Haunting Horror
Created | Updated Oct 22, 2008
Haunting Horror
It was autumn. The leaves were turning from green to red and some were even gold and falling from the trees that they once proudly grew from. Now and again the wind would take flight and sweep up the leaves, only to drop them again once it grew tired. The Horrocks children knew the seasons well; they yearned for warm, sunny days to come round again, when they would jump in and out of the paddling pool, play with the garden hose and listen to each other making up games, which they would then partake in. One of their favourite games was hide and seek, and they knew that this game could be played all year long.
This time it was Sophie's turn to seek her brothers and sisters out. Sophie was the middle child of the Horrocks family, and as she counted to ten she wondered how easy it would be to find all her siblings again. Tom made for the tree house at the bottom of the garden, while his brother Edward hid behind a wall. The girls, however, went indoors where it was a lot warmer, and while Emma hid under the bed, Charlotte crawled under the long curtains in the living room that were so long they touched the ceiling and fell to the floor where they gathered up because there was so much material. 'They'll never find me in here', yawned Charlotte as she curled up on the floor and fell into a deep slumber.
That day, while all her brothers and sisters were being found by Sophie, Charlotte dreamt that she was walking alone in some woods. It was pitch black and the only light that Charlotte had to go by was the moon light that was round in shape and lit what Charlotte could just make out to be a path. As she walked in her boots she could hear the noise of twigs snapping at her feet. She heard an owl shriek, and a bat flew past her as she scrambled her way round the path. The path seemed to be taking her in spirals, deeper and deeper it went right inside the woods. She wondered whether it was best for her to turn back, but the path looked like it was fading behind her. Then, out of nowhere, she saw smoke and could smell baking. The rich smell of apple pie flooded her senses and that's when she saw it: the most wonderful house ever, a house in the shape of an apple. Could it be real, she thought, running towards it with her hands stretched out, ready to touch it. Then something else came up to meet her hand. A human hand, well it was at least firm like a human hand and had four fingers and a thumb. Then a voice spoke. 'I've been waiting, my dear', the witch said. 'I have your tea ready. I know how you like apple pie. Please do come inside'. Charlotte wondered whether she should run, but her senses were so filled with the mouth-watering smell of her favourite dish that her legs wouldn't budge. She went inside. Inside, there was a big oven and she could see the apple pie's pastry crust rising. 'This is one I made earlier', announced the witch. 'I knew you were coming'. Charlotte picked up a fork from the table and went to bite into the pie. At once she could feel a thousand eyes peering out of the darkness of the witch's house, all staring at her as if to say 'don't do it.' But Charlotte had, it was too late, her fingers started to turn into that of a doll, her toes came out of her boots and shrivelled up into plastic. She let out a piercing cry—'noooooooooooooooo'.
'Are you all right?' said Sophie, who had been alerted to Charlotte's whereabouts by her scream. 'I just had a bad dream' said Charlotte, trying to prise her eyes open and hug Sophie. 'I...'. She looked across the room, and there, sitting up, bold as brass, eyes as blue as Charlotte's with very similar clothing, was a doll who looked like it had just smiled and fluttered its eyelashes.
