I rasped.
I knew they did it on purpose, calling me by my real name instead of my preferred ‘Dona’, but that was what friends were for.
An and Matt screamed and ran behind Alex. Of course Matt’s red hair poked over the top of them, being the tall person he was.
I chuckled.
“Come on guys, before we’re late again.”
We all fell in line and started for the school doors. That’s when I noticed the kid. He was maybe a in the next grade up than us, with dark hair and a casual way of standing.
“Who’s he?” I asked, pointing toward the school doors.
“Who’s who?” An asked.
“Him, the guy by the doors!”
An gave me a weird look.
“There’s nobody there, Dona.”
“Yes there is. He’s…” I stopped. He wasn’t there anymore. He was gone. “Oh, there isn’t anyone there.”
“She’s gone senile!” Cried Matt.
“She should join old Miss Walsh.” Confirmed Alex.
I pretended to strangle them both as we walked into the school.
Dismissing the boy from my mind was easy. It was one of those things I didn’t bother thinking about, that just didn’t affect my day all that much. Unfortunately, sometimes thing had a way of coming back and making me think about them.
I was on my way home, cutting through the forest again. Pushing a branch out of my way, I stopped dead. He was there, standing by the creak. His hands were in his pockets, his face turned reflectively toward the trickling water.
“Hey!” I shouted.
He didn’t look up. With an annoyed grunt I ran up to him, opened my mouth to say something that was probably rude. Then he was gone, he just vanished. If I’d blinked I would have missed it. My mouth shut with a click. I turned stiffly and continued walking.

That night I was in the tree in my front yard again. I was watching the same window the light had appeared in. The boy had reminded me of the house, of the silhouettes dancing, of the cries and vanishing girl. Until eight at night I stayed in the tree, just staring at the window, thinking. Nothing strange had happened until then and I was about ready to go inside when the gate creaked open. There wasn’t any wind, not even a breeze. The leaves were still but the heavy gate had opened as if someone had pushed it. My entire body went stiff as I stared at it. The gate opened further. Sliding from my perch, I crossed the lawn, walking across the street and then I was through the gate and heading up the broken path to the door. Slowly, things began to change as I walked. The rusted gates began to shine, the weeds faded into beautiful grass. The patio floorboards fixed themselves. The house was once again a marvelous white. I changed as well. My hair raveled up into a bun and my jeans and shirt melded together into a beautiful red gown. The stairs didn’t creak as I walked up them and the door opened easily into a warmly lit room. Just like old times I walked into my living room and greeted my guests.
I felt happy here. It was my life. There was someone missing though, a very good friend of mine. Aldrich was missing. I walked into the kitchen and found him eating a pastry.
“Come on, let’s dance.” I told him.
He quickly wiped his hands on his pants, jumped off the counter in such a casual, catlike way it made me grin. Aldrich took my hand and lead me upstairs into a large room. We always danced there, lighting the candles before sweeping across the floor. We whirled around and around for hours. Laughing and talking. My father would take care of the guests. Yes, he wouldn’t happy that I wasn’t downstairs, but I was happy here, dancing and twirling and laughing. The clock struck eight.
Eight? It had already been eight. What was I wearing? A gown…no, not a gown. Before my eyes the gown melted away, replaced by jeans and a shirt. My hair unraveled around my shoulders. Aldrich faded out. The bright room went dark and everything began to smell of dust and mold. I was in the house across the street. The one the girl had never come out of. My breath caught. I started to run for the door. Finding the old knob, I yanked and yanked at it but it was stuck. Kicking angrily at the old wood, I wondered why it would not give way.
“One more dance?” A voice whispered behind me.
I slowly turned, my heart thundering so fast it nearly stopped. It was the kid by the school doors, the kid I had seen vanish at the creek. Aldrich. I turned back to the door, yanking harder at it, kicking furiously against the wood. A cold hand pulled at my shoulder.
“One more dance?”
“No! No! I have to leave!” I continued pulling at the door.
“No, you can’t leave yet. One more dance.”
I shook my head and pushed past him to the window. I tired to pull it open, smash the glass out, but nothing moved.
“Just one more dance.” Aldrich insisted.
“No! No! No! I have to leave! Go away!”
I pulled at the window once more, furious, scared tears stinging my eyes, then ran back to the door.
“No? You won’t dance?” Suddenly the imploring, kind voice turned gravely, turned to a sound that sounded like nails against glass. “Then you’ll burn!”
Then the room was on fire. I screamed, hitting the door with all my strength, feeling my shoulder cry out as I rammed it against the wood. Aldrich started cackling. He laughed and laughed and laughed and the fire got bigger and bigger and bigger. Still laughing, he turned and walked through the wall.
The air was filled with smoke. It chocked me, stung my eyes. I couldn’t get out. I tried to scream for help but the smoke was too thick. Nobody would hear me anyway. I couldn't breathe anymore. I keeled onto the ground. There were flames everywhere. Heat burned my skin. Smoke choked me. Then the ceiling collapsed around me. It hurt so much! The flames burned and the wood crushed me. All I could think about was getting out but I couldn’t move under all the rubble. I was trapped on the floor, the house burning around me. So there my ashes lay, mixed in the pile of rubble. I never came out.

Reviews

[emma]

wow. that was really well done! i liked the concept of the story, and it was really cool to me. awesome!

[Tai Ryens]

This was a greatly written story! Oh, one thing, you misspelled 'choked' on the last paragraph. No spelling errors that are too bad though. I've always liked the idea of a ghost ot fragment of imagination asking for a dance, but when they're denied, they make you suffer the consequences, haha. Great job!