Hangman's Curse
I was sitting in English class as the student teacher was explaining what she wanted in "book report," and of curese was wasn't listening or anyone else in the class for that matter. I was reading a book called Hangman's Curse. I had been waiting for weeks for the library to send it to me and now it was turn.
*****
"The Ghost of Able Fry haunts the school," they entered the cafeteria, "and those freaks over there claim to control him."
Eleshia, looked at the table Diana had pointed out, "So, what happened to Able Fry?"
"He's the kid who hanged himself way back in the day." Diana stopped and picked up a photocopied picture, "This is what he looks like. Two weeks ago Able Fry attacked our star quarterback; and he's still in the hospital. The doctors don't even know what's wrong with him."
*****
As the bell rang I closed the book and I quickly slid everything in my backpack, heading for the door.
"Melchy, wait up," Zin-Zin said, she quickly shoved her books into her backpack and headed towards me. "So what book are you using for the presentation?"
"Hawksong and I made a makeshift Jeopardy board for that random game the student teacher wants use to have. I don't know what they're teaching them in college these days, whatever happened to the traditional book report? Man, no one's got the time for all this additional work." I opened the door to the auditorium, "So what are you doing?" I asked, we both walked down the stairs leading to the first floor where we had our study hall.
"I'm just doing a regular board game like Monopoly and then I'll talk about my book, I guess."
I walked to my seat and sat down just as the bell rang for class to begin. I made myself comfortable for the mandatory hour block of waste. I opened my book and started reading where I had left off. I had already finished reading my mandatory book Hawksong for English, so I picked up Hangman's curse and once again dove in the incredible mind of Frank Peretti.
*****
"Hey Eli, there's a path here, give me your flashlight."
"Eleshia you know mom and dad just want us investigating and not actually breaking into the school."
She handed him the flashlight, "I think I can fit in, this must be the witch's layer, hold the light for me."
"Fine I'll go first," he replied.
"You're too big to fit in, besides I need a light while I craw in." she jumped into the hole and pulled her body until she reached a duct cover. She pushed it out and pushed herself into a room.
Blown out candles were around a pentagram and, off to the sides were masks and cloaks. Eleshia walked around and picked up a mask, inspecting it. A picture of Able Fry was hung on the wall with some unlit candles underneath a makeshift shelf that had been pushed up against a wall. The room was also dark and musty with a hint of incense from the Glade candles; which all the small room even more eerie the mixing of incense and musty air, in a dark warm room.
"Eleshia hurry up!" Eli had yelled, she could faintly hear him through the duct. She made her way back to it. Something reached out and grabbed her arm.
Eleshia screamed and Eli tried to squeeze into the small opening.
*****
It was finally in study hall, a day later, when I finished the book. There was still about twenty minutes left in the period and I sat and reflected, for about five before Zin-Zin and Jennifer asked if I wanted to do play s.o.s with them, so I went over to where they sat.
A few weeks had passed and it was about time for Halloween when like tradition I stared watching scary movies that they stared showing on TV. Like I always enjoyed doing, when my overactive imagination kicked in. My study hall teacher had finally given us more freedom in class. After attendance, everyone would move to where they wanted sit and quietly talk to their friends.
I sat at the end and had the little table up so that way I could try to fold a piece of paper into a crane. Zin-Zin, who sat next to me and Jennifer on the other side of her where on their second while I was still trying to get past the seventh step.
I was getting frustrated, stressed out, and maybe even slightly jealous. So when a black spot landed on my paper I, at first assumed it was my hair, but then I realized that my hair was in braids. The obvious next logical solution was poison spiders from the book Hangman's Curse. I had a flash back to the book and in a scene close to the ending.
*****
Frank banged on the gym teachers door.
"What?" the teacher yelled from the other side of the door.
Frank opened the door,"We're evacuating everyone in the building."
"What the heck for, I've got things to do." The gym teacher started typing on his computer ignoring Frank.
Frank was beginning to see why this man had a hex on his door and wanted to see him get the full punishment from the witches that he deserved. Frank cleared his mind and asked God for forgiveness before continuing, "Are you aware you have a hangman etched into your door?"
"So this is what it's all about, those kids. I was just trying to make them more useful in life and this is how they repay me. Well you can tell them that I'm not running from anybody. If they want a fight then they can name the time and place." He continued typing his speech for the press conference concerning the star quarter back being in the hospital.
"You need to leave…" both Frank and the gym teacher looked up at the air duck that was right above the gym teacher. One spider fell on his desk.
The gym teacher started laughing, "This is why I need to leave?" He didn't laugh long when hundreds of thousands of spiders started falling out of the air duck. He screamed when one bit him.
******
That's when I looked up at the auditorium's ceiling. My flash back was so vivid that it manifested itself into reality. I saw hundreds of thousands of spiders that looked like smaller versions of tarantulas coming out of the ceiling. I was still calm at this point and decided the best course of action was to do a back flip out of my chair and run for the door. I attempted to do this about four to six times before I realized that it wasn't going to work, and time was running out. If one of those demon spiders bit me, especially if it was the hybrid I was done for without immediate medical treatment.
I flung the paper away and much to my dismay the spider stated flying towards me. It was too much! I let out a war cry in a high pitched scream that echoed off the auditorium walls. It was only for a small amount to time, but almost as soon as my scream exploded from my lungs, when I realize that it was a fly.
To cover up my grave mistake, and avoid looking like a stark raving lunatic of a freshman, I tried to look around and play it off. But instead as I looked around the room I saw the teacher look up from whatever book she was reading, and like bad acting on soap operas she raised her hand and put it on her chest with her mouth slightly opened, in shock. Robot boy, who was an upper classman, turned looked at me and my friends, without any facial expressions before turning back to face the front of the room like he always did, every day. And the kid who always slept during study hall and looked like a kid that always jumped headfirst into a fight woke up with his fists in the air.
Finally, I looked to my right, both Zin-Zin and Jennifer where starring at me. The look on their faces was just comical. It was a mixture of shock, fear and pure concern for my well being. I bet the look on my face was just as comical. But when I had seen everyone's expressions, I started to laugh, like a maniac. The period finally ended and I was still laughing. I tried telling them what was so funny but it was hard to get out a full sentence without crying because I was laughing so hard.
"Man Melchy, it wasn't even that funny. If you don't stop laughing I'm going to leave you." Said Zin-Zin
Well, that finally subdued me until I saw one of my other friends walking by, I said hi but she was way too busy being mesmerized by the ceiling to notice. And that was all it took to get me started up again.
The moral of this true story, is you have an over active imagination like mine maybe reading the one of the scariest books is not for you. And that includes TV. Heck that same school year, after watching some Christian movie of the end of the world, my sister decided she was going to hide underneath my bed, and because I was too busy imaging hell and the devil I didn't even notice she was missing. After I had turned off my lights she grabbed my ankle and sent me jumping onto my bed and casting out the devil from underneath. I was convinced he was under my bed and trying to drag me into the pits of hell. Every single bible verse I had heard came back to me; I was on fire for God, literally.