The Mystery of the Rambling Victorian House

By: Tanishi Roy

In a town not so far away, Halloween is the main celebration. They decorated their houses with scary decorations and gave away the best candies. But there was one house in particular that nobody lived in. It didn’t need any decorations to look scary. It looked terrifying. There was once a nice little family that lived there. They were the Andersons. They always believed in ghosts and had the best decorations for halloween.. What makes that house terrifying is that that family had died there. Well no one knows if they had died because one by one they disappeared. 

 Twenty years later there were two kids named Ellie and Andy. They were best friends and neighbors. Ellie was a girl with blond hair and blue eyes who loved art and gymnastics. Andy was a boy with dark brown hair and black eyes who loved reading books and loved coding and making electronic things. On the day before Halloween, they were getting ready with their families. Since Ellie and Andy were neighbors they could talk while working on their front yards.

“Andy, can you help me with this heavy animatronic person,” urged Ellie.

“Sure,” replied Andy.

Suddenly Ellie heard cold voices in the old Victorian house. She suddenly dropped the animatronic and fell backwards.

“Are you ok Ellie,” said Andy as he ran over to her.

“Yes,” she  assured Andy as she got up “But I heard some voices from the old Victorian house”.

“But that’s impossible,” said Andy, “It was probably in your head. I mean Halloween is tomorrow. Come on, let's keep working.”

“Fine,” said Ellie.

While Ellie knew it was impossible that the family who had lived there had come back, but she had a feeling she was wrong.

It was the night of Halloween and everyone was ready. Andy was dressed as Harry Potter and Ellie was dressed as a vampire. While Ellie was putting her makeup on she noticed that a light was on at the old Victorian house. She could also see the silhouette of people moving. Suddenly Andy opened the door. She was so startled she dropped the lipstick and screamed!

“Ellie, it’s just me Andy,” reassured Ellie as he picked up her smushed lipstick.

“Oh yea sorry Andy,” apologized Ellie in a rush, “Andy come here.” 

Ellie looked out her window again but the light was off and the people were gone.

“They're gone,” said Ellie, “Just a moment ago the light was on and there were people inside!”

“Um what are you talking about Ellie?” replied Andy, “While I was walking to your house, I didn’t see any people in the house or light.”

“There were people in the house when I saw it!” said Ellie unsure if she was shouting or not.

“Look, maybe you just saw people dressed in all black,” said Andy trying to sound as calm as possible, “It’s Halloween and the lights may have turned on in a different house. That’s probably why you saw the people.”

“That’s probably what happened Andy,” said Ellie in a shaky voice, “Thanks.”

“No need to mention it,” said Andy.

Finally Ellie finished getting ready. She decided to skip the lipstick and instead put on red lip gloss instead. Ellie picked up her bag and was ready to get a lot of candy. 

“Ready Ellie,” said Andy.

“Yup,” replied Ellie enthusiastically.

“Ellie, Andy be careful. There are a few robbers that stole a lot of money from the bank and no one can find them” said Ellie’s mom as they were exiting.

“Sure mom,” Ellie said as her mom closed the door.

But out of the corner of her eye she saw the people again. She felt all the blood drain out of her face as she realized they weren't standing, or walking, they were floating. She looked over at Andy and knew he had seen it too. His face was pale and he looked shook.

“Is this what you meant,” asked Andy in a shaky voice.

“Yes,” replied Elle, “ These people are not normal Andy. They were floating!”

“Let’s investigate,” said Andy in a voice that sounded unsure.

As the kids entered the house they were careful not to step on anything that looked unsafe. They managed to keep walking forward even though their guts told them not to. The walls were lined with mirrors and an occasional photo above them. Eerie music was playing in an anonymous way. Suddenly someone pulled Elie into one of the rooms and shut the door!

“Ellie!” screamed Andy as he frantically tried to push open the door.

“Andy help!” Ellie screamed back as she hit the door hoping it would open.

Andy realized the door was locked. He knew how to pick the lock but had to find something to pick it with. He found a bobby pin. He picked the lock and ran inside. Inside he found Ellie but no one else. Also the only thing in the room was a locked window.

“Ellie are you ok,” said Andy as he hugged Ellie tight.

“Yes I am fine Andy and that’s tight now your costume is poking me,” said Ellie.

“Sorry,” said Andy.

“It’s ok,” said Ellie.

“Wait,” said Andy, ”Where is the person who grabbed you?”

“He is right, wait where did he go,” asked Ellie, “Nevermind let’s keep going.”

“No, we should go home Ellie,” said Andy firmly.

“But what happens if this happens to other kids Andy. No one will know where they will be,” said Ellie as bravely as she could.

“Ok, let’s keep going,” said Andy. 

As they ventured into the house they realized that there were people inside.  They obtained this theory by going to the kitchen and bedrooms. In the kitchen, there was fresh food in the fridge and also a coffee on the dining table. The creepy thing was that the coffee was still hot. In the master bedroom, the sheets were made nicely and looked new. In the bedroom that the kids slept in looked pretty old until they found a vase of red flowers. Those flowers weren’t dry and wilted, they were heavenly to look at. Even though they found this a bit creepy they kept going. Until Andy saw the face of a young girl in the mirror. She was beautiful but she certainly looked like a ghost. She was pale like the snow on Christmas day. She had blood red lips and her hair was brown like the bark on a tree.

“Why are you here,” asked the girl in the same cold voice that Ellie had heard earlier.

“ We saw some people in this house and we wanted to investigate,” Ellie managed to say, “But who are you?”

“I am the girl who lived in this house 20 years ago,” said the girl.

Suddenly Andy noticed a beam of light. Being the tech nerd as he is, he followed it til it led to a small black projector fitting in with the wall. Andy noticed it was playing the recording of the girl's voice.

“Ellie come here,” said Andy loudly, “That girl isn’t real, it's a recording!”

Ellie ran over to Andy and saw the projector.

“Is this a projector stuck into the wall,” Ellie asked, very confused.  

“Yes, wait… come with me,” said Andy as he realized everything.

As Andy was running with Ellie he explained his theory to her. 

“That makes so much sense Andy,” said Ellie, “Slow down!”

‘Ok,” Andy said as he halted to a stop, “We are here.”

“Why are we here,” asked Ellie

“This is where the people who lived here kept their money. There is a safe in here, the robbers might be in here. Ellie called 911,” whispered Andy.

As they quietly looked in they saw the robbers in the huge safe in the house. Ellie ran to another room and called the police. After a little while Ellie and Andy opened the door to the police and told them the full story of what happened that night. 

“Hi I am Officer Jackson, I hear that you little teenagers found the robbers,” said the police officer.

“Hi I’m Ellie and this is Andy. Yes follow me, I’ll lead you to them,” said Ellie nervously.

Ellie and Andy led the officers to the robbers and they were not there anymore.

“What? We saw them, Ellie show them the photo,” said Andy.

As Ellie showed them the photo the police recognised the people.

“That’s them,” said the officer as he pointed to the safe.

After the police catch the criminals , they ask what they have been doing in this old and thought to be haunted house.

“ We set up all the creepy things. When we grabbed this girl, before she could see us, we locked out the window and jumped through it. We had also drawn the creepy girl in the mirror by putting white makeup on a girl and making her record the creep lines. We make it so that all the questions that you could possibly ask would be answered. All the eerie music was all played by our phones,” said the criminal.

‘But what about the rooms we found,” asked Ellie.

“We lived in this house for quite some time so we bought new sheets, pillows, a bed and also flowers to make it all the more creepy for any unwanted visitors,” said the criminal while he looked evilly at the two kids.

“I knew it,” Andy said excitedly.

“Well great job kids, not even we could find out what happened,” said the police officer with a great smile, “Now go home.”

As Andy and Ellie walked home they talked about what just happened because it was too unbelievable to believe. After Ellie had wiped all her makeup off and had changed into comfortable clothing after dinner, she started writing that day's entry in her diary. But while writing her diary she realized a terrifying question that had been unanswered for the last 20 years. What happened to the Andersons family?