Tap by Kamea Bellows aged 13

Tap                                                                                  

Tap.

A monotonous noise coming from my window. I shrugged it off, presuming it was only a branch or something of the like.

But 3 seconds later, there it was again. Something hitting off of my glass windowpane. It’ll go away eventually, I reassured myself. This wasn’t the first time this had happened, however the last occurrence resulted in me running out to my mother in tears, just to have her roll her eyes and tell me it was the limb of a tree, pairing with the wind to taunt me with the rhythmic racket.

I rolled over, turning my back to the windows and shutting my eyes. Tap. I threw my blankets off in frustration, and stepped into the frigid night air. Tap, tap. The steady beat became slightly faster as I approached the source of the noise, as if it was suspenseful music playing during the climax of a horror movie.

Tap, tap, tap. I threw the curtains open to my window, and the thumping pulse, to my surprise, ceased. Confused and angered I stomped back into bed and pulled the comforter over my head, engulfing my sight in darkness. Tap, tap, tap, tap… the horrifying thudding returned, as did my exasperation. The thumps continued, this time faster and harder, as if something was pounding on my windows, begging to be let inside.

I hoped that wasn’t the case.

I eventually pulled a pillow from under my head and covered my ears with it. I felt like the hammering noises were reverbing off the inside of my cranium, causing my head to ache. I was being driven insane, every twinging thud feeling as if it was being tapped on the interior of my skull, not the exterior of my house.

The pounding continued still, escalating from quiet taps to what seemed like full blown fists banging on the glass. I stuck my head out slightly from under my covers and peered at my alarm clock. 2:58 am. I felt my room shake as the glass of my window bent under the pressure of the beating it was taking. How hadn’t it shattered yet? An even better question, why hadn’t anyone else in my house come to check what was happening? Surely they were able to hear it…right?

I checked the clock once more, almost drowning out the sounds coming from outside. I watched as the red numbers changed from 2:59 to 3am.

I felt my ears ring, the silence startling me. The pounding had finally ceased, to my relief. Not even bothering to investigate, I shut my eyes and let long awaited sleep overcome me.

Tap, tap.

Not again?! What had I done to deserve this? I buried my face into my hands and screamed.

Except, this time it didn’t sound like the taps were coming from my window, this time it didn’t seem like they were outside at all. What was going on?

I felt a chill go through me as I shuddered in realization. This time, the taps weren’t coming from outside my windows. They were coming from outside my bedroom door.

Doll Face by Grace Parsons aged 10

“Ring” the school bell rang just as seventeen year old Lexxi  Stonebridge finished handing out the invitations for her sleep over party.  The sleepover that just to be on Halloween night, because she and her friends were too old for trick-or-treating anymore. On the day of the party, as Lexxi got off the bus, the wind was howling  and her long brown hair blew in the wind. “Perfect!” she thought as she walked by her driveway. “Now I just have to decorate and …she couldn’t finish her thought. She opened the door and to her surprise, the house was perfectly decorated. The walls were draped with spider web (fake of course!) and there were candles set up everywhere. “What do you think?” asked Lexxi’s mom as Lexxi walked into the kitchen. “I love it!” Lexxi exclaimed. Suddenly Lexxi heard the doorbell ring. It was Samantha.  And just like the invitation told her to she had brought an old doll. The girls were going to have so much fun making the dolls look horrible. When everyone was at Lexxi’s house, and unpacked, they got started ripping out the hair. Taylor grabbed a pair of scissors and started stabbing her doll and the girls smashed their doll’s heads on the floor. When all the dolls looke horrible, the girls put the dolls on the shelf and snuggled up to watch a movie. Three hours later Lexxi woke up. She looked around and everyone else was still asleep, so she tried to go back to sleep. She couldn’t. She walked to the window and opened the curtains. As she went back to bed she noticed the moonlight shining on her doll’s’ face. Suddenly the dolls eyes lit up, so did all the candles. The wind blew in through the open window as the rest of the dolls’ eyes lit up. Soon, all the dolls had glowing red eyes. The dolls slowly stumbled off the shelf and in a zombie-like fashion, walked toward Lexxi.

Lexxi’s blue eyes shone with fright.

The next morning as the girls woke up, Samantha looked over, but Lexxi was not there!

In the rush to find Lexxi, the girls never noticed the new doll on the shelf. The one with long, raggedy, brown hair and shattered blue eyes.

The End

The Haunted House by Brooke Burke (aged 8)

              

It was a dark and spooky night on October 31. Everybody was trick-or-treating except for one house in a creepy forest. Three girls named Brooke, Sarah and Paige who were trick-or-treating came to the haunted house and Paige said, “ Wow that house looks creepy!” and Brooke said, “ Let’s go check it out.” But Sarah said, I don’t think that is a good idea.” Brooke went in anyway, so the girls followed her. “Wow,” said Brooke, |It’s spooky in here.”  There were smashed windows and broken walls, but then they heard an alarming, spooky, dreadful sound. “What was that?” said Paige. “I don’t know said Brooke, “but it sounded like it came from upstairs.” So they went upstairs and were about to go into a dark room when they heard a loud cackle. They then saw a weird shadow. They went inside the dark room and saw a witch with a pointy hat, a pointy nose. The witch said in her squeaky voice,” Who goes there?” Then Brooke said, “This is Paige and Sarah and my name is Brooke.” “Well,” said the witch ,”You are not allowed to come in here.”  The witch then took out her spell book and turned Sarah into a Jack-o-Lantern, so Brooke Sarah and Paige zoomed out of the room and were about to go into another room when thaey came face to face with a ghost. “Wait,” said the ghost , “I am friendly.” “You are?”, Said Paige. “Yes, what are you guys doing here?” said the ghost. “Well we are looking for something to turn Sarah back .An evil witch changed her into a Jack-O-Lantern.”

“Well to find something to Sarh back, You have to go to Spookyland.” said the ghost.

“How do you get there?” said Brooke.

“To get there, you have to go on a creepy train.” said the Ghost. The ghost then called out a loud whistle, and then they heard the train. They went out to the backyard.

“The train driver is a skeleton,” said Sarah.

“Yes,” said the ghost. Then the ghost picked up the girls and placed them on the train. The train was filled with ghosts, bats and zombies. The train took off with a “whoosh.” It flew up in the sky. After a few minutes the train landed and everyone got off. There was a spooky house and Brooke, Sarah and Paige went in. When they got in, there were a lot of goblins, and in a big chair was a goblin with a staff. “Maybe he can help Sarah,” said Brooke. So they went to the goblin king and asked if he could turn Sarah back and he said, “Yes.’ So he picked up his staff wielded it then he pointed it at Sarah. Then she turned back to normal. They went back on the train and fell asleep because it was such a long night. Then they got off the train when it stopped. They went home and no one heard or saw the haunted house again.

The End