The House at The End of Mulberry Lane
BY Dylan Johnson
We pulled into the drive, 104 Mulberry Lane. This was my new home, my new life, and a fresh start. I stepped out of our old creaky station wagon as my foot hit the old cracked cement covered with the old saturated leafs. The house covered with brown ivy, the windows boarded up and the black cat on the porch step made me wonder why this house was so peculiar. The house was an old plantation style house. that looked liked like it hadn’t been lived in for centuries.The yard was quite large, trees bare, grass tall and frail, all fenced in by an old rusty iron fence. I walked up to the door as the cat hissed, I knocked on to the the rose colored door and waited for someone to answer, but no one did. I grabbed the rusted old brassy knob and opened the door. As the door opened up, it sounded like mice getting crushed, squealing and crying out for help. As I set foot into the house, the smell of must and mildew overwhelmed me. The carpet stained, covered in what seemed to be dirt and dust. Cobwebs covered the peach flaking plaster walls. I walked up the old creaking stairs to check out the house and see what room would be mine. At the end of the hallway was a stain glass window with a giant hole in it, the cool crisp fall air made the upstairs quite chilly. I walked in one of the rooms; there was only an old metal bed frame and an old green metal chair that sat in the corner of the room. The floors distressed, cracking and creaking as I walked across them; it made the room quite erry. There was a small closet that was tucked away in the wall. I opened the door to find 4 gray leather straight jackets. They were creepy; covered in dust and worn out. I layed them out across the old metal bed frame. On the tags of the straight jackets were four names, Lucy, John, Kelly and Chris. I had so many questions as to why these creepy old straight jackets were in the closet of this house
I yelled down stairs, “mom, dad, come here fast!”
They came running up the old creaky stairs thinking that i had fallen and got hurt.
I said, “look; the jackets, I found four straight jackets in the closet.”
“what are you talking about, theres nothing that i can see.” said mom.
I turned around thinking that they are crazy. They were gone; all four leather straight jackets were gone. I rubbed my eyes thinking that this was all a dream…..but it wasn’t. They didn’t believe me so they back downstairs to finish bringing stuff in the house. As I closed the closet door i noticed markings, scratches, claw marks. It looked like a vicious bear had clawed at the door wanting its way in. I squinted my eyes trying to focus on what the illegible marks. The marking read, “ leave, you don’t belong here!” I ran down the hall and down the creaky old stairs. As I got to the landing at the end of the stairs I noticed muddy footprints, that lead to the living room. There they were, my dad, my mom and my sister abby….DEAD.
