The Spooky Mansion

The wind whistles through the trees as light begins to fade. Then we see it through the trees. It was all Pat’s idea to visit what we thought was an old deserted house: an idea we would live to regret. As we approach, we spy a broken window in the lower story of the house. We ease ourselves through the opening and find that we are in a large hallway with an ornate staircase. Large sheets cover the furniture and cobwebs span across every gap. A dusty portrait of a man hangs over the fireplace. There is an eerie silence and a chill runs down my spine. Pat goes over to the portrait and looks up at it with curiosity. It feels like the man in the picture is staring at us. I call Pat to look at this. He comes up to me and asks what has happened. I point up. Pat gasps in awe. A long winding staircase looks down on our tiny figures. I take another look at the man’s picture. It looks like the eyes have moved. I try to hide my fear. The red carpet is musty as we walk on it, dust flying up. We finally reach the first floor. There seem to be another 100 floors above us. I look at a blank wall in front of me. Pat and I are confused. What is happening? Is this a trick? Hundreds of questions go through my head at once. Suddenly my eyes fall on a scary looking gargoyle. I examine it carefully. It seeps to beckon me forward. I see a spherical hole in its gum. Pat exclaims! I whizz around. He has found what looks like a series of marbles, and also a riddle. I look the piece of old crumpled paper. Though the writing is neat, IT IS WRITTEN IN BLOOD!  It states:

‘If thou dare solve this riddle,

Then thou will get out as quick as a fiddle.

But this is what ye means to say,

This house is no child’s play.

Pick a marble at thou own risk,

Thou might get into a twist.

Choose the one with gleaming lines,

If not, then pay the price.

With the gargoyle, it should look right,

If not, then thou is up for a fright!’

We both gulp. Pat and I both know how high the consequences can get. We both search for the right one, being cautious that we don’t trip and knock the wrong marble off its stand. Which one can it be? I see a marble with black gleaming lines, near the wall. It also matches the shape and colour of the hole in the gargoyle’s gum. I flex my fingers, deciding whether or not to pick the marble up. Part of me tells me not to, but my curiosity takes over. I pick it up. Suddenly I start to fall into a room. I shout for help but the floor has already reformed. Will I ever get out…?

Aadi Gupta

Poem on himself.....

His uncle’s eyes,

His mother’s smile,

His grandpa’s mouth,

His father’s style.

His cousin’s hair,

His brother’s dreams,

His grandma’s chin,

So it seems…

Unlucky little guy,

He has a reason to cry.

He’s not very unique,

Not even a peek!

                                              By Aadi Gupta

Moving House

BANG!! The modal car smashed into the wall and cracked in two.                                                                                               

“It’s not fair!” screamed Tom.                                                              

Tom hated moving house. Moving house did NOT go with Tom. Especially moving to a new school. Everybody treated him as a toy when he was new to Saint Bernard’s. Now he had to go to old Q.E. which was probably going to be even worse. Tom had so many friends and it was hard to make such loyal ones, but he had to move to Burnham, where he was going to live in a house about ten times smaller than his current one.       

                                                                 

Tom’s mind floated back:                

Tom walks through the large doors of Saint Bernard’s. There is a large noise of laughter in the background. Tom walks forward cautiously. He gets shoved around, as if unnoticed. A big group of boys appear and everyone - but me - scatter away quickly. I do not notice them and, still in awe, walk forward. I hear the distant sound of whispering. Suddenly I see a big hand approach my face. Thanks to my quick reflexes I dodged it. The boys laugh. My eyes widen and I am baffled. What are they laughing at? I should be laughing. One of the boys picks my bag and throws all the contents on the floor. There is an ‘oooo’ coming from my future fellow mates. Luckily for me the bell rings, but there is still more to come…                                                                

Tom shook the thought out of his mind. He had to somehow convince his parents that leaving was a really bad idea, but how?                                                                                             

“Tom?” called mum, “It’s time for dinner.”                     

Tom stormed downstairs. He sat at the table, not talking to anyone. His annoying brother (James) loved moving and even worse, love to make Tom angry. And he knew just what to say at this moment to stir the environment up.                                              

 “Tom. You’re quiet today.”                                                                                 

Tom didn’t answer.James continued. “Aren’t you excited about moving? Even more friends! It’s going to be so much fun.”      

                                               

That was it. Tom said something resembling to zip your mouth, but that weren’t his exact words since if I wrote them, your parents would probably throw away this book and not let you read it till your 13-15 years old. Anyhow, after that no one said a word. Tom ate his dinner quietly and then, without saying goodnight, went to bed.

Tom couldn’t sleep that night. He had to think up a way of convincing his parents to not move to Burnham. Tom suddenly jumped out of bed and turned his lamp on. He put a new piece of paper on his desk and started writing speeches to convince his parents. It took him until about 1:00, but he was pretty impressed with his results. He still had to think when to deliver the speech and which one. He only had five days left. Tom went back to sleep, only waking up at 13:00. Tom didn’t sleep well and it was obvious by the colour of the skin under his eyes. He got dressed and walked downstairs to find everybody was waiting for him.                             

“Where were you? We were all so worried,” mum said.                               Luckily, James wasn’t there. On Saturday’s he had tuition from 12:00 to 17:00. That was a relief. Tom had breakfast hungrily as it was so late.

That day all Tom did was wonder about how on earth he was going to convince his parents not to move. He tried looking through the speeches he wrote but they looked like scribbles, probably because he wrote during the middle of the night.  Tom tried really hard to make new ones but his mind kept on going blank. All he could do now was: 1. Pray, 2. Pray, 3. Pray and 4. Hope. What could Tom do? It was useless to try anything now. Tom tried forgetting it for the next few days, but it troubled him too much, so he didn’t.

Four troubling days later:                                                                           

It was moving day and Tom was really lethargic. What could he do now? All his efforts had gone in vain. Tom and his family hauled the luggage into the car as they got ready for the long journey to London. Tom nearly started crying but he was determined not to or James would never stop taunting him. The car spluttered into life. They were nearly half way there when their state agent left a voice message.  

                                                                                                      

It was, “Hello. I’m calling to inform you that there is a minor problem in your house. This problem will prevent you from moving in for at least another five months. The problem is that there is a roof leakage. If this leakage becomes major then the surveyors will have no choice but to wreck the house. Sorry for the short notice and the inconvenience it may have caused. Jill.”                                                                                                 

Tom let out a silent ‘yessss’. But inside he knew that this would only keep his family from moving for less than one year, but at least he could relax till then. But would that prevent his family from looking for another house…???

                                                                             Aadi Gupta                                                                                                            

Creative writing, 'The Room' 1st Draft

The Room

'I roused from an uneasy sleep. I opened my eyes but it was hard to see anything. There was very little light in the room. Where was I? My heart began to pound. This was not my room. My eyes adjusted to the light. I could just make out the walls of the room. They seemed drab and discoloured. Was I dreaming? It must be a dream. I went to sleep in my own bed. I closed my eyes and opened them again. Still the same; it was not a dream!

I yelled and ran in circles. What could I do? Suddenly I had an idea. I tried to find a way out; a door or a window maybe. There was one window, but it had bars across it. It made me feel as if I was in jail. But no, nothing else. There must be an exit if there was an entrance. Suddenly my eyes fell on some boxes. They were shiny; empty, but didn't look normal. They were made of steel! Brown steel?! I tried violently shoving the boxes to the side; however, they were too heavy. I tried lifting off the boxes one by one. It worked! Speckles of dust threw up into the air. I started to cough, but the dust soon went. I glanced over to the other side of the room and saw a hole in the wall. A dumbwaiter! I dashed towards my potential way out... I could actually escape the room! I climbed in. Down I went. Far, far down. I climbed out...

I found myself in a tunnel with carved sides, patterns, an array of colours. I was in a priest hole! My history teacher wasn't mad after all.

Anyhow, I went through the tunnel and noticed white bones covered in dirt and rotting flesh. The sell was pungent and repulsive. I took a closer look and found that the bones belonged to a... SKELETON! EEEWW! I continued walking through the tunnel. The tunnel started to collapse behind me. Rocks started to fall. I started to breathe heavily. Suddenly, I found that I was trapped inside the tunnel; I was too late; too slow. I tried to push the rocks away from me when my hands started glowing bright red; suddenly, I realized why I was here; I had supernatural powers; the stories were true! I had: super strength; laser eyes; super speed and super intelligence. I pushed my way out of the rocks in front of me. I saw a trap door above me. I started to climb the end of the collapsing rocky tunnel. It was really hard work. Beads of sweat poured down my red face. Finally it touched the old, cracked lifeless wood of the trap door. The word 'ESCAPE' kept going through my mind.

Free at last... or was I? I hauled my tired body up only to find I was in the dull boring room again. I knew I wouldn't be able to get out of the room with my powers. There was no excitement in the dull room as I searched urgently to find an escape. There was absolute silence. There were no other people… or were there?

Suddenly I heard footsteps drawing closer and closer. A light shone at me. I ducked and slowly went towards the light source.

Thud! I knocked the 'man' off his feet and ran as fast I could. I knew the man was chasing me. But I had an even bigger on my hands; I couldn't see where I was going. I slowed down, knowing that if I ran I would run into the white wall, since I couldn't see (the light were off, it was night). As blind as a baby bat, I started to feel my way to the dumbwaiter (it was really hard since there weren't much things, only: a torch; a stick; a dirty bed and boxes). Suddenly I saw it, the dumbwaiter, but so did the man. I hid behind the boxes as the man approached my way... He suddenly disappeared as though it was real magic. I thought I should go down into the tunnel. I went down. I saw a boy in front of me. We both screamed. The boy had a pet bird (budgie; type of parrot) with him he also had a torch, Sorry, I said to him. Suddenly, the floor started to give way. We fell and found ourselves in a dark place. Awais (the boy) switched in his torch. It was dim, that meant the battery was running low. O oh, we both thought. Suddenly we saw 5 tunnels. I said we should take the bottom left tunnel, mainly because there was light coming from it, but Awais said it was a trap and scrambled though the bottom right tunnel. I had no choice but to follow him. I knew Awais from school (when I went there before I came here!) And I also knew that he wouldn't turn back.As we made our way through the tunnel, we only found ourselves in the room again: so much for traps!

Suddenly, we found ourselves in front of our families. I jumped onto my dad but he shook me off.

Awais' brother laughed, " Having fun little kids?! Well your about to have more!"

Our parents (and siblings) were the ones responsible for where we were. We never thought our own families would betray us! We were lost!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!

Our parents disappeared but what did they leave behind? An indestructible Robo-6000! Awais ran for his life, but me? I fought the Robo-6000. I kept fighting it off. It wasn't too hard. But then, I lost concentration for a split second and suddenly, I was cornered. Would Robo-6000 show mercy and let me go...???

                                                                                     Aadi Gupta