The Haunted House of Mrs. Sanders

     "Sarah, I don't want to go in there..." Lee whimpered, staring ahead at the house up the hill. "I don't want to go in there..." she repeated, taking a step back without realizing it.

     "Lee," the plushie Uni sighed, shaking her head, "it's not haunted."

     "It is so!" the pink Usul gasped, looking at her friend Sarah in disbelief, Everybody knew that the house was haunted. Lee had heard many stories herself of how Mrs. Sanders wasn't all there, how she would be nice one moment, and then awfully cruel the next. True, Sarah had always been the more brave of the two, but that was no excuse for her to take it to being naive. "Mrs. Sanders is an evil Ixi! She's known around the town to be evil, Sarah. Every Halloween, or in the old days, when people would trick or treat at her house, something awful would happen. None of the neopets who entered the lot ever came out the same."

     "That's rubbish, Lee. Anyway it's Halloween, Lee; be a little brave?" the Uni said in a daring voice, raising her eyebrows defiantly at her friend. "Prove to me that it's haunted, Lee."

     "I won't go in there!" Lee exclaimed, taking another step back, almost falling backwards over a stray chia gnome.

     "Pretty please! Everyone says that Mrs. Sanders has the best candy!" Sarah squeaked, switching her tone and way of going at this completely, not to mention ignoring her friend's story.

     "Still, that doesn't matt--"

     "Fine, Lee, I'll go without you," the Uni snapped. Turning on her heels, she began to march through the gate, and she left Lee behind at the gate, and began walking up the winding sidewalk. She looked edgily at the garden around her; it was dark and dreary. In fact, everything on this side of the fence seemed to be darker than what was on the other side, the for-sure-safe side where Lee was still standing, looking on at her friend in shock.

     She heard something move to the side of the sidewalk and jumped, turning to look down at the ground, she only saw a Sloth plushie. Her eyes a little wide, she continued up to the huge house; was Mrs. Sanders a Sloth supporter? Of course not!... Couldn't be, no... no, couldn't be.

     A howl in the far distance caught Sarah's ears, and she became visibly tense but continued on, she wouldn't let Lee's silly story about this place being haunted scare her out of some good Halloween fun.

     Stepping onto the porch, she squeaked when the doors opened on their own. The room on the other side of the doors was dark, way dark. If she didn't have wonderful Uni sight, she wouldn't have been able to see the details at all (not like she could see the small ones, anyway).

     "Okay, it's nothing," she assured herself, stepping up to the doors. She looked to the side; just on the edge of the door there was a wooden knocker. "Such an odd place to put a knocker..." she mused to herself, before taking a hold on it. She didn't have to knock though, as a looming shadow began moving towards her out of the deepest depths of the dark room in front of her.

     "Trick..." she squeaked, clearing her throat afterwards quickly, "Trick or treat!" she said quickly, her voice a mere squeak again, though she at least got the full phrase out.

     "Who's there?" a scary (to Sarah, anyway) voice asked. "Who are you?" they went on, still coming forward, without any form or shape to them. Just a shadow. Sarah didn't know what to do; after all it wasn't every Halloween that you got greeted so... scarily. She was beginning to wish that she had listened to Lee, after all.

     "I--I... Candy," was all she could get out this time, too scared to move. Was this a ghost? Was this place truly haunted?

     "Leave," the voice said firmly, "LEAVE. LEAVE!" it repeated, getting louder. Sarah tried to yank her hoof from the knocker but couldn't. She screeched in fear as the shadow grew closer, and her hand remained stuck.

     "LEAVE. LEAVE," the voice continued to yell, continuously getting louder.

     "I... I... HELP! HELP!" the Uni screamed, but just as she finished she finally got her hoof free, and bolted down off the porch, forgetting her bag of candy behind her. As she ran past Lee, who'd been waiting at the gate for her with a look of shock on her face, Lee began to chase after her.

     "Sarah! Wait!" she exclaimed, running after her friend, but she wasn't fast enough - and quickly fell behind.

     "What could have happened?" Lee asked herself, and curiosity was overwhelming her in a mere instant. She wanted to go after her friend, yet she wanted to go back to the house, find out what had scared her friend, and tell them to not do it again. Her common sense told her that ghosts weren't real, that somebody had just played a cruel joke on her friend, and she didn't like it.

     She stomped back to the gate of the mansion and glared up at the mansion. She would tell them to leave Sarah alone!

     Without a second thought, she began through the gate and quickly made her way up to the front porch. She secured her bag with her pink and white beaded necklace to make sure they couldn't steal her candy if they were truly just a couple of mean neopets.

     The same thing didn't happen to Lee that had happened to Sarah, for when she got to the porch the two front doors were still open, not closed from when the ghoul had scared Sarah.

     *_*_*

     Sarah hadn't left her house since she arrived home two days before after going up to Mrs. Sanders' front porch. She swore that the knocker grabbed her hoof and wouldn't let her go. There was no other explanation. She stared at her book about Kougras, hoping to allow it to take her mind off of the mansion she'd visited on Halloween. It was clear to her now that she would never want to trick or treat ever again.

     She heard a knock downstairs at the door, and jumped in shock. She was home alone and didn't want to answer the door. What if the ghost had followed her home? She looked around in horror when she swore she heard the words, "LEAVE. LEAVE," echo around the room, but knew that wasn't possible, after all that had happened the other day and she would never hear that voice again... never.

     She put her book down when she heard the knock again, realizing that they were getting impatient most likely. She quickly pranced down the steps of her Neohome and took in a deep breath before answering the door. Standing before her was a checkered Ixi, wearing a pink and white (familiar) necklace, and holding a bag that looked familiar...

     "Hello dear," the sweet, elderly Ixi smiled, revealing crooked teeth, "You forgot your candy on my porch...."

The End