Chapter One
THE HAUNTED HOUSE

My name is Michael Small, and here is one of our adventures the way I remember it.

"David, Richard, Alex, let's explore the old house!" I suggested.

"Are you trying to get us in trouble again?" questioned Alex.

Alex was a bright-faced girl who sometimes could drive us crazy. She enjoyed telling us we couldn't do this or that, or her mother said she couldn't do this or that. Sometimes she was a real pain.

Why do you want to go there? It was abandoned long ago. My dad said it was deserted long before he was born. People don't go there. It's supposed to be cursed. I don't want to go!" she cried.

"Oh come on, it's not haunted, and no one has lived there for years. If we find a treasure, we'll be rich and famous."

The lure of treasure made Richard and David willing to come along. Alex, the little do-gooder, wasn't too sure. "How do you know it's not haunted?"

David chimed in, "everyone thinks it is. Didn't the family who owned it suddenly disappear about forty years ago?"

Richard knew a little more. "My father said that family lived like hermits and hardly ever mixed with people around here. Then things started to happen. Did you never hear about the mystery of the missing pets?"

"No. That's news to us. Missing pets?"

"That's what my father said; about forty years ago people started to lose their pets: dogs, cats and anything that ran around. The rumours were that the family in the old house was responsible, and when the police went to the house to ask them questions I guess the family was spooked. The next time, police came back with a search warrant and no one was there. The house was abandoned and it stayed like that. In the back yard they found some missing pets alive, but others were found in freshly dug graves."

"That's terrible. Why would anyone want to kidnap pets or kill them? Why would they do that? Pets are precious. Did anyone ever find out what happened to the family?"

"No, they just disappeared and nothing the police did helped them discover where they went."

"That's even more reason for us to be careful. The house may be cursed," Alex said, and looked scared.

The house looked creepy as we approached it, but Richard had his new pocketknife and a flashlight. The door was not locked, so we walked right in. There were cobwebs everywhere and Richard used his trusty knife to cut them away.

"You know this place is supposed to be 150 years old and buildings that old aren't looked after and get rundown. But, inside, this place hardly looks like that. It's as if something has preserved it."

"Well I'm not impressed, "I said. "There are enough spider webs to keep any boards stuck in place."

"Let's look in the kitchen," Richard suggested.

There was nothing special in there, just some old rusty knives and an old water pump. We were about to try the pump when we heard a creak and everyone jumped...

"Let's get out of here!" Richard shouted

"Come on guys don't go yet," I said. "Who is game to come upstairs with me?"

David and Richard both answered, "you've got to be crazy!"

"Hey, what's the matter with you? It's probably nothing and you are just afraid of shadows, "Alex said. She wasn't really that bad after all; she had nerve. She and I started to climb the steep steps, while the others quickly went outside. All of a sudden I saw something terrifying! We ran back down those stairs and out of the house before you could blink.

Copyright © 2004 George W. J. Laidlaw