House on Acorn Hill

I absolutely LOVE Halloween. And although horror isn't my best genre, I thought I'd give it a try in the spirit of the upcoming holiday.

On a beautiful fall day like this one, any small New England town is quite busy. The chilly wind flows through the colorful leaves as the warm and weakening sun shines in the crisp blue sky. The grass is covered in a bright blanket of red, orange, and yellow where people are placing pumpkins and scarecrows, planting their mums, and decorating their yards with wooden graves and plastic spiders.

On the quiet street of Acorn Hill sits a little house on top of the long and narrow dirt road. House number, which happens to be 12, is rusted and askew on the old mailbox that is held together by corroded nails and rotting wood. The windows on the faded yellow-brown house are all cracked with spider webs crowding the corners. The worn and faded red door always remains unlocked and crooked on its' hinges, which are only held up by a few loose and rusted old screws. Behind the door are a few old, damp, and dark rooms that match the outward appearance of the house.

The furniture is dust and faded. Mold grows on the walls and ceilings as the wooden floors slowly rot away. The food that was left there long ago is now mostly green and furry, smelling up the old rotten kitchen and dining room. 

As the woman who lives in house number 11 finished planting the last of her fall mums, she got up and, brushing off her hands on her pants, said "I really wish someone would just tear that eye sore down." And, shaking her head, she returned to tending to her garden. 

But she, like everyone else in the town, knew very well that the house had to stay there forever. It had been nearly 100 years since it had happened. On a rainy and gloomy night one late October evening, the nightmare began for the tenants of 12 Acorn Hill. On the 25th of October, 1910, the pregnant Mrs. Jane Brown went into labor. That night, she had a baby boy who, at first, looked just like his father. He had hair as black as midnight and eyes greener than emerald. But, even from the day of his birth, something was different about little Johnny Brown. 

He was always a quiet boy, who had a habit of showing up quickly and unexpectedly in places where he shouldn't have been. It took his mother longer than was normal to put the boy to bed, and even then he much prefered to sleep during the day. He refused most foods, all except for cow and lamb. And his teeth... there was always something very strange about his little shiny teeth.

Around Johnny's tenth birthday, his mother couldn't control his behavior anymore. He became impossible for the poor woman to manage, and more impossible to keep track of. Throughout the entire month of October, he would mysteriously appear behind his mother hissing and showing his teeth. Then, he would just as quickly disappear. He was never awake while the sun was in the sky, and even began to let the bats into his room at night. One morning before the sun had begun to rise, Mr. Edward Brown woke up to find his son staring at him, his eyes glowing, and drooling as if a Christmas feast was laid out before him. 

This all continued until one night on the boy's rainy and gloomy tenth birthday, Mr. and Mrs. Brown vanished. the boy himself was never found either, but anyone who went into the house to investigate would never return. All but Officer Hill, who emerged from the house shortly after their disappearances with scratches up his arms and two little holes in his neck. But he refused to talk about the incident.

So everyone had eventually given up on finding out what happened long ago. Nobody had gone into that little house for many years. those who believe in the tale keep away out of fear, while the rest just may not care about the house. Or perhaps they just don't want to take their chances. But, one thing is certain amongst all of the townspeople: whatever was in the house on October 25th, 1920 is still in there today. 

Reviews

[Shawnee Rose]

I think you had a really good story here. You did really well with the imagery and I think the story itself was good. I think you could add more to this and make it very good, but that's just my personal opinion and you can ignore it if you wish.