Sally "Long Arms"

Chapter 1

I stood in the hot sun, untangling my headphones, my blonde hair occasionally falling in front of my face. I glared down at the headphones while Liam was dozing off behind me with his head on my shoulder.

“Hey Liam! Ash! Look what I found!” I turned my head around to see who was calling our names, Liam snapped awake. It was Devin, his messy brown hair sat above his face covered in dirt, one of his green eyes closed and swollen. His elbows and knees were covered in bruises and cuts.

“Ugh, what do you want Devin?” I groaned, at this point, I was extremely annoyed by my headphones. I shoved them in my pocket angrily. “Look at what I found on Rose street last week.” He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his photos.

Eventually, he found the photo he was looking for and handed me the phone. It was a school with vines all over the old, run down walls. The windows were shattered with glass all across the tall grass, the doors were rusted shut and both the windows and doors were covered with decaying wooden boards.

Suddenly, a boy appeared behind Liam, it was Chris. His black hair was covering his brown eyes, he had a devilish grin on his face. He crept up behind Liam slowly, preparing to pounce on his prey. I notice him and glare at him. Almost instantly, he backs away and fixes his hair. He pouts a little, then sighs. “Someone around school said they passed it before, I heard them say it was haunted.”

Liam looked over at Chris, his face went from tired, to horrified. “H-Haunted?..” He whispered to himself. He shook his head at Chris, but it was too late. He slowly turned his view to me, I had the most excited look on my face. “Ash, no! Y-You could get possessed!” My excited grin grows even wider, I place my hand on his head and mess up his hair. “I’m sure it will be fine, it’s just an abandoned school!”

After a few minutes of Liam trying to get me to change my mind, our friend group walked over to the front of the school. “Took you long enough.” Chris complained with a chuckle. “Oh quit complaining Chris.” Aziz smacked Chris on the back of the head, he then walked over to me and Liam he placed his chin on the top of my shoulder. “So, what are we doing today?” Aziz, my best friend, stares at me while waiting for an answer. His eyes a reddish blue, and his hair a pure white. Devin crossed his arms, he seemed a little annoyed by Aziz for an unknown reason. “We were talking about going to an abandoned school on Rose street.”

Scott shakes his head angrily and walks over to Liam. “No, nope, nuh uh. I’m not getting possessed today, I’ve already got to deal with my parents seeing my grades.” He shivers as he says this. Scott and Liam are basically brothers from another mother, they look and act the same, besides Scott’s red hair and glasses. Aziz chuckles, “Well, I’m in.” Devin groans to himself and rolls his eyes. “I agree with Scott, what if it’s dangerous?” Brody says. He and Brian walk over to Liam and Scott. Brody and Brian are identical twins, black hair and brown eyes, Brody is the eldest by two minutes, but Brian acts like the older sibling.

I groan sadly, “Come on guys, it will be fun! What’s the worst that could happen?” I look around the group. “Alex, Steve, you guys agree, right?” Alexa, she is Scott’s sister. Red hair and emerald green eyes, she’s smart and kind. And Steven, brown hair and brown eyes, he’s not the brightest person, but he is strong. They met four months ago, and have been dating for three, Alexa sighs. “Alright, but if anything creepy happens, I’m leaving.” “Me too.” Steven added.

I do a bit of math with my fingers. “Devin, Aziz, Chris, Alex, Steve, and me. Majority vote! We’re going!” I squeal in excitement. Liam sighs and places his forehead on Scott’s shoulder, I grab Aziz and Devin by the hands and drag them along, Aziz smiles and Devin looks embarrassed. Alex and Steve follow behind us, Alex giggles at my excitement and Devin being embarrassed, Steve enjoys Alex’s giggles. Brody, Brian, Scott, and Liam take a minute to talk, then follow hesitantly.

While we walk, the group talks about random things, the mall, our next adventure, and things they hear at school. After a few minutes of walking, we made it to Liam and my house. “Here we are! Everyone who wants to grab supplies we might need, come in, we need food, water, and ghost hunting supplies.” Me, Aziz, Devin, and Alex walk into the house, Aziz heads to the kitchen to grab food and drinks. Alex and Devin are still with me. “Alright, I have ghost supplies in my room, and the basement. I’m going to my room, you guys can choose where you want to go.” I wave and run upstairs to my room. “I’m going to the basement.”

Devin walks down the hall and disappears behind a door. Alex sighs and looks around, she ends up going to the kitchen with Aziz. After around 35 minutes, we walk out of the house with four bags full of supplies. “Okay everyone! We have everything, Devin, where did you say the School was?” “Rose street.” He replied. I nod and start walking, the group following behind me.

Liam walks up to me and stares at me with an upset expression, “You know, mom and dad are going to be devastated if we get possessed.” I glare at him. “We will be fine, stop trying to talk me out of it.” “Fine, fine.” He sighs. “ What do you even want to do there?” “Explore and ghost hunt.” I look at him for a moment, then to the path. “Hey! We’re here!” Chris is pointing at a large high school, old and creepy. I take in the building's beauty for a moment, I then smile a large smile and run up to the door.

“This is amazing! Let’s go in!” I grip the handle, twist, and pull. The door is rusted shut. I take a deep breath and place my foot on one of the doors, I then pull as hard as possible. The door makes a scraping noise as the rusty metal drags across the concrete. After forcing the door open, it is now a bit easier to move the doors.

Scott trembles in the back with Liam as they stare at the building. Steven looks at Alexa. “I don’t like the look of this, I’m going to stay out here.” Alex sighs and nods. “I’ll stay with you, sorry Ash.” I look at Alex with a smile. “It’s alright Alex, don't worry about it!” I turn back to the door and I walk in, Chris, Devin, Aziz, Brody, Brian, and Liam walk in behind me. Alex, Steve, and Scott stay outside, watching us walk into the dark halls of the shadowy school.

We enter the building and look around the main entrance, it’s dark and damp. The tapping of water can be heard echoing down the halls, the only light was the shattered, boarded up windows and the open doors behind us. The group decides to split up, Liam, Brody, and Brian choose to stay at the entrance for a bit, Aziz, Devin, Chris, and I walk down the hall in front of us.

Suddenly, Devin screamed. I flinched and darted my gaze to him, Devin had seen a mouse and jumped onto Chris, making them both fall to the floor. “Oww…” Chris groaned in pain. I sigh “Really?” I start walking again, a bit upset now, Devin rubs the back of his neck. “Dude, got off.” Chris pushes him off of him and gets up, then starts following me with Aziz. Devin gets up and quickly catches up.

Aziz walks up beside me and smiles, “Hey, how are you doing?” I calm down and sigh. “Eh, not the best. I’m really excited about being here, but half of our friends don’t even want to be here…” I stop walking and lean my back against a door with my arms crossed. “It’s okay, even if everyone leaves, I’ll stay with you for as long as you’d like to stay here.” He pats my head and I smile. “Thanks Aziz-“

*SCREEEEEE BANG*

The door had slammed shut on its own, Brian ran over to the door and pushed the panic bar, the door didn’t open. “It’s locked..” Everyone began to panic, Aziz looked a bit concerned, I sigh. Suddenly, the door behind me swung open, I fell backwards and landed on my back. My head hit the ground and I groaned in pain. Someone had put their hand on my shoulder, I opened my eyes and looked up at Aziz, my vision was blurry for a second.

After I could see clearly, I saw Aziz. He wasn’t the one touching me, and he was fear stricken. I slowly twisted my head over to see who was behind me, it was a teenage girl. Her eyes had been gouged out and a viscous liquid poured from her empty eye sockets and gaping mouth. Her arms were unnaturally long, it appeared like she had an extra humerus in both her arms. Her skin was pale and her hair a dark black, she was wearing a school uniform, a blue skirt and white T-shirt with a messed up tie.

                   CLIFFHANGER