Oh, Brother

The four ten-year old’s, Jeremy, Susie, Bill, and Nelly sat in a circle on the floor in the old, abandoned house. It smelt like moldy old leaves, but it was a cool old house for a late October gathering.

“If you are scared, you better leave now.” Susie moved two of the small flickering candles into the middle of their group.

“I ain’t scared of nothing.” Jeremy crossed his arms and had his typical scowl on his face.

“You have screamed like a little baby before. Remember when we went to the haunted house, Bill?” asked Nelly. She slapped her leg and laughed.

“I was just playing like I was scared,” said Jeremy.

“Yeah, whatever.” Bill chimed in and laughed. “I think you peed your pants.”

“Like you said, whatever.” Jeremy turned to Susie. “What are we supposed to be doing here?”

Susie straightened up and opened her tattered book. “We are trying to summon a ghostly presence. What did you think, that we were going to order pizza?”

“Pizza sounds great. Can we do that?” asked Nelly.

An eerie moaning was heard.

“Geez, that was really convincing, Nel,” said Susie as she flipped through the pages in her book.

“That was not me.” Nelly raised her hands in defeat.

“Let’s get this over with. I have to be home by ten or I am grounded.” Jeremy ran his hands through his hair and went back to his crossed arm position.

Susie began reading from her book. “The witches coven can bring forth an evil spirit to inhabit any person, willing or unwilling. A long…”

“We are not in a witches coven,” interrupted Bill.

There was a sound like someone walking down creaky stairs that caused everyone to turn and look at the seriously ratty stairs.

“Who is there?” asked Susie.

Wide-eyed, everyone strained to hear.

“A ghostly aspiration.” Jeremy laughed heartily at his comment.

“That is apparition, you idiot,” chimed in Bill. He shook his head.

“You knew what I meant.”

Once a door slammed, all four of the youngsters were on the run out of the house.


“Well, that was fun,” said Kurt to his sister, Jean, as they made their way carefully down the stairs.

“Jeremy will not sleep well if we keep it up a little more tonight.” Jean laughed. She knelt and blew out the candles. She clicked on a small flashlight as there was no light visible inside the house. The moon was new so it was a very dark night.

“Mom will ground us if we make him pee the bed, so let’s not go overboard.” Kurt picked up Susie’s book and flipped through it, then tossed it back on the floor as the flashlight did not give off enough light to read by.

“Let’s get out of here and figure out what our next move is for our little brother.”

They high fived each other and left the old house.



Prompt ▼

Include all of the following in your STORY or POEM - all bolded:

ghostly presence
creaky stairs
flickering candles
eerie moaning
a door slammed

Word count: 489