Don't Leave the House

by Xavier Heim
Grade 4
IDDS

            My name is Henry.  I can’t tell you more because I’m in a hurry; oh wait, there it is, time to jump out of bed and give the signal “woo.”  I never knew my flashlight was that bright!  “Hey man, time to get up already!” said Ben (my best friend).  “I didn’t agree to come to your house to sneak around at 3:00 in the morning but actually get woken up at 1:00AM!”  “Oh come on, I know where we can get my rubber dart blaster, we’ll get out of my house and then outside and play--you with me?”  “OK,” Ben said, “but we go to bed at 4:00.”

            It was the first time I was going to go out of the house in the middle of the night without my parents.  The reason for the toy guns is to make my friend Ben come, because I admit it I was a little scared.  “Ben!” I yelled, “Get out of my room.”  I found the equipment (flashlight, toy guns, and comic books which we would read when we got to the park.)  “All right, I’m coming,” Ben said.  He came down to the kitchen.  I handed him a flashlight and a toy blaster.  I grabbed my Mom’s car keys so we could get in after I locked the door.  Ben and I took our army like positions at the door.  I wiped the sweat from by brow and we headed outside. 

Before I go into the story again, let me tell you about me first and foremost.    I don’t like being with other kids except for Ben because they make fun of me because I have naturally bleached hair and I’m short, but most of all I’m a nerd!  Oh the torture they do to me.  Like they’ll take my hat and dangle it above me, or make me do there math homework, or make fun of my hair which is why I wear a hat, but that sets me up for the dangle the hat over the head trick.

Back to the story!  So, as we walked out of the door, my vision went black.  Not being the kind of person that waits for my vision to adjust, I flicked on my flashlight.  Ben followed suit.  After we made it past my front yard and the street, I came to the horrible realization.  To get to the park, we needed to get across the cemetery!  There were a lot of old stories about that cemetery.  The one that came to mind now was the one that said “no trespassing after midnight” was cursed.

It would wait until someone jumped the fence, then it would awaken the many undead people that were supposed to be buried there to guard the place.  I stood there looking at the sign when Ben yelled, “Hey slowpoke come on, jump the fence!”  All I could say was, “Um” before Ben pulled me up and over the fence.  I was majorly creeped out.  I just waited for the undead creep guards to jump out at us and drag us to our doom.  I whispered to Ben, “Hey, um….I don’t think we should have done that.”  “Wh y not?” Ben said.  “Oh wait, you’re thinking of that undead guards’ story--you are so chicken.  Just because I’m your friend, I ‘ll tell you all you have to do to stay calm is say to yourself is that the guards don’t exist!”  “Ok, “ I told him, “but if I see anything suspicious, we are out of here!”  Just then I heard a moan.  I told myself it was just the moan of the wind as I stumbled through the old graveyard.  Then I tripped; I looked down to see what tripped me and I saw a hand, a dead smelly, decaying hand! 

            I tried to scream, but the scream got trapped in my throat.  Ben yelled after me, “Get up.  We need to get going!”  “I’ve got a problem here Ben.”  He walked over to me and looked at my leg.  His jaw dropped.  “W-w-what  i-is t-that t-t-thing?”  I gulped as another hand poked through the ground next to the first.  Then a skull popped out of the ground!  It picked Ben up and threw him to the side like a ragdoll.  Ben thumped to the ground and lay limp.  I assumed he was out cold.  A short while after the first guard popped up at that point, I began to run for the gate.  I got there and I tried to open it.  It was locked.  Fifteen guards had surrounded me.  One grabbed me and pulled me down into the earth and here I am warning you, even in the worst situations, don’t leave the house!