The Curse of the Notebook

     The white Acara finished her story. She closed it with a huge CLAP! Lavada was quite proud of her story. It was so spooky and clever. She loved the way how it had all fit together at the end.

     The main character was based after her best friend. He was a skunk Lupe, who was afraid of everything. A couple months ago, he was afraid of walking through the Haunted Woods to get to Neopia Central. Lavada needed to get to Neopia Central to buy herself a petpet. She had been wanting to get herself a Babaa for the longest time, but her dear friend, Tristram, didn't want to go when she had enough money.

     When Lavada got home on that disappointing day, she started to write a story of her anger. This story went on and on about everything that was annoying about Tristram, and the story was quite good. It had so much suspense. The only thing was the ending.

     Lavada was sure that she was going to send the story into the Neopian Times, but was it too violent? At the end of the story the Skunk Lupe died.

     Then another thought came into Lavada's mind. If the series got in, what would Tristram think? It was so obvious that Lavada had used Tristram in the story. Lavada had named the main character Tristan. It didn't sound like much of a difference.

     Lavada looked down at her notebook. Her owner had given it to her awhile ago. She said it was from Kauvara's shop. Lavada remembered questioning her owner why there was a notebook at her shop. Her owner had said, "I don't know. Maybe it's magic." Its magic gives people wonderful ideas for stories, Lavada thought. She sighed at the beautiful Kauvara print notebook. She was now sure that she was going to get accepted into the Neopian Times. With this thought, she fell asleep on her desk, for she had stayed up late.

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     The night was eerie in the Haunted Woods. What do you expect from a place with the word "haunted" in it? It was way too quiet for the Haunted Woods this night. It was so quiet that it was nearly spooky. The Haunted Woods had always aimed for spookiness, and the Haunted Woods was right on target. Though it was quiet, you could feel many things were moving, but you could not see them completely. They were like shadows, watching you, and you couldn't stop them. This wasn't the place where you would want to be, but one little skunk Lupe was sitting in the middle of it all.

     The Lupe shivered in fright of the surroundings. He didn't know why he was there. Everything was a blank. How did the Lupe get there? What was he doing? How could he get out? These were all questions the Lupe wanted to know as well as I. The Lupe was afraid.

     Suddenly many ghosts appeared, all in a flash. There were ghosts of every kind imaginable. There was even all of the ghost petpets. The Lupe howled, but then realized that it was not her own voice.

     Lavada screamed as she woke up from her nightmare. Her face was coated with sweat, and she was panting like crazy.

     "What's wrong," Sophie, Lavada's owner, came barging in. "Is my Acara okay? Did you have a nightmare?"

     With Sophie running into her room like that, Lavada fell out of the chair of her desk. "Uh, yeah, I had a nightmare." She shook rapidly. She looked up at the ceiling from the ground. "It was just a dream. No more."

     Sophie looked very worried as she stared at her wide-eyed Acara. She crouched down next to Lavada. "Is something bothering you?" Sophie asked.

     "No, not at all," Lavada said quickly. "The dream was just odd."

     "You wouldn't be waking up screaming if it was just 'odd,'" Sophie said. "Something just has to be bothering you. You don't get frightened too easily."

     "No, Mom, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm just great."

     It wasn't until Sophie left when Lavada had taken her notebook and read the first couple sentences to herself. The night was eerie in the Haunted Woods. What do you expect from a place with the word "haunted" in it? Lavada gasped. She was reading about the exact dream she had. She remembered her story. It all started out with a nightmare. Then it became a reality but even worse. Lavada threw down her book as if it was a Baby Fireball. It was scaring her. "It was only a dream. I have been spending a lot of time on this book. Just go to sleep," so that's what Lavada did.

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Lavada had woken up early that morning. The first thing that came to her mind was the book. She was going to send it into the Neopian Times.

     She still had the dream on her mind. The dream was fantastically scary. She thought about how real it seemed and how spooky it was. It was just amazing. The trees. The ghosts, that appeared to be a little bit of light going around their business, and then there the Lupe was, right in the middle of it all. It was like the ghosts didn't see him at first. They just walked right through him, which gave him the horrible feeling of coldness. Then they all showed up with their huge red, yellow, and black eyes, staring at the Lupe. Everything seemed even darker than before. Then the short amount of blackness before the eyes opened, getting out of the nightmare. It was almost as if Lavada was beginning to live the story as the Lupe. Looking back at it, it was a little bit pleasing to see it again as if she was there.

     She looked at the book sitting on the ground. It sparked, just begging her to pick it up. So Lavada did pick the book up, and cradled it in her arms. She was pleased with it, and she was sure that she was going to get in the Times. She was going to get fan mail from it. The thrill from it would touch millions. Lavada sighed in her daze. It was just a wonderful thought.

     She slipped the book into her fire faerie backpack, and went to the Lost Desert Food Shack, where she was going to go buy her breakfast. She walked in and grabbed herself some Grackle Bug Steak. It sounded delicious. She began gnawing on it at a table when a Mutant Draik sat beside her.

     "Hey, how's it going?" the Draik asked. He had interest in Lavada for some reason. Maybe it was the food.

     It was odd for somebody to pay sudden attention to her so she said, "If you want my steak, then I'm not giving any to you." She took a huge bite from it; sauce was spreading all over her face.

     "No! Why would you think I would want that?" the Draik said kindly. "You seem like a very nice girl. I would never take anything from you." He put his elbow on the table, and gazed into Lavada's eyes.

     "Well, what is it?" Lavada said, turning away from him. "I have places to be. I have to do something." Lavada wasn't in a big hurry to send her series in, but she wasn't a very outgoing girl.

     "I just wanted to ask you a favor," the Draik said. His looks and the raspy voice seemed weird for somebody that acted so nice. "You see, I don't really know any other pet. I really want to go to Neopia Central to paint myself. I look a little scary, huh?"

     Lavada chuckled, "Yeah, things haven't been going so well with my friends, but you seem nice." She smiled at the Draik. He seemed perfectly fine to her, and how often do you see a Draik? "So what color are you painting yourself?"

     "Well, I'm thinking of painting myself Maraquan or faerie," the Draik said. "It's much prettier than being a dry, scratched up mutant." The Draik looked very sad suddenly, but his voice remained the same, "and by the way, my name's Blake." He bowed as if Lavada was royal.

     "Well, I guess I will go with you," Lavada said, not sounding the least bit unsure. She felt comfortable with Blake, and she felt safe for the first time since last night. "You could really use some painting." She finished off her steak, and stood up with Blake. "I'm ready to go when you are."

     Blake didn't waste any time. He nearly grabbed Lavada by the arm, and dragged her out, but he didn't. He just flew out like a flash, expecting Lavada to run out just as quickly. She didn't though. Soon Blake joined her pace. They both walked happily toward Neopia Central, but they had to go through the Haunted Woods to go there.

     Lavada didn't think when she chatted with Blake along the way. The dream she had last night meant nothing to her. It was just a dream, right? The dream couldn't have possibly led to anything. Could it? Lavada really didn't care now. She had made a new friend, and she was happier than ever. She never liked how scared Tristram was at everything.

     It was a dark night in the Haunted Woods this evening. It was, you know, spooky. Lavada and Blake were walking down the road with no worries in mind. It looked almost like the time in her dream. Once again, Lavada didn't care. Her brain just wasn't working.

     Blake looked up, "Hey, it's getting a bit dark, huh? I'm not exactly sure which way we should go. I'm going to fly up and check, okay?" before Lavada could even answer the question, Blake was up in the sky, and out of sight.

     Everything then started to grow darker, and then the spooky silence appeared. Suddenly Lavada snapped into her senses. It was starting to happen, the dream. Everything suddenly became cold. She could feel the ghosts going right through her. She felt they were watching her in the shadows. Everything she described, everything she had seen was coming back, all of it.

     Lavada stood, silent, motionless. In the book it was all a curse that the Lupe had done because he was too sure of himself, because she thought he knew everything. No, that can't be the reason, Lavada thought.

     The ghosts were all starting to appear now. She had seen this all before. This time she looked up, and she saw the Mutant Draik flying above them all, laughing. It was all a trick, and it was all in the book. Even the Draik, but the Draik was Darigan in the book, and his name was Draco.

     "I don't believe this. It's all in my imagination," she told all of the Ghosts.

     "No, Lavada. It's a curse," Blake told Lavada. "The curse of the notebook."

     At first Lavada thought the name was quite funny, but then she realized that it was the magic of her book. She saw the ghosts readying their selves for their big move. This was the end of the book. This was what the Lupe had to face.

     Without thinking, Lavada pulled out her book, ripped out the last page, and shredded it into tiny pieces. Then everything went black.

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     "Hey, Lavada, what are you doing here on the ground like that," Tristram said after Lavada opened her eyes. "I was wondering where you were."

     Lavada sat up in a jolt. She looked at her paws. She was okay. She had stopped the end of the book. Lavada then noticed that Tristram was in the Haunted Woods. "I want to ask you the same question. What are you doing here?"

     The Lupe smiled shyly. "Well..." the Lupe just barely started. He didn't know how to say it. "I wanted to get over my fear. I felt bad that you didn't get your Babaa, so I went to Neopia Central, cutting through the Haunted Woods. Do you want to know what I did there?" Tristram's voice was getting exited. Lavada didn't even had a chance to answer. A Babaa appeared behind the skunk Lupe. He looked just as shy as Tristram did.

     "You bought me a Babaa!" Lavada yelled in delight. "Oh Tristram, that's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me." She squeezed him tight in her arms. "I will never ever forget this day," Lavada said, remembering her book.

     "Now that I am not afraid of the Haunted Woods any more, we can go to Neopia Central anytime we want."

     Lavada smiled a fake smile, "Yeah, no thanks. Let's get out of here. I'll race you. Oh, and Tristram, will you remember to remind me to throw my notebook into the fire place?"

The End

Note from the Author- I hope you enjoyed my first short story. I wish you a happy issue 200. This story was made for just that wonderful reason. Enjoy the celebration of the Neopian Times' 200th issue.