The 3 AM House

“The 3 AM House” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Alijawad Jetha, Almuntazir Boys Primary School, Tanzania.

The 3 AM House

One day there was a boy named Chris, he was a very naughty boy. He saw a huge house when he was walking to school. After school he forgot his way home and it was getting darker and darker. It was midnight since he lost his way. When he was walking he found a car and there was a lady inside the car. The lady asked,” What are you finding?” Chris said that he was going home but he lost his way. So the lady took Chris to her house.

As Chris went inside the lady’s car, she drove the car as fast as possible. The lady went to her house and drank a special drink at exactly three am as they say it’s the devils hour. She drinks the special drink at three am every night. Then Chris saw that she turned into a witch.

The witch read a spell and Chris turned into an elephant and the mind of an elephant was in Chris’s mind and he looked like an elephant. When Chris turned into an elephant, the witch laughed like a chicken. After the witch laughed she said that you’ll remain an elephant till someone breaks this curse (spell).

The only way to break this curse is when the witch dies by the hand of the accursed (Chris). So Chris thought of a plan when he was in the house of the witch. When being an elephant he saw that there were many mice. He knew that elephants were scared of mice so he decided to eat a lot of cheese when the witch was busy in doing a potion for another human being to turn someone into an animal. So Chris started to eat the cheese and when the mice saw the cheese was eaten by an elephant. They ran for the cheese and ate it all up.

Meanwhile, Chris (the elephant) started to run over things and he started to shout like a rocket blasting at war. The witch heard a lot of noise when she was concentrating on her spell. She decided to wipe all the mice out in the world. When Chris was out of ideas, he thought of disturbing the witch when she was practicing her spell. At three in the morning, she turned herself back into a normal human being.

When it was three am in the morning, she drank the special drink which she brews every night. So Chris decided to implement his plan and when the witch was brewing for some more people there were more in her house than before. Chris thought that if he threw the witch in the pot which she was brewing (stirring) all night she would die in a moment, when Chris went to her room where she had done all the black magic. The room was big enough to fit his size so Chris did not see where he was going he mistakenly dropped the antidote of the witch. It wasn’t something dangerous, when he was close to the witch she screamed and scared him. When Chris in an elephant form was large enough to step on her, he stepped on her and the witch screamed “no! no!” and when Chris stepped on her he instantly turned him and the others who were animals into normal human beings.

After Chris was turned into a normal human being he was brought back to his home like Aladdin in a magical carpet. When his mother hugged him and asked him that where he went and he said that he went to a friend who he had a sleepover with.