'Til The Casket Drops – The Treaty Chronicles
Story one – Haunted house
Chapter One:
A group of boys walked through the woods at night. The light from the moon came down in slivers from the leaves high up in the trees. The boys used flashlights to guide them to their destination. One boy in the front stopped at the end of the clearing, looking at an old house that stood there. It was an old house; the paint was chipping and falling off. The wood the house was built with was falling apart.
The oldest boy leading them turned around to the group of boys and shinned his flashlight at the smallest boy at the back. "Okay Charlie, you know the rules." He said with a small smile, "You have to stay the night in the house; you can't come out until the morning and you can't have anyone with you." The small boy stared down at his feet then looked up at the older boy. "But, Daniel, is it true, that the house is haunted?" he asked him.
Another boy to his left answered him before Daniel could. "They say that once someone enters the house they never come out. The spirit that haunts the house doesn't let them go until they die, but even then the body is never found." The look at Charlie's face was of pure horror and fear. Someone behind Charlie pushed the boy and away and grasped Charlie's shoulder.
"Leave him alone Teddy or have you forgotten that he's my little brother?" The second boy turned Charlie around and looked him in the eyes. "You don't have to do this Charlie. Just go home and go to bed." The young boy looked at his older brother, about to give in to him when Daniel spoke up again. "If he does that then he just shows how much of a baby he truly is and he won't be able to be a part of our club."
Charlie turned and looked between Daniel and his brother Kyle. He clenched his hands into fists held his chin high. "I'm not a baby! I'll do it!" he pushed past all of them and walked towards the house. He climbed the old wooden stairs and pushed open the heavy oak door. When he walked into the threshold the door slammed shut on him, making him turn around and jump at the noise. He made a loud gulp and moved he hands against his chest. "I'm sure that was just the wind or something. Teddy was just trying to scare me. This isn't so scary."
Charlie looked around the house. The wall paper was peeling off revealing a water stained wall behind it. As he walked the floorboards groaned in protest. The rooms were big but almost everything was coming apart now. "This must have been a nice house some time ago." Charlie whispered to himself. He moved to the sitting room and saw a large painting sitting above the fire place. A beautiful woman sat in a chair with a two boys standing next to her and a large man standing behind her. It was old and worn but the picture was clear, the family that once lived here. A soft pair of footsteps and a soft voice brought Charlie out of his thoughts.
"Baby, what are you doing out of bed?" He turned around and saw a woman standing a few feet in front of him. Her black hair was tangled, dirty and her skin was deathly pale and dirty too. The white dress she wore was torn and dirt stained it. She held out here hand towards him and gave a soft smile. "Come on, mommy will put you back to sleep. It's late and we don't want to wake your father." Charlie began to take steps backwards as the woman moved closer towards him. "Baby don't be bad, your father will get mad at you. Come here-"
The look on the woman's face was of great terror as Charlie bumped in to something large and hard. He looked over his shoulder and saw the man from the painting looking down at him. His skin and clothes were like the woman's but his presence was anything but kind. What the man did next happened so fast Charlie didn't have time to flinch. The man's hard hand collided with the side of Charlie's face, sending him crashing to the floor. The man loomed over him, casting his large shadow over his small body. As the man went to grab him Charlie let out a loud scream.
Outside Kyle stood by the porch of the old house when he heard the scream of his little brother pierce the early morning silence. He ran up the stairs to the door. He burst into the house, heading straight to the living room. He looked around and saw no sign of his little brother. "Charlie!" he screamed, but no answer came. He ran all over the house yelling his brother's name. Each time, in every room there was no sign of Charlie.
Kyle came to the front of the house again, running his hand through his hair as the sun began to rise and shine light in the dusty room. His breath came out his shallow gasps of panic. His head whipped around with his hand still in his hair. "Charlie…" He said in a soft voice. "No… Charlie. Charlie!" He spun around looking back and forth. "CHARLIE!"