I’m Not Going Back
If I had known that night what would haunt me for the rest of my life, I would’ve never gone. I wouldn’t have done anything I did. But I wanted to know where my older brother was going. Why was he sneaking out so late? Why wasn’t I invited? I wanted to know, but now, I wish I hadn’t found out.
It was August 2nd around 3 o’clock, and I had been bored all day scrolling through TikTok. It was dark and rainy. I needed to do something. I decided to take a nap. Maybe my dreams will entertain me, I thought to myself.
When I woke up, it was already 6 o’clock. My mom was home preparing spaghetti for dinner. And Kevin was clearing his schoolwork off of the table. Who does school work? It’s so boring, and there is nothing important about it. Kevin, my older brother, by the way, is the most boring person on the planet! He doesn’t do any sports; and all he does in his free time is read dictionaries which explains why he has no friends. I, on the other hand, am a seventh grader, I play tennis and softball, and I have lots of friends. Well, maybe not lots, but more than Kevin!
Anyway, after dinner, (which was delicious by the way) I texted my friends for a little bit and then watched TV. Eventually, it was ten o’clock, which meant off to bed. Soon enough though, it was midnight, and I couldn’t fall asleep. I probably shouldn’t have taken a three-hour nap, but it was Friday, so I could sleep in tomorrow if I had to.
At some point, the door to Kevin’s room opened. I looked out of my partially opened door to see him dressed in all black. With his phone in his hand, I watched him walk quietly past Mom’s room toward the door. I knew I shouldn’t have followed him, but wherever he was going was probably more exciting than just laying in bed here. So I wore a jacket and followed him, not knowing the long night ahead.
We live in the country, so I knew wherever he was going, he wouldn’t be walking there. I followed him out to his little gray car. Accidentally, I stepped on a crunchy leaf. Crunch! Kevin turned around with a shocked look on his face.
“Kathrine, what are you doing here? Why are you following me?” he asked quietly.
“I couldn’t sleep. And if you tell me that I can’t come, I’ll go inside and tell Mom,” I replied stubbornly. He let out a long sigh. We walked the rest of the way to the car, careful not to make too much noise. When we reached the car, he unlocked it and we got in.
“So, where are we going?” I asked, just now realizing that I had no idea. I figured that we were going to somewhere stupid like the 24-hour open gas station down the road, but I watched as we drove by it. “Where are we going?” I asked, more confused this time. There was nothing open anywhere, it was the middle of the night.
After a minute he replied, “We’re going to grandma’s house. I downloaded a ghost-finding app on my phone, and I read some stuff, so I thought it would be fun to try it out once,” he said.
Wait a minute, ghosts? I’m terrified of ghosts! There is no way I’m going ghost-finding. Maybe, I can stay in the car and listen to the radio. No, that wouldn’t help, I can’t be alone in the middle of nowhere!
“Oh, yeah that sounds super fun!” I lied, “Are you sure it’s safe though?” I asked nervously.
“Don’t worry, the app will tell us what to do. Don’t be a chicken,” he teased. My cheeks reddened, I hate it when he calls me a chicken. After about ten minutes, we turned onto the gravel road our grandma used to live by. Soon enough, we were there. I got out of the small car, my legs shaking as we walked up to the old house.
I chose to stay close behind Kevin who looked completely chill and not at all worried. As we walked up the creaking steps, I thought about going back to the car, back to safety and warmth. I didn’t want to be called a chicken. Kevin opened the door. Creak! A horrible, awful, wretched smell came out of the house. I gagged and Kevin plugged his nose with his fingers.
“What is that?” I asked. It smelled like a combination of moldy pizza and dirty gym socks!
“No one has been in here since she died; whatever was in here then, is in here now. It’s better to breathe through your mouth,” Kevin said, trying to sound confident. I could tell he was at least a little scared. We took another step, and Kevin got out his phone. He opened the ghost-hunting app, which had a little ghost icon.
We walked into what used to be the kitchen. Everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. All of the dishes were put away neatly in the glass cupboard. There was a bowl of something, but I couldn’t tell what it was from all of the mold. Everything is where it was when she left. All of the family pictures were still on the fridge. It was like she had just left to pick up groceries or something, but she was gone. Kevin’s phone made a ding sound.
“What does that mean,” I asked, scared of what the answer might be. Please don’t mean there’s a ghost. Please, please, please. But I had no luck.
“It means there is a ghost or something around, we have to follow the arrow,” He said. I stepped toward him, his phone had a small arrow pointing at the stairs to the basement. A breeze came in from the still-open door. We walked to the stairs, and the floor creaked and groaned below us.
Kevin’s phone dinged again. And again. There was something down here. I looked at Kevin who was staring at his phone. The arrow was moving back and forth, the ghost was awake and moving. We made it to the bottom of the stairs. I looked up and down, there was nothing to be seen except for the laundry machine. The arrow had stopped, pointing right in front of us. Air blew at my face from somewhere, Kevin felt it too. We looked at each other, terrified.
Kevin’s phone died.
We took a step toward the stairs, and an old vase fell right where I had been standing, just seconds before. We started to run up the stairs, but the door closed, and locked, before we could get there. We were locked in the basement of a haunted house in the middle of the night. I was terrified. It can’t get any worse, right?
Someone chuckled off to our right. Soon the chuckle became a laugh. And the laugh got louder until it was screaming! The screaming laughter continued. Kevin and I were frozen in place, staring at each other in awe. We stood for a little while longer, but soon I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Stop! Please stop!” I shouted at the invisible ghost. The laughing stopped. I looked at Kevin, unsure of what to do next.
“Umm, my name is Kathrine; this is Kevin. We would like you to unlock the door, please,” Was I crazy? I was talking to a ghost. But it must’ve been around 1 am, and I was getting tired and hungry. We waited for at least 5 minutes before the ghost answered.
“Youhhhh, little Kathrine, all grown up,” he said in a raspy voice. “And Kevin, such a big boy now! Oh, this will be fun. I will have ghost friends!” As if on cue, thunder boomed outside. The ghost appeared from behind a bookcase. He was old and withered; he had no hair, and his shirt was torn to pieces. Kevin screamed.
“Oh, so Kevin remembers me!” The ghost said in delight. Does Kevin remember him? Remember him from what? I stared at him.
“B-b-b-Barney,” Kevin said. “When I was 6, I found a book on that shelf where Barney had come from. When I opened it, he came out. He thanked me and disappeared,” Kevin said shakily. The room became cold, and Barney became green. It started to rain. How it was raining inside, I do not know. I know that it was Barney’s fault. I reached my hands into my pocket to warm up.
I felt something in my pocket, so I took it out to see. It was a bobby pin! A bobby pin could unlock the door, which would set us free. But would Barney come too? I didn’t know, but if I didn’t try, we could be trapped in here forever…
I poked Kevin with the bobby pin. I looked at him to see if he knew what I was thinking. He nodded. I took a step up, acting casually so that Barney wouldn’t be suspicious. I took another step, and then I ran. I ran faster than I had ever run before. I reached the door and picked at it with my pin. Barney noticed. He began to run up the stairs too. I was too slow.
Barney started pulling at my jacket, but the amount of time he’d been down there had made him weak. Kevin pulled him off, right as I unlocked the door. We scrambled out and locked the door behind us. I sighed in relief, but I wasn’t out of the house yet. Barney was balling and pounding on the door, asking us to unlock it, but for some reason, he couldn’t get out. He was trapped.
I took one last look around the house and decided when I walked out the door, I was not coming back. We went through the kitchen, and out the door. After we closed the door, Kevin and I sprinted out to the car laughing the whole way there.
Even now, I still sometimes think about Barney, his ragged breath and wrinkled skin. Sometimes I have nightmares about him like he’s in my house or something. But I know for a fact that I will never go looking for ghosts ever again.
