Fiction: The Milverton House

In honor of Halloween (such a great kid holiday!!) I thought I'd change things up a bit and spin a tale about two brave little witches Annette and Becky.  The house that they have been dared to enter is the Milverton house, referencing one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories....

If you remember l, we left Becky and Annette slightly terrified in the back yard of the spooky Milverton House. Here's what happens next ... 

….. Both girls gasped as they turned to face whomever was coming.  

It was Bennett and Tommy, slowly creeping their way towards them.
“Annette?  Becky?” Bennett asked with a puzzled expression.
“Why are you guys dressed up?” Tommy asked, half smiling.

“It doesn’t really matter, does it?”  Becky said as she pushed her mask up onto her forehead to see the boys better.

“Guess not,” Tommy chuckled.  “You ready?”

Becky sighed and grabbed Annette’s hand.

“Ready,” croaked Annette, finally finding her voice.  It had been caught in her throat ever since she’d heard the crackling footsteps of the boys’ approach.  She didn’t understand how Becky was acting so normally at the moment.

The girls slowly walked towards the Milverton House together. They stopped at the foot of the steps leading to the back porch. Up close, the house looked gray and dingy.  Annette could only assume that the original color had been white, judging by some of the strips of siding that had not yet been covered by filth.  
The back porch was long and narrow, and continued around the corner towards the front of the house. There was an old cushioned rocking chair by the back door, several stacks of wet, rotted newspapers along the porch railing, and dead broken branches scattered everywhere. It was one of those places Annette’s mother wouldn’t want her to touch, let alone enter.

As the last thought flew through her mind, Annette remembered that her parents still thought she was in her room.  She had snuck out to come here (which was a terrible idea) but she knew she would have never been allowed to come if she had been truthful and asked.

With this in mind, and knowing that her time was limited, Annette quietly but quickly climbed the steps to the porch, pulling Becky with her.
Just five minutes.  We have to stay inside for just five minutes, she thought to herself.  Annette peered in through the windowed door at the top of the porch steps.  It was impossibly dark in there, but the room she was looking at was definitely the kitchen.  She could faintly see the countertops and a small eating table in the middle of the room.  Everything inside was still and utterly quiet. She grabbed the doorknob, but before she turned it she asked Becky, “what if it’s locked?”

Becky looked back at her with a small hopeful smile and said, “if we can’t get in, then I guess we can just forget it and go home….”

Annette turned the handle, but it barely moved beneath her hand.  Relieved, she took her hand off the knob and turned towards the boys.  

“It’s locked!” she exclaimed in a loud whisper to the boys, who hadn’t even neared the porch steps yet.

“Well I don’t know….try a window…” Bennett answered back.

Deflated, Annette and Becky hesitantly walked around the dirty old rocking chair and wet, matted newspapers towards the only window along the back porch.  

“Your turn to try,” Annette told Becky.

Becky reluctantly approached the window, looked inside for a moment, then grabbed the bottom sash.  She pushed on it hard expecting it to be tightly locked, but to the girls’ surprise, it easily flew open.

Annette’s breath caught in her throat.  

The house was open, now they had to go inside.  

She was dreading this with all her might, and wished Becky hadn’t accepted such a stupid dare, laughing in the safe daylight and familiar surroundings of the bus, not stopping to consider that it would lead them to this-- a dark, horrible, scary place.

Annette’s imagination started to wander.  Was anyone upstairs?  Was the house really haunted?  Whatever happened, she was fairly sure that this little excursion of theirs would probably cause her to have nightmares for the next year or so.

Her thoughts of terror were pierced by Tommy saying, “come on, what are you waiting for?”

“As soon as you’re in I can start my timer,” Bennett added, holding up his arm to push a few buttons on his digital watch.

Annette whimpered slightly as she grabbed Becky’s hand and climbed through the window.  Becky immediately followed, lowering her witch’s mask back over her face as she climbed in. The house was dark and chilly and didn’t seem to hold much furniture within. It smelled of old dusty things and other unpleasant stenches Annette couldn’t quite identify.  

“This was a really bad idea,” Becky said in a shaky whisper.

“Let’s never take dares again,” Annette seconded.

The girls both stood right next to the window, facing out, pretending they weren’t in this creepy place.  But they constantly made quick looks over their shoulders in a nervous effort to check their surroundings.  The room they were standing in seemed to be some sort of sitting room.  Behind them stood what looked like two old armchairs and some sort of long table behind the chairs that had tons of picture frames on it.  

For a while, everyone was silent.  

“What’s in there?” Bennett finally asked.

“Come up here and look,” Becky said irritably.

“Yeah, go on, Bennett,” Tommy smirked and patted him hard on the shoulder.
“No thanks,” Bennett retorted, kicking around some of the fallen branches.

“Scared-y cat,” Tommy snickered.

“Am not,” Bennett answered quietly.  

Tommy snickered again and began making scary ghost sounds.  “Oooooooooo…oooooooo…” he moaned as he slowly walked through the back yard and towards the side of the house, trying to scare Bennett and the girls.

“Stop it, Tommy,” Bennett said as he stayed put in the back yard, kicking the tree branches a little harder.

But Tommy continued.

“Shut up, Tommy!” Becky hollered towards the side of the house. Then she turned to Bennett and asked, “how much longer?”

“Two minutes and five seconds,” Bennett said checking his watch.

Becky let out a whiny groan as Tommy continued his “Ooooooooooo”s.  He had made his way to the front of the house and back again, laughing and telling the girls he was just having fun with them.

“This isn’t really fun, Tommy,” Becky blurted snippily.

Two minutes, two minutes to go…… Annette thought to herself as she looked down and sighed.  But as she did, she saw a large spider crawling up her dress.  

She gasped and let out a shrilling scream that was so loud it hurt her throat. She frantically swatted her dress with her hand, shook it, then stomped out a little dance running back and forth to make sure she rid herself of her uninvited friend. But as she stomped past Becky, she tripped over Becky’s shoe and landed on her knees.  

“Ow,” Annette wailed, holding her knee as she sat up on the floor.  
Becky gasped and knelt down to see if Annette was okay, and as she did, the boys lost sight of them through the window.

“Annette?!” exclaimed Bennett,  “what happened?  Are you okay?!”  

Tommy stopped his Ooooooooo’s as he and Bennett momentarily looked at each other, then dashed up the back porch steps and ran over to the window.  

The boys didn’t approach the windowsill, but maintained a small distance as they looked inside, squinting their eyes to try and find the girls through the darkness.
A moment later, the girls stood up together as Becky helped Annette up. And whether it was Becky’s mask, or just the sudden appearance of the girls that frightened them, the boys both screamed loudly and tripped over each other on the porch. Tommy stumbled backwards and fell into a large stack of the wet newspapers, and Bennett rolled to the side of him towards the old rocking chair.

After a moment of shock, the girls burst out laughing.  All the terror and anxiety seemed to leave their bodies as they laughed until their tummies cramped and tears rolled down their cheeks.

The boys sat up and made their way back to their feet, calming their nerves. Just then, Bennett’s watch beeped.  The five minutes were up.

With a sigh of relief the girls gladly helped each other out of the window, stepped over the boys and tromped down the porch steps.

With a short “see you later” to the boys, they entered the strip of woods and quickly made their way back to Annette’s yard.

“See you on the bus tomorrow,” Annette said with a grin.

“Sorry about tonight. You’re the best friend ever,” replied Becky as she gave Annette a short, joyful hug.

Annette smiled as she walked cheerfully back into her garage. When she entered her house, she saw her mother right away.

“Where have you been?”  Her mother’s hands were on her hips.  Not a good sign. 

But Annette didn’t care.  She had never been so happy to see her mother before.

She walked over, hugged her mom tightly and said “Sorry mom.  I was with Becky……”

Her mom’s anger seemed to subside, but she reminded Annette not to be out after dark, and to let her know where she was going. Annette gave her mom another hug then went upstairs, got ready for bed and flopped down, exhausted, on her bed.

That night, as Annette was dozing off to sleep swirls of thoughts flew through her head.  Halloween was next week and for the first time ever, she wasn’t looking forward to it; she’d decided that tonight she’d had more than her fill of witches, spiders, ghosts and spookiness to last her for quite a long time.