Story Contest 2017 #1 - Outstanding Stories » Alone on Halloween

“Alone on Halloween” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2017 written by Ivy Foulger, The Netherlands.

Alone on Halloween

Click, the front door shut as my parents left the house to go to work. I was alone! I curiously stared out of my window looking at my parents car drive away in the distance down the rickety road. My heart pounded as loud as a fire bell.

The house was so quite. Just then I suddenly heard a strange noise. Footsteps coming up slowly along the stairs, my limbs shivered frantically. I waited a few minutes to see what would happen. But there was nothing. I went to the stairs and I could hear a dripping noise. Was it blood or just a leaking pipe? My body froze like ice, I knew I wasn't alone.

The house was so old that it was already going to tumble down into a million pieces any day. It was on the edge of a cliff waiting to be destroyed and blown into the sea below. Now slowly the house was tilting by itself. Who was that doing that? I muttered under my breath. The whole house seemed like it had transformed when my parents left.

After a long time I heard a mouse scurry across the floor, I panicked. A smell, I sniffed and I was sure it was the smell of wood burning. It was growing more pungent, it would knock me out I thought to myself. I ran down the stairs as fast as I could huffing and puffing. My eyes opened wide and I took three steps back “FIRE, FIRE!” I screamed alone, frantically running out the door I picked up my phone and left the building tripping over every step of the way. I was now far away from the house, standing alone in the distance looking at my house slowly falling apart.

I looked down the road, a car light was flashing in my face. It was coming towards me. Just then, the front door opened wide and a hideous creature appeared before me. I screamed! It looked like a ghost, how could I get rid of this ugly ghost? I shined my torch at its face and was trying to pick up stones to throw at it. Suddenly the car was right in front of me, it stopped. I turned back and the ghost was nowhere to be seen.

What shall I do now, wait who were the people in the car? I ran with shock and stepped next to the car. It was my parents; their face was devastated as they saw what had happened to our home. I couldn’t control myself, I cried and cried. My parents hugged me tight, and I whispered to the, "Never leave me home!"