The Haunted House

Chapter Four: The Haunted

Each new phase of my transformation brought its own wave of excruciating pain. By the end of the first day, my hair had fallen out and all my skin had turned that sickly shade of blue. By the end of the third my facial bones had reconstructed into a face that was not my own and I lost the ability to speak. My vocabulary consisted of grunts, growls, and whimpers. The only people able to understand me were my fellow monsters. My fingernails and toenails fell out and claws grew in their place. Bat-like wings burst from my back by the end of the fifth. And by the end of the sixth, my transformation was complete.

I was no longer Carrie Goodwin. I was something else entirely.

I had learned that most of the monsters preferred the safety of the shadows deeper in the house and after that first night when my ears had changed, nearly all of them left. Even though I now knew that the monsters would not harm me, I still wasn't brave enough to explore the rest of the house. The only monsters that remained with me at the front of the house was the original red monster, who I learned had been Jeremy Bell, a sixteen-year-old who'd gone missing nearly ten years ago. A green monster with yellow polka dots and looked liked a scary mutant frog monster, which had been Ashley Ward, a ten-year-old who'd disappeared twenty years ago. And the black and white striped monster with three eyes, which was in fact Jacob Whitehall.

I hadn't moved much from when I first arrived. I still remained under the window facing out the front of the house. I had continued trying to break it, thinking maybe my new claws could break through, but I had quickly learned that the glass was spelled. Not only was the glass indestructible, but also was similar to a one-way mirror, or as the others called it "a one-way window." We could see out perfectly fine, but anyone looking in would just see an empty darkness.

I had seen my friends once since my transformation started. They were outside the house and James was throwing rocks at the windows like he usually did. I pounded on the window and screamed. That was when the red monster told me about the window and the uselessness of trying to signal for help.

"There is no helping us now," he had whimpered.

I watched my friends in their naivety. Lisa and Brian eventually joined in. Throwing everything they could at the windows. Paisley's eyes were ringed with red and dark shadows. She looked as though she'd been doing a lot of crying. I felt a pain rising in my chest as I stared at my friends. Thinking how I was barely fifteen feet away and they didn't know it. They didn't know I was trapped in the house. And yet, they continued throwing things, trying to break in, when all I wanted was to desperately break out. The pain in my chest continued to grow and I felt the pain in my throat.

"Don't cry," the yellow polka-dotted monster warned. I hadn't even realized the tears building in my eyes. "It hurts when we cry."

I was already in so much pain, being in the middle of my transformation, I didn't think a few tears would hurt much more. But I blinked them away anyway and slid to the floor, curling up onto my side. I listened to the constant thunk, thunk, thunk, of whatever they were throwing at the windows. Whatever peace I had obtained was short-lived when I felt the now familiar transformation pain burning my eyes.

The numerous scraping sounds of the monsters heading toward the front snapped me out of my reverie. I looked at the three monsters that hadn't left my side and noticed how restless they were. They were unable to keep still bouncing from foot to foot. Their eyes were wide as their gazes darted around the room. The other monsters joined us in the front and they too were anxious.

"Halloween Eve," one of them hissed.

"Not again," another moaned.

I had been curled up on the floor, but with all the new activity in the foyer, I sat up.