The Haunted House Escape
"I dare you to sneak into the Haunted House and stay there for a night!" a blue chia jeered at me. I was staring at the most creepy and haunted house in all of Neopia or that's what everyone else says. It was forbidden for anyone to enter, if you enter you'd never come out alive. That was what the adult neopets ay anyway. Every year at this time a neopet would disappear near this house and was never seen again. All the suspects were questioned and all had answered with haunted eyes, "I saw him/her when she/he went into this house." It was all creepy business and I didn't want to be the next victim. This Haunted house was indeed haunted by what everyone suspects a nasty old witch.
"SCARDY CAT!" the Chia sneered and everyone took up the chant. I felt sweat stain my forehead and gulped. I looked for an escape route. Unfortunately the Chia saw my wandering eyes and blocked my path. He laughed unpleasantly.
"Going somewhere little Shoryu?" his breath stunk. I ignored him and considered my options; if I run away they would probably ruin my life forever, if I sneak into the Haunted House my life will most certainly end. Why? Why did my family move into Haunted Woods, I asked myself passionately. Which happens to be mostly my fault, I had bragged to my whole class that I wasn't afraid of anything and off course they got mad, to make the matter worse I decided to tell them that they were jealous and would love to be me. Right now I wished I could be anyone else except mw. Oh boy, I thought I truly learned an important lesson.
The chants grew louder.
"BABY! BABY! BABY!"
I put my hands on my ear and closed my eyes willing the sound to go away, but it did not and it only grew louder. I was completely losing it so I screamed as loud as I could, "I'LL GO OK?!" There was a shocked silence. Then I realizedwhat I said; I must be crazy I thought. Then I noticed the silence and my brain provided me with an explanation; they didn't expect me to really go; they just wanted to just teach me a hard lesson, but now it's too late now I have to go in. I took shaky steps toward the porch, and then I took a deep breath, closed my hand around the doorknob, and stepped into the darkness….
"Do you really think she will come out alive?" a fire lupe choked out.
"Let's follow her!" one cried.
"Are you mad?" shouted another. However, while they were arguing one figure had silently climbed the porch and disappeared into the house as well.
All the while, a ghastly figure watched, smiled showing all her sharp fangs, and vanished into thin air.
I shivered and listened carefully; I heard the slow creak of the floorboard above my head and the thud of the screen door, my heart jumped at every noise. It's just a mice I told myself but I didn't believe it for there was a huge dark shadow on the floor right in front of the screen door and it didn't look like a mouse's shadow either. The shadowy head turned my way and I felt my heart thud in my chest. I stumbled behind an old dust, cobweb covered couch. The shadow grew closer and was reflected clearly before me, because of the moon that shone brightly through the window. I closed my eyes and feared that this was the end for me.
"BOO!"
I screamed loudly before I recognized the figure that stood before me, it was the blue chia. He grinned wickedly when he saw my frightened face.
"It's not funny." I told him weakly, feeling weak with relief.
"You know there aren't really any ghouls or ghosts here right?" he asked snickering.
I turned bright red and retorted, "Then how do you explain the missing neopets that disappeared here?"
He shrugged, and said, "Last month this old lady walked out of the house and asked me if I wanted to take tours here. I have been taking tours here every week. It's really fun, the old lady however keeps on talking to herself and once I caught the words "eat" and "taste like", but who believes that old tale anyway?"
"Everyone does." I said.
"Prove that there are ghosts and ghouls here!" He glared at me. I glared back without flinching. I thought to myself, maybe I really should find a ghoul and wipe that silly grin off his face. But I didn't have to, at that moment a strange blue flame glowed in the hallway and we heard slow thumping steps coming our way. Searching frantically I found what I was looking for, a small dusty closet on one side of the room. I grabbed his hand and we sprinted into the closet, we were just in time. Slowly a ghoul entered the room. I started as I realized who it was; I had seen his picture in the newspaper before, it was a red Lupe named John. But now John wasn't red but a gray/blue color and had vacant ruby eyes, he looked frightening. I heard the blue chia gasp next to me as he too recognized the Lupe. We huddled close together and dared not to make a sound in the closet. Suddenly the dust tackled my nose and I clenched my teeth. The chia seeing what I was about to do grabbed and pinched my nose. We heard the Lupe sniffing the room and slowly lumbered away. He let go of my nose, which was a big mistake, I opened my mouth and sneezed a loud sneeze. Immediately the Lupe leaped back into the room with blue flame bursting from his mouth. He threw open the closet door and prepared to attack. We were frozen with horror and fear, the blue chia was the first to attack, and he launched himself toward the Lupe and knocked him over with Chia Launch. I quickly recovered my shock and closed my eyes; I raised my arm to summon up my ability: Magic Pebbles. Pebbles pelted the Lupe and we ran out of the room toward the kitchen.
However there was an unpleasant surprise waiting for us. We gasped us we entered the room, for there she was, dark against the night sky. Thunder boomed and lightening flashed behind her as we shuddered and backed against the wall.
"Well, my dears how were your stay?" The Witch cackled.
"I never knew that I was going to have two for dinner to-day, your blood will fuel me and I will live with no one to stop me!" she said her voice rose in triumph.
"Prepare to say goodbye!" She boomed at us.
We looked at each other, it seemed to be the end of us, and we were going to be zombies as well. She stopped for a moment.
"'I'm going to gave you two a few moments alone, consider me doing you a favor." She smiled evilly at us and slammed the door before her.
My legs felt wobbly and I set down with my back against the wall, breathing deeply. The blue Chia grabbed the door handle and tried to open it. It was tightly locked, and after a few minutes he gave up. We both set on the floor in gloomy silence.
"So this is the end of us, isn't it? And I still don't even know your name," He asked as stared at the locked window and then glanced at me.
"Name's Virginia, what's yours?" I asked him, watching him closely.
"My name is Kelvin. Now instead of sitting here and despairing lets find us an exit." Kelvin said quietly.
We rose with little hope and looked for any exits that we could fit through. We explored every crack and upturned every cabinet, tables, and chairs. We knocked on the walls to try to find hollow spaces and at last I heard a hollow thump as I knocked on one corner of the kitchen. I couldn't believe it but it was true. I whispered my thanks. We peeled off the decorations and found a hidden, ancient air vent. I couldn't believe our luck, our eyes shined as we quickly opened the vent. Kelvin was the first to crawl in. He mentioned for me to follow, I raised my leg and put my head into the vent.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! The witch was coming back.
"Hurry up Virginia." He hissed.
But it was too late, the door handle turned and I just managed to hide our exit before The Witch appeared in the room dragging a large pot. Then she saw me.
"WHERE IS
THE OTHER ONE?" She roared, but got no further. A figure flew into
the room and the witch toppled on to the floor. It was Judge Hog, He
looked furious. However The Witch was just as powerful. Green magic
spilled out of her finger tips and whirled around Judge Hog.
P
"RAN!" he shouted before the magic threw him on to
the wall. I quickly leaped into the vent and the last thing Kelvin
and I saw was Judge Hog unconscious on the floor and the witch
standing over him.
"It's my entirely fault!" Kelvin groaned as we ran away from the house toward the park.
"Don't start; we have to figure out the best way to handle our problem." I ordered.
First, we reached my house, but it was deserted. My heart jumped as I ran through the house calling for my parents. My eyes fixed itself on the Neopian times for that day. The heading went like this:
Disappearance of a Blue Chia and a Fire Shoryu…They were last seen near the Haunted House and all hopes of finding them have vanished, a green kacheek have told us that: when he was passing the Haunted House he heard terrible screams but did not investigate them…We reached our conclusion that these two youngsters are no longer alive and all searches have been canceled. Virginia's parents will be moving away from Haunted Woods. Their new address is unknown. There is also news that our Neopia Hero Judge Hog is missing. Searches are been made…."
My heart sunk as I read the article, my parents have moved and now we're suck here all alone. I saw Kelvin's white face and succeeded in biting back a sob.
"Virginia don't worry, we'll look for them after we handle this problem first." He murmured softly in my ear. I felt comforted and was able to calm down a little. We stood there in silence for a while and we set on an old sofa that was left behind.
"That evil witch!" I cried, "What are we going to do?"
"We can sneak into the house again and kidnap Judge Hog under her nose." Kelvin suggested.
"But we don't even know where he is held or if he is even in the house." I said unhappily.
"That's the risk we'll have to take, we should go immediately, and she won't be prepared for us. She probably thinks that we're hiding under our beds." Kelvin murmured eyes vacant. I smiled a little thinking of us hiding under our beds and agreed. We set out again.
The Haunted House seemed as forbidden as ever. We crept past the rusty shed and opened the back door of the house quietly, as we sneaked through the shadowy hallways I heard a low moan coming from upstairs.
"Kelvin, did you hear that?" I whispered.
"Yea, I think that's Judge Hog." He whispered back.
As quietly as we could we crept upstairs. Thankfully the old stairs did not make a sound and we made upstairs safely. There were four rooms; all were dusty. I peeped into one of the rooms and there were two zombies, one was John and the other I did not recognize. They were staring blankly at the floor as if awaiting orders. We crept on, at the end of the hall there was a closed room. A moan came from the inside. I opened the door just a crack and gazed into the room. This room was like all the other, old blankets, dust, and cobwebs covered the tables, chairs, and bed. The curtains were closed tightly and everything was dusty. But there was one chair that was not covered; a neopet was tied with to the chair. It was Judge Hog! He looked dazed and his eyes were closed, there also seemed to be a huge bump on his head.
"Ummm, Judge Hog? We came here to help you." I murmured to him, he looked up at us with great surprise and opened his mouth to speak. Kelvin signaled to him and he closed his mouth again. I raised my knife, ready to cut the cords away.
"Welcome back to my house my dears. I thought that you would be here again." A cold voice broke out echoing through the room. I jumped back, startled.
"Let me go, you evil old hag!" Judge Hog shouted at her.
The witch pretended to be hurt and ignored him.
"Since you youngsters are so determined I'll offer you a bargain," She paused, "I'll challenge you to the battledom, if you lose I get to keep you are all here, if you win I'll let Judge Hog go and never bother you again. But if you don't accept my bargain I'll blow you to pieces right here and now. What will it be?"
She looked
at us and a small black flame burst from her fingertips.
I
glanced at Kelvin; his face was white and stared right back at me.
"We'll take your bargain." I said.
"Good, now to make sure you get out safely…" She quickly murmured a quick spell and then we were staring up at the haunted house again.
"I wish that horrible witch would disappear into space and never appear again!" I said through gritted teeth. Kelvin only shrugged and we continued down the street.
"Want to go to my hiding place? I have…. Lots of weapons there." He said, a bit awkward.
"I found them." He stated defensively when I didn't respond and glanced at him. I looked at him but he refused to meet my eyes. I only shrugged and our silence lasted until we walked into a clearing.
"Look up." He said when he saw me looking for around in confusion. I took his advice and saw a gigantic club house which had been carefully camouflaged in the trees. We climbed into the tree house and I gazed around. There were books stacked against every corner and a small doorway that led to a kitchen then to the bedroom. It looked more like a home than a hideaway to me. Kelvin signaled for me to follow and we arrived to a small room stacked with weapons. I gasped with awe; it seems that our chances of winning was to growing. Some of the weapons were pretty rare and many were quite powerful.
"That's quite a collection!" I breathed. He looked pleased.
"I've been training hard and getting smart from these books everyday." He said proudly, his face was glowing.
"Your parents must be proud." I remarked. Kelvin's face fell.
"Tell me about yourself." I said gently. He stared at the floor for a few seconds and shrugged.
"My parents abandoned me because I wasn't really a powerful or unique looking neopet. My brothers were all painted and they had high levels. Everyone in the Pound ignored me and no one adopted me. So one day I decided to sneak away from the techo. He isn't nice at all and amuses himself by teasing us sometimes. I made this tree house and lived here." He finished speaking and peered curiously at me.
"You have been lucky to have a family and all; I wish I was like you." She hissed. I was sad for him and a bit surprised. I had never been abandoned before and my family was caring. It made me think of what will happen to me when I finish this adventure, if I finish this adventure. Kelvin's voice brought me back to the present.
"We better hurry, lets go through this big pile of weapons." Kelvin remarked. I blinked and we set out looking for the best weapons. The groups of weapons were all amazing; I even found Fire and Ice Blade! Even Kelvin seemed shocked when I held the sword out to him. One hour later, we found ourselves equipped with powerful weapons taken from Kelvin's collection.
We set out for Haunted Woods Battledom and got there half an hour later. The Battledom was dark and cobwebs hung from the ceiling. Several ghost neopets were arguing about who had cheated. When they saw us they nodded respectfully. I raised my eye brows at Kelvin and he shrugged. I almost screamed as The Witch suddenly appeared before us from nowhere. She glanced at me amused, and said, "Are you ready for our battle?" She sounded confident and looked confident as well. The witch wore a long black dress with dark crystals and a long wicked looking sword hung from her belt, her form towered over us. We entered the Battledom and our battle started.
The Witch swiftly took out a wicked looking staff, waving it around her head she chanted in a strange wailing voice. Kelvin and I dashed at her with our weapons drawn, but it was too late. She opened her eyes and pointed her staff at us and we were thrown backwards. I saw stars as my head hit the wall sending me into a breathless daze. I forced my reluctant body to stand and faced her with my hands shaking.
"I haven't started and you're already cowering before my wrath? You dare to face me and I will make sure you do not escape me!" The Witch screamed at me. However she did not notice Kelvin sneaking up behind her waiting for his chance. Then he sprang with a battle cry and stabbed her arm. She cried out in outrage and flung Kelvin on to the wall. He did not move.
"That's the end of your boyfriend," She hissed.
I suddenly felt hot anger burning inside me. She had not only hurt my only friend but because of her, I was probably now homeless. My hands stopped shaking and I stiffened summoning up my remaining strength. I would defeat her even if that were the last thing I do.
She spun and a cloud of sleepy gas surrounded me. My knees buckled but my determination held. I pushed through and slashed my sword at her. The last thing I heard was her surprised cry as my vision blacked out. This is it. I'm going to die was the last thing I thought.
"Virginia please wake up!" A panicked voice called from the distance. Slowly my hearing cleared. I felt sore all over.
"Am I dead? Is this my after life?" My dry mouth croaked.
"YES! You're alive. Phew you're alive. Don't worry me like that again!"
I opened my eyes. Kelvin was looking anxiously at me. I smiled, we were both bruised but I felt happy. Next to him, I saw Judge Hog; he looked concerned.
"Are you ok child?" he asked gravely.
"I feel great!" I answered. It was not exactly true but still…
A month later my parents came. I found myself captured in a bear hug and felt tears in my eyes. Then I introduced Kelvin.
"This is Kelvin can he live with us? Please, please!" I begged. My parents looked at each other and smiled at us.
"How can we say no?"
"Yes!" I shouted. I caught his hands and we danced around the garden whooping with happiness.
My friends, that is my adventure with Kelvin. Who knows maybe one day you would have an adventure like mine.
Wink
