ESL Blogs

Evangelina's writing challenge

The abandoned house

The students wanted to spend the weekend in a different way this time. Maria suggested the beach, but her boyfriend objected to that. They went to the beach last weekend. Gene suggested climbing the mountains, but Sara disapproved. Gene knew that Sara is having her period and she could not climb or even look at the top of the mountain, leave alone getting to the top of it. Suddenly, Eva shouted, "Hey guys! Look here, how about going to the countryside?" Rick, her boyfriend, shook his head. It was obvious that he did not like the idea, but Mariah cut his thoughts by saying, "Well, it's a good idea, let's take it for a change, whadya  say Gene?"

"It's ok with me," said Gene, her boyfriend. James exchanged glances with Sara and she nodded. At least it was better than climbing a mountain. They all set up and took Gene's father land rover. They went north. It was a long high way. They were eating, drinking, and listening to the car stereo. They were very happy.  Gene was driving and at the same time, he was kissing Mariah. Suddenly, the car diverted from the main road and they got a flat tire.

"Now what?" Sara shouted.

Then Rick and Eva said, "We leave, the car here and walk"

"But the car,   err, my father might" began Gene.

"Nothing will happen to it, just let's push it a little bit further into the woods." Said Mariah softly to him. They pushed it with difficulty and Sara grunted, "I can't do it, you guys go ahead".

James said, "it's ok. honey, we will do it, relax."

They started walking, and walking through the woods is very difficult. They walked for about half an hour and then the sun began to get down. Soon, it would be dark.

Sara sat on the ground and said, "I can't take it anymore, you guys leave me here and go for help."

Then Rick told her to continue before the dark. Unwillingly, she raised herself up with her boyfriend's assistance. Dark began to send its threads. After ten minutes walking, they saw a house. They were very happy. At least, they would spend the night in a big shelter. When they reached the house, there were no residents or at least it seemed. The windows were shut and there was no light.

Eva called, "Hello… hello, anybody home?" There was no answer and Rick told her to push the door. To their surprise, the door was opened and a man appeared at the doorstep, "Who are you? What do you want?" he asked.

Eva began, "We had a flat tire, and we could not find anyone to help us, so we walked here err…"

The man interrupted her, "Ok, come in." The students came in and they were surprised because the man appeared suddenly and he was not hospitable and rude in his behavior. Eva and Rick were the first couples to enter the house and then followed by Gene and Mariah. Sara was hesitant to enter and James prompted her to get inside the house.

The strange man stood in front of them and said, "I will go upstairs to sleep, you can spend the night here." He pointed to two old sofas and one broken chair and left immediately. There was no light and Rick took out his mobile phone and tried to switch it for light. Unfortunately, it was dead. The others tried to do the same with their mobiles, but they were not charged.   

"We can't see anything; shall we talk to this mysterious guy?" Rick enquired.

His girlfriend answered him, "Honey, if he had had any help, he would have shown it, just let's be close and sleep on that filthy rug down there." Mariah began to worry and Gene was frightened because he heard or rather all the five students heard the sound of an opening door, but they saw nothing. The horror started.

To be continued.