Cursed House Across The Street
By: Sophia Wang
The mansion on Forest Pines Avenue is always empty, abandoned, and forgotten. Some people even tried to erase it from existence and act like it’s not there. The question is, how can you erase your memory of a 3-story-tall mansion that takes up half of the whole street! The Varccent Mansion belonged to a rich hunter, Mr. Varccent. He was the greatest and richest hunter the world’s ever seen. He was taking down packs of wolves, herds of deer, and even bears with a single gun. He bought the whole street and built the entire mansion.
Then he just disappeared. They don’t know where he went, so we just assumed he died in the forest or something. The day after the funeral, the rest of his family, also gone. Totally normal, right? Some say they ran away into the night. Some say the soul of the dead billionaire cursed the heirs. Days after that, people were convinced that the house was cursed.
One day, when a small family moved into the house, they died from a disease even the scientists couldn’t uncover. Rumors say that the ghost of Verccant spilled a bit of his poison onto the family while they were sleeping. The week after that, a man moved in and died of two jagged tears in his back. The people say that Mr. Verccant stabbed his dagger into the man’s back. Then a pair of couples died of some “bullets” in their skulls. After that, not a single person came near the street again.
What do I believe? Pshhhh, I’m not gonna go around talking about that sorta hot-headed junk! I’m Alissa Bortinson, Daughter of the village burier. I’ve dug enough graves to know the difference between ghosts and crazy people making up some wild tales. Well, anyway, it was a hot summer afternoon. I was invited to a party by some of my friends. They were having it at the lake behind the mansion. All of my friends were whispering and freaking out, staring and pointing at the mansion.
“What’s so fabulous about the mansion? It’s just an old house that was supposedly inhabited by an old hag that’s not even around anymore.” I ask.
“OOH,” the girls all shriek.
Samantha, the leader of the girls, challenged, “Well, if you’re all that brave. Why don‘t you go step inside that old mansion yourself?”
“OOOOOH”
What could I do? Of course, nothing. I couldn’t look like a big, thick-headed coward in front of all these people.
“Challenge accepted,” I replied.
The following night, I met up with the girls and did as I promised. The Mansion was dark and musty with dust, but it wasn’t creepy. I walked along the hallways thinking about what ice cream flavor I should get or what I would wear to the town dance. The floor creaked with each step; the painting’s eyes seemed to have followed me through the hallway. A chill went down my spine. There’s no such thing as ghosts. “BOOO” “AAAAAAAH” I fell to the floor in a panic, looming over me was a Big… Hideous…Samantha? Well, that was very embarrassing. Long story short, the whole thing was a prank. The whole village was into it. It was revenge for trampling over my neighbor’s backyard. Also, my teacher was mad at me for calling her a freak a few weeks ago… should I go on? Basically, the village just thought it would be funny to see me get all “Scared” so that I wouldn’t be such a brat to them again. They’d decided that the death of Mr. Verccant would be the perfect ghost of the story.
You might be thinking, “Oh what about the people who died? The small family that moved in?“.The family that died was allergic to dust. The strange scar in the man’s back was actually the teeth marks of a wolf skull that was hung up on a wall. The bullets? Those were just some heavy coins. Everyone knew, EXCEPT ME!!! The whole Verccant family disappearance? That remains a mystery that even a prank can’t solve. Only the cursed house across the street knows.
