I just realized that this is only my second post in October. Yikes! I try to write once a week, then something comes up, and I just don't get around to it. I'll try to be better about it, but sometimes I feel like I have nothing that important to say.
Anyways, since it's almost Halloween, here is my version of a 'ghost' story. And don't worry, it's clean and not even scary. Enjoy!
A House of Glass
“This’ll be great!” Aaron says next to me. “I’ll bet
there are loads of haunted things in there.”
I
look up at the house that’s just a shadow against the half-light of the moon.
The entire rotted wooden frame leans to the side, as if longing for its existence
to be over, and the broken glass in the windows grin crookedly like jack-o-lantern
teeth.
“Yes,”
I remark, listening to the trees on either side of us rasp in the wind. “It’ll
be much more fun than going to a haunted house and being chased by guys in gorilla
suits holding chain saws.” I chuckle, remembering last year’s silly Halloween
outing.
“Let’s
go in,” Matt says behind me. “I’m getting cold.”
So,
in a trio, we walk over the cracked sidewalk, open the weather-weary door, and
enter the ghost of a house.
The
wood floor creaks under our feet and the whole house shutters in the gusts of
angry wind. We’ve entered a kind of entry way with torn wallpaper and a bare
light-bulb that probably wouldn’t give off much light if it was still working.
“This
place is sweet. Let’s check out this room first,” Aaron strides into a room to
our right, and Matt and I follow a bit more timidly.
“Wow,”
Matt says once we enter the dark room, and I nod in agreement.
Every
wall is covered with a sheet of glass like still lake water. Only the ceiling
and floor are wood.
Aaron
walks up to a wall and gazes at it, his breath misting the smooth surface. “Look,
guys, you can see the other room.”
I
walk up to the wall and peer through. Sure enough, on the other side of the
glass is the empty entry way we just left.
“Cool,”
I remark. “I wonder if all the other rooms are like this. And if so, why would
you want to live in a house of glass?”
“You
wouldn’t have any privacy, that’s for sure,” Matt replies, looking through the
opposite wall. “The room through here is exactly the same as this one. How
strange.”
I
step back and a flash of red catches my eye. I glance at the wall cattycorner to
me and see nothing.
My
heart beginning to run, I walk to the glass wall and gaze long and hard at it. There’s
a room identical to this one on the other side. While gazing at the empty room
for any sign of red, a gruesome, wolf-like face with bright red eyes and
finger-long teeth appears.
I
gasp and step back, looking anywhere but in the room on the other side of the glass.
“What
is it?” Matt asks, coming to stand by me.
“Nothing,”
I reply, not wanting to seem scared. “Where’s Aaron?”
Matt
glances around. “I’m not sure. I’ll go look for him.” He leaves through the
door to the entryway, and I walk silently to the other door that I guess leads
to the room where I saw the creature.
I
open the door slowly, my hands slick with sweat and the hairs raised on the back
of my neck.
I
see nothing through the crack in the door, so I creep into the glass room.
The
fearsome beast is nowhere to be seen. I glance at the black glass, noticing
nothing unusual.
Then,
wondering if I look as frightened as I feel, I step closer to one wall. I don’t
look through the glass to the next room, but at it.
I
yell and jump back.
The
beast is on the other side of the mirror again, but now its entire body is in
sight.
It
is standing on two shaggy legs, with its other two legs still beside it. Rusty
red blood saturates its fur, but even more startling is the hate gleaming at me
through its red eyes.
My
mouth opens in horror and the creature stretches it mouth wide, revealing its
scissor-sharp teeth and blood-stained tongue.
I
take a step back, sure the evil creature will attack any moment, strong enough
to shatter the glass. And sure enough, it takes a step toward me.
Then,
like the bursting of an artery, the terrible truth hits me.
The
beast is me.
