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    Amazing Kids! Writing Contest Entries
    Andrew Keeys, Age 13, Ada H. Lewis,
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
     

    Haunted Hill: Part One

         In a city called Tonnosana, there's a house, some say it's beautiful, others say it's haunted.  No one knows the truth, but the Wilson family will soon find out.

          "Lance, come get this box." 

         "All right, Dad " said Lance. Lance puts his hand out in front of him; his father drops it with relief.

         "Whoo, this a big box, Dad. Where do you want it?" 

         " In me and your mother's new room, son." 

         "All right, Dad."

         Lance walked slowly up the steps with the box and placed the box on the floor.

         "Thump. Thump."

         Lance heard a noise from the attic.

         He slowly walked up the steps, hoping nothing would happen. When he reached the
    landing, he looked around. Nothing. Suddenly he felt a drip on his head. He put his hand back in his hair and put his hand in front of his face, it was water. He took a blink and it was blood. He pulled his hand down and hidden behind its view was a dead body. It took him a minute to take his eyes off of it; it was a very horrifying site. 

         He ran downstairs with fear and informed his parents. When they returned to the attic, nothing. Was he hallucinating? He didn't know, but he knew something was wrong with the house...
     
     

    Haunted Hill: Part Two

    The whole family was sitting at the table eating dinner. It was very quiet  until a little voice broke the silence.

         "What did Lance see?" said his little sister Brenda. 

         "We'd rather not discuss it," said Lance's mother.

         Lance lifted his head " I saw a dead body! I wasn't lying!" hollered Lance. 

         "What? You did? Mom I'm scared," said Brenda while playing in her greens 

         "Lance!" said  his mother with anger.  "I told you about lies! If you'd seen it, it
    would have been there when we went back up there. Now go to your room!" 

         Lance went to his room with anger and slammed his door. He thought to himself,
    "Was I hallucinating? Were they right? Or I am I just plain losing it?" 

         He began to become frustrated and even more angry. He lay back on his bed as he
    thought the lights turned off. He ran up to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. He turned around and there was a little girl standing repeating the same thing over and over. 

         "I want my daddy, help me!" As she began to say it more, he woke up. It was a dream, but Lance knew it had a meaning.

         It was the next morning, and Lance's mother and father were painting the kitchen. Lance woke up and walked into the hallway and Brenda was standing there.

         "I saw her too " said Brenda.

         "You saw who, Brenda?" Lance said with a suspicious look on his face. 

         "The girl wants her dad; the lady hurt her." 

         "What lady, Brenda?"  Before she answered, her mother called up.

         "Lance, watch Brenda. We have to go to the store to get more paint," said Lance's mother. 

         " Brenda, hold on. I'm going to get something to drink." He walked down the steps and went into the kitchen. There was plastic over everything. 

         "Oh great," said Lance with a huge sigh. As he walked out, the sheet of plastic lifted over his head. He couldn't breathe. He tried to take it off, but as he tried it got even more tight as he thought like he was going to pass out.

         Brenda walk in and cut the plastic off his head with her scissors. 

         "Lance! Are you ok!? The mean lady did it, didn't she?"

         Lance took a deep breath as he tried to speak. "I don't know. I don't know..."
     

                                 

    Haunted Hill: Part Three

         It was later on that night; Lance was literally driving himself crazy. Lance couldn't live with the fact anymore, the fact that this thing could attack him anytime. That's why the situation scared him the most. He was looking for clues that day, a hint, something to explain the thing that was going on.

         Lance was very bored and tired, so bored that when he was walking down the steps he was slouching so much that when he walked down the steps it looked like his legs were unattached from his body. He walked slowly and stopped at the doorframe and paused.

         " Dad? " said Lance squinting his face.

         "Yah, son?"

          "Who were the former owners of this house?" said Lance putting his hands
     behind his back.

         "Well son, only one family lived here and it was in the mid 50's and there nieces and nephews lived here after that. They're old now, why son?" 

         " Um. Report. Of a house, family tree, very interesting dad, try it some day." Lance walked out the room making a face of relief. He went to the attic and looked for more clues, nothing but old shoeboxes that the former owners had left here. He kicked the shoeboxes over looking in them with hope, hope that's he'd find an answer. 

         As he kicked the shoeboxes some more he found himself tripping.

         "Boom!" he laid on the floor with anger. He stood up  and looked at what he had tripped on. It was a photo album. Hopefully this  would get him somewhere.

         He looked in the book carefully and the pictures was of a little girl and her father.

         "Now isn't that a Kodak moment?" Lance said in sarcasm.

         As he looked through the book some more, he noticed that the last couple pictures
     was of a girl, her father, and another woman. He went down the hall to his sister's room.

         "Hey Brenda, you got a sec?" She looked at him then stood on her feet.

         "Yah, Lance?" Lance pulled the picture frame from behind his back.

         "Is this the girl, Brenda?" he pointed to the little girl.

         "Yes! It is. How-" as she began to speak more, the lights went out. Something dragged Brenda to the bathroom. It locked the door, he heard water turned on he heard Brenda struggling and her voice being trapped by the flow of the water. Lance
    bust open the door, her face was put into the bathtub he lifted her up and talked to her in a panic himself. 

         "You ok?" she nodded her head and shivered.

         Their mom and dad came running up the steps in a panic. " Oh my god! Are you
    guys ok? We were in the cellar fixing the fuse and we heard screaming." 

         "Brenda fell in the tub, she's ok; she's ok."
     

    Haunted Hill: Part Four

         It was morning Lance was just waking up. And over him was his little sister Brenda.

         "Hey, I have a dentist appointment. You should really come with us," she took a breath and looked down. "Something might happen." 

         "Brenda, I'm ok. Nothing will happen trust me," he said while rubbing his eyes. 

         "But-" 

         "But nothing. I would hurry before you're late; you know how Dr.Jones is," said
     Lance in a taking-charge voice.

         "Ok Lance, be safe!" Brenda turned around and went downstairs and slammed the door.  Even that gave Lance a chill.

         As he lifted his feet off the bed to stand up he heard a noise, it seemed to be coming from downstairs. He went to the top of the steps and put his head down, but not far enough for him to get a view of anything. 

         He went downstairs slowly and took deep breaths as he reached the hallway he
    heard the same noise in the kitchen he walked slowly to the kitchen as if it would change what would be standing in that room or who. He went there... and nothing.
    Someone was playing games with him. 

         He heard the same exact noise in the basement. He walked down the steps.

         "This is the last time I'm going to be home alone in this house," he muttered. When he reached the landing, there was nothing to be seen nor heard. When he reached his room there was a book on his pillow it obviously hadn't been there before. As he got closer who identified that it was a diary, but whose? He looked at it closer, it was dusty, old. He could tell that it was an old book, because of its yellow pages, and loose pages. He looked in the first page carefully and it said,

    Diary of Rachel Bradchind 

         He thought for a second, then he pulled out the picture frame from under the bed. Hepulled a picture out the frame and looked on the back of it. It said 

    Fred Bradchind and Rachel Bradchind.

          It was her diary that he had discovered. He was confused. First it hurt him and
     his sister, and now it's giving him clues. He was very confused. He looked through the book.  It talked about the grandmother, how mean she was and evil.

         As he looked in the book for more hints, he noticed an old woman in the background. He guessed she was the grandmother. He looked in the diary some more. He reached the end. The other pages looked like they were pulled out.  He could tell they didn't fall out. The book stopped at January 3, 1954. According to the back of the pictures in the picture frame, that was the day before the new woman first came. 

         "Did she write something about the lady someone didn't want me to know?"

         He'd soon find out. He looked at the back of the picture and said to himself,

         "Fred Bradchind, I'm going to be paying you a visit today." Lance looked in the white pages and looked him up and saw the address, 456 Chamber Street, where he'd be going...
     
     

    Haunted Hill: Part Five

         Lance was looking at a map to see where he'd be going. He was going to catch the bus there and he hoped it'd go well. He waited at the bus stop and finally it came. When he got on the bus, he thought every look he was getting was threatening, but who could blame him? He was dealing with ghosts for geese' sake. 

         When he reached the house he took a very deep breath, he knocked on the door. Lance took a deep breath before he knocked.  Then he looked at the door for a second, then knocked.  An old man answered the door. 

         " Yes?" the old man said.

         "Are you Mr. Bradchind?" Lance said, with a low shy voice. 

         "Well yes, what would you like young man?" 

         " Well... I'm Lance Wilson. I live in the house you use to live in with your daughter. I may know who killed her."

         The old man looked away and then looked at the boy as if he was confused. The old  man tried to slam the door but Lance put his foot in front of the door so he couldn't. 

         "No, I won't go. I know who killed your daughter, it was your mother. She killed her; she had to." Lance said as if he knew the man for all  his life 

         "No! She didn't, my mother would never! Besides, my mother died a year before my daughter, in August of 1956. Now I have to be going to church."

          The old man paused for a second and said, " Go back wherever you came from;
     you're just asking for trouble."  As he thought he was going to step out, he went backward a step or two and said,

         " Helen! Come on you're going to make us late."

         "Helen?" he thought. When she stepped out, he could see that it was the woman from the picture. They both stepped out the door. The woman looked at him with suspicion but never said a thing. 

         "Go home child, go home," the old man groaned. He stepped in his car and pulled off. Lance was lost.  He didn't understand. As he was about to leave he noticed the window was opened.

         He looked around to see if anyone was around and there wasn't. He quickly climbed threw the window and looked for answers. He went upstairs and looked
    through the man's gore. And there it was, the missing pages to the little girl's diary. This confused him even more. He read the pages and it talked about how her fathers new girlfriend threatened her, she dragged her in the bathroom and pulled her head under the bath water, pulled plastic bags over her face just to act like she's going to kill her to scare the girl, but he didn't understand. These were the same things that happened to his sister.

         He raced downstairs toward the door and it opened. It was the old man.

         "I had a bad feeling about leaving you near my home...get!" the old man complained. 

         "Don't play games Mr.Bradchind, your daughter's dead and your wife Helen did it! First she scared her, then she actually did it. To get her out of the picture to have you!" Lance shouted. 

         "I know! I know." The old man began to cry. "I knew she did it, and I had fault in it to. I took my daughter's life as well as Helen did. My life was so complicated with her in it!  Her mother left me and it was too big of a responsibility! And me and Helen had it all planned. Rachel just wasn't in it..." the old man cried and cried, but that still didn't escape the fact that he was a heartless man. 

         He waited as Lance called the police. They had enough evidence to put them away. For a long time. 

         As they were putting them in the car the old man said,

         "I had a life planned out, son, and I still don't regret it." The man had a heart of darkness, yet another side for Helen. And that's what hurt the most to Rachel. 

         As Lance turned around he saw the little girl standing there.

         "Thank you for making my life complete," she said with happiness. 

         "You're welcome, but a question: Why did you do the things to us that she did to you?" he said with anger and confusion.

         "Mental flashbacks that can't be controlled; a re-enactment formed from the past. It happens sometimes when spirits are present. I'm sorry if you got  hurt." 

         "Interesting, it's ok though, go on you have a life, or shall I say 'after-life' to live," he said with a huge smile. She giggled as she looked into his eyes and said,

         "You are truly amazing, Lance Wilson.  I have to be going. Goodbye, and say farewell to Brenda for me." 

        " Sure do, bye!" The spirit vanished. And Lance was happy to know it was over. And he learned that some things that may be bad might have a great turn out. For everyone.
     


     The End


     
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