The Abandoned House
In primary school, my younger sister, Pihu, and I visited our grandparents' bungalow every
summer vacation. In the evenings, we would go out to play in the garden.
One evening, I was relaxing in a cozy armchair by the fireside with a book when I noticed
Pihu running towards me with a ball in her hand. She yanked me out of the chair and asked
me to play with her. I wasn't really in the mood to play, but I could tell she would be upset if I
refused. Reluctantly, I agreed and let her lead me outside into the garden. We were tossing
the ball into the air and catching it, and this is how the game continued.
Beside the garden, there was a spooky abandoned house. Since childhood, our grandmother
had warned us that it was haunted, so we never ventured near it. But that evening, in the
middle of our game, I threw the ball so high that she couldn't catch it. The ball flew across
the boundary and landed inside the abandoned house. I was about to convince Pihu that it
was getting dark, so we should look for the ball the next morning. However, before I could
say anything, she was already out of sight. I ran after her into the abandoned house. A shiver
ran down my spine as hundreds of bats flew past me the moment I stepped in. I called out
her name and heard my voice echoing. I was getting goosebumps, but I had to find her no
matter what. Suddenly, I heard footsteps of someone running above me. I wondered if Pihu
had gone up to the first floor. What a heap of trouble she lands me!
In the darkness, I groped for the staircase, brushing away the cobwebs with my sweaty
palms. After a while, I found myself standing in front of a large portrait of a girl with doe-like
eyes staring directly at me with no expression on her face. I gazed at it as if hypnotized,
completely forgetting about Pihu and her ball. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the girl in
the portrait suddenly smile at me. I screamed, closed my eyes with my hands, and then
tripped over something, falling to the floor. I heard someone call my name, and the voice
was so familiar that I gasped when I opened my eyes. I was still sitting in the cozy armchair
by the fireside with a book in my hand. It was just a dream, I reassured myself. However, I
was petrified when I saw Pihu standing there with a ball in her hand, calling out my name
and asking me to play with her.
Antarjita Chakraborty
Class – X-D