Chapter-3

I slipped out the leaflet from my pocket and quickly jumped in my bed, the leaflet had a very unique design for a Halloween, instead of the usual pumpkin and ghost there were zombies and squashes, I read through all the words that were written on it, it seemed more like a poem:

"You never know when you'll meet with the souls of the dead ones…" that was the first line written on the leaflet and it continued, " They maybe sitting right next to you as you read this, you may see one right now as you move your eyes away from here or when your in the shower, so remember kids don't go trick or treating and don't listen to your parents they are your worst enemy, head over to the graveyard of afterlife for the spookiest night you'll ever experienced with the dead ones…..

October 31st at 8 p.m.

The graveyard of afterlife

2567 palmer ride. ….."

"Eeh!! I hate parties, glad I ignored it" I said to myself, I never understood why teenagers like to party and dance around like mad man, is that even fun? The last time I was at a party was a birthday party! And I had the worst experience there, the girl who invited me over barely talked to me the whole time and I didn't knew anybody there, I had to sit alone in a corner the whole time and some weird dudes came over to talk to me, I didn't understand a thing they were saying all I could smell was their horrendous breath of liquor and they were barely twelve!! Like how in the world did they sneak those alcohol to a birthday party, luckily for me I was able to escape through the bathroom after seeing someone else did it, thinking about all these things made my eyes feel heavy so I turned off the lights and went back to my bed but as soon as I reached my bed I was fresh again the heaviness in my eyes were gone.

The moonlight pierced through the curtain and reached my room, the whole room could be seen; the furniture, the mirror, the clock. I stayed awake for a while, thinking what I should do tomorrow, I'll be home alone the whole day, for some people that would be a great day to invite over friends or their lovers but for me it's going to be a whole boring day alone like in a mental asylum, I turned around and closed my eyes trying to sleep, my room was completely silent, even the crickets were not making any noise, I pulled my quilt up to my neck and stayed like that for a while when the door slowly creaked itself open, I quickly got up and sat on my back.

"Who's there?" I said my voice was shaking, the door was already wide open and I could see the banister of the corridor in the faint moonlight.

"Brad is that you? Don't you dare try to scare me."

But the corridor was silent and nothing showed up, I quickly turned on my table lamp but it began to flicker at first than returned back to normal,

"Brad!?" I called out even louder, "very funny!"

I straight away headed towards Brad's room and walked towards his bed, "Brad I know it was you" I said but he did not reply back and his breath was heavy, he was fast asleep, sudden breeze entered his room which made a chill run down my spine, that made me realised that it may have been the wind that opened my door, the mirror in Brad's room seemed eerie I could see my own reflection and it looked like as if someone was staring deep into my eyes I quickly turned away and slowly tiptoed my way to my room hoping not to disturb Brad, when a tall figure appeared right before me.

I screamed in horror and jumped back, my head began to feel dizzy.

"Brooke!?" It called me, the lights were turned on all of a sudden. I quickly looked up and shouted.

"Mom!?"

"Why on earth did you shout like that?" She said, "you almost gave me a heart attack."

"Mom when did you come back?" I replied back, my dizziness was still there and my heart was hammering my chest, seeing mom gave me a huge relief, that whole scene felt like a nightmare with all the different emotions.

" I came back just five minutes ago and saw you entering Brad's room so I thought something was wrong." Mom said, she looked quite shocked too and her face was pale.

"Don't worry," I said," my door suddenly opened itself so I thought Brad did it but it was just the wind."

"Well go to bed it's already eleven, I've got work tomorrow too."

I slowly walked to my room and made sure to lock the door this time so it wouldn't open again, I headed to my bed and quickly laid down and covered my self with my quilt and thought about the jump scare I just had now, never in my life had I experienced any jump scare like that but I swear I didn't know mom was home already and there was no noise either, I kept thinking about earlier and how mom was shorter than me but the figure of my mom that was right before me was taller than me.

The alarm woke me up, I quickly slapped the top of its head to make it stop ringing, I barely slept the night it was eight in the morning I wanted to sleep some more but mom entered my room, she was applying white stuff on her face, "wake up, Brooke, Brad has to go to school help him to get ready," she said, her voice muffled as she spoke.

I gave out a sigh, "I barely got to sleep at night, let me sleep some more"

"Iam off to work now, Brooke get up! And get your brother ready for school." mom said and she quickly rubbed all the remaining white stuff on her hands and left my room but she came back again," Oh! And I've already prepared breakfast, eat it while it's still hot."

I slowly got out of my bed and opened the curtains, it was a cloudy day and looked very gloomy, 'not a good day to start off with' I thought, I saw mom getting inside her car and a few moments later she drove off the street and disappeared into the trees, I gave out a big yawn, I was still tired and after looking at my messed up bed, I really wanted to sleep some more but Brad has school today so I tiredly went to the bathroom, it's a great thing that we have our own bathroom, back at our old house we had to share a single bathroom, after a quick wash up I went to Brad's room he was still sleeping, "Hey! Wakey wakey!!" I said and pulled his blanket away from him, he slowly opened his eyes and sat on his back, "why so early?" he said rubbing his eyes,

"It's already eight, you sleepy head get up or your going to be late for school."

"Ahh! I hate school." Brad said, "Iam not going! I want to sleep."

"That's not up to you, now get up!" I said and grabbed his arm and pulled him off the bed, and took him to the bathroom and washed him up quickly.

The table on the kitchen was already laid with cornflakes, fruits and milk. Mom said that she had prepared hot breakfast for us but the only thing that was hot was the milk and I don't even like cornflakes in hot milk.

"Eww! Why are we eating pig feed" Brad said, " we're not living in a farm."

"The only pig here is you," I replied," and eat it quickly or else just eat the banana."

"Iam not a monkey." he said and pushed the bowl of cornflakes away from him, I sighed and said

"Why do you have to make everything hard, can't you just be good for like a day?"

"I don't want to eat, who would want to eat pig feed in the morning." He replied

"Fine don't eat!" I said angrily, "go to school while your tummy is rumbling."

Brat pouted his mouth like an octopus, " then I'll starve myself to death." He said.

Brad was really getting on my nerve, how in the world did I get a brother like him, I should have wished for a little sister instead of a bother during that time when mom was pregnant and I made a wish under the shooting star.

"Do whatever you want," I said and I started shoving the cornflakes into my mouth, the milk was already getting cold and the cornflakes were all soaky, Brad was staring at me and making all kinds of faces, "make that face again." I said with my mouthful, he quickly looked away from me and pretended as if he didn't do anything, I went back to eating again but this time he stuck his tongue out at me, "I'll cut it off, put it back" I said,

He folded his arms and refused to put his tongue back, so I stood up and went towards him and pinched his ear hard, "Ow!" he cried," stop it!" he tried to push back my hand but he was too weak,

"Now try to stick your tongue at me again." I said and continued to pinch his ear.

"Iam sorry I won't do it." he said, his voice was quavering, I stopped for a second before Brad jumped from his seat and tried to run away, I quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him

"Don't pull me." He cried and tried to hold the leg of the table. I pulled him even further, " let go of the table." I said but he wouldn't stop and held even tighter. "Stop!!" He shouted,

"Don't shout!" I yelled back at him but he shouted even more louder, "Stop Pulling Me!"

And like a sudden flash all the bowls, the cups and the spoons on the table crashed to the floor making the loudest crash.

We both stopped and stared at the broken bowls, the shattered glasses, the box of cornflakes everywhere and the milk spilled all over the floor.

"Brad what have you done!" I said

"You were the one pulling me." He replied back

"Who was the one grabbing the table!"

I took a glance at it again, our table was missing a table cloth and the table was strong, Iam pretty sure the things on the table would not crash on the floor simply like that just by shaking the table.

"I think Robbie did it." Brad said softly

"Robbie?" I said

Brad looked at me in the eye his face was pale and horrid, " remember the old man I said I saw in my room, his name is Robbie."

" Stop talking nonsense and help me clean up, mom will kill us if she finds out."

I quickly grabbed a mop and started mopping the floor and sweeping off the cornflakes, Brad tried picking up the broken pieces of the bowls but I stopped him before he hurt himself,

"Go get your bag!"

After some minute of cleaning I could finally send Brad to the school bus, I fed him the leftover pizza from yesterday and he quickly ate it. I kept thinking about how the cups and the bowls would all fall out on its own or was it because we shook the table too hard, and although I said 'nonsense' when Brad said something about an old man living here, it still gave me chills and a strange feeling, the house felt quite empty, staying alone the only sound I could hear were the ticking of the clock and the creaking on the floor, although there are only few houses in this area, one of them is close to us but I didn't want to make a visit because I don't and especially when it's all by myself, the doorbell suddenly rang, I quickly went and opened the door which of course made the creaking sound, a boy was standing before me, he had his long dark hair tied in a bun and was smiling at me.

"Hi, Iam Silas your next door neighbour."