Chapter Five part one

(I just want to let you know…again…that if any parts of my story scare you and make it hard for you to sleep at night, then I'm sorry. Sometimes I get too carried away when it comes to writing stories.

-imaginarytoon1

PS: I'll post the second part of this chapter tomorrow night.)

Beatrice:

While I walked down the road where Old Lady Juanita lived with thirty-four cats, both house and stray, I remembered the time when one of my old friends, Harold Offenbach, told me how Gallagher Woods was born as the most haunted place to wonder around in Houston if you were cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs for Halloween.

Harold told me that during the Industrial Revolution, there was this old man, who was known by the name 'William T. Gallagher', who liked poppies a lot. He planted them in some particular spot in the woods and even gave the poppies names, as if they were his children and grandchildren. With only two people as exceptions, no one else knew why Gallagher lived in the middle of the woods. Some people thought that Gallagher liked to keep to himself and he likes to stay in quiet environments but others say that Gallagher practiced witchcraft and used it to keep his poppy garden alive in every season, including winter. Rumors say that after Gallagher died, his poppy garden died with him after he was buried next to his house, making the soil no longer good enough for flowers. Old Lady Pearlman would often say that the spirit of William T. Gallagher lingers around the middle of the woods and if he senses anyone wandering around his property with a good, strong heart, then Gallagher's ghost would grant good luck to the person. No one knew what Gallagher's ghost would do if he found a person with negativity until thirteen years ago when a group of middle school boys discovered that their pockets with endless amounts of earthworms in their pockets and ended up seeing a man (that sort of looked like the zombie version of Michael Jackson from his Thriller music video) disappearing and reappearing in their heads until they went to college.

After hearing that, my curiosity led me to the middle of the woods and I tried many times to see Gallagher's ghost. One of my searches led me to a skinny stick scratching the ground, leaving me a message that said,

Nice try, little innocent child.

Although your heart is good, I don't want to reveal myself right now.

Someday I will.

Be good.

-W.T. Gallagher

I stopped looking for him later.

Sorry for getting carried away right there. I'll go back to the story.

Right now, I'm approaching the Gallagher's woods. I looked at the numerous amounts of trees and a small trail that looks like it leads to nowhere. I want to turn back and forget about this but Lexi is in the middle of the woods and the Toon Patrol is probably doing some bad things to her.

"ALL RIGHT, YOU WEASELS!" I exclaimed. "I GOT YOUR MESSAGE! I'M COMING RIGHT NOW AND BRINGING BACK MY COUSIN! IF I FIND A SCRATCH ON MY COUSIN, YOU'RE IN FOR A WHOLE LOT OF TROUBLE!"

Without thinking, I began to run down the trail. Crickets were chirping, my heart was beating fast, and the wind blew on my face and through my ears. The trees looked like blurs and spider webs were smacked on to my face like a bug flying into a car window.

I finally stopped and started to wipe of the spider webs that were smacked on to my face. I even smacked myself because I wasn't sure if a spider crawled on to my face. Despite of me being tomboy, I really don't like spiders. They're just eight-legged bugs that just do nothing but crawl around and eat things that are smaller than them.

All of the sudden, I heard leaves rustling, as if something was running through the woods. I froze up in surprise and looked around. I heard a person with a scratchy voice laugh briefly.

"Who's there?" I asked.

I receive no reply.

"If you're trying to scare me, Smarty, then don't even think about trying again. I'm not backing out at the last minute!" I exclaimed.

I continued to walk and it started to get really cold.

TYPICAL TEMPERATURE CHANGES! I thought. I THINK THAT'S USED TOO MANY TIMES IN HORROR MOVIES.

In a horror movie, if it was cold outside, then that usually means that something really bad is going to happen. If you were in the woods, your mind begins to play tricks on you, your heart begins to beat at a very fast pace, and your eyes are always on a lookout for anything that could pop out on you.

I got my tennis racquet ready when I heard the laugh again. The laugh didn't sound like Tigger, obviously.

The wind began to blow and the branches swung along with the breeze. For a second, I thought I heard a voice that told me to go back while listening to the branches.

No, I'm not turning back. I thought.

Then, I started to smell something. The smell smells like…roses. I don't think that Gallagher planted roses on his property. Maybe, he did. I don't know.

As I continued to walk, I noticed that my feet were feeling heavy…like I could literally drag them on the ground. Then, the rosy smell grows stronger and stronger and I noticed that my eyelids were opening and closing as my eyes were tearing up and rolling back.

What is going on here? I thought. I don't know if I can walk anymore.

I'm not letting that smell possess me and I continue to walk, despite of feeling really tired.

I aimed my headlight to the ground and I started to see something grow out of the ground. A green stem grows out of the ground and bright red pedals grow on top of the stem and they open up. It was a flower, which seemed impossible because the soil in Gallagher Woods isn't suited for flowers anymore…

(To be continued…)