The Fright, a story by Rebecca Panayi, aged 11 (From News Shopper)

The Fright, a story by Rebecca Panayi, aged 11

3:08pm Tuesday 27th October 2009 in Competitions

This was one of the shortlisted entries in the Halloween spooky story contest run by News Shopper and The Walnuts shopping centre in Orpington.

The cold night air surrounded Sam’s body, creeping silently through his clothes on to his skin as he walked along the deserted cobbles.

Aware it was Halloween, Sam thought of his friends all out trick or treating as he stalked through the dimly lit street, alone.

He watched his warm breath seep into the crisp night air, before it faded away to nothing. He listened to the squelch plop noise that his trainers made in the puddles of water trapped like prisoners between the uneven cobbles.

Another noise sounded in the distance. Sam’s ears strained with concentration as he realised that the noise was getting closer and closer.

Beads of sweat trickled like blood down Sam’s forehead and stung his wide open eyes. Holding his breath, he stopped in his tracks and slowly, carefully, turned his head...

What Sam saw next was not normal. Stood before him was a beast. Not just any beast, but the beast of Halloween.

The beast of Halloween was rarely sighted, but anyone who saw it did not like to tell the tale.

Sam’s breath, which was shallow, started to quicken. His chest was rising and falling at such a pace you could barely see it. His hands were shaking, his feet were slowly shuffling backwards.

The beast that stood in front of him was coated in thick brown fur. Its eyes were small and piggy. A stale odour was coming from every inch of its body.

Sam suddenly realised that the stench was rancid, rotten blood. As the beast shuffled into the light of the dimly lit lamppost, Sam saw the matted fur stained with the blood.

The beast towered over Sam and let out a bellowing roar which made his body freeze. He turned round slowly and ran for his life all the way back down the street.

The beast was following him, but he could not see him. Its humongous bear like nose was up in the air, sniffing for him.

Sam suddenly turned an unfamiliar corner and found himself in the lane that nobody dared go to. The reason nobody went there was because of the huge haunted mansion that rested now before him. Sam decided he could not run any longer, so he nervously tip toed towards the dark house.

The door was open so he could easily enter. Sam slowly turned the handle and inside was a huge cobweb across the hallway walls.

Sam covered his face with his jacket and ran through the web. The web was closing in around him, tightening his jacket and twisting it around his air ways. Sam couldn’t breathe anymore and slowly dropped to the floor.

The cobwebs drooped away and covered the hallway once more, hanging like a thousand white bats.

The beast was still sniffing out his prey and turned down the cobbled street. The flowers all around kept dying and withering at his presence. The midnight air was slowly turning grey and freezing cold. His nose never left the air and the putrid smell of blood never left Sam’s nose.

Sam was starting to wake. He lifted his head slowly then scrabbled up as fast as he could and ran up the long flights of stairs to the safety of a bedroom.

He ran in and locked the door with the rusty gold key. He turned round and rested his back on the door. A horrific sight met his eyes. The four poster bed was ripped to shreds, the curtains were shredded to ribbons. Everything in the room was ripped and rotten. The room smelled of mothballs. The only thing that was not rotten was a wooden chest made of dark oak.

Sam walked over to it tentatively. He slowly opened the lid…

The monster was starting to get hot and clammy. It took a rest and took off its head mask. Fred sat and soaked up the air before he put the head back on and pursued his quest.

Sam suddenly got a great fright. A jack in the box leapt up and Sam fell to the floor. The jack was laughing with a smile on its face, the spring making it bounce back and forth.

Sam started to laugh, then remembered his danger.

He scrabbled to his feet and then heard a rattling of the handle. Then the entire door came crashing down and landed at his feet. The beast let out a sudden roar and pounced on Sam.

Sam thought he was gone and didn’t resist it. The beast began to laugh and Sam was extremely puzzled.

The beast pulled the mask off and climbed up from on top of Sam. Sam opened his eyes and saw his best friend staring down at him, with a grin on his face after pulling his latest prank.

Sam felt very foolish and his heart was still racing. Fred stepped out of the sweaty costume and jumped down from the stilts he used to be so tall.

He helped Sam to his feet and they walked out together. Sam started to shout at Fred for scaring him and making him believe that he was about to be dragged from the world.