October Writing Prompts- Pinterest List by ZellyKatArt
October 14- Haunted House
Janet and Beth walked into an old, creepy toy shop. It only opens for the month of October in their town and they never had the courage to go inside. Until this year, they decided they wanted a new game to play while they watched horror movies. They were too old to trick-or-treat anymore and only handed out candy while watching movies. It was getting boring fast. They hoped the store would have something fun for them to play. Maybe a new, old board game or something.
The door to Halloween Fun creaked open, and the girls shuffled inside. They clung to each other, nervous and a bit scared. They looked around from the front door and saw shelves stacked high with creepy dolls and other toys. They didn’t see any board games at the front, so they cautiously made their way to the back of the store.
The owner, an older gentleman, walked towards them with a smile. “Hello, you two.” He stopped in front of them.
They looked at him and jumped. They all laughed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No, it’s fine,” Beth said and let go of Janet. “Your store just creeps us out.”
“Good, then I did something right in decorating it.” He grinned and cocked his head. “Are you two looking for anything in particular?”
Janet rang her fingers together. “We were wondering if you have any board games? And nothing like Clue or Monopoly. We hoped you had something that was different and maybe scary?”
The man grinned. “Oh, yes, we have plenty of different board games I’ve collected on my travels.” He waved for them to follow him and he lead them to the back corner that had board games everywhere. “Here we go.”
Janet and Beth’s eyes grew wide as they looked over the shelves of games. He chuckled. “I will leave you to look around.” He bowed and left.
Janet and Beth looked at each other and giggled about their fear. They sighed in relief and browsed the board games. They saw some of their favorite games, but they were old and a few looked like someone had altered them to be Halloween themed. Beth picked up a few, but the girls decided against them.
One with the picture of a haunted house on the top caught Janet’s eye and she picked it up. She turned it over in her hand and read the back. Her eyebrows sprang up, and she looked at Beth. “I think I found our game.”
Without a word, Janet hurried to the front, paid for the game, and they left. Janet and Beth hurried home, excited about their new purchase. They waited anxiously for their parents to leave to take their younger siblings out so they could put on their movies and play the game while they handed out candy.
“By ladies,” their mom said.
She walked out with their little brother and sister. Their dad stood in the living room and watched them put the game together. “Oh, that looks like a fun game. I’ve never seen that one before.”
“Neither did we. We found it in that creepy store pops up every October.” Beth placed two pieces, coffins, on the start spot. “We decided to give it a shot.”
Janet was reading the directions and put together a paper haunted house on the other side of the board. “This is pretty cool.”
Her dad waved and left while the sister finished putting the game together. Janet found a movie to watch while Beth ordered them pizza. While they waited for the pizza, they poured out the candy their parents had bought into the Halloween bowl and sat it on the chair next to the front door. Janet and Beth hurried back to the living room and sat down behind the coffee table, ready to play.
“Okay, so we have to get to the end of the of the board of course. Along the way, we will have to fight for our lives,” Janet said and made a sound of a ghost. “The main goal is to get to the end and make it their alive. We only have three lives and if we lose the last, we lose the game.”
“Simple enough,” Beth said and grabbed the dice that game with the game. “So, who goes first? Is it like oldest to youngest? Or do we roll and the largest number goes first?”
Janet shrugged. “It doesn’t say. Weird.” She put the paper down and clapped her hands. She took one of the dice from Beth. “We’ll roll together and see which one of us goes first.” She looked down at the dice and rolled it around her in her hand for a minute. “Okay, let’s…” The was a knock on the door. “Oh, trick-or-treaters or pizza?”
“Pizza!” they said in unison and jumped up to get the door. When they opened it, there was no one standing there. They looked around, but there was no one on the street close to their house and no one driving towards their house with a pizza logo on the side of the car.
They shrugged and headed back inside. They stopped when they saw the haunted house on the board. There were lights on. But it was paper a minute ago and now it was some 3D model with working lights. The girls looked at each other, then at the house. The dice still in their hand slipped from their grasp and rolled across the room until they bounced against the leg of the coffee table. Beth had rolled a four while Janet had a six. As soon as the dice stopped rolling, the girls grabbed each other and squeezed their eyes shut when the room tilted and swayed.
Janet grabbed for Beth, but she was no longer standing beside her. Her eyes popped open, and she was on the board game itself. The living room sat around her, but everything was giant. “Beth?” She turned to look behind her and saw Beth two spots behind. “Beth!” Janet tried to run to her friend, but something held her in that spot.
Beth shook her head and saw Janet trying to get back to her. Beth tried to take a step forward, but it felt like her feet were glued to the board. She looked down at the spot she was on and screamed. Her feet were covered in rats. “Janet! There are rats on me.”
Janet looked down and saw that she was in a safe spot. She felt something hard in her hand and opened it to find the dice. “I have the dice. Let me roll and maybe that will give you the dice and you can get off of that spot.”
“Ow! Hurry! They’re biting me.”
Janet threw the dice and rolled a five. She felt herself being moved by an invisible force five spots ahead of her. When she stopped, she looked down and saw that she had landed on a spot that showed a bat. She looked at the picture, confused, then turned to see her sister roll the dice and move three spots forward. Before she could call out to her, Janet heard some loud screeching sound. Janet squinted her eyes until she saw red eyes on objects flying towards her. She screamed when bats flew out and attacked her.
Beth watched in horror as the bats attacked her sister. “Janet!” Beth looked down when she felt something brush against her leg. She prayed they weren’t rats again, but when she looked down, all she could see was something black moving across the square. Then she felt teeth. “Roll the dice, Janet, roll the dice.”
Janet swatted her hand at the bats while she threw the dice with the other. She moved forward two spaces, and the bats disappeared. She felt blood seeping out of the wounds left behind the bats. Janet looked down and saw a picture of a doll. Janet turned and screamed as dolls attacked her, each holding a little knife in their hands.
Beth felt groggy and swayed on her feet. She felt nauseous and wanted nothing more to lie down and sleep. She felt the die pop into her hands. Beth looked down at the black spikey things biting her and groaned, tossing the die. She hovered over the spot and finally saw that they had been poisonous caterpillars. Beth was placed six spaces ahead and was closer to her sister. The board wasn’t that long, but there were a lot of dangerous spaces.
Janet and Beth slowly made their way towards the haunted house at the end. Both fighting for their lives. Beth collapsed three spots away, breathing hard. She had already lost two lives, while Janet had only lost one life so far. Beth rolled over onto her back and stared up at a woman with a hatchet hovering over her.
“Janet?”
Janet leaned against the tombstone in her space, having stopped the zombie from rising. “Yeah?”
“Tell mom and dad that I love them.”
“We’re going to make it out of here, I promise, sis.” Janet looked at the woman. “Just dodge her hatchet, and once it hits the spot, she’ll disappear. Then we get out of here and you can talk to mom and dad.”
Beth shook her head. “I can’t.” Tears streamed down her cheeks as the hatchet fell towards her. “I can’t.”
Janet screamed and threw the dice at the woman. “Leave my sister alone.” The dice pass through the woman and hit the ground, rolling. She watched as the lady turned and hissed at Janet instead of hitting her target. The dice stopped and showed a six. “I won! I won!” She flew up and past her sister, landing on the stairs in front of the door. “Now throw the dice and get up here.” She turned to look at Beth. “Beth?”
Janet looked at the front door again, not able to see her sister behind her. The board was gone, and she was standing in front of her own home. She pushed the door open, expecting to see Beth in front of the TV. The living room was empty, the TV still on, and the board game sitting on the coffee table untouched. The haunted house at the end was no longer lit and was back to being a flat piece of colored paper.
“Beth?” Janet ran around the house, but she couldn’t find anyone else in the house. “Beth, where are you?”
Janet ran into the living room to check behind the couch, thinking her little sister was playing a game when something caught her attention. She skidded to a stop and looked down at the game board. She covered her mouth when she saw the lady over a body. Beth hadn’t made it. She had lost her last life to the lady with the hatchet.
“Beth?” Janet’s voice quivered.
The front door opened and her little brother and sister ran into the house, screaming their heads off. Janet’s parents walked in, looking exhausted. They looked at the nearly empty bowl of candy.
“Looks like you had quite a few kids tonight, Janet?”
Janet turned and looked at her parents. “I didn’t…” She stopped when she saw the pizza box on the ground by the coffee table. “I…”
“Oh Janet,” her mom said and grabbed the box off the ground. “How many times have I told you to not place the pizza box on the ground?” She shook her head and took the box into the kitchen.
“You better get ready for bed, Hun,” her dad said as he locked the door.
“Dad, did you see Beth outside?”
“Beth? Is Beth one of your friends from school?” Her dad looked at her, confused.
“No, Beth, as in your daughter.”
Her dad chuckled. “We only have three kids. You, Lori, and Elton.” He walked into the kitchen to help his wife clean up.
Janet was about to point at the game to tell her dad about what had happened, but the game was gone. She plopped down on the couch and stared at the empty coffee table.
Across the street, the old man from the shop stood with the game in his hands. He looked down at the pieces and watched as Beth’s body slowly melted into the board and a new square was added. Beth jumped up, dressed like killer clown. She giggled and thrust a knife down over and over again before she again melted into the board, waiting for new players. The man packed up the game and disappeared down the street.