I'll never forget that day we went to the music concert at Central High School.  Eliza, Shakyra, Jesus, Antonio, Extevan, and I just got off the bus and went into the auditorium.  When we found that no one was there, we went back to the door and it was locked!!  Shakyra and I were getting really freaked out because the door was not locked when we came.  Antonio and Jesus thought we should split up.  But Eliza said, "Heck, no!"
     So we were all walking down the hall and we kept seeing things move. The water fountain went on and the doors closed. Estevan said, I'm leaving right now!"
     Eliza said, "How? Are you going to walk through the wall?"
     "Shut up!" said Estevan.
     "Stop fighting! What are we going to do?" said Antonio.
     Shakyra suggested, "Let's break a window." So we tried. But it didn't work.
     At 3:10, the bells rang and people started walking out the doors. We tried to walk through the door, but it was like walking into a wall. Then we overheard some people saying, "Did you hear about those six kids who got in a bus wreck and died on their way here?"
     Then we all looked at each other and said, "What are we going to do now?"

    One day there was a lady named Joyce.  She had an evil dog named Damien.  She lived in a big two-story haunted house overlooking a river.  She had several porcelain dolls that people believed came to life as they thought Joyce was a witch.  Joyce put a spell on all the kids in Maryville and sent them down to the dungeon where they stayed in chains.  There she starved them to death.

     Joyce picked out the good bones and the bad bones. The bad bones went to the dog and Joyce kept the good bones to make walking skeletons. When Jyce was done, she had an army of skeletons that would walk the river and scare more of the little kids into going to her house for shelter. Joyce then repeated the same thing.

     But one day something scary happened. There was only one good kid left in Maryville. He went to Joyce's house and said, "I Am Not Afraid of You!"

     Then Joyce started screaming. Then she started to melt!! She yelled, "I'm melting!!"

     When Joyce was destroyed, the skeletons fell into the river again and all of the little kids came back to life.

   This story tells that not every place is what it seems.  For this story starts off with a bad kid named Bobby Smith.  He loved scaring kids just for the fun of it.

   Then one day, his paretns caught him being mean to a group of little kids and grounded him.  Because of that, he decided it'd be best to just run away.

    While running away, he decided to take a rest at a funny looking tent.  Out of curiosity, he found out that it was a circus tent.  Since he was 15 years old, he was old enough for a job.  Luckily for him, there was a job available.  He asked the ring master for a job.  With an evil grin, the ring master said, "We would love to have you with us.  The name's James.  What's yours?" 

    "Bobby," he replied.

     His job was to clean up after the elephants and their cages, but he had to share a room with the Amazing Strong Man and his clown friend.  The good thing was that he made a great deal of money.

     His first night was really strange.  There were a lot of weird noises coming from one of the tents, but he shrugged it off thinking it was just his imagination.  After a week of doing this, Bobby wanted to stay up to see what happens at night because a few nights before he woke up to what he thought was a person screaming.

     So one night, he waited until everyone left and watched for what felt like hours.  Then right when he was about ready to give up and go back to sleep, he saw the strangest thing.  At first, he thought he was just seeing things.  So he rubbed his eyes a few times and looked again.  Only this time he wasn't seeing things!  He saw a group of huge monsters!  He ran as fast as he could back into his tent and hid under the blankets.  He was so terrified, he didn't fall asleep for a long time afterward.

    Once he did, it was already time to start work again.  After cleaning a couple cages, he ran to the ring master and asked if he could go home.  Bobby already knew that James would be kind enough to let him go free, but he was wrong.  Instead of saying that he could go, the ring master became a bit upset and replied with an evil smile. "Of course not!  You belong to me now!" 

     After hearing this, Bobby was scared and started to wonder if he'd ever see home again.  Then when nightfall came, he made a plan to escape.  When he was done and started to pack his bags, a monster came into his tent and scard him into another.  Right when he thought he was safe, he turned around and saw an even scarier monster with sharp teeth and really bad breath.  This time he was too afraid to move which was too bad because the evil monster was gaining on him.  The monster had bit his arm!

    The search for Bobby Smith is still going on today, with no luck.  Some people think that Bobby has become one of the evil monsters under the circus tent.  The moral to this story is . . a morning place can be nice, but can change at night.  Or. . .be nice to people because you might change into what they see you as.

             It was a quiet day in Holland.  Like every other day for the last two weeks, the Bakers were packing their belongings for the new house and a new start.  Kel, Susan, and James were very excited to have a new house and new friends.  But Kristi didn't like changes.  She would rather hang out with her old friends, sit in her old room, and play with her old toys.         

            "OK", Mother."  They were on their way. 

            When they arrived at the house, it was very beautiful.  There wasn't any place like this in the whole world.  Kristi still didn't care much for it, but had no choice.  

            "Come on, Kel, let's go find our room," said James.

            "Oh, big deal," mumbled Kristi.  "Why do we have to live here anyway?  I'll never get to see Justine again."

            "Oh, Kristi, stop acting like that. You know you'll be able to see her again."

              "But it isn't the same, Mother."

            A few days passed and Kristi still felt out of place.  Today she had to start a new school.  She was very scared.  But she had to go.  When she arrived, her heart dropped into her stomach.  When she got to class, she was by far the most beautiful girl in school which made her real popular. 

            When she got home, her mother and father had gone.  She had to wait there for her brother and sister.  When they got there, Susan wanted to check out the basement.  As they were walking down there, James heard a growl, but thought it was his stomach.  So they continued walking down the stairs. At the bottom were more noises off to the side.

            "Let's go see what's down there!"

            "OK, but hold on to my hand."

            Toward the bottom of the stairs, it was real dark and dusty. "I don't think I want to go down there."

            "Come on, you little baby."

            "OK," Susan said in a very scared voice.  When they got to the bottom, James heard another growl, but thought nothing of it.  So they continued walking down the steps.  When they arrived, there were thousands of human-looking beasts working with heavy machinery.  The creatures had very powerful eyesight and hearing.

            "What are they?" squealed James.

            "I'm not sure," whispered Kristi.

            "I'm scared," said Susan.

            "Stop being such a scaredy cat," whined Kel.

            So they kept walking.  Inside a  hive were thousands more creatures.  They were planning to take over the world by eating all the remaining humans and starting a new species. 

            When Kel heard that, he was really scared! "What should we do?"

            "They're gonna eat everybody," cried Kristi.

            "We have to stop them!" said James.

            "Oh, yeah, Einstein, now how are we supposed to do that?"

            I don't know.  You're the one with all the answers, Smart One."

            "Maybe we should go back," cried Kel.

            "No.  We can't just let them wipe us out!  We have to do something!"

            "But what do we do?"

             "Let's go see what else we can find."

            They continued walking. They arrived in a strange room full of blood supplies and body parts. 

            "Nasty.  What are those?"

            "I'm not quite sure, but I don really want to find out."

            When they exited the room, they found Justine body tied up and hanging from the ceiling.

            "No," cried Kristi, not her!  No, no, please no!"

            When Kristi got closer, she heard Justine whisper, "Find the time warp!"

            "The time warp?  What's a time warp?"

            "A time warp is a sudden volt of electricity to send you back in time, but in the center is where it all begins.  So what we need to do is lure the creatures into the center."

            "But how?"

            "I will sit in the middle until they get close enough.  Then pull me out with this rope."

            The creatures begin to get older and older then begin to deteriorate within 5 seconds!  And although Justine died, and Kristi had to move, life was still good.

There are many of scary tales and many ghost stories, but some of them are true.  Many men died in the civil war, buy their spirits never left the battlefield or the area.  But one true story in Baltimore has caught my eye.

During the Civil War, Baltimore was in Confederate hands.  The union came from both land and sea.  The ammo had to be destroyed. They detonated the ammo, but one soldier was still trapped in a hotel when half the hotel was blown away.  The soldier tripped and his head was blown off and his body cremated with the fire, after the blast in Room 4.

One hundred years later, the hotel was rebuilt.  But in doing so, they had disturbed the spirit's restless soul.  Creepy things were happening.  Moaning came at night from the place where Room 4 was being built.  Tools and equipment were being moved from one place to another.  Reports of strange phenomena were happening in and around Room 4 at night during construction, but the hotel was built right on schedule.

But before it opened, strange activity was happening in the new and old parts of the building during the day.  Things moved and lights were turned on and off.  Phone wire connections were unplugged.  Televisions unplugged when people were watching them, and there was no one around the plug.

At night things got very scary.  Strange light moved in the halls at night, moaning and loud footsteps were heard when no one was in the hall on the anniversary of the battle.  A scream echoes through the hotel from Room 4 when no one  has checked it out.  The room is locked but the door opens to reveal a headless confederate soldier floating and moaning.

One night, a couple was sleeping in Room 4 when the husband was awakened to a sound and saw the soldier four feet away from the bed.  He had the gall to touch the headless soldier's uniform.  The soldier let out an ear sharttering moan and it went away.  We may never know why the soldier is restless.  He may be fighting a lost battle, or maybe he is looking for his lost head, or maybe he is looking for another one.  He may be angry at the hotel.  We may never know why ghosts, spirits, and apparitions come back from the grave, but we know they're here to stay.  They're part of ourselves.  They are part of our history, but I pity the poor people who meet with terrifying ghosts and scenes of ghosts, re-enacting their death or a part that they didn't want anyone to forget.  I pity the people of Baltimore.  I especially pity those who have to stay a night in Room 4!

             It was an autumn night in Manhatten, New York, when a call came into the police department.  A woman in a three story apartment said her friend, Judy, in 3B was making loud shouts and screams.  She got nervous and wanted someone to come check on her. 

            The next morning, they pronounced Judy Smith dead.  After seven months later, more than 200 calls came in - in that essence.  It was over 90 murders that police detectives thought were committed by one suspect.  All this brutal, blood thirsty serial killer wanted was just one thing....to appease the voices.

            The Queens Mental Institution in New York had a file of every patient.  One of the patients names came up.  It was Hildalgo Ferdinand.  He was known to have been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had killed many men and women.  He had escaped form the state hospital and ended up in the mental institution and then he killed two female nurses and escaped again.  He claimed to have heard certain voices telling him to kill.

            As it went on, he is still out today and is the prime suspect known to have committed several offenses such as robberies, murders, and sexual assaults.  It was years after the murders when officials found something terrifying.  They had recovered a body from a lake.  It was identified as Hildalgo Ferdinand!  They reviewed the body and said the man had been dead for several years.

            Two months later, they had another call not like the others.  This one was very suspicious.  The caller was a 42 year old male who said there was a man in his house and it looked like the serial killer on television.  They frantically went over and searched the house.  No one was in sight.  Several calls were of this sort.  They claim he is sort of translucent and eerie.  And some say he is a ghost!  An old woman called saying she heard a man talking in her bedroom; talking of how he would murder his next victim.  Many of these disturbing messages were recorded. As if that wasn't enough, some people claim that there are blood-curdling ransom notes at the foot of their bed written in almost a bloodlike red.  They can hear the footsteps, voices, and the obvious sense of his being in their homes.  Night after night they are haunted by his sheer presence walking by them in the middle of the night, talking to them about his evil way of strangling, shooting, knifing, and brutally killing innocent lives or people who didn't deserve to be robbed of their humanity.

            Soon weeks became months and months became years. Once it even started to feel like they were away from all the madness and uncanny sense of fear they had bestowed deep in the depths of their souls.  Then they would begin to hear the footsteps and the sound of him conjuring up some plans of inhumanity and brutality.  They would soon lose their sanity and, too, be put in the sixth floor of the state hospital......the psychiatric ward.

            "Wake up! Wake up, Hilalgo!  It's time for your morning medicine," said the nurse.  As for the pursuit of his dream or nightmare, Hildalgo is still in the state hospital.  He didn't escape or anything like that!  He is as rejected from the world on the outside as he can get.  So he lives a sort of normal life.  But one day, he hopes to fulfill the wonders of his imagination.

     Once upon a time, there was a little yellow house on the street of Currie.  In that house lived my cousin, Arlene.  She had a great big room in the attic so it would be only proper for her to have a sleepover.  And now, here's where the horror begins.  Arlene has a lot of friends, so she only invited a few to the sleepover.  She invited her friends Crystal, Brittany, Vanessa, and me.

     All of us attended and had a great time until it was time to go to sleep.  We all went into the attic and set out our sleeping bags.  In the corner of her room stood a very peculiar chest.  No one wanted to set up their bed by it, for it looked old and rusty.  All the girls settled in and were almost asleep when we heard knocking.  We looked around and saw that the noise was coming from the chest.                                                                                

     After that, we heard a loud laughing noise and someone saying, "Let me out!"  Then all of a sudden, an evil life size doll burst out of the chest carrying a giant dagger.  She had a very light complexion, brown curly hair amnd a pink dress, but no one could forget those piercing eyes.  All of a sudden out of nowhere, Crystal fainted.  We dragged her into the next room and we were all screaming bloody murder.  All we could hear behind us were tiny footsteps getting louder and louder.

     We blocked the door with heavy objects and the doll still tried to break through.  We were all dripping with sweat trying to come up with a plan when we heard two loud screams.  Since we were all in the room, we could only come to one conclusion........the doll got to Arlene's parents!!  We heard someone creeping up the stairs.  We were all deathly quiet.  Then the doll broke in through a crack in the door and went straight for Brittany and Arlene!  The doll was screaming and rapidly trying to stab them!  They were crying and dodging her to and fro. 

     Vanessa and I had to come up with a plan since Crystal was out.  So we did just that.  I grabbed a bat and blasted the doll's head right off her neck.  Arlene and Brittany then got to their feet and pulled the dolls legs off.  Then Crystal came back to consciousness and pulled her arms off and stuffed her back in the trunk.  In the end, the evil doll was still alive and every night it would say, "You better let me out or you'll be sorry!"  And to this day, the doll is still alive, but now the trunk belongs to me and I will forever be haunted by "The Night of the Living Doll".