This is our Halloween Kids Spotlight, a story written by our son Buddy. The first portion is the intro provided; the remainder is his unique tellings. Happy Halloween!! Be safe out there and have a wonderful evening <3

“It was a dark and stormy night, as the twins’ mom and dad drove them to their Nana’s house. Rain, sleet, and hail beat down on the car as it slid from lane to lane in the flooded street. Panicking, the children clung to their seatbelts and the hand rests. The only light that they could see was the street light flickering on and off. Crying, and feeling carsick, the children screamed, “Are we there yet?” The family car screeched to a halt as they pulled up to Nana Fran’s mansion. Crack! Lightning hit a nearby streetlight plunging the street into darkness. Splash! The kids fell out of the car and into the water running over the curb. Goosebumps covered their arms as a lone wolf howled in the darkness. Fog filled Caleb’s glasses as he stumbled to get up from the wet grass. Sophia helped him to his feet and the children scurried to the front door. Daisy, the family dog, raced after them. In their rush, they didn’t notice their Nana Fran in the dark watching them from her rocking chair. She sat there silently stroking her black cat, Shadow.”

They walked up to the porch, covered with plants and the wooden steps were rotted and creaky beneath them. They went inside through the old, rusty metal front door. It creaked loudly as they went in. Where they saw many old cobwebs clinging to pictures of really old people. Shadow ran past them into the house, startled their eyes followed him and they saw the old grandfather clock next to the creaky staircase that led to the rooms. They didn’t see Nana Fran come in behind them. They went up the stairs and then they turned to the left down the hall and to the second to last door. But they did not go in yet, instead they sat down to listen to Nana Fran because they got told they had to.She told them that Nathan was there, and was working on it, so they walked away and said that they were going to get a snack . In the kitchen they saw a buff young man and he said he was Nathan, so they ran to Nana Fran and she called their limo and they went to the arcade. With Nana Fran, they played laser tag and went for ice cream. Then they went home to Nana frans house and they went inside.

They went up the stairs and thought they saw a ghost, but it was the other handyman, Bob. He was cleaning the attic and was super dusty, they asked if he was a ghost and he said, “ try to walk through me”. So that is just what Caleb did, and he bumped into him .They had never known that he worked for Nana Fran. Nana Fran had run up the stairs and saw them talking to Bob, she told him Nathan needed help getting the weights to the gym for their guests that were coming to the house in two days.”They’re bodybuilders so we need to get the gym ready. They’re men that retired from the Army, so they will be mean.” So the kids went into their room. The room had alot of cobwebs and it was dirty. There was dust all over the pictures and toys, it smelled like someone died. There was a deep, creepy silence in the room. They rubbed their hands along the pictures and toys and they were bumpy and gross. Their fingers were covered with the dust. They went back out into the hall and saw the handyman Bob and Nathan,they said they would clean it. Bob and Nathan walked into Calebs room and before they started cleaning, they gave Caleb and Sophia an army outfit each and Bob said they needed to wear them when the guests were there,they could stop wearing them when they left. They agreed.

Sophia left to go get a snack, and Caleb locked the door and turned to talk to Nathan and Bob. They heard a sudden BANG! The door flung open and they saw a buff man wearing an army suit. He had punched the door open, Caleb was surprised because he thought he had locked the door.They told him this was Calebs room, but the man said the room was his. He came into the room and closed the door behind him. They all heard a knock and then the guy ran to the window and jumped out. Nana Fran entered the room and told them that he was not the guy she was supposed to have over, and that she was going to call 911. She tried to open the door to go get the phone, but it would not open. So she asked Nathan and Bob to fix it, but they said that it could only be fixed from the otherside. Sophia came back and couldn’t get in. They tried to explain to her how to fix the door, but it did not work. They said there was a vent they could crawl through, but Nana Fran said that there was a snake in the vents. Nathan had a pistol in his car, and Sophia offered to go. She went out the window to climb down the fire escape as she was the only one that could fit through the old metal cage around it, to get the pistol and throw it up to them. Caleb caught the pistol and shot the door knob like Nathan said to. But it did not work! Sophia went through the hall and down into the basement to grab the ladder. The bullet ricocheted off the doorknob and hit a car on  Calebs hot-wheel track, it flew off the track and hit Caleb in the head.

As Sophia was going back up the ladder, the fire escape fell to the ground. She finished climbing and went back through the window into the room. She saw Caleb and told him that he was bleeding badly on his head and he needed to go to the doctor. Nathan and Bob went down the ladder, Sophia told Bob that Caleb was bleeding, they helped Nana Fran down the ladder and she called the doctor. Sophia helped Caleb climb down the ladder as the paramedics arrived at the mansion, and they helped Caleb with the injury.