The Basement

- (--THE BASEMENT--) -
CHAPTER 1
The house towered over us like a tower in a medieval castle. Sure, I might be overreacting, but it really was the tallest building I have ever seen. The outside looked like it could fall apart any second, even though the guide told us it was newly renovated and pained. I wasn’t so sure if living in this horror house was a “good idea” as my mom implied. Jason, my brother, didn’t even notice the building in front of him as he was too focused on that little game of his. My mom looked at him and snatched his phone right out of his hands. Jason looked up at mom and didn’t even hesitate before trying to get back his beloved phone. I didn’t care how much Jason would irritate me, this was the start to a new life, a new me, and I would not let him take that away from me.
The double door was large and seemed to be made from wood. It had a big arch aligning it. The arch was crawling with vines and flowers that seemed to once be alive. Mom took out a rusty metal key out of her pocket. It looked like it had been thru World War 1 and 2. She stepped up the small staircase which ended at a smaller platform. The key slid perfectly into the keyhole with a quiet “click”. The doors were heavy and needed all of us to just slightly open it. This house was not “newly renovated”. What a scam! The door started to slightly open itself, like it had a mind of its own. Strange. The doors were easier to close and less heavy. The house was dirty with a bunch of furniture scattered everywhere. A smell of mold rose from the ground and struck me. Nope, definitely not newly renovated. Jason seemed to be struck by the same smell as his face had a disgusted look. Mom notices the smell and now even she regretted her decision to move in. there was a big, royal staircase leading up to the second floor. It, as well, was rusty and swarming with vines. This time they looked still alive. I ran upstairs, wanting to claim my bedroom, with a rush. Of course, I wasn’t that excited, every room was like the first floor, full of furniture and a moldy smell. At least I got the biggest room. I looked to the side and saw a weird book. I reached for it but just at that moment, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and soon Jason was right by the door. “Ugh! I’m the oldest, I get the biggest room!”, Jason said. “Well, I came here first!”, I shouted back. He jumped up on the bed, grabbed a pillow and hit me off the bed with it. Oh, this meant war! I got up and grabbed a pillow for defense. Now, I didn’t care how dirty the bed was, I was not going to lose! Not this time! Sadly, mom called us downstairs to help her with the furniture. I stared at Jason as he, smiling, jumped down from the bed and walked out of the room. And of course, he bragged about it to mom, telling the story like he was the victim. He could never take a break! Mom needed help with all the furniture, and we headed to work at once. Soon a big truck parked outside the door with a bunch of furniture. Mom’s ex-boyfriend, John, was driving and seemed happy to see her. And I hoped they would never meet ever again. You see, John had been very mean and would often yell at mom. When mom left him, he didn’t care since he already had another girlfriend, the neighbor, Jessica. Mom’s old best friend. Mom was just as surprised as I was when she saw his face in the truck window. “Where did all this furniture come from, and what are you doing here?” Mom asked. John just smirked and didn’t bother to answer. Jason was more cheerful then surprised. John was his favorite person. “Just take all the furniture before I drive off” he said and took out his phone from clear boredom. The furniture was heavy and delicate. How did he have the money to buy all of this? I mean, he wasn’t broke but neither rich. His new girlfriend must be very wealthy. We had to pile all of the furniture in the kitchen as we had to paint all the living room walls. “You brought all this furniture but no ladder?” I said to John who was still moving furniture into the kitchen. He just smiled, clearly trying to hide the irritation. The painting was done and so was moving all of the furniture. John had finally left, and mom was making dinner. The renovation did help the poor condition the house was in before. Mom sat down by the dinner table and took out a piece of paper out of her pocket. “Painting- check, furniture-check, and lastly…the basement?”
CHAPTER 2
We searched the whole house for a door leading to a basement of some kind. We even tried moving some of the furniture to find it. no one could find it. it had been more than an hour and we were all still searching, until I moved the couch. And right there, behind the couch, was a door. It was rusty and had light creaking thru the bottom of it. It was like it appeared out of thin air; how didn’t we notice it when we were painting? The light behind the door started flickering and soon turned off completely. I opened the door and peeked in. there was a small staircase leading down to a main room. The room gave off a slight smell of rotten wood and…wax? I went down the staircase and looked around. A few white beds were scattered around the floor, still in decent shape. In the middle of the room a little doll was placed. It had red hair put up in two ponytails and a blue, long dress. The doll, as well, was in decent shape with its dress still good as new. The doll had blue, button eyes and a piece of paper attached around its neck. I slowly got closer and unfolded the paper, it had the name “ROSY” written on it with red paint. Or could it be...As I got closer, I saw some prints of wax, it looked like candles were once placed there. The wax stains formed a circle aligning a star symbol. The doll happened to be placed exactly in the middle of the star. I didn’t tell anyone at that time, I was just too scared. The dolls lifeless eyes were like a warning. “Don’t tell anyone, don’t tell anyone, don’t tell…”. It would repeat the same thing over and over again. There was a box beside one of the beds, I got closer and saw the box was filled with candles. Some were shorter than the other and some looked brand new. This room just got weirder and weirder. Oh, and remember how I said the staircase led to the main room? Yes, there’s multiple rooms, who all get weirder and more haunted then the last. But that’s for later. I grabbed one of the candles in the box and felt a cold breeze down my spine. “Place them, place them, place…”. The voice was there again, trying to make me place the candles, but where? I remembered the wax and realized, the star symbol, aligned by the wax stains, were there for a reason. “Place them, place them, place…”. There it was again, this time it sounded desperate. Like I was forced to do it. I turned around to see the doll with its head slightly tilted. It must just be the cold breeze I felt earlier…A little while later of thinking I found myself placing the candles with no regret, I couldn’t stop, something was pushing me further. I had lost track of time. I was hungry, but I still couldn’t stop. “Honey? Are you there?”. I could hear my mom calling for me, i instantly turned around and made my way out of the basement. It was dark outside, and the moon lit up the dark living room. Fortunately, mom didn’t see the basement door and just hugged me for a while. Had I been down there for so long? “I think you should get some rest; you have school tomorrow.”. All the moving also meant I had to start from the beginning, with no friends or relatives who I knew. Lucky Jason didn’t have to start school until next week.

I headed to bed after a quick lunch and shower. The house itself didn’t seem so bad after all. The paint and unused furniture really helped. But the basement, only the thought of what could have happened down there years ago gave me chills. I tried shutting my eyes, but images of rituals and the doll kept popping up in my head. I had to go into deeper investigation the next day after school. I might be able to find something on the internet. Apart from the unused furniture, there was an old dresser witch we left in my room. I just didn’t want to get rid of it. I didn’t know why, but I had some sort of attachment to this dresser. That as well was a part of the strange basement. I tried shutting my eyes again, and again, and again. I just couldn’t sleep, so I picked up my phone from the cold, wooden floor and looked at the time. 3 AM. Already? I didn’t think it would be this late. I looked out the window, just a fully black sky. I sat myself at the edge of the bed and looked down at the floor. A little piece of paper was hiding under the mattress. How didn’t I notice it before? I gently slid my hand under and picked it up. The paper felt delicate, like it could crumble by the smallest touch. I unfolded the piece of paper and found a weird combination of numbers. “6457”. It was written in the same red paint as the other note I found around the dolls neck. Maybe it was a code of some sort, but for what? It probably leads to the basement. Right when I put the note in one of the dresser drawers, I felt a chilly wind blow past me. Strange, all of the windows were closed. I laid back down on my bed and closed my eyes one last time. The pictures were still there, clear as day, but I managed to fall asleep. Tomorrow I would find out more, but before that I needed this well-earned rest.
CHAPTER 3
I woke up for school and got myself ready with some fresh clothes. I had forgotten about the note in my dresser. But I remembered a little while later when I, again, saw a light creaking thru the bottom of the basement door. I had forgot to cover it up and hurried before mom would see It. Keeping secrets from mom wasn’t easy since she could tell right away if I was lying. I made my way to the dinner table and sat down for some eggs and bacon. Mom didn’t seem to have noticed the basement door and, as well, sat down by the table to eat. She still had no new job here but was always looking. She tried getting a job at the grocery store, but no luck. She always had her phone in her hand searching for available jobs here in Hatnastan. After breakfast it was time to catch the bus before it left. The bus stopped right in front of the driveway and opened its doors. It felt weird sitting on a bus with people I have never met before, and considering they were all going to be my new classmates. Everyone looked at me like I was some animal in a zoo, what a fantastic way to start off the day. No seat was left open except for the three, empty seats at the back. The seats were damaged and had a mystery spill on them. Ew, now I see why nobody wants to sit here. Suddenly I felt a light tapping on my shoulder and turned around to see a short, brunette girl waving at me. “Come sit next to me!” I heard her say as she pointed to the seat next to her. I walked over to the middle of the bus where she was waiting happily for me. “You’re the new girl, right? I’m Stephanie!” she said as I sat down. “I’m Annelie, but you can call me Anne.” I spoke. I had finally made a friend, or so I thought. Stephanie wasn’t really the nicest person. If you accidently bumped into her, be ready to be dissed.

“Good morning class! I’m Miss Miller, your new teacher for the season!”. Ms. Miller Had long, blonde hair with blue eyes and a white dress. She looked like one of those models from those fancy makeup commercials. She smiled as the class answered with a delightful “Good morning”. She seemed nice at first, but neither she was an angel as many implied. Class started, we got our new math books and started working with the few first pages. Nothing fun happened until we got “free period”, it means we were allowed to do whatever we wanted as long as it had with the schoolwork to do. The perfect advantage to investigate deeper into the weird basement. Everyone had their own laptop where they could work. But I wasn’t going to work. I ran out to the hallway and sat down in a corner where I was covered from all the hanging jackets and shoes. I opened the laptop and went into google. I started searching the name of the house, the address, every detail I knew about the house. I finally got an answer. The page was an article about “The Hatnastan Asylum”. Asylum? That explained the scattered white beds, but the doll and candles. I kept reading until I came to a part of the article with the title “Rituals in The Rooms”. It was the shortest part of the article, but it gave me the most information.
“The Hatnastan Asylum was rumored to hold only 1,000 people, but they ended up with 20,000. The rooms were cramped and barely fit any people. Some were even forced to sleep in the same beds. They were not happy and even tried burn the house down with the owner, a male in his late 40’s. They also tried preforming rituals. That’s why later when they renovated the asylum into a home, people found wax marks on the floor, indicating the rituals they were preforming. The house may still be haunted from all the bad energy that has been let into the basement alone.”
“The basement alone…”. So, there was not only hauntings in the basement but in the whole house? And the wax marks were left behind after all those rituals. But why could I not stop placing those candles. Something wanted the rituals to keep going…or to be set free, whatever it was I had to go into deeper investigation. “Hello? Annelie are you there? Everyone has gone outside for break.”. I looked up and saw Stephanie leaned over me looking a bit concerned. Great, it was my first day and I had already made a fool of myself. Just imagining everyone walking past me and staring made me feel embarrassed. I sat myself up and left my laptop in the classroom. I then put on my shoes and headed outside with Stephanie behind me asking questions like I was some famous celebrity.
“BRIIIIIIIIIIIIINGGG” the clock rang, and everyone scurried inside for the next lesson, which went really fast and before knew it the day was over. the bus ride home was more peaceful than the one in the morning. Mom was waiting for me outside the door. “How was your first day?” she asked eager to know everything from the bus ride to all my new friends. I told her about Stephanie and how she was my only friend so far. Mom didn’t seem so happy after knowing I only made one friend, but I didn’t have time to answer more of her questions. I had to get down to the basement and keep searching. After all, I did have more information now that I had dug deeper. I hung off my jacket by the door and left my backpack outside the door to my room. Mom had claimed the biggest room as hers, as we were constantly fighting about it. I got left with the smallest room and Jason, my annoying brother, got the bigger room. The basement door was slightly open this time and I got scared. What if mom found out about the basement? We would have to move, again! Fortunately, mom didn’t have any idea about the basement, and I tried keeping it as hidden as possible. The door was a bit harder to open and the slight light creaking thru the bottom as no longer visible. What was that light? Could it have been the candles? But how could they be lit if there was no one there except me. The door closed slowly behind me. I didn’t know what I was going to do next. I knew about the basement’s history, and about was happening in here. But I hadn’t come any further. I made a quick decision; it was time to place all the candles and hope for the best…
CHAPTER 4
I started looking for the box full of candles. I swear it was here! Where was it now? That’s when I saw a little, white door in the corner of the big basement. The door blended in with the wall which made it even harder to see. then I started looking around for more doors when I realized; there was 3 more doors leading somewhere. They all were painted white. I came closer to the first door and saw a sign. The sign had the sentence; “Crazy zone” written on it with just the same red paint. The door was locked with a padlock. The lock needed a four-digit-code. Where could I find that? It was definitely not around here so I went outside of the basement and started searching the house. Mom was out of town and Jason was probably too busy to hear me. And when I say busy, I mean busy playing video games. I searched mom’s room, no code. The Livingroom, no code. I had almost given up when I remembered; the piece of paper under my mattress I had found the other night! I ran back upstairs to my room and looked under the mattress, not there. What? I could have sworn I found it here last night! I looked around and checked in the dresser. There it was. I thought it was strange, but then I remembered I placed it there last night. That was more logical than the paranormal activity I thought brought it there. The lights in my room started flickering. I think that’s a sign for me to get out…
I came back into the basement and put in the code written on the paper;”6457”. I opened the door, ready for what could happen. I held the lock tightly in my hand. At this point I could use anything as a weapon. There was no light, all I could depend on was following the walls. The wall ended and I felt many metal bars going from the floor to the roof. It almost felt like a jail cell. I found a light switch and the room lit up with a yellow glow. Thats when I could make out what the metal bars resembled. it was jail cells but for the “crazier” patients. How I knew that? There was a sign over the two jail cells saying “CAUTION: CRAZY PATIENTS”. The slight glow also revealed a skeleton sitting in the corner inside one of the cells. This place was crazy. First the rituals, then the doll and now this? For everything I found i started to put together the puzzle pieces. I looked around even more and found shelves with…could it be? No, human parts…I took a closer look and found a heart, liver and a jar full of human fingers. What were they doing to the patients down here? The jars full of…stuff…made the room smell and I just had to get out. I entered the main room and looked myself around. Now the candles had appeared right where I looked before. These ghosts really wanted to mess with me. I got the courage to pick up a candle and place it right where I had left off last time I was here. One. Last. Candle. I felt dizzy and had a sort of pressure on my shoulders. But I kept going. The dizziness took ahold of me, and I passed out right in the middle of the room. You might be asking yourself; “how did anyone find me?”. Well, I guess the loud sound of me falling to the floor got my brothers attention because when I woke up, I was laying in my bed. “Are you ok dear?”. Dear? My brother never called me dear. I looked up to see a woman dressed in an all-white gown sitting at the edge of the bed, which wasn’t really my bed but one of the old hospital beds. When I saw her, I quickly sat myself up and tried grabbing something, anything. She must have felt my fear as she stepped a bit further back trying to hold a decent distance. That’s when I felt a bit safer and slowly calmed myself down. “I’m sorry if I startled you!” she said looking down to the floor with guilt. “it’s okay I guess…” I said and got out of the bed. “I just saw you there, on the floor, and wanted to help. Hope you feel better.”. she wasn’t as scary as I thought and actually seemed to care. “May I ask, who are you?” I asked nervously. “I’m miss Andersson I live here! The Hatnastan Asylum. You’ve heard of it, right? Your home?”. My heart started beating faster than before as the words flew out of her mouth. I just sat there, speechless for what felt like eternity before I answered with a short “yes”. “Great! Then you should also have heard of the owner! even though, I don’t know if your generation- “. “I have heard of him.”. I didn’t care if I interrupted her, I needed to know more. And what better place to find out more than from a spirit who lives here? “Oh, I’m surprised you know who he is…”,” You mean the monster who locked up “crazy” people and tortured them? Yeah, I know who he is”. The words just flew out of my mouth, more disrespectful than I thought. But I didn’t have time to “get to know him”. I needed more information about the place. It seemed like my very rude comment had made her sad as she just stood there, in total silence. “Yes, he did all that…But that’s not what I wanted to say! He has changed and is no longer that bad person everyone sees him as! I can promise you!”. “Changed? What do you mean by “changed”? “He got killed by the patients at that time and is now roaming this place in search of the afterlife.”. All this information was too much for me to handle so I sat back down on the bed and kept listening. “It all started one morning…. when his mom was taken to a mental hospital for liking to read books. Women were seen as housekeepers and didn’t deserve education. Women would be put in that hospital for no reason! Woman-“.”Can you start now?”.” Okay…so…
“Diiiiingg” the doorbell rang, and his mom went to open the door. Daniel knew there was something off about it and started telling his mom to not open the door. His mom ignored him and opened the door just to see two police officers outside. One of them had handcuffs and the other, a gun. They took his mom by her hand and handcuffed her. They then took her out to their police car and pushed her in. Poor Daniel, had to witness everything. The car pulled away from the driveway and slowly made its way to the mental hospital. Thats when he realized; she wouldn’t be coming back. Daniel than made it his life mission to get back his mom or die in the process. He was left home alone for years and had to buy his own food. When his mom’s coworkers would ask about her, he would just say she was sick and couldn’t make it. he kept it a secret for years, until two men came into the house and tried taking him away. It was illegal back then to leave kids all alone at home. When they tried grabbing him, he remembered what had happened to his mom and grabbed the closest weapon he could find. He ended up killing the two men and escaped as he now had the whole police team after him. He got raised by a wealthy and ridiculous couple who owned the biggest asylum in the city. He took after them and built his own asylum at 30. After that he got a daughter and always wanted her to keep the family tradition going, but she didn’t want to. Soon she was found dead in the basement of the asylum. She was killed by the 1000 patients in the main room. After that they went after Daniel and eventually killed him Aswell…”. The story brought tears to my eyes. Knowing what had happened I knew what I had to do. I had to find Daniel’s ghost and help him find the afterlife. Then I could keep investigating and maybe help the other spirits. But right now, I had to go back up and head to bed. Tomorrow would only get crazier and crazier…
CHAPTER 5
I woke up in my bed with another, small note on under the mattress. The note was small but had words instead of numbers. The lady in white must have left this here last night. It was 8:30, I was late! I didn’t care, the note was probably more important. I took out the note from under the mattress and slowly unfolded it. the text was in normal black ink in an old handwriting. The paper almost ripped several times. The note said:
“Hello, I’m sorry if my story made you uncomfortable. I took you back to your bed and left a surprise for you in the basement. I found out about the research you’re doing from all of the things misplaced. I’m angered about this, but I guess its fine, as long as you don’t leak anything to anyone! This place should be held secret but somehow you found it even after my many attempts of covering it up. I can help you as long as you promise me one thing, you’re helping me get revenge on the evil spirits who killed me and my dad…
Wait what?! The lady in white was his daughter. And I need a name for her, I can’t keep calling her “the lady in white”. The surprise part got me excited and scared at the same time. What could it be? Whatever; I’m already late so why not start heading to school. I walked downstairs slowly. As I passed mom’s room I stopped, and my face went white as I peeked thru the keyhole. The lady in white was sitting on her bed slowly running her hand across the velvet pillows and blankets. I blinked twice and the lady suddenly disappeared. I really had to take a break from this paranormal activity. It was driving me crazy, making me see thing that aren’t there. I sat myself by the living room coffee table and started thinking. 8:40, I’m really late now. I started running to school and ran into the classroom in the middle of the lesson. “You’re late.” Said Miss Miller. “Sit down. Now.”
School was like prison for kids. Being stuck inside, forced to learn algebra and how to multiplicate 11 and 12. The lunch food is the perfect resemblance of what the prisoners have to eat. At least the math teacher was nice. She let us cheat on the test the next week. Stephanie was the police. She wouldn’t let me do anything. If I had gum “TEACHER!”. If I stepped one centimeter out of “school grounds” “TEACHER!”. She would not let me be either. Why did I become friends with her? the bus ride home was calmer, and Stephanie rode another bus as the one I rode wouldn’t stop at her house. Lucky me. Mom wasn’t home so I quickly made my way to my room and changed into pajamas. I needed many things like a flashlight and a knife for safety reasons. I quickly went into the shed behind and grabbed a decent flashlight. After that I snuck into Jason’s room and took one of his handy belts and tied it around my waist. Here I could store the flashlight. The basement door was slightly better camouflaged and with a lock on the outside. Luckly, the lock was already broken open, so I stepped into the basement. I had forgot about the surprise and got startled as I saw a white box instead of the doll in the middle of the room. I stepped closer and slowly lifted the pretty heavy lid from the box. As I lifted the lid the sides of the box fell down, revealing some sort of equipment. Right as i laid my eyes on the plenty of machines and blinking detectors I saw something in the corner of my eye. I turned my head and saw the lady again. Perfect timing. I stood up and pointed to the equipment as I said, “What is all his stuff?”. “it’s ghost equipment, it’s to detect and talk to ghosts!”. Detecting ghost? Now this sounds like one of the lunch lady’s weird ghost stories. The lady seemed to be able to read my mind as she quickly fixed her dress and replied to my curiosity. “Yes, these are real. And I can show you how they work. Your lunch lady isn’t weird!” “H-how did you know?” I asked. She just gave me a soft smile and bent down over the equipment taking one by one out of the box. The first one was to detect ghost as if a ghost got near a light would start blinking and it would make a quiet alarming sound. The second one was to talk to ghosts. For this one you needed two people. One person puts on the headphones while the other asks questions. If the first person hears something in the headphones, they say it and sometimes it could be an answer to the question. It seemed so complicated but with the help of the lady, who seemed to be a professional, it was much easier to understand. The third equipment was a type of x-ray machine, but it shows ghosts instead. How was I supposed to handle all of this? I had to keep it hidden while not being too suspicious. I had been gone for way to long for three days straight, mom would soon start to wonder where I was all those hours. If I told anyone I would risk the basement being revealed to public, and my mom. I couldn’t let the basement be renovated or destroyed. I had to keep investigating and find a way to help. All my thinking got me to forget I was still in the basement, and I guess the silence made the lady start to wonder what I was doing. I snapped back to reality and stood up. I suddenly felt dizzy again and soon, fainted. Not again! What would mom think if she found out I had fainted two times in just one week. Fainting happened to me at least every month but never several times a week. I felt my head being placed down on a soft pillow and thought the lady tried to help again. I slowly opened my eyes hoping to see the roof of my room but when I woke up, I was in a white room attached to a machine. I had been taken to the hospital. Mom was sitting on a chair next to me and help my hand as in tilted my head to see her. What had happened? All I knew was that I had fainted in the basement and…Oh no! what if mom had found me in the basement and now knew about it! I was going to be in so much trouble! The lady in white came to visit daily and brought food every day before my mom arrived. We had become good friends. I even found out her real name was Mary. On my second day she brought me a basket full of goodies. “When will you ever come out of this place? I need you to help us.” She said when she sat down at the edge at my bed. “Don’t worry, I will be out in no time”.
CHAPTER 6
It was finally time for me to leave and I brought every teddy bear Mary had given me. My mom was over the roof when she found out I was allowed to come home. But her happiness shrunk when she read the note I had gotten from the doctors. “I won’t be buying that medicine, its expensive!” she said. I looked down to the floor and felt tears coming. “I already have to pay a lot because of you and your brother! If I had the chance I would go back to John! He can at least pay for himself!”. Oh no she didn’t! “You left John because he was Abusive! And now you want to go back to him because of your daughter’s health needs!? Your awful, I wish you were never my mother!”. The words flew out of my mouth, and I couldn’t stop. Mom’s heart was ripping, and I knew it. but how could she be so disrespectful? My medicine was expensive, but I didn’t think mom cared more about money than her own children. Jason heard us fighting and came running down the stairs. He told me to head upstairs and so I did. I heard talking. And after that my door opened slightly. Jason was peaking in, and I signaled him to come in. he sat down by the bedside table and hugged me tight. I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and saw Mary beside me. I was scared Jason was going to see her but surprisingly he didn’t. Mary could make herself visible to however she wants. I was the only one who could see her. i tried coming up with an excuse to go back downstairs so I could keep investigating but neither Jason nor Mary let me. Jason thought mom would start screaming at me again if I went back down and Mary didn’t want anything bad to happen to me right after I came out of the hospital. Jason stood up and made his way to his room as I just stood there and stared down at the floor. The sudden pling of the doorbell made me jump to my feet. I heard the door open and then close. Who could be visiting at…I checked my clock…8:00? I hadn’t noticed the time flying by. I quickly opened the door and crouched by the staircase railing. I peeked thru the gap of the railing and saw a man with a blue jacket. That looked like…John’s jacket! What was he doing here…again? I looked even closer and saw him giving something to my mom being extra suspicious. I saw that whatever he was giving was wrapped in beautiful blue wrapping paper with a white bow on top. Why would my mom need such a pretty package, and from him? It was surprisingly small. John looked around before he took my mom’s hand, kissed it and started heading towards the exit. I ducked down even lower than before and held my eyes on mom as she slowly opened the package from John. Right than Jason came up to me and almost blew my cover. “What are you doing hiding behind the railing?” he asked. I pulled him down by his arm and came closer. “Shhh! Mom can’t know I’m here! She just got a package from John who was acting suspicious and now she’s going to open it an-“.”English please?” Jason said.
“So, you’re saying whatever was in that package must be important because John was acting “suspicious”?” Jason said. I nodded and looked away to the dresser. I thought about telling him the truth but couldn’t betray Mary. He could reveal the truth to mom and soon we would move out without helping any of the sad…broken spirits. I saw another white paper but this time peeking thru the top drawer of the dresser. I quickly looked back at Jason who seemed to be confused. Did he see the note? Oh no…suddenly he rose from his seat and went out of the room with a slight smile. Then he closed the door laughing, slightly. I, wondering, looked at Mary who had appeared next to me. She seemed just as confused and shrugged. “Whatever that was we need to hurry back down to the basement. Leaving it alone and free for too long might have caused something neither of us know of. Come on.”. Mary was right, what if my long “break” from the basement and its secrets made an impact on anything down there? I mean, I had only discovered a small percent of the basement and a bit of its history. I don’t know what anything could do to it and what was wrong and right. “We must wait. My mom might be in the kitchen, and we don’t want her to find out!” I responded. “Right…Now I know! Take my hand!”, I didn’t know if holding hands would do anything, but I trusted Mary and in a blink of an eye we were in the dark depths of the basement. “How did you even do that?” I asked and curiously looked around, wondering if this was real. “Let’s just say, spirit powers” she said and looked enormously proud of herself. I picked up the flashlight. I was scared to enter again. If I fainted again, the hospital would ask for even more money. I didn’t want to put my mom in dept. I turned around quickly as I heard footsteps and saw the basement door still opened even though we “teleported” here. Mom was probably going to find us and the basement, then she would call some priest to do some holy exorcism. The spirits would get more violent, and everything would become a disaster and- I jumped towards the door and closed it as fast as I could, locking it behind me. “Close one” Mary said. I looked at her with a sarcastic look and looked away. “Sorry I couldn’t help; I was just zoning out again…like always” she said and looked down to the floor. I breathed out and slowly left the door. I slowly got to the middle of the spacious room. “Let the investigation continue!”.
CHAPTER 7
I held my breath as I silently went back into the experimental zone. The skeleton was still in the corner, but its head was slightly more tilted. The smell was gone but the jars weren’t. I got a sick feeling in my tummy as I looked thru every jar, knowing what was in there. I turned back to the skeleton and saw something shimmering in its hand. I turned around and looked at Mary who was too scared to enter. I came closer to the cell and saw that the skeleton was holding a gold key. I got filled with happiness. But the happy feeling flew away as I noticed I couldn’t reach it. it was exactly right out of reach. I looked back at Mary who shook her head knowing she had to enter. “Come on! You’re a spirit, right? You could just walk right thru the cell!” I said and tried grabbing her arm. Mary took a step back and shook her head more violently. “I am not going inside! Its way to scary!” she said and turned her back towards me. “I guess the investigation won’t be able to continue then!” I said and started taking off my gear. I was hoping what I just said would change her mind. It seemed to work as she turned back around and looked at the key. She stared at it extremely focused and then at the skeleton. She kept going back and forth for minutes before getting closer to the door and eventually into the room. Her hand was shaking, and she took small, sudden steps. She seemed to be terrified of skeletons and even started telling herself to calm down. She slowly put her hand into the cage and ripped the key out of the skeletons hand with a swoosh. She then gave it to me and jogged out of the room back to her spot. I was really proud and delighted with her bravery that I gave her the key and pointed towards the next door. “Ladies first!” I said and showed her the lock. “As long as I’m not going first!” she said and slowly put the key in. she twisted it three times before slightly opening the door. Mary jumped back out of terror, and I took the lead. Behind the door was a spacious room with white beds with a toy on each. There was a sign on the ground. I came closer and picked it up, the sign read “CHILDREN ZONE”. The sign was very rusted and damaged. It looked to have been burned. Then I remembered what I had read in the article; “They were not happy and even tried to burn the house down”. A little while later Mary entered the room and looked around. “I remember helping the children in this zone…they were sent here for stuff like dressing like the opposite gender, liking people of their own gender and more.” She said as she stepped closer to one of the beds. The beds in this zone were aligned with deep oak and had names carved into them. The one Mary suddenly sat on had the name “Rose”. “Who was rose? “I asked hoping it wasn’t disrespectful. “She was one of the more “Crazier” children as she dressed wrong and liked the wrong people. I always helped her when the others were mean and if she didn’t get fed, I would feed her my leftovers.” Mary said and gently stroke her finger across the carved name. I thought all the people here were actually crazy. Not simply different? “So, they would just put any kid they could find that was different here? That seems like abuse!” I responded and sat myself down next to Mary. “Well, you aren’t wrong…” she said and looked down to the red teddy on Rose’s bed. “I’m so sorry!” I said and took her hand. I let go of her hand and picked up the teddy. Its arm was badly sown back together, and its head was slowly falling apart. I looked around and started feeling bad. These poor children were forced down here and were never fed. I couldn’t imagine how much pain they would go thru every single day. I looked at all the beds in my sight and noticed something. Every bed had a girl’s name. where were all the boys sent to? Or maybe…boys weren’t sent here. Maybe men were to important and better that they never got sent here. Anger filled my body as I felt how unfair that was. I checked back at Mary and saw another shadow next to her. I jumped and started backing up. Mary just laughed and started talking to the mystery shadow next to her. the shadow seemed to sense my presence and stood up. She started walking straight towards me. I saw that the shadow was also see-through, just like Mary. I calmed down and let the shadow get closer. The spirits/shadows eyes were two glowing orbs. The shadow got closer to my ear and started whispering. “I’m Rose, nice to meet you. Mary told me about the investigation, and I know a way to let the spirits free…”. When I heard her voice, my face turned white. Finally, some actually useful information! “I would be so grateful if you helped me!” I said and slightly smiled. Rose backed up and turned around. She looked at Mary and made a gesture with her hands, showing that she should leave. Mary nodded and slowly left the room, closing the door behind her. “Why did you ask her to leave?” I asked and tried to look Rose in the eyes. She looked directly at me, and even though she was a shadow, I could make out a slight frown. “She’s not who you think she is… She may be willing to help but she’s just trying to keep you busy while she slowly makes an impact. She seems nice, I know, but just don’t let her trick you into playing her games.”. I Looked at her with a curious face and tried denying it. “But she told me she would take care of you!”. I spoke. “She tricked me Aswell…” Rose said and took my hand. “When I was sent here, I got my own bed and teddy. I named her Floofzies. I was never “Abused” or “badly treated”, I was just like everyone else. Mary would come down just to tell me to go to bed or to tell other lies. She would tell them all terrible things about me that weren’t even true. That’s why the others started being mean. I knew what she did so whenever she would come down to “feed” me, I tried hiding. She would always find me though and thought I was trying to escape. She would slap me every time saying I was a bad kid. After some time at the Asylum, she took me into a room where she…well…murdered me. She trapped me here with a ritual and now I can’t leave…”. I got shivers down my spine and looked straight at Rose. I couldn’t believe what she just said. I had trusted Mary with my whole secret and now I found out she was actually evil. I looked down at my shoes and felt a tear running down my cheek. Rose hugged me and started humming to a song. I recognized it. it was the song John would always sign to me before bed. Well, that was before he became abusive. I started calming down. “I Know a way to free everyone” Rose said and let go of me. I stopped crying and instead asked “How?”. Rose started whispering and I lit up. Rose let in Mary again and she sat down at the bed. Rose started explaining the plan and Mary seemed to agree. I couldn’t help but stare at her in fury. I tried not to make to obvious and turned away when she started looking at me. Rose finished and we all stood up. “Great plan!” Mary said and looked immensely proud. “Thank you!” Rose said and looked back at me. “Let’s not waste any time on talking! Let’s start mission “Free the spirits”!”
CHAPTER 8
Mary started by grabbing the box of candles and placing them down, just like I did the first time I entered. Rose gave instructions and showed exactly where every candle should be placed. I took out every teddy bear out of the children zone. When Mary was done placing the candles, Rose took the teddy bears and placed them around the doll like some minions to her dark magic. Mary laughed at my wild imagination and then looked at Rose who was indicating to us to hold hands. Mary’s face was serious and didn’t want to take part. I was scared of what we could summon. Who knew how much destruction the spirits could make, now that they would finally be free. Rose started chanting some random words and hoped we would follow along. I tried remembering the words Rose helped me practice for the chant. This chant was old and was used to free spirits from an old king’s palace. Legends say this is the language of the spirits. Whatever we might be saying could offend the spirits. No one knows what would happen if the spirits felt threatened, because no one had come back alive. Rose kept chanting with Mary as I started thinking. The chant did feel familiar. Then I remembered the weird words John would often sign in the living room at night. He would say…the same exact thing! And after some time, we had to move out because of intense paranormal activity! Oh no! “Stop the canting! It is going to end badly!” I screamed and let go of Rose’s hand. “John chanted the same thing in our old house and after some time, we had to move away because of paranormal activity! We do not know what could happen!” I looked at Rose and Mary and waited for them to answer me. Right then Mary looked down at the ground and started to slightly laugh. Rose let go of her hand and ran to stand next to me. I had remembered what Rose had warned me about: “Mary is not who you think she is. Don’t let her trick you”. I started running towards the exit, but it was locked from the outside. How did the door lock by itself? The lock is on the inside. I heard Rose scream and looked back to see her in the air being choked by some invisible force. Then I saw Mary’s hand pointing to Rose and realized; the ritual only made her stronger. I ran towards the candles and tried to blow them out. I could not move. I felt something slimy under my feet and looked down. A black substance was slowly spreading around me and creating spikes. What was happening? The spikes became longer and soon trapped me. All I could do was watch Rose slowly lose her breath. Mary lifted her head and revealed her fully black eyes. She was not herself; something was controlling her. I tried yelling but whatever I tried nothing worked. “Nothing can stop me…you all are too weak.” Mary said and looked Rose directly in the eyes. Rose face filled with anger and tried fighting the invisible force. After some time, Rose got flung towards the floor. Mary turned towards me and slowly started to smile. “You are so gullible…” she said and looked at me. I just stood there, I didn’t know what to say or do, just waiting for something to happen. We all just stood there for a while before I saw something on Mary’s finger. It was the same black slime I had seen before. It was slowly making its way up Mary’s hand, consuming her until she was no longer Mary. Rose started running towards the door and tried everything to open it. She eventually got tired and felt weak. The door slightly clicked, and she opened it making sure no one was around. I tried running after her, but I was still stuck. Rose looked back at me and then, ran out closing the door behind her. I couldn’t believe her. She just left me here, with an actual monster! i tried talking to Mary, maybe that would do something, but every word just became silent. I felt hopeless and started to give up until Rose came back with a knife. She ran towards the black spikes and cut them off one by one. I could finally move and speak. We ran towards the exit and closed it behind us. Mary was still down there; it was possible for mom to find out. I went to the kitchen and brought a knife. Rose cleaned the one she used to free me. And then we both went back down there, to the basement. When we opened the door, we got struck by a light source. It was so bright hat we had to back away. After some time, the light source disappeared, and we tried again. This time I was in front with Rose behind me. I looked around and saw something very strange…
CHAPTER 9
I turned around and told Rose to leave. She was hesitant but opened the door behind her and walked out. We were both out of breath and sat ourselves on the couch. “I-I saw something…weird…” I said and looked at Rose who was looking down at the floor. “T-The slime was…spreading across the room…” I spoke. Rose finally lifted her head, and I could see tears running from her eyes. “I’m sorry…” she said and wiped her tears away, trying to hide her sadness. I hugged her tight and whispered; “It’s not your fault, everything has a solution, you just have to find it. and sometimes, it has meaning.”. Rose looked at me like I had gone crazy. “What I mean is, maybe it was for the best for her to…you know, turn into a slime monster...thing.”. Rose still didn’t understand and sat herself up so she could listen carefully. “When we moved here, I ran up to one of the bedrooms and found a strange book, I didn’t get the chance to read it as Jason started having a pillow fight with me. But I snuck it into my room during renovation and have read it every night since I came here. The book is all about paranormal activity and witchcraft. Apparently, what we just saw happened in a small town in Belgium. There was a little girl who lived in a little cottage rumored to be haunted with “Satan’s own minions”. One day the girl wen missing, and her parents reached out to the police. The police kept searching for months. Soon they declared her dead. But the unfortunate events didn’t stop there. Soon they started hearing weird noises from the basement underneath their house. The basement had always been “off limits” according to the landlord. But the parents had to go investigate. They soon discovered the dead body of their daughter and called the police. But before the police could reach their destination, they saw their daughter get consumed by that same black slime we saw earlier! When the police arrived, the house was in flames. No one knew what happened, everyone thought it was an accident leading to the parent’s death. Soon rumors started spreading that it was Satan’s minion that burned down the house and everyone tried keeping distance for a long time. Until a young influencer got dared to explore the haunted property. He found something that led to the discovery of something much darker than an accident…”. “I still don’t understand, why would it be a good thing that whatever happened, happened?” Rose asked and rose up from her seat. “Strange things started happening after the daughter’s disappearance. Months later when the police checked the security footage, they found the girl in the basement. She was covered in the same black slime. The footage was from moments after the girl’s disappearance. And after that, paranormal stuff started happening. If that happens to us, we might have more activity that could lead to more information!” I said and also rose from my seat to look Rose in the eyes with an excited look. Rose was quiet for a moment, possibly trying to understand all the information thrown at her all at once. Suddenly a smile formed on her lips. “Well, let’s just never enter the basement again...until some stuff start happening!” she said and took my hand. “We have to hide the fact that something unnormal is happening down there, mom can’t find out!”. Rose nodded and went up the stairs to my room. She came back moments later with some duct tape and a bucket of paint. “Where did you find that?” I asked and looked surprised down at the fresh bucket of white paint. “In the secret room of course!” Rose said and looked happily at my shocked self. Secret room? Had I missed something while moving into my bedroom? “It’s behind the bookcase with the strange, old, book! You didn’t know?” Rose was acting like I knew this house like I built it with my own two hands. “No, I didn’t know! I thought that book was just so old it would crumble when I touched it!”. When moving in I had seen a lot of different books left back, one just caught my attention, just like the other one about witchcraft! It was old and dusty. I followed Rose upstairs and started looking for the old book. I looked thru bookshelf after bookshelf and finally found the book. I blew off all the dust revealing a weird looking book. The book was blue with little golden stars. I slowly put my hand on the book and started pulling it towards me. I felt a slight shake and backed up. The bookcase slowly moved to one side, revealing a secret passageway leading to a dark room. I looked at Rose who was smiling ear from ear. She seemed extremely happy for just a small room. I walked in and looked back at Rose. She signaled me to keep going. I looked back and saw a tall, brick wall. On the wall there was chains. At the end of the chains there were handcuffs. Someone had been sitting here, chained to the wall. I heard laughter and looked back. Rose had closed the bookshelf halfway and noticed me. “I am deeply sorry! I had to stop you! No one is allowed to find out what actually happened! All those articles, someone had to write them…and lie, lie a lot! All this was fake! I’m surprised you haven’t noticed yet! I wrote that article to lure you deeper in! I planned with Mary to trap you! I made her look like the bad guy so you could think I was good and then walk right into my trap! You are so gullible! I’m sorry, really sorry...No, I’m not!”. Rose closed the bookshelf leaving me in the darkness. Suddenly I felt a hit on my head, and everything turned black. I was unconscious. Everything around me went blank. No one was there to help me. Just me and my thoughts…
CHAPTER 10
I woke up and realized that I was chained to the wall. The same wall that someone else had sat by some time ago. I was still so confused by the whole event. I looked around and noticed something in the corner of my eye. It was a little piece of paper. The paper was folded nicely and had small letters on it which made the sentence: “For Annelie and Annelie ONLY!”. I tried taking the note but then remembered I was chained to the wall. I reached out my foot and slowly tried dragging the note closer to me. When the note had reached my knee, I looked closer. The note was old and dirty. The letters looked Victorian and had a slight swish. This must be important! That’s when I realized, I couldn’t open the letter without my hands. I tried looking around for maybe a key that Rose maybe dropped. But nothing. I just had to either wait for Rose to get me out and probably find the letter, or I could try my best…
After a long time of struggling and unfolding in the weirdest ways possible, aka using my foot, i finally got the letter to unfold and reveal a long text of the same Victorian letters. Whoever wrote this must be incredibly old! Maybe a ghost? I put the note on my lap and tried my best to read it in the shallow light I had. i had no flashlight or candle nearby. I squinted and turned, trying to read this note meant for me. Finally, I could make out what the so important massage was.
“This is a special massage for Annelie, Annelie if you’re reading this it’s too late. They have caught you and are now planning to erase your memory. I need you to convince your mom to move away before anything happens to you and your family. This building is not safe, and you are in big danger. I have already prepared a bag full of some of your stuff. The keys to your handcuffs should be behind you. Hanging on the wall. Hope this helps!
-The lady in white
(This is a special message for Annelie. Annelie if you’re reading this its too late. They have caught you and are now planning to erase your memory. I need you to convince your mom to move away before anything happens to you and your family. This building is not safe, and you are in big danger. I have already prepared a bag full of some of your stuff. The keys to your handcuffs should be behind you. Hanging on the wall. Hope this helps!
-The lady in white)
The lady in white? Who was she? And why didn’t she give her real name and just a little nickname? I sat there trying to understand the meaning of this letter. Without food for several hours had made very weak and tired. If I couldn’t get myself some food in the next 2 hours, I would probably pass out again. I tried to twist my body to see if that key really was there. That’s when I realized the little blue particles in the air and a slight tint of grey filling the atmosphere. It was like I was in another dimension where they had random floating blue dots everywhere. And where everything was sad and grey. It was like this room had acted like a portal to somewhere unknown but still similar to our planet earth. The grey sky and floating pieces of blue unknown stuff made it harder to see. I could now feel the key on my back, but I couldn’t see or reach it. I also felt how the key was hanging on a hook on a thread. If I could move the key up from the hook, I could release it and get it somewhere I could reach it and finally be free. I moved by back like I was dancing with my whole body. It took some time but with a slight “Donk” the key fell to the ground. I tried to keep moving it over all the way until it reached my feet. I picked up the key with my foot and slowly dropped it off at my belly. There I took it up with my mouth and slowly took it to my hand I opened one handcuff and then the other. Finally, I was no longer stuck by the wall. I stood up and realized how weak I was. I slowly made my way to the secret door; the door Rose locked me behind some hours ago. Speaking of some hours ago, how long had it been since I had been sitting here. I dragged the door open with the last strength I had. when I peeked out, I saw something incredible…
Chapter 11
The slight eerie music made everything a slight bit scarier. In my room, dancing, were many ghosts. Many couples, children and even lonely ghosts. All were just dancing to the eerie music. I was so shocked and tried my best to keep calm. A small part of me wanted to scream while another thought I was dead and was now a part of the group of ghosts, lost on their way to the afterlife. The extended period of time without food I had gone thru made the statement more believable. Still, I hadn’t eaten and soon Rose would realize I had broken free and was now roaming free in the house. She would be mad and would look for me until I was found and had my memory erased. What if she was downstairs with even more ghost, and Mary! Those little backstabbers tricked me and then locked me up just because I found out about this place’s history. I felt rage fill up my body and decided to get some food and then deal with this whole “getting me trapped” thing. I slowly walked to the door of my bedroom, making sure no ghost saw or heard me. I stopped at the door, turned around and made sure no one could see me. As I was turned around, I opened the door and slowly backed out of the room. The hallway down to the stairs was even fuller with music, dancing and most importantly, ghosts. There were so many that I could barely see the stairs when I made my way down. I could feel someone staring but was too scared to look.
When I had made my way to the kitchen, I saw Mary and Rose. Both were laughing and talking. Probably about how their plan worked, and I was sitting in the lonely room, chained to the wall. What they didn’t know was that I had escaped and was about to confront them. Okay maybe I didn’t confront them, but I would have if I had more confidence. Anyway, I felt anger fill my body and it took control. I slowly made my way to the kitchen counter and grabbed the biggest frying pan I could find. I thought for a moment, should I do this? I walked over to Rose, who had her back toward me, and hit her with the pan. I closed my eyes, but I didn’t hear anyone falling to the ground or a hit with the pan. I opened my eyes again and saw Rose turned around and staring at me with wide open eyes. Mary, behind her, looked at the frying pan in my hand and then ant me and did the same thing all over again. The room went silent. All I could hear was the racing heartbeats from my chest. Rose smirked. “You really thought a frying pan could hurt me?” she said “I’m a ghost! Anything could go straight through me if I wanted to. Nothing can hurt me.”. i probably looked really dumb standing there but I didn’t care. “I’m so much smarter than you, I don’t understand how you could even think that you could defeat or even hurt me.” Rose said as she got closer. “You are nothing in my presence, you are just a useless doll, falling into other’s traps! You are nothing!”. Now I could feel how everyone was turned to us. They were all looking at me. A useless doll. A doll that falls into traps. A doll that is worth nothing. A doll with no knowledge. Rose grabbed the pan in my hand and held it high. “Let me show you how to really hurt someone.” she spoke. I knew what was going to happen, but I couldn’t move. my body turned into stone as I watched Rose lift the frying pan higher and higher before swinging it toward me. All I could do was close my eyes and hope for the best. That’s when I felt someone pull on my arm and drag me to the side. I opened my eyes and looked around. A Lady in a white dress and a white hat covering her face was standing beside me. her dress dragged on the ground. The dress was Victorian styled and had long, beautiful sleeves. Her hair was put up in a bun and the hat covering her face was aligned with lace. The bottom of her dress was aligned with the same, white lace. She looked old but gorgeous. I turned to see Rose stunned. Her face slowly changed when she realized who the lady was. “Mother! How nice to see you here! I didn’t think you would return after all the years you left me at this crazy place! How’s dad?” Rose said looking angerly at the woman in front of her. the woman who surprisingly was Rose’s mother, looked at Rose. I could tell something had happened between them. “I’m glad I left you here, you were an annoying child! No one would want you with them!” she said. Rose seemed to have a flame inside of her, and that flame was growing for every word her mother said. Rose kept talking back and soon a fight started. Every ghost and me backed up and listened carefully. This was nothing to miss!
Chapter 12
Rose finally burst… “I wish you were never my mother! I could have been in a better family, but no! I ended up in a family with a toxic mum and an always busy father! I wish I was never born!”. With those words the room went silent. Even her furious mom seemed to be surprised by the words that had flown out of Rose’s mouth a few seconds ago. “Rose…i…” her mother started. “I didn’t mean to…you know…hurt you…” she spoke. “Well, you did” Rose said. “And no apology can fix it. you were horrible, you ruined my life, my joy, my childhood. All I ever wanted was to have nice memories with you. But you were always either busy or not feeling well. you never had time for me. that hurt. And then, when you sent me away, saying I was different. Oh yeah, that hurt as well. You always made me feel hurt, even if you “didn’t mean it”. I hate you.”. Rose walked away and up the stairs. We all heard a door opening and then closing. And then, the distant sounds of a cry. A hurt, lonely cry. I looked at Mary who seemed to think the same thing as me, she nodded and then smiled. I took a deep sigh and then walked up the stairs. I opened the door to my room and saw Rose, sitting on my bed. She had her knees up to her chest and had her hands covering her face. I looked at her for a moment before I sat down next to her. we sat there, in complete silence, for some time. Before I looked at her. “You know” I started “you were very brave for standing up to your mother like that. I mean, I would never have the courage to do that!” Rose looked up and looked at me. “I realized that…even the worst villain’s cry. Letting our emotions show isn’t weird or unusual. It’s what makes us humans, it’s what makes us, us.”. I let out a deep sigh and grabbed Rose’s hand. She wiped away her tears and looked at me, smiling. “That was really cheesy!” she said. We burst out laughing. We kept laughing for a while. Everyone seemed to hear us cause the next thing we saw was a group of people barge into my room, laughing like never before. Soon, the whole room was just a chamber of laughter. No one could stop nor resist. We kept laughing until we suddenly stopped. Rose got out of bed and walked over to the door. “I think I have something to do” she said before walking out. We all followed and saw how Rose and her mother were hugging. They were in a deep hug. Mary ran over and joined the hug. I looked over to all the ghosts in my house. “Group hug!” I yelled as I ran over to Mary and Rose, hugging them, and soon the whole group of ghosts had joined. It was the biggest, warmest hug I had ever experienced. I let go and smiled. I hadn’t realized the time that had gone by. I waved goodbye to everyone and made my way to the basement. There I saw a portal. I looked back to see Rose, Mary and her mother standing in the door opening, they were all smiling. I waved once more before turning back around to the portal and walking thru. I was back, back home. I walked out of the basement and closed the door behind me. I saw mom in the kitchen and Jason at the dinner table. Dinner was ready and I was right on time. I sat down by the table. “You look extremely happy? Anything exciting happened at school today?” my mom said. “No, just in a good mood!” I said looking down at the plate of pasta in front of me. mom chuckled and sat herself by the table. “You know Annelie, I thought about something, and we can maybe move back if you would like”. Mom said after taking a bite of the food. I looked back at the hidden door of the basement. “Actually, I think I like it here” I spoke looking back at my mom. “Alright enough wholesome talk, this pasta is amazing!” Jason said. We all broke into laughter. I thought back to the few days that had gone by. So many stuffs had happened, but it all ended in happiness and peace. Just like the happy, fairytale ending to this story. The ending we all needed…

THE END

Skriven av: Ioana Buczuian