Why Me?

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Why? Why me? I'm just a normal girl. Why did my family have to move into a haunted house? Or am I just seeing and hearing things?

I'm 14 years old. I have light blond hair and blue-grey eyes. I am tall and thin. I live with my mom, dad, little brother, and my cat. My brother is named Jonah. Jonah is 9 years old. My cat is named Church, my mom is Sam and my dad is Hank. I'm Madeline but everyone calls me Maddie.

So two weeks ago we moved into a new house. The first week was great! We got moved in and unpacked so everything was perfect! We loved the house and it was HUGE! It was sold twice in the past year but both of the families moved out soon after they moved in. Now I know why.

I think our house is haunted. Not like 'Ooo! Ghosts! Real scary!' No. More like lights flicker, things will move with out anyone moving them, doors slam, and drawers open on their own. Oh yeah and at exactly 10:28 pm there is blood curdling screams until 10:30pm.

WEEK 2, Monday.

I'm laying in bed. It's 10:25. That means only three minutes until the screaming. Tick tock. Tick tock. The clock in counting the seconds until the screaming starts. 10:26. Two minutes. CLASH! The sound came from the kitchen. It's probably Jonah sleep walking again.

I quickly crawl out of bed to get Jonah. I get to the source of the clashing sound. Pot and pans are scattered around the room but, no one is there. I sneak around the corner to Jonah's room. He is sleeping in his room with Church on his feet.

10:28. I'm not in my room. The screaming started. I sprint up the stairs, down the hall and to my room. My door is shut. Did I close it when I went to find Jonah? I don't remember shutting it but whatever. I reach to open my door but right before I reached the handle, I heard something. I don't know if it was just the TV in my room or if it was people talking, but it made not want to open my door. The screaming stopped. I hurried to my parents room to see if they noticed the commotion.

I'm trying to sleep on my parents floor. They said I was hearing things or had a nightmare. I hope they are right. I wonder what caused the clashing sound. It was loud and I seem to be the only one who heard it. My eyes got heavy and soon I was asleep.

Week 2, Tuesday.

I just woke up. Church is hissing at the door. Something is wrong. Normally Church sleeps with Jonah. And how did the door close? I got up and grabbed Church. I turned around to find both of my parents not in bed. I open the door and walk down to the kitchen. Everyone is already eating breakfast.

"Good morning sleepyhead," my dad said in between bites of pancakes.

"Did you sleep well after you came into our room?" my mom asked. She was still in her pajamas but already did her hair and make up.

"I guess but I can't stop feeling like it was more then a nightmare. Were there pots and pans everywhere when you came down here this morning?"

"No honey, why would you think there was?"

"In my nightmare there was a huge clash and when I came to check it out there were pots and pans all over. But I guess it was just a nightmare then."

I grabbed an apple and went upstairs. When I got to my door I noticed it was still closed. Slowly, I opened my door. My heart was racing. I looked in my room and everything was a mess and on the wall above my bed had writing on it. "I just wanted someone to play with," was written in red. I raced down the stairs to tell my parents.

They exchanged worried looks and followed me to my room. When we got there everything was back to normal. I'm baffled.

Week 2, Thursday.

Last night there was no screaming. So far today has been normal. Or at least until Church freaked out and shredded the couch. He has been acting strange since we moved here. I hope there isn't anything wrong.

Later that night I was getting ready for bed, when I saw something (or someone) run across the hall.

"Jonah if you are trying to scare me, cut it out! You aren't going to scare me by running across the hall." No answer. I decide to investigate. I went out in the hall to find Church hissing at nothing. I walk over to him and he scratched me with his front claws causing me to yell and Jonah to run upstairs. I thought he ran across the hall? No time to worry about that right now, I need to wash the cut and find a band aid.

Once I'm all cleaned up, I asked Jonah if he ran across the hall to scare me. He said no and that he was playing on the computer. Well that's odd. I wonder what it was...

Week 2, Friday.

The screaming came back. Last night it lasted until 10:34. My mom is getting worried about me. My parents decided I can start school on Monday because we are all moved in and need to get back on track.

Church is still acting strange. He isn't sleeping with Jonah anymore. Talking about Jonah, he is telling me about his new imaginary friend. He says her name is Shauntelle and she is the same age as him.

At 10:20 the screaming started. That's 8 minutes early. The screaming sounds like an eight year old girl and like it is coming from the basement. There is NO WAY I'm going down there tonight or anytime soon.

Week 2, Sunday.

Nothing happened yesterday or last night. It's 10:30pm and I'm laying in bed. The screaming is late or it's not coming. Slowly my eyelids got heavy and I was almost asleep when all of a sudden my clock flew across the room and the screaming started. My heart was pounding and I was paralyzed in fear. Books started flying out of my bookshelf, the light bulb in my lamp shattered, and my main light turned on and started flickering. Then it stopped. I waited a few minutes to gather up all my courage and ran as fast as I could to my parents room. Another night on my parents' floor. Great.