Sue’s #WritePhoto prompt:
Every day, we walk past that gate.
It looks so creepy, and the walls are covered with this green litchen moss that indicates no-one really looked after the place.
I always wonder what is behind it though. The grounds inside are so overgrown that there is no way of glimpsing the house that it guards. Nanna said that it had been a beautiful house when she was young. There were always streams of folk in and out, parties happening regularly. She remembers standing near the gate with her friends, as a young girl, hoping to catch a glimpse of the beautiful frocks that the ladies visiting the house wore.
Then one day, the gates mysteriously closed, and never opened again.
Mummy says that bad things happened there. Someone died, and a child went missing. Nanna can’t recall what exactly happened. When I ask her, she just reminisces about pretty dresses.
There are so many rumours amongst the village.
A happy, fortunate family who suddenly befell an awful tragedy, with the man of the house being mysteriously killed in his house and their only child, a girl, disappearing. They say the lady of the house still lives there, but I can’t work out how. She’d be older than Nanna if she was still alive, and Nanna is quite old…
But just the other day, there was a report of a child going missing. She goes to my school. Her brother’s not been in this week. They must be so scared. She my age. She isn’t really my friend, but anyway… she went missing, and no one can trace her, beyond leaving school to walk home.
She’s often walked the same way as me.
Where could she have gone?
Today, I’ve had Drama Club so I’m late walking back. Sarah, my best friend, doesn’t like Drama so she went home on her own, earlier.
It’s getting dark earlier and everywhere has an eerie feel about it, especially as I get closer to that gate…
But today there is something odd. One of the gate panels is slightly ajar. I’ve never seen it open before.
Curiosity killed the cat, they say. It’s a good thing my name’s not Cat… I push open the gate and step through.
The house is there, masked by overgrown plants. But no sign of anyone around.
Who might have opened that gate?
I just have to walk up a little further. It’d be rude not to. I have to push away some of the brambles that have taken over the path, laddering my school tights.
Great.
Mummy will kill me.
The house looms closer. It really does look like it could have been a grand place.
Oh My God!
The door opens.
A little woman is standing there.
“Come on in Grace. We’ve been expecting you.”
Something pulls me closer, even though my mind is telling me to just run back to the gate, and out.
My body keeps going, and before I know it, I am over the threshold.
My eyes adjust to the dimness of the light in the hallway, and as I glance to the right, through a door, what I see makes me gasp in horror, just as I hear the front door slam shut behnd me with certain finality.
Ritu 2019
But I Smile Anyway... 