Highly Commended Story - The Curious Trip To Braningham House

“The Curious Trip To Braningham House” by Sveva Cittadini, International School of Monza, Italy, is the Highly Commended story in the junior category of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2019.

Sveva Cittadini is an 11 year old who was born in Milan. She goes to the International School of Monza. She has a lot of hobbies and her favorite activities among them are drawing, writing, gymnastics, golf, skiing and playing the piano. Sveva also has a lot of friends and she loves to have fun with them. They have the same preferences as her and they are always ready to stand by her and support her.

The Curious Trip To Braningham House

It was Friday morning of the 12th April of 2016. I was preparing my things to go to school. I packed my snack and put it in the bag, and started to go ahead. Soon I arrived at school and organised all my things in my locker, then I went to class. Everything was normal, usual lessons, teachers and usual class mates, everything exactly like usual. Until at the last period Mr. Johns, the principal, came to announce that Monday 15th there is gonna be a trip to a historical monument called Braningham house.

It was the house of the old owners of the city called Marvin Braningham and Marry Braningham. They died in a fire at their house and since then no one came to live in it. There were some rumours that Mr and Mrs Braningham where evil because the people who entered into their house never came out again and thus their house was haunted. Some people tell that even if they created the first school in the city, they hated children, and maybe they opened the school just to gain money or do something to the kids. Of course I didn’t believe those things and anyway the principal wouldn’t have organised this trip if it was dangerous.

Days passed and at school the only thing students talked about was the trip. Some students where excited, some were not. It continued like this, until the day of the trip finally came. I was preparing my little backpack for the trip and decided to put inside: a snack, a water bottle, my phone, a notebook and a pencil, and finally my camera. Then I had a quick breakfast and entered the school bus that was already waiting for her. Almost all the seats of the bus where full except some at the back close to the teachers. Every time when there were a trip the seats next to the teachers where empty, probably because in the front you have more possibilities of trying to sneak in the bus something to eat or drink. The voyage wasn’t too long; it took one hour and a half. The teachers expected that it would have taken at least two hours. As soon as everybody got down, the bus went back to school. The place was beautiful, full of flowers and animals, until we saw the house. It looked like a rotten egg that has been thrown down off the skyscraper into the road. It was all grey full of dust and mould, the roof was falling down, all the windows were broken and last but not the least it was surrounded by dead trees and a kind of cemetery. Despite this fact the principal still decided to enter in the house.

Unexpectedly the insides of the house where kept very well, they were tidy and clean. Except one room, it was like a sort of canteen, but all dirty and full of insects. There was also a dead rat in a corner. After some minutes a guide came and gave us the tour of the house. But there was something that didn’t seem right. We entered in all the rooms of the house except one, the canteen. I decided to ask the guide about it but he responded that he didn’t know the reason why we couldn’t enter because he was new and his boss didn’t mention it. After the visit inside the house we went to have a snack in a part of the garden close to the house. I was eating my chocolate bar when I saw some of my classmates enter the house. So I went closer and I saw that they were entering the forbidden room!

I called Mr Johns and he asked the guide to enter the room since he had to get back the students who went inside. The guide allowed him to enter and when he opened the door he saw the most terrific scene of all times. The three classmates that entered the room where lying dead on the dusty floor. He immediately closed the door and called the police. I don’t remember anything more of that day because I fainted from the shock. I don’t know who killed the students, if the police arrested the person or if they died for another reason. The only thing I hope is that something like this will not happen ever again and that the school will never make trips like this ever and ever again.