Witchcraft 101

WITCHCRAFT 101

Part 1

Salem University

Logan Myers was packing. Today he was going to college. He would be going to the University of Salem, Massachusetts. He picked up the phone and called his friend Dylan and told him he was ready. 5 minutes later his friend pulled up in his car. They would be going to the same college. He waved good bye to his mom and dad and hopped in the car. They drove to the airport and checked their bags. Logan and Dylan got lunch and then boarded the airplane.

"This is your pilot speaking," said a voice over the intercom.

"We will begin our 5 hour flight from Seattle to Salem." The plane then took off and 5 hours later they arrived in Salem. Logan and Dylan hailed a taxi and drove out to the college. On the way to the college the taxi driver asked,

"See that house way out in the distance," Logan looked out his window and saw a huge mansion out in the countryside. Gargoyles were perched on the roof.

In front of the house stood a huge dead oak tree. Bordering the house was a black iron fence. The taxi driver said,

"That house belonged to Giles Corey, the only accused witch who was pressed to death, that tree is where all the other accused witches were hanged. Giles Corey was pressed in the backyard. All the accused were locked up in the basement until the were let go, or killed. Rumor has it that house is cursed by all the people who died there. You can't go in, millions of people have gone in. Only 10 people have come out. Only one person at a time has come out. A group of twenty went in 20 years ago, but one person came out. The other 9 people who came out, all went in with a group, but they were the only ones to come out of the house though. However the ten people who have come out, have all come out insane.  Last person who went in was ten years ago, hasn't been seen since. But what you're not supposed to do is go into the attic. Giles Corey's body lays up in there, everyone who goes into the attic is driven insane. 100’s of people have gone into the attic only ten people have come out of the attic. It’s weird if you come out of the attic, you come out of the house." By now the house was behind them, when Logan looked back he swore he saw one of the curtains move. In the backyard of the house was a giant dog house, 5 stories tall, in big red letters it read Fido. The taxi driver looked back and saw Logan looking at the dog house he said,

"That's Fido's house. Worst thing on the entire property. Past explorers have said in their journals that if you see Fido you're a dead man. Also in that house, there is a hall with life size statues of people, it's pretty creepy. All the witches who lived there, were locked in the basement until they were tried. Rumor has it that the dungeon keeper still roams the basement. Other stories I've heard, um... Oh, there is a Sphinx that lives in the library, giant spiders in the living room, and much worse. One of the worst things that has ever happened in there, in my opinion is the flooding bathroom. Doors lock you in, water starts to rise, keeps on rising, it doesn't drain till' you're dead." The taxi driver said. Logan asked how he knew all of those stories,

"Journals. Past explorers write down everything they see, other explorers find the journals and come out, not mentally right but they bring the journals. I would bet that there are a hundred journals in that house that have not been read. The cab was silent after that.

Logan leaned over and whispered to Dylan ,

"Let's go in there tonight," Dylan had a face of absolute terror. He shook his head, so that his glasses almost fell off.

"Oh come on you're not a chicken, are you?" Dylan turned his head and nodded.

"Okay let's do it," Dylan said in a timid voice.

But what they did not know was that the taxi driver had been eavesdropping on them the whole time.

The taxi driver dropped them off at Salem University. They checked into their dorms, went to orientation, they got their schedules, went to dinner, and by then it was 8:30, they hailed a taxi, a got to the mansion by quarter to nine. The taxi driver (not the same one as earlier) dropped them off with a confused look on his face. They went to the black iron fence and just admired the mansion.  It was painted white, with big windows. Some were boarded up, some were broken, all of them had the curtains pulled. Most of the paint was missing or peeling, for no security there, there was surprisingly no graffiti. Logan looked over at Dylan and asked,

"You ready for this?" Dylan gave a nervous smile.

"All right here here's go nothing." Logan said. He put his hand on the fence, the moment he did a chill went throughout his body. It wasn't a cold chill, it was a chill of pure fear. He saw skeletons, skulls, or in other words: not pretty. He eventually gathered up enough courage to finally push open the fence. They both took a step on to the property. They were no longer safe, they were not longer connected to civilization. As soon as they started walking, fog surrounded them. They remembered where the front door was, they kept walking towards it. The fog though was not helping, it kept reminding Logan and Dylan , of the darkest moments of their lives. It was reminding them of their greatest fears. Finally Logan and Dylan sprinted forward to the door, they both stopped panting. They stood on a big Persian rug in front of the two big black doors. A chain doorbell hung off to the right, an old bench sat off to the left. Then they heard their first ghost. They heard a voice, couldn't tell where it coming from. It said, in a high, scratchy voice, sounding like nails on a chalkboard.

"I am the ghost of Bridget Bishop, run now or be eaten!" Another voice said, it sounded familiar.

"Jump now!" Logan and Dylan both jumped into the air just as the Persian rug fell through the floor. There was actually a trapdoor under the rug, that had the rug as a cover. The trapdoor fell into a hole that was about 10 feet deep. In that hole was a giant plant. In the center of the plant it had a big mouth, and all around the mouth were vines reaching for Dylan and Logan. Dylan fell and grabbed the top of the hole. Logan somehow was able to grab the doorbell chain, and he held onto that as he fell into the hole. One of the vines grabbed one of Logan's legs, and began pulling him in. The raspy voice said,

"Why do you even bother holding on, you can't hold on forever. Let go!" BOOM! Logan and Dylan had just heard a gun fire, the plant was no longer trying to pull them in. The plant was dead. The trapdoor shut pulling Logan and Dylan out. Sitting on the bench on the left, holding a pistol was a face they knew. It was the old taxi driver.

"You," Dylan muttered under his breath. He was quite surprised to see the taxi driver.

"What are you doing here, I thought you said no one could come here." Asked Logan. The taxi driver pondered this, and then said,

"I think you might want to keep me along," Logan and Dylan walked to the other end of the porch to discuss this.

"He might be helpful to have along," Dylan said.

"You sure?" Logan asked.

"Look, he has a gun, I don't want to make him mad." Dylan said thoughtfully. Logan still would not agree. Then they heard a sound. And it scared them both. It was police sirens. If they got caught for breaking into a national monument. They would get kicked out of college. They turned towards the taxi driver. He said,

"This might help make your decision." He smirked. The police cars had now pulled up to the curb. Two policemen got out with guns. Logan and Dylan looked at each other, nodded, signaled the taxi driver and the threesome ran into the haunted mansion.

The first thing that stunk besides the giant plant, was the fact the doors slammed behind them when they came in, and wouldn't open.

"Hey what's your name?" Logan asked the taxi driver.

"Eli," the taxi driver responded. Logan then looked at the house.

The house was impressive, off to their right was a staircase that led up to a second floor. Off to the left was a nice kitchen, they voted to go that way. They walked into and was surprised to see a giant mess. Then this voice was heard. It wasn't evil like the plant, it sounded as if this person had been crying lately.

"I am the ghost of John Willard," it said through tears.

"Please join me for dinner," they all took a seat at the table. Ropes appeared around their chairs, tying them to their chairs. Logan and Dylan both struggled but could not escape.

"And now for the main course, YOU!" Then the monster walked in. If Gollum could have an identical twin, this would be it. Only difference was that it was wearing a chefs outfit. It's eyes were red from crying.

"Oh . . . so hungry. I haven't had food for a long time. You are my feast tonight! Yay, I get to eat tonight." He started to dance around.

"You're the ghost," Logan said, he couldn't help but laughing. The ghost suddenly stopped, it jumped onto the counter, and pulled two knives out of the drawer.

“Yes, I’m the ghost, you have the problem with that?” The ghost said. Logan stopped laughing.

This ghost was trying to eat them.

“Shall I put you in the oven, or eat you raw?” The ghost asked himself.

“You know what I’m too hungry to cook you, I’ll just eat you raw!” The ghost lunged at Logan and before he stabbed him, Dylan yelled

“WAIT!” The ghost fell to the ground.

“What.” The ghost asked very annoyed.

“I have other food, peanuts from the airplane.” Dylan explained. Logan couldn’t help but smiling, he had to admire his friend’s quick thinking. The ghost forgot all about eating the trio, and was more interested in these peanuts.

“Here let me go, and I will give you the peanuts.” Dylan said. The ghost snapped his fingers and the ropes around Dylan fell to the ground. Dylan reached into his backpack and pulled out the peanuts. He opened the package, and threw the ghost some peanuts. The ghost devoured the peanuts, and Dylan made a trail for the ghost to follow. The ghost was so focused on the ground, that he did not realize the trail led him into the pantry. Dylan turned around and slammed the pantry doors, trapping the ghost. He grabbed his chair and pried it against the door. He grabbed the two knives off the floor and cut his friends free. They were almost to the door, when the pantry door broke down. The ghost was holding a big knife. It jumped onto the counter and opened a drawer and pulled out a blow torch. The trio ducked as fire soared over their heads, it didn’t hit them but it let the only entrance on fire. The ghost jumped onto the oven and opened it and fire shot out.

“Going somewhere.” The ghost asked with a smile. Fire surrounded them, they were trapped. The ghost blew fire lighting the ground on fire, they were forced to jump onto the stove.

“Oh, you want to play with the stove!” The ghost laughed, he snapped his fingers and the stove immediately began to warm up. Less than a minute it was already 1,000 degrees, and their shoes were melting. they couldn’t be there forever. Eli looked up and saw a vent right above them. He got an idea and jumped he grabbed part of the vent, pulled himself up and began to crawl. Logan and Dylan did the same. They crawled through until, the vent ended. The popped out in the biggest library Dylan and Logan had ever seen. In the middle leading to a second floor of books was a spiral staircase, with a door at the top. At the bottom of the staircase stood an electric podium. Standing behind the podium was their second monster, a sphinx. The sphinx roared,

“Hello! I am the ghost of Rebecca Nurse! Are you ready to answer my questions! If you fail, I get to unleash my surprise. Good luck!” She motioned for them to stand at the podium,

“Please say your answers out loud. Alright first question. Who was the 14th president of the United States?” She asked.

“Franklin Pierce,” Dylan said.

“What is the Capital of China?”

“Beijing,” Dylan said again.

“What is the address of this house?”

Silence.

“Um… we don’t know.” Logan admitted.

“Well… thanks for playing, but you lose, here’s my surprise.” She leaned out with an stamp. She stamped Dylan ’s head. On his head was a big red F. Immediately Dylan began to shrink, until all that was left was a hamster. She lunged and picked up Dylan , and walked over to stack of books. She pulled on a certain book, and the bookcase swung open into a hidden room. In the hidden room was a huge cage full of hamsters. Lots of victims.

“You’re next,” she growled, looking at Logn. Now being half lion, she could run fast and she pounced on Eli, trying to stamp him. Logan threw a book at her, then he realized it was a journal. He looked at the bookcases, they were all journals of past explorers. He wasn’t paying attention, until the sphinx slammed into him. She had her stamp out, and lunged at Logan with it, but missed. Logan snatched it out of her hands, and said.

“Let Dylan go, or I’ll stamp you.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll let the human go.” She walked over to the bookcase, and opened it and pulled out a hamster. She went to her podium, and grabbed another stamp, a blue A. She stamped it on the hamster. Immediately, it turned back into Dylan . Quick as lightning Logan lunged forward and stamped the F stamp on the Sphinx's arm. She screamed as she shrunk, until she was just a hamster.

"Well let's go." Logan said. They walked up the staircase, and opened the door they walked into a very nice room. The roof was covered in paintings, it was a long hall. At the end of the hall was a big mirror, 10 ft. by 7 ft. tall. On the top of the mirror was the engraved face of Medusa. All around the hall was life size statues of people. They all looked into mirror, and it made them happy. They saw wonderful things, beautiful landscapes, people being happy, nothing that was alike the rest of the house. There was a thought of concern in Logan's mind, but he pushed it aside. Logan looked at his watch, but he couldn't tell what time it was. The watch was flipping through all of the times, never making up its mind. He looked back at the mirror. They stood watching the mirror for hours, and then they decided to find a place to sleep. They turned and walked out a door, they walked into a big room with a pipe organ, and some couches, and they decided to sleep there. But what they did not notice was the unusual amount of cobwebs in the living room. They laid down on the couches, and very soon they were asleep.

Logan woke up to a very strange feeling. He felt weightless, when he opened his eyes and realized he was actually floating. There was a weird white rope wrapped around him holding him in the air. There was a lot of movement on his back, when he was finally able to take in his surroundings, Logan almost had a heart attack. They were surrounded by tarantulas, thousands of them. They were crawling over him, wrapping him web. He heard the organ playing, looked towards the organ and was very surprised. A giant spider the size of minivan was playing the organ. Logan looked to the right and saw Dylan hanging by web, Logan turned to the left and saw Eli also hanging. The giant spider that was playing the organ spoke,

“I am the ghost of John Proctor. Finally, I have some pets. I love pets. You will be my pets! You get to attend all of my piano recitals! Ha!” The spider turned towards the organ and blew some mist out of his mouth. When the mist solidified there was lots of pages of music, the spider began to play the organ. The second the music came out it immediately gave all three people a headache. After 10 minutes they began to become extremely hungry. Logan was getting hungrier and thirstier by the second. Every minute Logan lost a pound in weight. He was getting skinnier and skinnier, until he was basically skin and bones. The spider finished his first song, and turned to look at Logan, and said.

“So, you survived your first song. Well now that that you have each been dehydrated, we can now put you away. TWEET!” Thousands of tarantulas came out from the pipes in the organ, and surrounded Eli, Logan, and Dylan . They began wrapping more web around the three guys, until they were each basically mummies.

“Well you look great! Put them away! “ The giant spider shouted. The spider moved away from the organ, under the organ where a bench would go was a big hole. The thousands of tarantulas tied began cutting the web around the guys. Each guy fell to the floor, except that you couldn’t see the floor, it was completely covered with tarantulas. The tarantulas carried each of the three guys to the organ, and dumped them down the hole. The hole was slick like a slide, and they slid down it a while. Finally the slide stopped and they went flying, into a GIANT spider web. All of the tarantulas tied them into the web. Then the tarantulas left. They were stranded. They would die down here.

“Well … this stinks.” Says Logan.

“Agreed” Said Eli.

“Agreed!” Said Dylan .

“Any idea how to get out of here?” Asks Logan. Logan could see Dylan thinking.  He wondered what Dylan was thinking about.

“I know how to get out of here.” Says Dylan . And he explained his plan.

“Owww!” Shouts Logan. Thousands of tarantulas came pouring out of the hole, and tried to see what’s wrong. The spiders searched for something wrong but could not find anything wrong. The big spider came out of the hole to see what was wrong.

“What is the matter?” The giant spider asked.

“They attacked! Gummy Bears! They’re everywhere!” Logan screamed. Dylan and Eli looked terrified.

“What’s a gummy bear?” The giant spider asked, quite nervously.

“You’ve never heard of a gummy bear? Wow, I can’t believe you’ve never heard of a gummy bear. They are so powerful, you don’t stand a chance. A gummy bear would destroy you.” Explained Dylan .

“I think I could handle a gummy bear.” Said the giant spider.

“Well let us go, so we can see you fight one.” Said Logan. The giant spider nodded his head in approval. Tarantulas swarmed over all three guys, and began unraveling their webs. The tarantulas carried them out of the hole in the organ and into the living room. While none of the spiders were looking, Logan opened the package of gummy bears and threw them across the floor.

“Ah! Gummy bears! Run!” Shouted Dylan. Dylan, Eli, and Logan sprinted to the other side of the room. The giant spider was scared.

“They’re real! They’re real! Gummy bears! They’re everywhere!” The giant spider shouted. The three guys looked at each other and began to sing their song.

“A,B,C,D,E,F,G,

Gummy bears are chasing me,

One is red and one is blue,

One is biting my new shoe,

Now I’m running for my life,

Cause the fat one has a knife,” The three guys finished singing. The giant spider started freaking out.

“Oh My Gosh!!!!! It’s the fat one!” He screamed. He dove into the corner hiding. The guys saw this is a good time to run. We opened the door and slammed it shut. We ran down the hall until we were sure that we were safe. Dylan said,

"I get it."

"What do you mean you get it." Logan asked.

"I understand this house. This house has a ghost in every room of the house. I remember reading about all the rooms in this house. This house has been remodeled many times. This house has a kitchen, library, hall, living room, basement, office, closet,  master bedroom, kid bedroom, bathroom, basketball court, swimming pool, and an attic.” Dylan said.

“Well, if that’s our way out, let’s get through those rooms.” Logan said.

The trio walked through the halls of the mansion and passed many, many doors. In between all the doors there were lots of paintings. Logan swore he saw some of the painting move. Some doors had claw marks, some had burns on them, some were perfectly normal. They came to the end of the hall. There was an open window leading to the outside. They could escape! All three guys jumped out into the bushes behind the house. They passed an entrance to a cellar then heard a deafening ROAR! They could see something big charge through the trees on the property. The guys didn’t want to mess with whatever that was so the guys ran back to the entrance to the cellar and jumped in. The cellar was very dark, and very cold. There was a sign that said, ‘I am the ghost of George Burroughs’. There were lots of jail cells in it too. They were walking through the cellar when a hand shot out from underneath a jail cell and grabbed Logan’s leg, pulling him to the ground.

“Ahh!” Logan screamed. A face appeared from behind the bars.

“Silence fool. Do you want to wake the dungeon keeper?” The man asked.
“W-W-Who are you?” Logan asked nervously.
“My name is Doug. I came to this house 2 months ago. Last week I stumbled into here and the dungeon keeper caught me. He locked me into this jail cell.” Doug said. Logan asked.

“What’s the dungeon kee-” Logan went flying across the room. Standing right where Logan had been standing was a big figure. You couldn’t make out it’s face because of the darkness. The figure was about 8 ft. tall, with broad shoulders. Two giant horns stuck out of his head, there was only one thing this creature could be.

“MINOTAUR!” Dylan shouted. The Minotaur charged like a bull (He is good at that, he is part bull) towards Logan who was still on the ground. Dylan ran over to Doug’s cell and whispered

“We’ll get you out of here.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice.” Doug responded.

“Eli!” Dylan shouted.

“I need your gun.” Eli ran over to Dylan pulled out his gun and blasted the lock with it. The lock shattered at his feet. The jail cell swung open and Doug charged out. Doug had spend years training for the mansion and he ran to the Minotaur and tackled it. The Minotaur roared in frustration and swung his axe at Doug. Doug easily sidestepped it, and punched the Minotaur in the nose. At that moment there was a loud BANG! and the Minotaur fell to the ground. Eli stood there with his gun in his hand, he had shot the Minotaur.

“Let’s go.” All four men ran up a staircase and out of the basement.

The 4 men finally stopped in front of an office. They discussed if they should go in or not. They decided to go in. In the office there was a desk with a computer on it, and a chair. That was it. There was a corner that shadows completely covered. Something moved out of the corner, something flashed, something was moving, something was metal. A humanoid robot stepped out of the corner. Out of all the ghost’s they’d seen so far, this was definitely the scariest. The broken metal rusted creature stepped in the light. It’s left arm was missing, and sparks were flying out. It’s right leg was bent in the wrong direction. Half of the robot’s face was melted, so you couldn’t even tell what it was supposed to be. It limped over to Logan and his friends.

“I” The robot’s voice creaked.

“I am the ghost of George Jacobs Sr. If you value your life and wish to escape this office, you must pass my tests. Only then will I let you live. If you fail the tests, I will cut you open and turn you into a robot. You will be one of my minions. May luck be with you.” The ghost then shot a bright light out of his hand. And everything went bright. When the light dimmed, They were standing in a room. In front of them on a table was a robot completely broken. There were shelves with tools on them all around the room. There were also some computers. A big TV was also hung up in the room.

“I remember this ghost I have found him before.” Said Doug.

“He always gives you a difficult challenge. But if you complete it he lets you live and he gives you a reward. The reward has something to do with what’s just about to happen. You never know what the reward has to do until it happens. Last time I met this ghost he gave me some knowledge…” Doug stopped talking. He added.

“The knowledge hasn’t come true yet though,” Logan, Dylan, and Eli all thought that was suspicious, but no one said anything. The TV turned on and that creepy robot’s face appeared.

“Welcome to my lab. You have 30 minutes to completely fix that robot on the table. If he is not 100% back to the way he was … let’s just say this. This whole room is on top of a nuclear bomb. If the robot is not 100% back to the way he is … KABOOM. You will lose. But if you do fix the robot you will  get to live, plus I have a reward for you. Good luck.” The robot finished.

Part 2

 The Pocket Watch

Well that’s great. Way to set high stakes. Fix this robot in 30 minutes or get blown up! Thanks a lot creepy robot.

“Hey Logan! We need you! Shouted Doug.

“Eli and Dylan are gonna work on the programming part of the robot, they’ll use the computers. Me and you have to the physical section of the robot. We to make the robot look like a robot.” Doug said urgently. Me and Doug ran over to where the robot was laying on the table. I took one look at it and realized there was no fixing it. The robot looked like it had been hit by a cannonball. Everything on the front side of the robot was completely melted, and there was a hole in the robot’s chest. The size of a cannonball. I opened up the head of the robot to see what condition the wires were in. I took one look in and got really sad, there was only one thing in the robot’s head and it was not wires, it was ash. Useless. I scooped all the ash out of the robot’s head, and cleaned it. Now there’s somewhere the wires can go.

“Logan! We’re gonna have to completely remove the front side of the robot.” Doug shouted. We both grabbed screwdrivers and began unscrewing screws, which was not easy considering they were melted to the piece of metal we were trying to remove. We were finally able to yank off the metal. Inside the robot instead of wires there was more ash. We scooped out all of the ash and found it’s memory chip. It was completely ruined.

“Looks like it spent some time in the water.” We ran over to the shelves and found a new memory chip, I ran over and plugged the memory chip into the robot. Doug grabbed a welding tool and began to take apart the robot. I grabbed some new metal and gave it to Doug. Doug welded the new metal on the robot. In 5 minutes we had the robot completely looking new again. Problem was the robot was still hollow inside. I grabbed some of the wires on the shelf and looked at the TV which was counting down. 15:00 it said.

Great. 15 minutes to rewire this robot. It takes electricians days to wire a house, how am I supposed to wire a robot in 15 minutes. We placed some new metal on top of the old metal so the metal wasn’t rusted anymore. We weren’t going very fast but at least it looked like the robot wasn’t hit by a cannonball anymore. I hurried started plugging wires into holes, some wires were too big for the holes, other’s were too small. Finally all the wires fit into the right holes. That felt like that took 10 minutes. I looked at the clock on the TV and I couldn’t believe what it said. 01:00! We had 1 minute to make this robot work. Me and Doug immediately grabbed the metal chest of the robot and began to weld it on. We finished the welding, and looked at the clock. 00:30. 30 SECONDS! I shouted over to Eli and Dylan on the computers.

¨Guys! We have 25 seconds left. We need the chip for the programming part of the robot!¨ Dylan yelled back, ¨We just need to download the file onto the SD card, then we can transfer that to the robot.¨

¨Well then! Start the download!¨ Dylan started the download, I looked at the clock. 10 . . . 9 … 8 … 7 … 6 … 5

¨We’re done!” Dylan shouted. He yanked the SD card out of the computer and tossed it to me, I ripped open the head of the robot I glanced at the TV 00:02. I stuffed the SD card into the head of the robot. I looked at the TV 00:01. The floor started to glow red, but then the robot’s eyes flipped open. We had finished the robot. The floor stopping glowing, the robot go off the table and walked to the wall he grabbed the hammer and lifted it up. A wall moved and behind that wall was an elevator. The robot walked into the elevator and the wall shut behind him. The TV started to lower until we could see a dumbwaiter behind it. The dumbwaiter opened up and inside was a little package and a note. I grabbed it. The note said: Every ghost has a weakness, you found mine. Use this gift to help you against Giles Corey

Behind the note there was a package the size of a cupcake box. I grabbed the box and opened it up. Inside the box was an old fashioned pocket watch, I grabbed the pocket watch and the second I picked it up. And the moment I did I wished I didn’t. The most agony I have ever been in went through my body. That was followed by the most extreme thoughts that have ever gone through my head. I saw each and every witch who was killed in Salem get killed. Then I saw Giles Corey, getting pressed to death. I saw the ghost of Giles Corey come back and take over the house. Giles Corey then talked to me about how much pain he had been through. He told me he that he a plan to conquer the world and give the world a test of their own medicine. He said that I should host his ghost, and together we would be the most duo on the earth. I mentally declined, and he started screaming and threatening me. He said that since we were in his house he could control whether I saw the light of day again, or if I would never make it out. He then said that he summoned every single ghost in the house to come and kill me, and my friends. He then started showing me his plan to take over the world, I saw the Statue of Liberty in ruins, Beijing in flames, and Salem would be his glorious empire. That’s when I passed out. When I finally woke up I was laying down on a bed. All of friends were looking down on me. I immediately knew something was wrong especially when I noticed there were only two of them. I asked,

“Where’s Eli?!” They told me what happened.

They said that they encountered another ghost.

They said that I picked up the watch and immediately passed out. They said they heard all this screaming from all around them. Doug said that he dragged me all the way to the hall where we had already been. They said they spent hours in the hall, and they said they were both addicted to the mirror. They said they heard the screaming again and they came down to a closet. They went inside of the closet, and that’s where they lost Eli. They said they walked into the closet and then the ground went out from underneath them. They said the carpet was like quicksand, but Doug and Dylan got out. They said Eli went under the quick carpet. Doug said that he dragged me to the master bedroom. Doug explained the ghost.

“The master bedroom was huge! It was the size of 2 football fields! In the bedroom was a bed the size of a football field. On the bed was thousands of teddy bears! And I mean thousands! It would probably weigh a ton if we put all of those teddy bear’s-”

“Doug- back to the story please!” I snapped.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. Any ways I remembered a story about if you laid on that bed you got turned into a teddy bear. It was the ghost of … uh . . . Molly . . . no . . . Martha Carrier! It was so hard to fight it, but we kept moving on. We went back to that hall with the mirror, and stared at the mirror for a couple hours. We then heard the screaming and this time we heard footsteps running towards us. We ran through the door and ended up here. What ever was chasing us . . . we lost it . . . well, we lost them. We came in here about 5 minutes ago and threw you on the bed. Nothing unusual happened since. I gathered my surroundings of the room, it looked like a kid’s room. It was kind of a creepy room, it was clown themed. Clown wallpaper lined the walls. There were three life size clowns were hanging from chains that were attached to the roof. I have no idea who would want those. All of the sudden a very high pitched voice from all over the room, the voice said.

“I am the ghost of Susannah Martin. Fear me! You have two choices. Take the quest. Or leave right now. If you leave right now, no harm will come upon you, and you will be alright. However there is a challenge you could accept. You could die on the challenge though. But . . . if you complete the challenge you will receive a special prize. Sooooooooooo? What you say? “What’s the gift?” I demanded.

No answer.

I turned and looked at Dylan and Doug. Dylan shook his head no, but Doug shook his head yes. It came down to me. No, it’s too dangerous. Why would I even risk that. But?... maybe that prize will come in helpful later. I thought about it, then came up with my decision.

“We’re in.” I said. Dylan gasped at that.

“What were you thinking?!” Dylan yelled.

“We can now get killed! Thanks to you! You should have chosen the safe way out of it. Thanks a lot!” I didn’t know what to think. My best friend was really mad at me.

“Ah, it’s all right, you did the right thing.” Doug said.

“Now what is this stinkin’ challenge?” Doug asked. Unfortunately he got his answer. All three clowns jumped from the chains and pulled out some really big knives. They began chasing us. You didn’t tell me twice to run Me, Dylan , and Doug sprinted down the hall, we took a mad left, and charged down the next hall. Some really loud crazy laughing, and the clowns came doing some weird clown walk down the hall. The first clown jumped, except their not normal jumpers. This clown jumped 40 feet and landed 5 feet away from us. It swiped with its knife, but it missed. Another clown hurdled us. And pulled both of its knives out. Couldn’t go that way. The third clown caught up. We were trapped. One of the clowns said in a very high pitched, and a very annoying voice.

“We caught you! You thought you pass the test! You fools! The test was that if you survived for 5 minutes you could get the prize. But we caught you and now we get to kill you! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

I could see Dylan thinking very hard, the way he thinks on a test. Hopefully he had a plan. He was very smart.

“Wait. You didn’t catch us in 5 minutes. You caught us in 5 minutes and 1 second. Where’s our prize? We won.” Dylan said. I was very confused what was Dylan talking about the ghost’s obviously caught in less than a minute, we lost.

“No. We caught you in 50 seconds.” One of the clown’s said.

“No, my watch says you caught us in 5 minutes and 1 second.” Dylan explained. He showed them his watch.

“No, no, no, you did it all wrong. It says you got caught in 50 seconds.” The clown yelled. The clown thought that Dylan would be scared that he just got proved wrong, but instead Dylan just smiled.

“No. You did it wrong. You really did catch us in 50 seconds but you’ve been talking for so long, it’s been 6 minutes.” Dylan said.

“NO! TRICKERY!” The clown lunged at Dylan with both knives out, but before he could reach him, the clown turned into smoke and blew away. The other clowns did the same. Dylan said,

“I do believe you owe us a prize.”

“Fine.” That clown voice was back.

“Who wants to carry the burden of the prize?” The clown voice asked.

“What do you mean ‘carry the burden’?” Dylan asked.

“Who wants to do it?” I immediately thought I would do it, but before I could do it Doug walked forward and said, “I’ll do it.”

“All righty.” The creepy clown voice said. Red smoke materialized around Doug’s right hand and forearm. The smoke materialized, and sitting on Doug’s arm instead of his hand was a dummy. It was a creepy dummy, it was clown themed (of course) and it was just sitting on Doug’s arm. It was weird. Well let’s keep moving. We walked down the hall and opened the door we walked into a bathroom. We walked into a bathroom and just then I remembered what Eli told me when I got into the taxi. Dylan remembered too and by the time we remembered the doors were already locked.  We were locked in. The shower started, the sink started, and toilet started overflowing. Within a minute there was an inch of water on the floor. The water was rising fast. We were already dead. There was no chance of survival. The water was already waist level. 15 minutes past, and the water was up to my shoulders, and I was the tallest one. Dylan who was 5’4 was already treading water. Doug who was around 6 ft. tall was struggling to keep his head above the water line. I was 6’5 so I could still stand and breathe, but not for more much longer. Then we all heard a voice coming from the tub,

“Fear me! I am the Sarah Wildes. How long can you hold your breath? Let’s see.” I was now treading water. The water kept on rising pretty soon my head hit the roof of the bathroom. The water kept coming up. Sooner than I wanted too, I grabbed my last breath. Underwater it was really blurry but I saw the bathroom door open up and I saw Eli swim towards the bottom of the room. He grabbed a sponge on the ground and ripped it off the ground. Under the sponge was a drain. The water started going down the drain. Unfortunately the ghost didn’t want us to get away, the ghost came out of the tub. The ghost was a majestic lionfish that was really pretty from a distance, but not from up close. It had long stingers which he used when he swam close to Eli. The ghost stung Eli. The water emptied all down the drain, we found Eli unconscious. He’s poisoned, we need medical attention for him.

“Is this how you want to use your one wish?” A voice said. It came from Doug.

“What’d you say Doug?” I asked.

“I didn’t say anything!” Doug looked as confused as I was. Doug looked at his arm where the dummy was sitting. It was just being creepy as usual and it smiled. Then it opened it’s mouth and said,

“Is this how you want to spend your one wish.” The dummy asked. We all jumped back in surprise, the dummy was alive!

“You’re alive?” I asked.

“Duh, I’m talking. Of course I’m alive.” The dummy responded very sarcastic.

“You . . . said earlier that we had one wish. What was that about?” I asked.

“Well, since you survived against the clowns for 5 minutes, you get one wish. How do you want to spend your one wish.” I stared at the dummy in disbelief, this dummy was basically a genie, with only one wish though. Dylan immediately turned and looked at me. Dylan said,

“Let’s get out of here. Let’s use our one wish and get out of this house.” Dylan had a very good point, we could get out of this stinking house.

“No. We can’t use our one wish like that. I want to get out of this house as much as you do, but we can’t leave Eli to die. Even if we leave this house, and take Eli with us, he won’t live long enough to get medical attention.” I thought about both the points. We could get out of this house, be done with it forever. Or we could let Eli live, no man left behind. I thought of another point. I asked the clown.

“Do we all get our own individual wishes?” The dummy smiled and said,

“Very smart. Yes you each get your own wish.”  Doug immediately said,

“I’m using my wish, to heal Eli.” The dummy’s hand turned purple, he pointed towards Doug then Eli. The purple went away. Eli got up coughing. He looked different, more pale, he almost looked … transparent.

“Thanks guys. You saved me back there.” He explained that after he fell through the floor he fell in a dark hole, found a door, walked through a hall, and stumbled into the bathroom. The last thing he remembered was getting stung by a lion fish. The whole story seemed a little bit fishy but I didn’t say anything. Well, let’s keep moving. We opened the door and found a room that made me jealous. It was the basketball court. I immediately got scared though, in the middle of the court was a tall creature, 15 ft. tall. It turned and looked at us. It had one eye. Cyclops.

“You dare challenge me?” It said.

“I am the ghost of Samuel Wardell. And if you want to get out of this room. You will have to beat me at any sport.” He spat. I was confused.

“What do you mean any sport?” I asked.

“I mean any sport. Like golf,” He waved his hand and the basketball court turned into a golf course. And we were all wearing polos and hats, and had clubs. No roof or anything.

“Volleyball” He waved his hand and the golf course changed to a sand court, and we were wearing sleeveless shirts and was barefoot.

“Or basketball.” He smirked. He waved his hand and the volleyball court changed to a basketball court, and of course we were wearing basketball uniforms.

“What do you choose.” He asked. I had no reply. We could not take him in basketball, he was 9 ft. taller than us. We couldn’t take him in football, he was giant. I thought through all the sports and my best bet was soccer, maybe we could beat him at that. I was about to say soccer but then Dylan said something that my idea look dumb.

“Chess.” Dylan said seriously.

“We choose chess.” He repeated. That was a smart move. Dylan had held the State Chess Title for years, if anyone could beat this giant at a sport it would be Dylan at chess.

“Chess?” The giant laughed.

“You mean with the horsies and the little castles. Deal.” The cyclops said. He waved his hand and then me, Dylan , and Doug were all wearing silver suits. The cyclops was wearing a gold suit. We were standing on a giant chess board. Life size pieces surrounded us. Our pieces were made completely out of silver, where his were made completely out of gold. I noticed that one piece was missing from each team. The king.

“Me and you will be the kings this game.” The giant said. He and Dylan got in position. On the roof was a lot of mirrors angled so that you could see every piece on the board. On the top of the board was a row of numbers, and on the side of the board was a row of letters.

“If you want to move the pieces say the piece they are on right now, and then say the piece where they will go. Let’s begin. Ladies first.” The cyclops laughed. Dylan looked dead serious. ‘4,b’ to ‘6,c’ Dylan said. The giant moved his first piece. Pretty soon the game was in full swing. There were a couple times when the giant would say check to Dylan. But Dylan always had that piece killed. Lot’s of pieces were lost pretty soon. Until finally the cyclops said check.

“Where you gonna move now? Little guy?” The giant mocked.

“I’ll move ‘7,d’ to ‘5,f’. Checkmate.” The giant was surprised. It was the first time where the giant had ever lost.

“Stupid little horsie. Your horsie put me in checkmate. No fair. You know what I don’t care anymore. ROAR! The cyclops charged towards us, but before the Cyclops could reach us he blew up into a flame of fire. I was confused, because I didn’t know what happened. I looked over at Dylan and he looked very serious, almost like he regretted something. But I knew he knew something. I asked him what happened. Dylan said he used his one wish to make the cyclops disappear. I was kind of mad at Dylan, because of making the cyclop’s disappear, he could have used his one wish and gotten us out of this house. Dylan said he was already aware of that fact. And he was mad about it. I thought about my what just happened and made a decision.

“I want to use my one wish and get all of us out of this house.” I said. The dummy on Doug’s arm laughed.

“How powerful do you think I am? Ha! I can only teleport 2 people out of this house, and there are four of you. I can teleport 2 of you out. Just tell me who and I’ll do it.” The dummy said. That was disappointing because that meant that not all of us could get out.

“Wait, we can still get out. Me and Eli will both use our wishes right now and get us all out of here.” I said. Then Eli said something that made me sad.

“Remember I wasn’t there when you guys survived the clowns. I don’t have any wishes.”

“Fine. Let’s keep moving.”  I was very sad. We would just have to get out of the house on our own. And the part that bugged me was that only one person could get out of the house. Not all of us. We walked into the next room. The room that would change history forever. The room capable of destroying the earth. The swimming pool.  First of all the room was humongous, the size of an airplane hanger. There was a swimming pool in the middle of the room. The pool had a diving board, with something on it. Surrounding the room was thousands maybe a million lounge chairs. On every lounge chair was a person, well sort of a person, they looked more like a zombie. We walked to the edge of the pool and saw what was on the diving board. It was a crocodile, it was just lounging on the diving board. On the walls of the room were Egyptian paintings. The crocodile was wearing old Egyptian pharaoh robes. With the pharaoh bowling pin hat. The crocodile turned it’s head toward us and said,

“I am the ghost of Samuel Wardell. Fear me! I am Akhenaton the most powerful pharaoh! I will unleash all the zombies in this room on the world. The world will finally bow to it’s rightful pharaoh. I will give the world a taste of it’s own medicine. The world killed me for no reason, now I will punish them!” The crocodile said. Zombies. I thought back to whole journey here in the house, and what people have said. I thought about the taxi ride when we first passed the house, and what Eli said. “Rumor has it that house is cursed by all the people who died there. You can't go in, millions of people have gone in. Only 10 people have come out.” I thought about what Doug said earlier, “We then heard the screaming and this time we heard footsteps running towards us. We ran through the door and ended up here. What ever was chasing us . . . we lost it . . . well, we lost them.” I thought about what happened in the office when I first picked up the pocket watch. “I saw each and every witch who was killed in Salem get killed. Then I saw Giles Corey, getting pressed to death. I saw the ghost of Giles Corey come back and take over the house. Giles Corey then talked to me about how much pain he had been through. He told me he that he a plan to conquer the world and give the world a test of their own medicine. He said that I should host his ghost, and together we would be the most duo on the earth. I mentally declined, and he started screaming and threatening me. He said that since we were in his house he could control whether I saw the light of day again, or if I would never make it out. He then said that he summoned every single ghost in the house to come and kill me, and my friends. He then started showing me his plan to take over the world, I saw the Statue of Liberty in ruins, Beijing in flames, and Salem would be his glorious empire.” I remembered what I saw. All of the sudden things started to make sense. When Eli said that the house was cursed by the people who died there, he didn’t just mean the witches. He meant every single person who has ever died in that house! That’s over a million people! Giles Corey is gonna use all the zombies in this room, and . . . start the event that will end the world. Giles Corey is going to unleash a zombie apocalypse on the whole world.” I knew what I had to do. I reached inside of my backpack and pulled out the cupcake box. I opened it up, and grabbed the pocket watch. I saw the same things I saw earlier, the accused witches dying, Giles Corey getting pressed. Wait … Giles Corey looked very familiar. Too familiar. His eyes, Giles Corey had the same eyes as …!” I turned and pointed at the traitor in my group.

“You.” I said to Eli. Eli looked confused.

“Excuse me?” Eli asked. He looked confused.

“You are hosting Giles Corey. You set us up.” I was confronting Eli now.

“No wonder, you just happened to be sitting on the porch when we first came here. No wonder you came bursting into the bathroom and got stung so quick. That is why you looked transparent after you got stung. You made Doug waste his wish on a person who was already dead! You plan to unleash all these zombies on the world! You are a traitor!” I yelled. I expected Eli to be really scared, and say sorry and all of that. But instead Eli just smiled.

“Fine. You caught me.” He clapped his hands, and all of the zombies woke up and got up and surrounded me and Doug, and Dylan. We were hopelessly outnumbered. Giles Corey said,

“Get them. Let’s let them go swimming. I looked in the pool and saw two big objects swimming near the bottom of the pool, sharks. But these sharks were not normal sharks. They were zombie sharks.

“Through them in the pool!” Giles Corey yelled. Zombies grabbed us and dragged us to the pool. They put Doug and Dylan on the diving board. They were about to put me on it, but then Giles Corey said,

“Leave him for me.” Giles Corey said pointing at me. They dragged me towards him. I thought through my options and made my decision. I can save me and Dylan. Sure Doug will turn into a zombie but I don’t even know him. I will use my wish now. I shouted.

“I wish for Dylan and Doug to get out of this house.” I shouted. Doug and Dylan both turned into smoke.

“No!” Giles Corey shouted.

“Take him to the attic!” Giles Corey yelled. I got dragged by the zombies out the door and up some stairs. They opened up the door and threw me in the attic. The zombies went back downstairs. The attic was very dusty, and there was nothing in the attic. Except in the corner was a table, and on top of that table was a casket. I knew who was in there. Giles Corey walked in and fell down on the ground dead. His ghost stood back up, but the body was dead.

“Ah, when the lionfish stung me my body couldn’t handle the venom. The body died. Well.” He went to the casket and pulled off a black sheet. He laid the sheet completely over the dead body. He let the sheet be there for 30 seconds, and then when he removed the sheet, the body was not the same. The body was now wearing black clothes, and was a missing a . . .

“He’s headless!” I shouted in surprise.

“Yes, the headless horseman.” Giles Corey said. He waved his hand and out of the shadows came a black horse. The headless horseman got up and jumped on the horse.

“Now for you.” Giles Corey said. He walked over to the casket and opened up the lid. Nothing was in there.

“Logan Myers. Get in the casket.” Giles Corey ordered. The headless horseman pulled out his sword and pointed to the casket with it. I slowly started walking towards the casket. I finally got to the casket. I laid inside it. Then everything went green. There was a flash of green and then everything went black.

. . .

When I woke up, I was looking into a light. Then someone looked down on me. I was laying on a white bed. I was able to think again, and I realized that the person looking down on me was a doctor. I was in a hospital. I asked the doctor,

“Where am I?” The doctor said,

“You’re home, Seattle.”

“What do you mean Seattle?” I asked. Why wasn’t I in Salem.

“Well a month ago you went into that house, and you came out yesterday morning. You walked off the property and than fell into a coma. The president of Salem University had you expelled, she sent you home.” The doctor said. That was bad news. That meant I survived the attack of Giles Corey but still when would Corey unleash the apocalypse.

“How is Salem?” I asked. The doctor grimaced, and said.

“Salem. Salem is having all sort of problems. Right now the whole city is closed.” I knew what that meant, the apocalypse had begun.

Part 3

The Apocalypse

Later that day, Logan finally got checked out of the hospital. He came downstairs to see Dylan and I  waiting for him.

“Dylan, you got expelled too?” Logan asked. Dylan shook his head yes. It was really disappointing for him, to work so hard to get into a good college and then get expelled in the first month.

“Well, we know that Giles Corey is going to unleash that zombie apocalypse. Is there any chance of stopping it?” I asked. I thought about how Giles Corey would unleash his apocalypse. We had no idea where to even start.

“I know that Giles Corey is going to try to get big cities first. And let the zombies spread. I don’t think that we should be in Seattle.” Logan said.

“So where will he start?” Dylan asked. We were stuck, we did not know what to do. I looked out the window and watched all the airplanes land in Seattle. I thought how bad it would be if only one of those planes would be infested with zombies. Seattle would fall, then Washington. Then Oregon, Idaho, and then the whole northwest. This virus would spread very quickly. We had only one lead, and that was the pocket watch. So really, we had no lead. I just watched all the airplanes land, and then takeoff. If Giles Corey could get his hands on one of those planes, he could wipe out the whole northwest. Then I got an idea on how Giles Corey would unleash the apocalypse. I thought back to the house, and to the swimming pool. I remembered the sharks, how they were zombified just by being around the crocodile. If that crocodile could get powerful enough, he could zombify and entire airplane, and when the airplane landed, light’s out. I immediately told Logan and Dylan my plan. They agreed with me, that Giles Corey would try to do an aerial assault. But we didn’t know what airport Giles Corey would try to use.

“He can’t use Salem. That airport is closed. What airport is big enough to fly to all the big cities?” Logan asked.

“Boston.” Dylan said.

“No, he would want a bigger airport one that is all flying to big cities, New York City.” I said.

“I bet, if we go down to New York City, that crocodile is sitting in the radio tower right now.” I finished.

“Well, let’s get going.” Logan said. We got tickets to New York and then flew to New York. When we arrived in New York, the weather was acting very weird. Spiral clouds flew over the radio tower, that confirmed our suspicion. We walked inside the airport and looked at the next 12 flights.

12:00 Flight to Los Angeles, CA

12:15 Flight to Chicago, IL

12:30 Flight to Miami, FL

12:45 Flight to Dallas, TX

1:00 Flight to Minneapolis, MN

1:15 Flight to St. Louis, MO

1:30 Flight to Washington D. C.

1:45 Flight to Honolulu, HI

2:00 Flight to Anchorage, AK

2:15 Flight to Denver, CO

2:30 Flight to Philadelphia, PA

2:45 Flight to Houston, TX

3:00 Flight to Las Vegas, NV

3:15 Flight to Atlanta, GA

3:00 Flight to Portland, OR

3:15 Flight to Cleveland, OH

3:30 Flight to Boston, MA

3:45 Flight to San Francisco, CA

4:00 Flight to Seattle, WS

There was no way that was a coincidence. Those cities were all big cities, and all strategically spread out. That also confirmed our suspicion. I looked at my watch it said, 1:40. A voice came over the intercom and it said,

“Now boarding flight 4032, New York to Los Angeles. Now boarding.” I ran to the boarding dock and yelled to all the people boarding.

“Do not get on this plane! It is a trap! Do not get on this plane!” I would have kept on yelling, but then security started walking my way. I thought it was best to be quiet. Security came over and said,

“Sir, do we have a problem.” Security asked.

“Yes we do.” I said.

“And what is that.” The security guard asked.

“The problem is that everyone on that plane is going to turn a zombie, and it’s going to start a zombie apocalypse.” I said. The security guard looked at me kind of funny.  

“Let me assure you sir. Nobody on that plane is going to turn into a zombie.” The security guard leaned in closer and said,

“because zombies aren’t real.” He really emphasized that last part. He then kindly escorted us out of the airport. I looked at my watch, it said 12:00. I looked at the runway and saw the first airplane takeoff. I watched in horror as the plane flew by the radio tower and got hit by lightning. It wasn’t normal lightning though. It was gray lightning. I knew that everyone on that plane got turned into a zombie. But that also showed us something. The crocodile was in the radio tower. We ran to the radio tower. We got to the tower but security stopped us.

“We need to get in there! Right now!” Logan yelled. I looked and saw the second plane take off and I saw that plane also get hit by the gray lightning. We were too late. Security came out to meet us, we told them that we need to get into the radio tower. They said that there was no way that a zombie crocodile was turning airplane passengers into zombies. They tried to prove it by walkie talkie-ing up to the top of the tower. They were surprised when no one answered. They let us in and we sprinted to the tower. We opened up the radio tower door and we found that the power was out. No elevator for us. We sprinted up the stairs. In the dark we couldn’t very well, but security had flashlights and that’s all we had. We heard random screams from the top of the tower. Finally we got to the 15th floor. We waited until everyone was at the top.

“You know that the most dangerous creature in the world, might be behind that door.” I whispered. Security agreed. They pulled their guns out. Right before we went into the room, we heard a crack of lightning, there went another plane. We opened the door and charged in. We could see better because of the huge windows. In the control room was all the people who were working there. Except they were already zombies. The zombies charged and took out the security guards, and less than 10 seconds the security guards were zombies. The crocodile turned and looked at me.

“So you thought you could stop me. Ha! I’m proud of you for figuring out that I was here. I think you guys should be honored, you will be the first deaths of a new war. Now how do I want to kill you? I know, how about a little jump?” The crocodile’s tail reached back and smashed the big window. Zombies grabbed me, and Dylan, and Logan and dragged us to the big window. The crocodile said,

“Don't kill him.” He said looking at Logan. Why did the crocodile spare Logan?  Can he spare me? I knew this was my only chance of escaping. I shook my arms from the zombie and turned and punched the zombie in the face. The zombie fell down. I sprinted for the door. The crocodile yelled,

“Kill him!” I looked back and saw Logan running now too. Unfortunately, behind Logan was a dozen zombies, who were chasing me and Logan. The zombies had Dylan. Me and Logan burst out of the door and sprinted down the stairs. Zombies came pouring out of the top of the room at the top of the tower. Me and Logan were already down a floor when the zombies came out. We had an advantage, but then zombies completely jumped a whole flight of stairs and caught up to us. They began screaming and chasing us. I punched one of the zombies and took him out. But there was still at least 10 still chasing us. One jumped really far, and I ducked it went soaring over my head. It over jumped and went right threw the window. It fell to it’s death. Me and Logan kept sprinting down the stairs. A zombie jumped from the top of the stairs, and flew over me and Logan and hit the wall hard. By the time it got up, me and Logan had passed it. The zombies kept on screaming and chasing us. BOOM! I heard a gun go off and saw a zombie fall to the ground. Who’s shooting? I looked down we were at the bottom floor. A couple security guards were at the bottom of the stairs. They were shooting the zombies above us. I looked back and saw only one zombie still chasing us. It was one of the security guards who came with us into the radio tower. He pulled out his gun and took one shot before he was shot. Unfortunately, the one bullet he fired hit me in the arm. I fell down in pain. The security guards were really confused and we explained what happened. They called the paramedics and the paramedics came. They fixed my arm and put in a sling. They said it would be a while before it finally healed. The security guards called the airport and said not to let any planes take off. The airport called back and said that 19 planes had taken off. The twelve planes that planes that Giles Corey planned to zombify. There was no way that was a coincidence. 19 planes, 19 ghosts. I bet each plane had a ghost on it. We were too late, the apocalypse was in full force. Security called the military and told them what was going on. A couple hours later the military arrived. The military said that several cities had been infected with the zombie curse. They asked me and Logan if we had any idea on how to stop Giles Corey, and we told them our only lead was the pocket watch. They general of the military then got on his phone and talked to some other military officials. The military general said that this curse was very serious and that we need to end it immediately. He said that several cities have already gotten it. He reported that Washington D. C., Chicago, St. Louis, Miami, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia have reported that planes have come in full of zombies. The military general said that the curse has moved quickly and that other cities have gotten cursed too. He said that Orlando, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Detroit, Little Rock, Charlotte, and Boston were cursed. They said that the president was cursed. The military general said that a team of Navy Seals was going to escort us to the manor of Giles Corey. There they would break us in, and let us destroy Giles Corey with the pocket watch. They said that there was probably going to be a lot of zombies at the manor.

“Be safe, and get the mission done. The whole world depends on this mission.” The general said. We got into the Navy Seals helicopter and flew to Salem, Massachusetts. I looked out the window and I saw zombies running up and down the street. There were no normal people left. A lot of houses were on fire. The only thing that looked normal was Giles Corey’s mansion. Zombies roamed his front yard.

“We’ll have to drop you off in the back. We think that Giles Corey is holding Dylan hostage. So whatever you do, don’t let Giles Corey hold you hostage.” The Navy Seals ordered. The helicopter flew down low and landed. They turned off the engine. Me, Logan and the Navy Seals all hopped out. There was a huge forest behind Giles Corey’s manor.

“We’re going to have to walk about ½ a mile to get to the manor.” One of the seals said. He then handed me and Logan a very big gun.

“You can expect some zombies. We turned off the helicopter’s lights. It was pitch black. The only light we had was the light of the flashlights. We all had a flashlight, gun, and radio. The seals said that the radio would be useless in the house so don’t use it in there. The seals said that we were going to be quick. Quick in, quick out.

“Fall out.” The commander of the seals said. We all got into formation. Me and Logan were in the middle of all the seals. The seals surrounded us. The plan was that Logan and I would go in the house. The Navy Seals would wait out here, and then escort us back to the helicopter. I was to escort Logan in the house. We would come out with Dylan and then get back in the helicopter. Only problem was that I couldn’t help much because my left arm was still in a sling from the radio tower. I could only shoot with my right hand. We ran in formation with the Seals. Pretty soon we found the zombies. It all started when we heard the screaming. We heard the screaming, and it got louder, and louder, and pretty soon it was really close. Zombies came sprinting over the hill. None of the zombies got even close they were sniped by the seals before they got within ten feet. The Navy seals shot all zombies that charged. The seals were doing pretty good for the first minute. But then there were just too much zombies. They completely surrounded us. One zombie did a flying dive and took out one of the seals. By the time that zombie was killed, the Navy Seal was already cursed. One Seal down. We had started out with 12 seals. We hadn’t even gone far and now we had 11.

“Just make a run for it!” The general of the seals yelled. We all began running. The seals were shooting zombies as we were running. One of the zombies who was in a tree jumped and landed on one of the seals. We only had 10 Navy Seals left. We kept running towards the house. Pretty soon one of the Seals got separated from the rest of the group. We were down to 9 Seals. We had nine Navy seals left when all the zombies just stopped. We were out of the forest. Then I saw the house and realized why they stopped. We weren’t out of the woods yet. Well, technically we were, but we still had distance to cover before we were done with the mission. The Navy Seal that got zombified earlier on, shot me. As I fell to the ground I fired and took out the former Navy Seal before he could even say AAH! I fell to the ground in pain. The Navy Seals told me there was no going back. It was either keep going or give up and die. I grabbed a stick that was nearby and used that to prop myself up. I then started using that stick as a walking stick so I could keep going. The Navy Seals saw that I was already and then we charged forward to the house. We hopped the fence that lined the property of the mansion. In the backyard was the giant doghouse. Fido was out in the backyard. Fido was a creature that died a long time ago. Fido was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It looked like one of the zombies so it looked it had been risen from the dead. The Navy Seals were taken by surprise. They had never seen how intense this house can get. They don’t know what to expect. They told me and Logan to stand back but I kept on fighting them and saying let me fight.

“I know I need to fight!” I knew I needed to fight. The Navy Seal general then put me at gunpoint and said.

“You will stay right there, until further instruction.” I thought about all those years ago when I found the office ghost and he gave me my fortune. You will be the sacrifice, that saves the world. That is not what I wanted to hear. I have put together part of the fortune. Saving the world had to do with the apocalypse somehow I knew that somehow I would end the apocalypse, but I would die in the process. The Navy Seals thought that somehow they could contain the zombie T-Rex. The began firing their guns at the zombie T-Rex. The T-Rex was a zombie and the bullets didn’t hurt the undead dinosaur. The T-Rex then charged and whacked one of the Seals with it’s tail and he went flying into the forest where he was greeted by the zombies. We had 8 seals now. Fido charged and with one bite two seals were killed. We were down to 6 Navy Seals. We had lost half of the seals that came in. The General still had me at gunpoint. Pretty soon all the Navy Seals were either stomped on, eaten, or whacked out to zombie territory.  The general said,

“Fine, if you have a plan. I would love to see it.” At that moment, Fido snapped the Navy Seals general in one bite. The undead dinosaur roared at me and Logan and that’s when I saw it. There was a key dangling from Fido’s neck. Then it made sense. The seals who got around the dinosaur couldn’t get in the house because it was locked. The only way in the house was getting that key off the dinosaur. I remember the note. You will be the sacrifice that will save the world. It was now or never. Fido bent down to snap me up, and I dove out of the way. I jumped up and grabbed the top of the dinosaurs neck. The dinosaur stood up to it’s full height. Fido tried to snap me, but I held on to that collar as tight as I could. I finally began climbing down the collar until I finally reached the key. I grabbed the key and unhooked it from the collar. The dinosaur frantically tried to gnash me with his teeth, but I held on as tight to that collar as I could. Since Fido was busy trying to get me, Logan made a dash towards the door, I threw the key to Logan and he unlocked the door and went inside. I knew this was the end of me, and I tried to get on top of the dinosaur. But in a way I had succeeded. I distracted Fido long enough for Logan to get inside. You will be the sacrifice that will save the world. I sacrificed my life so that Logan could get inside the house. I knew that Logan would succeed. I got on top of the dinosaurs head and waited for Fido to finish me off. The dinosaur threw it’s head upward sending me flying in the air. I flew into the air and looked down, and then started falling towards the mouth of Fido.

…

Doug. Doug was all I could think about. I completely abandoned Doug. I let him climb up the T-Rex and I ran to the house. I just let him die. I would avenge Doug. I would destroy Giles Corey. I walked down the hall and in front of me was a staircase. I knew where that went. I stormed up the stairs and charged into the attic. I looked into the attic and it was the same as the last time I saw it. Except for the TV monitors on the wall.  I recognized the Seattle screen and saw the Minotaur charging through the streets. That made sense, one of the ghosts was on each plane, and the crocodile was in New York. Each monitor had on what was going on in each of the cities that the apocalypse had hit. Headless Horseman standing in the middle of the room, with a bow and arrow pointed at me. I was surprised Giles Corey was not in the room. And then I thought about it. Then it made sense. 13 people have ever come out of the house, including me, Dylan, and Doug. I thought how Eli said that groups have gone in, but one person came out. Then I remembered how Eli’s body was turned into the headless horseman. I remembered the flash of green light when I laid in the casket. Then it made sense. Why the headless horseman hadn’t shot me yet. He wasn’t trying to kill me, he was trying to keep me alive. Eli was possessed by Giles Corey. I was possessed by Giles Corey. I said to the headless horseman, who used to be Eli.

“I am possessed by Giles Corey. You were possessed by Giles Corey. Your body died by the lionfish. Now if I died, Giles Corey could not continue the invasion.” I knew what to do. I pulled out the pocket watch and pressed it on my chest. The most agony I have ever been in went through my body. I could hear Giles Corey scream at me to stop, but I kept the pocket watch pressed against my chest. Finally the pain stopped and I knew what had happened. I had destroyed the ghost of Giles Corey and all of the other ghosts. I had stopped the zombie invasion. I remembered something that turned my blood cold. Dylan. I had to find him. It was easy to navigate through the mansion considering the house no longer moved. And after I looked through a lot of rooms, I found Dylan. He was tied up in that hall in front of the mirror. His body was almost completely stone. I pretty soon made the connection. That mirror the more you looked at it, you slowly start to turn to stone. I ran up to the chair he was in, and untied him. He looked at me and smiled. He then motioned with his hands to his throat and motioned that he couldn’t talk. I half carried, and half dragged him out of the house. Outside the house, police and ambulances were everywhere. I dragged Dylan over to an ambulance and they put him inside the ambulance and they drove off. A policeman called me over and started interviewing me about what happened. I explained everything. They then told me that there was a helicopter that would take me home. ½ hour later a helicopter landed and I got in. I flew home. I got reunited with my parents, who got zombified. Within a week, things got back to normal. I got into the College of Washington and started attending that. I got a phone call from Salem, saying that Dylan was going to make a full recovery. They said that during the apocalypse they took some of the zombie DNA, and was able to make a medicine, and they gave that to Dylan. Pretty soon my life was back to normal. I was back in Washington, Dylan was coming home, and the apocalypse was over.

THE END