Matthew was running faster than he knew he could. The house seemed to go on forever, and he had no idea where his friend had gone. "If I find Josh I'm going to kick his ass", he muttered to himself. "I can't believe he roped me into exploring another haunted house".
Matthew had known Josh for quite a long time. Josh was the quiet kid who always got great grades, but was secretly a thrill chaser. Matthew, however, was known to be kind of a troublemaker in school. Teachers always got onto him about talking too much, or not turning in his homework. The two became close friends after they discovered a shared interest in all things supernatural. It turned out though, that Matthew was actually quite a scaredy-cat compared to Josh. Josh would find nearby abandoned buildings for the two to explore in search of ghosts. Every trip before this one had been exactly the same. They explore the house for a while, find some minorly creepy items, try to contact the ghosts, then leave disappointed but unharmed. This time, however, they had angered something.
As Matthew rounded the corner into the kitchen, he swore he could hear whatever was chasing him slow down. Matthew leaped into the closest bedroom and found his friend hiding in the closet. "What the hell Josh!", Matthew exclaimed. Josh quickly tried to silence Matthew but to no avail. "First you convince me to come with you again, then you run off without me when things go wrong!?". Josh knew that he had to stay quiet, or else the ghost would find them. Matthew however was too caught up in his anger to realize what he was doing and soon, the ghost found him. Josh escaped soon after, totally in shock, but happy to be alive.
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| The Haunted House Wikipedia Commons |
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Author's Note: After reading "The Turtle and the Geese", I knew I wanted to rewrite the story in a completely different context while keeping the message alive. I ended up deciding on a horror story after thinking about different situations in which a character with a loud mouth could end up in trouble. It was also important to me that the loudmouth character is aware of the consequences of performing such action before they are in danger.
Hey Jacob! I really enjoyed this story. The dialogue is perfect; it sounds just like a conversation between two long-time friends. I also really like stories where the rewrite is completely different from the original because it feels more like a new story where I have no idea what will happen. I am not a big horror fan, so I would never be one to explore an abandoned building!
ReplyDeleteHey Jacob!
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a great job with your re-interpretation of “The Turtle and The Geese.” I am not a fan of horror stories but this one kept me intrigued. I especially liked the part where Matthew finds Josh and then decided to rant to him in the middle of a haunted house. Like whom does that? I enjoyed the part where you mentioned that they are in a haunted house but noticed that you did not mention any spooky details regarding the haunted house. Perhaps, a black cat could have scurried by and scared Matthew or the walls were oozing blood. I liked the character of the ghost but was there something from its past that you triggered into making it mad? I was slightly confused at the end as to what happened to Matthew. Perhaps, if you explained that the ghost took him or dragged him away while Matthew was screaming, it would definitely add to the story. I definitely loved the story; however, you would never see me going to explore a haunted house.