Brianna's House of Horrors

Hello everyone. I wrote you a Halloween story! It's approximately 1900 words.

Brianna's House of Horrors

“It’s just gonna be the usual stuff,” said Josh, who’d caught a glimpse through the partially open door of what Brianna had in store for everyone in her House of Horrors. “Peeled grapes for eyes, spaghetti for intestines--” He broke off when Brianna appeared.

You have to give Brianna credit. It isn’t easy to move to a new town when you’re in high school, and it takes definite guts to issue an open invitation to your English class to stop by your house for the scare of the century, especially when your house is just a crummy old rental, shoved into the hill on the side of the state highway just past the gas station at the town line. But Brianna’s got guts.

“Welcome!” Brianna said, smiling broadly. “You parked at the gas station and walked the rest of the way, right? Good!” She opened the door wide and made a low bow. “Come on in, if you dare.”

“Don’t you want us to put on blindfolds or something?” Josh asked.

“I don’t know what lame Houses of Horrors you’ve ever been to,” she replied, giving him a top-to-bottom lookover, “but for my House of Horrors, you need your eyes wide open. Everybody can stand over there,” she continued, pointing to the left wall. “But be careful not to step on Smooth. He’s my mom’s python. We’re letting him roam free in hopes he’ll keep the mice down.” Vienna gave a muffled squeal—she’d learned somewhere that girls are supposed to be scared of both snakes and mice—but she and all the rest (Niels, Katie, Devika, Ryan, and of course Josh) went in.

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The next day in school, you heard different stories depending on who you talked to. Katie and Niels said Brianna led them back to the same house, but that in the meantime Zach had cleaned it up, put on music, and set out snacks. Devika, Vienna, and Ryan said it was a totally different house, but that Zach had inexplicably turned up. Devika swore she heard Brianna tell Zach, “I will release you after midnight,” whereas Vienna was sure Brianna had said, “What are you doing here?” You couldn’t get much out of Josh. He kept falling asleep during classes, and when his teachers asked him about it, he’d only say that he’d pulled an all-nighter and was paying the price now.