Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2016 finalist, Rhea Jain! Rhea finished 4th grade this past school year. She wrote a short story about three girls and a haunted house. We especially enjoyed Rhea’s use of detailed descriptions in her tale. Enjoy!
The Haunted House
by Rhea Jain
Chapter 1
GOING TRICK OR TREATING
Once there were three sisters named Anna, the calm one, Rhea, the talkative one, and Luisa, the cool one. Luisa was the oldest, Anna was the middle child, and Rhea was the youngest. Soon it was Rhea’s birthday and also Halloween, so she decided her birthday party could be a Halloween party. That night they were all going to be rock stars for Halloween. But when they went in the store they could only find two rock star costumes.
“What should we do?” Anna asked.
“Maybe we can buy two costumes and then go to a different store and buy one more,” Rhea replied.
“I know, I know!” Luisa screamed, “We can make our own costumes.”
All the girls liked that idea so they went home and started to make three rock star costumes. They made one black costume for Luisa, a blue costume for Rhea, and a pink costume for Anna. That one night they all dressed as rock stars for Halloween. Then, they went for trick-or-treating.
Chapter 2
A STRANGE LOOKING HOUSE
After going to a few houses, the girls noticed a very strange house. It had blood stains on the walls, there were no lights on, and there were creepy sounds coming from the back yard. Anna, Luisa, and Rhea were very scared. Suddenly, it was extremely quiet.
Luisa finally asked, “Should we go in the house?”
Rhea and Anna were very scared, but they said, “Okay.”
Chapter 3
OH NO!
They carefully stepped on the path that lead to the house. When they arrived at the door, Rhea put her hand out and knocked. Just then the door opened by itself. There was nobody. The three girls stepped in. They tried not to make a sound but every step made a loud echo. The house was huge and scary. Then the door slowly closed behind them. All the girls froze, they looked behind them, the door was closed. At first, they did not notice but then when they tried to get out, they found that the door was locked!
Chapter 4
WHO IS THAT?
Rhea and Anna began to cry. Luisa was trying to figure out a way to get out instead of giving up. But soon they all begin to cry, there was no way out of the house. Then they heard a loud bang from the back yard, Anna carefully went to the cracked window and didn’t see anyone outside. They heard it again a little bit louder but there was nobody outside.
They all checked the window and there was still nobody there. The noise seemed to get louder by every second. Soon, the noise was as loud as drums banging together. Rhea noticed a tall shadow coming closer to the window. All the girls screamed. They noticed the tall shadow was not from a person, it was only a shadow.
Chapter 5
THE ODD SHADOW
Soon the shadow was in the house. Rhea, Anna, and Luisa were hiding from the shadow. The shadow seemed like it had been here before. All the girls were very scared but didn’t say a word. Somehow, even though the shadow was see-through it could eat, drink, and move things around. The shadow was very unusual.
Chapter 6
MEETING THE SHADOW
Luisa screamed! The scream got the shadow’s attention. Soon the shadow was coming towards the girls. The girls didn’t move at all, but they were very scared.
Then as soon as the shadow came close enough he asked politely, “Who are you?”
All the girls were relieved that the shadow didn’t do anything bad.
Chapter 7
FINDING THE TRUTH
Rhea quickly said, “I am Rhea,”
Then, Anna and Luisa introduced themselves.
The shadow told the girls that it was under a spell and how it got trapped in the house.
Rhea told the shadow how they got locked in they house.
Then Anna asked, “Who had put you under this spell?”
Chapter 8
THE STORY OF THE SHADOW
The shadow slowly answered, “There is somebody living in this house.”
The shadow began, “It is a witch. One day, I was lost in the house. I heard something was coming from the bottom floor. Just then, the door opened and I was very scared. I carefully peeked from the second floor. An old lady came in the house. I tried to hide from the old lady but eventually she found me, then she said some words I didn’t understand. Then some blue colored thing that looked like sand came floating towards me. At first, I had no idea what she was doing but then I realized that it was a spell. Just then I saw my body disappearing and soon all that was left of me was a shadow. I have been trapped here ever since,” the shadow said.
Chapter 9
THE WITCH
Just then, the shadow and the girls heard a screechy noise coming from the bottom floor. Luisa peeked from above, an old lady came in the house. She had short black hair. The shadow seemed like nothing happened but the girls were very scared.
Just then Luisa screamed, ”Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!” That got witch’s attention.
The girls tried to hide but it was of no help, the witch found them.
Chapter 10
THE SPELL
Then the lady said, “Stay here” in a polite voice.
The girls were very surprised that the old lady was nice. The girls did as they were told because they were scared that the lady might put a bad spell on them like she did to the shadow.
When the old lady came out she looked like an old, green-skinned, lady wearing a witch hat. She was not nice anymore and she had a low and grumpy voice. The witch was holding a big, rusty, old, huge pot. Inside the pot, there was a green bubbling liquid.
She put Rhea’s left hand in the pot, and her hand turned green. Then the witch put Rhea’s whole body in the huge pot. When Rhea came out she was all green like the witch, and not only did she look like the witch, she acted like the witch! Rhea and the witch together put Anna into the pot, the same thing happened to Anna she also looked and acted like the witch, but Luisa managed to escaped Anna, Rhea, and the witch.
Chapter 11
ESCAPING FROM THE WITCHES
Luisa quietly and quickly ran to the third floor of the house. But on her way up, she tripped on a rotten banana peel. Luisa fell hard on the concrete floor which made a huge bang that echoed. The witches and the girls saw Luisa and got her too! But just when haunted Rhea was about to put Luisa in the huge pot, the shadow pushed Rhea away. Rhea fell on the floor with Luisa on top of her. Rhea was so mad at the shadow she got up and pushed the shadow into the huge pot. The shadow turned green and was soon also a witch. Now, it was up to Luisa to save everybody.
Chapter 12
THE BRIGHT RED POTION
Luisa ran and hid before any of the witches could see her. She ran in a room on the second floor. She tried to think of something to save everybody but she just couldn’t concentrate.
Suddenly, she had a thought, “when the witch came in the house she looked like a regular old lady. Then when she told us, stay here she came back as a witch.”
Luisa kept wondering things about the witch. Just then she heard footsteps coming her way. She quietly ran to the little dusty room where the witch kept and stored everything. She looked around for sometime and found the potions in one small corner. She saw potions of all different colors. Then something bright red caught her attention. It was a bright red potion. Luisa didn’t know why, but for some reason she thought that was the potion to undo the spell.
Chapter 13
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Luisa kept staring at the potion. She kept asking questions to herself like, “Should I try if the potion works?” “How should I see if the potion works?” and “Maybe I should just give up.”
These questions just exploded in Luisa’s brain. She just didn’t know what to do!
Then Luisa made her decision. “Maybe I should just try the potion?”
Chapter 14
LUISA TO THE RESCUE
Luisa ran with the potion in her hands to where the witch, haunted Anna, and haunted Rhea were. When she got there, she hid behind the wall. She bumped into the wall not that hard, but it still made a little noise that echoed.
Then the witch and haunted Anna and haunted Rhea came to Luisa. The witch said, “What do you think you are doing?” in a high pitch.
Luisa was to scared to talk or run, so she just stood there. Then finally she mumbled, “Uuuuuuuuhhhhhh, nnnnooootttthhhhiiiinnnnnnnnggg.”
Then the witch asked, “Where did you get that potion?”
Chapter 15
THE POWER OF THE POTION
Luisa was so scared that she accidentally dropped the whole potion on the witches feet. Right away, the witch started to shake. She shook for about 5 seconds. Luisa, haunted Rhea, and haunted Anna just watched. When the witch stopped shaking, she looked like a regular old woman with short black hair. By then, Luisa had figured out what happened.
Then the lady asked, “Where am I?” and “What are we doing?” in a nice voice. Now all Luisa had to do was to save haunted Anna and haunted Rhea.
Chapter 16
FINDING THE POTION
But then Luisa wondered how to get some more of the bright red potion because all of it had spilled on the witch. Luisa ran to the room with all the potions.
But on her way the kind lady asked, “Where are you going?” but still in a nice voice.
Luisa didn’t know what to say so she just lied, “I am just getting some exercise by running.”
“Oh,” the lady said, “Don’t let me stop you.”
Luisa ran to the little room. She looked around for the bright red potion. Luisa found lots of potions, some were bright green or orange some were pale colors, but she could not find the bright red one.
Then she had an idea. “Maybe I can pick up the potion and reuse it.”
Chapter 17
COLLECTING THE POTION
So, Luisa went back to the potion. Over there, she found the lady.
The lady asked, “What are you doing now?”
“Uuh, I was just going to clean up this mess over there,” Luisa lied pointing at the spilled potion. “It’s just fruit juice,” Luisa added.
Then Luisa got the pot and tried to get some of the red liquid into the pot. She ended up with very little, but enough to turn haunted Rhea and haunted Anna back to good.
Chapter 18
REVERSING THE SPELL
Luisa slowly walked towards haunted Rhea first. Then she poured a little bit of the potion on Rhea’s head. The same thing happened to Rhea, she shook for about 5 seconds and then turned back to normal. Luisa was so happy that it was working! Then she did the same thing to haunted Anna.
Soon, everyone was back to normal except the shadow. So Luisa, Anna, and Rhea worked together to turn the shadow back to normal. After all that chaos, everything worked out just fine.
Chapter 19
DREAMING
Soon Luisa was shouting, “Let’s go, let’s go!”
Suddenly, I opened my eyes and I saw that I was in my room and not in a haunted house.
My little sister was shouting, “Let’s go, let’s go, we are getting late for school!”
Then I realized it was all just a dream – rather, a very unusual and scary dream.
