Molly trotted through the haunted mansion…never straying too far from the wall, running her hand along the ancient wallpaper to comfort her. It was pitch black, apart froma few tired candles that littered the walls of the house. She could hardly believe she had accepted such a ridiculous dare - she had been warned not to venture into the old mansion at the end of the road by her parents and her teachers. But when she lost a game, she had to take the dare and explore the haunted house.
She spun around at the sound of footsteps and could have sworn she saw someone dart behind a door - she was terrified.
“Molly.” Someone whispered her name and she started running, sprinting into an old guest room on the first floor. As she huddled herself into a corner, she took deep breaths… how was she going to get out of here?
“Molly.” That same voice… she closed her eyes and began sobbing, she felt a cold hand on her shoulder and screamed.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT?” she screamed through terrified sobs.
“I want to help you.” Slowly Molly opened her eyes and looked up… an old man stood in front of her but he was glowing a strange colour of pink… he was also rather transparent. Molly couldn’t help herself, she stuck her hand out and reached right through him. Her jaw dropped as the man jumped backwards.
“It is not polite to touch a ghost, young lady!” he said. Molly apologised. “My name Is Bernard. Is there any reason you are in my house?” Molly breathed slowly and stood up to face the man.
“It was a dare,they made me go in, I am so sorry.” Bernard chucked deeply and put a cold hand on her shoulder.
“You must be careful my dear, there is a lot of broken glass around here!” Molly let herself giggle but jumped back as a plump woman floated through the doors.
“What do we have here?” The old woman floated slowly over to Molly, and smiled - she smelt of fresh cookies and bread.
“This is Molly.” said Bernard, holding the old lady’s hand. He looked back over to Molly. “This is my beautiful wife, Margaret.” She chuckled as he complimented her.
“But I don’t understand…” whispered Molly, “everybody always said the ghosts in here were mean.” She looked around the aging room - taking all of the decorations in.
“We pretend we are mean to scare the children away, my dear.” said Margaret warmly. “This house is full of danger - broken glass, rotting floor boards. It’s not safe for children and the last thing we want to do is endanger people!” Molly took a deep breath and thanked the couple for being so kind to her.
“Before you go, take this.” Bernard pulled out an old bell and Molly gasped.
“Are you sure?” she said, taking in the beautiful artefact. At the top of the mansion was a bell and there was a race every year to see who could get to it first. If Molly took this home she would be loved by everyone.
“You were very brave to come in here.” said Margaret. “But make sure you tell everybody how terrifying we were, we don’t want any more troublesome young ones coming in here and hurting themselves.” Molly nodded, beaming at the couple in front of her and darted out the door.
Her friends gasped as she held up the bell and laughed, wondering just how long Margaret andBernard had been trapped in there...