Do crazy things happen in your house sometimes? Things that can't be explained? Things that you know you didn't do, but no one else did so you get blamed anyway?
Welcome to mine and my cousin's summer so far.
We've been living at our grandmother's house for pretty much the whole month of June. I'm 18, so I've been doing yard work for her to earn some extra money. My cousin is only 10, but she's out of school and her mom is at work all day, so she hangs out and watches tv and stuff.
However, I've accidentally gotten her hooked on 9. I'd been telling her for months about it, and she finally rented it and we watched together. It was great: it got her thinking about stuff, and I finally had someone to discuss the movie with.
But now she thinks that the house is infested with stitchpunks, because every time she turns around something strange has happened. And then we get blamed for it! Of course we didn't do it, but… who did? She blames 6 and 7; I'm not quite ready to blame fictitious characters for unexplainable phenomenon, but this house may make me a believer yet…
This is a roughly accurate account of these unusual happenings.
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June 10
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There was no one around on the second story; the nearest person was the young blonde girl called Ginny-Ann, but she was in the shower in the bathroom next door. Naturally, with no one around, 3, 4, and 6 wanted to run out of the room and go play in the well-lighted hallway. It was a decided improvement from the dark, stuffy attic-closet to which 1 had banished them all for "safety" reasons.
Of course, 1 wasn't going to accept this. So this time he drew the line—quite literally, across the carpeted doorway, in the most convincing material he could find: gold glitter.
"If any of you cross this line, you will die," he informed them all sternly.
It seemed to convince 3, 4, and 6—not the biggest feat or surprise in the world. The others, however, weren't very impressed—particularly not 7 and 9, who exchanged a this-has-got-to-stop-kind of look and marches straight up to the glitter-line together.
"It's just glitter; it's harmless," 9 scoffed in 1's face as he and 7 walked right through the line.
"Yeah; it's not going to kill any—" 7 started, but stopped. She and 9 suddenly started making strange gasping, chocking noises, clutching their throats and sides as if they were in terrible pain, finally collapsing on the floor and ceasing to move or breathe.
Needless to say, the others were all a little surprised and alarmed.
"You killed them!" 5 cried in dismay.
"Um… Yes—Yes! I killed them with my glitter! And unless the rest of you want to meet a similar end, I'd suggest you all—"
1's rant was interrupted by hysterical laughter behind him. He turned to look and found 9 and 7, very alive and laughing like maniacs at him.
"you really thought we were dead!" 9 laughed.
"Zing!" 7 added
1 glared disdainfully at them. "I really don't like you," he growled.
They didn't really hear it. Another plan to control them foiled, the two younger stitchpunks got up and dashed to the nearby staircase, free to roam the big house as carefully s they could.
"Hey, wait for me," 5 called after them, running right over the glitter after his friends and knocking 1 over in the process.
"Rabble rousers," 1 muttered.
"When are you going to learn to leave them alone?" 2 asked.
"Never!"
"Good luck, then."
Satisfied that the glitter wouldn't kill them, 6 and the twins had escaped into the hall and squeezed into the nearby linen closet, where a little bird (named 8) had mentioned 1 found the glitter. Sure enough, the first thing they found on the floor was a big shaker bottle full of the delightful golden flecks. As it was too big for them to haul out upright, they knocked it over on its side and rolled it out of the closet.
Unfortunately, 1 hadn't closed the shaker, and as they rolled it they left little piles of glitter in their wake.
6 seemed to have a plan in mind for the glitter, but, as usual, he was too focused on it to explain it to anyone right away; so 3 and 4 watched quietly as he started sprinkling the glitter over the nearest doorways, trying to figure out what he was doing.
It didn't take 2 very long to notice and ask, "6, what are you doing?"
"It'll keep out the leprechauns," 6 answered quickly, barely looking up from his work.
Everyone stared blankly at him as he continued, humming quietly to himself.
Suddenly the bathroom door—the one doorway that 6 had missed—opened with a creaky noise and Ginny-Ann stepped out. Her short blonde hair was dripping but had been brushed neatly anyway, and she was wearing nothing but a fluffy yellow towel. All the stitchpunks realized with a bolt of panic that they were all in the hallway and completely visible, and that if she turned around she would see them, and that no amount of gold glitter would save them.
However, Ginny-Ann didn't stop and turn around; instead she walked straight down the hall in the direction opposite them to the big room that she and he older cousin were sharing. Still not bothering to look over her shoulder or anything, she closed the door to the big room behind her and was gone. They all dared to breathe and relax just a little bit.
"All in favor of going back to the attic?" 2 asked.
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye!'
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
And back into the attic-closet they ran before Ginny-Ann came back.
"I told you this was a bad idea," 1 scolded, pushing 2.
"Don't push me," 2 retorted.
The shaker of glitter was left open, precariously perched beside the banister of the staircase, the shiny dust showering out of the still-open shaker and spilling all over the lower steps below.
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"Maddie, Grammy wants to see us," Ginny-Ann called into the big room a little later.
Madeleine—or Maddie, as her friends and relatives knew her—was 8 years older than Ginny-Ann, her cousin of 10. She was staying weekdays with their grandparents, doing yard work and other such labor for extra money before she started college in July. Her starting school so early seemed to annoy her grandmother, as it meant that her services wouldn't be available for the whole summer as they had been in the past. Nonetheless, Maddie was a hard, cheerful worker, and she was determined to make the most of her time there.
Maddie was used to being summoned for her next assignment, though it was unusual for it to happen so late. Dinner had been served long ago, and she had been given leave to take a shower about two hours ago, which meant that she should have been closed for business until morning. She wondered what could be going on.
Ginny-Ann led her down the back staircase—for the big room had two different flights of stairs from different parts of the house—, though the house, and found their grandmother in the foyer, beside the other flight of stairs, looking a little annoyed.
"Who did this?" she asked, pointing to the lower steps. They were sprinkled with flecks of gold, as if fairies had been there.
"It's all upstairs too, in the doorways," Grammy added.
"Really?" Maddie asked, jogging up the stairs to look. Sure enough, three out of five doors had glitter in neat little lines in front of the door.
"It looks like a magical warding rite from a fantasy book, to keep out evil spirits or something," she noted.
"Did one of you do this?" Grammy demanded.
"They weren't there when I took a shower," Maddie insisted.
"I didn't see them either when I took one either," Ginny-Ann added.
"I mean, we all knew there was a thing of gold glitter in the linen closet," Maddie continued. "It's always been there; we just never knew where it went, so we just left it alone. But I certainly didn't touch it."
"I didn't touch either," Ginny-Ann insisted.
"Well someone must have done it," Grammy said.
"I'll bet it was the twins, or 6," Ginny-Ann suddenly suggested.
"What are you talking about?" Grammy asked.
Maddie leaned over the banister and eyed her cousin quizzically. "You mean they guys from '9'?"
"Yeah! I'll bet they're trying to make us look like fools or something."
"You're joking, right?"
"Oh, of course. But wouldn't it be funny?"
"Maybe…"
"Well someone's got to clean all this glitter up, and it's not going to be me," Grammy said. "First thing tomorrow, I want you two to vacuum this mess up, understand?"
"Of course," Maddie agreed as cheerfully as she could. It wasn't much work, and it would take less than five minutes, but it still peeved her a little bit. Who had done this? She was sure it hadn't been Ginny-Ann; she had watched her little cousin walk right into the shower, and she hadn't heard the door open again for another 30 minutes afterward. (And Ginny-Ann had a bad habit of slamming doors.)
Grammy went back into the living room and Ginny-Ann joined Maddie at the top of the stairs.
"Wouldn't it be cool, if the guys were hiding in our house?" Ginny-Ann asked again. "Maybe we could catch them!"
"Yeah, sure," Maddie agreed with a laugh, still under the impression that they were enjoying an inside joke.
They walked back into the big room, unaware of several sets of guilty eyes watching them from the attic-closet.
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Author's Notes…
This is basically how it all began. We had watched the movie the night before, and she was hooked. I don't think she was really joking—I don't think she ever was. -.-0
Trust me: it only gets worse from here. DX