[HxWeen] Chapter One: The House on Maple Street

[James]

Happy Habboxween everybody!

This year for Habboxween, the competitions department has decided to make a bit of a faster paced competition 'series' than usual. Our fantastic Senior, Drew, came up with the amazing idea of telling a short story about a haunted 'House on Maple Street'. The idea was originally just going to be a normal competition but we had a chat and decided to make it a bigger thing, and thus this series was born.

The way this will work is, I will post a competition out each day for the 7 days of Habboxween, all progressing in the story. Each competition will run from 00:00 until 23:59 that night, and the winner will be announced in the following chapter. At the end of Habboxween, we will have a complete story consisting of seven chapters and a whole story.

So what can you win? Fantastic question! Each chapter will have its individual prizes, consisting of credits, forum prizes and Habboxween goodies.

For Chapter one, I'd like you to write a paragraph or two introducing the setting of the story. Remember, it is a haunted house so make it sound creepy! Introduce it a if it was the opening chapter in a story. What happens and how is entirely up to you guys! Lets see how creative this forum really is!

Chapter Prize: 20 Credits, 30 Rep, 1 Weeks Forum VIP and 1 Trick or Treat

This competition will close at 23:59 tonight.

[Samantha]

Crooked pillars lured high above the ground, the musky smell circulating all around this creepy house, entering our nostrils and sending a dizzy spell straight to our brains. The moon shone brightly just over this place, highlighting its importance in this location, why was it such a creepy looking building? It looked scary, almost haunted in fact. A spider's web glistened in the moonlight, dozens of them were dotted around the place, it gave us all the adrenaline to make us open the door. The lion's head knocker shadowed us as we dared twist the handle, it turned with ease as though someone was at home, but once opened the reality was a lot different.

Stepping inside, the first footstep imprinted our footprint into an aged carpet, sending dust particles circulating again and making us cough vigorously. The coughs felt loud enough to summon an army of elephants with the echo that approached it, but luckily it stayed silent whilst we edged in to look around. The inside was definitely more grand than the outside, or at least it looked like it used to be, drapes hung perfectly over every window and the runners lined every staircase with carpet; unfortunately, as it used to be grand it looked like someone had drained the colour throughout the room, removed it forever and just left this tired, spooky look throughout the place.

[Cerys]

The leaves rustled under my feet as I ran, gasping for breath, jumping over the dead, fallen branches strewn on the floor. I could hear it behind me, edging closer and closer, I could almost feel its breathe against the back of my neck...ice cold...as if it had no spirit. No, no it can't be that close, just keep running I thought, my heart racing quicker than it ever has before. Up ahead, a small wooden shed faded into my sight, out of the thick fog that lay before me. Its wood was aged and cracking, its windows now a thick tangle of cobwebs, making it impossible to see what lies inside. That's my only chance, I have to get inside before it gets to me. I push forward through the derelict door using my last shred of energy and collapse onto the ground, dragging myself into the corner. Whatever is out there is still looking for me..I need to get out of this place.

I turn my head around the shed taking in my surroundings, perhaps the last place I'll ever know. The only natural way in or out is the door I just smashed through or the 'window' next to it, leading me straight back into its path. It was a mistake ever coming here, what on earth possessed me into thinking this was a good idea. I had heard the rumours about that house, about what went on in there, but I never thought they were true..atleast I'm away from there now, but not away from it. Hard, irregular thuds of footsteps begin outside, getting closer, sending sharp shivers down my spine.
I need to move, fast.
I look around frantically, seeing a small hole at the bottom of one of the wooden walls. I start kicking and pulling at the small gap, trying to make it bigger, the noise of it still approaching, faster and faster. There, it's almost big enough for me to fit through. I get down onto the dusty floor and start trying to wiggle my way through...somethings got me. The tight grasp around my ankle is firm yet rough. Its hand has something sharp on it which pierces my skin..is it its nails..or even claws..? I feel the blood slowly trickle down my leg as its grip gets firmer, pulling me away from the shed. I grab around for anything to hold onto, my screams filling the shed. It's no use. It is pulling me back out into the darkness...back towards the house on Maple Street.

[_spirit]

Pushing the heavy gates open the touch of the iron bars, as cold as ice, seized up my hand completely. Even though I could feel the unevenness of the old cobbled path beneath me, they were smooth in contrast to the crunching of the odd dead leaf that I stepped on. Carrying on up the path the grass carried on forever into the horizon, a dull grey colour as if it had lost the will to live and stopped growing altogether. One lonesome Oak tree stood by the house swaying in the wind and as the wind swept by the tree whispered to the air and its surroundings....