Spooks

One night on Halloween year 2005, a brother and a sister, Mat (a tall 13 year-old boy with carrot orange hair) and Wynn 
(an 11 year-old girl with silver highlighted hair) went trick or treating at St. Willow’s Place, Michigan. 
It was a very windy and cold night. They had collected a lot of candy and only had one more house to go.  
Together, they walked up to the front porch and rang the door bell. The door bell sounded through the night like a 
wolf’s howl and went through their ears like a gun shot. Suddenly, the large oak front doors opened with a sound that 
was almost as bad as finger nails scraping against a chalk board. They walked two steps inside the house and Mat said 
“Hello?  Is anyone here!?” Automatically, the doors closed behind them. Wynn screamed. It was pitch dark and so musty 
inside, it made them cough. They could hear something crawling all over the place. Mat said “Hey, I forgot I had a flashlight 
in my backpack.” He pulled out a small flashlight and turned it on. They both let out a gasp when they saw hundreds of 
black spiders with a red hour glass symbol on their backs! Mat screamed “Those are black widow spiders!” Black widows 
were crawling everywhere except on one door. They quickly ran through that door. Wynn said “Look Mat, floating candles!” 
There were at least one hundred candles floating around to light up the room. The room had to be enchanted, because it was 
about two and a half acres in diameter and filled to the ceiling with magical and non- magical books. Mat said “This has to 
be a library!”  Wynn went over to a mirror that stood 5 feet tall and engraved in the mirror were strange words. Not being able 
to find out what they meant, she went over to Mat and said “We need to find a way out.” With that Mat said “Let’s try that door 
over on the other side!”  They went to try the door but it was locked. All of a sudden the door clicked open. They walked into 
a potion room with human skulls hanging up on each side of the walls. “Wow this room is really giving me the creeps!” said 
Mat. Wynn agreed with him and they immediately left the potion room and returned to the library. Wynn asked “Um . . . Was 
that door there before?” “No I don’t think so… lets see where it leads” said Mat. The two children walked into the next room. There 
were two stair cases on each side and a hall straight ahead. Wynn asked “Which way should we go?” “Let’s try the hallway” 
replied Mat. As they headed down the hallway they noticed a large rusty lever sticking out of the wall. “I wonder what this lever 
does” said Mat. “You stay here, Wynn, I’m going to check ahead.” While Mat went ahead, curiosity got the better of Wynn, 
and she pulled the lever half way down. All of a sudden the hallway shaked like an earthquake and then stopped. There was 
a scream from Mat as he saw the hallway ahead somehow twisting. The twisting soon reached them and the path behind them 
was blocked by a wall. After the excitement, the lever faded away into smoke. Wynn said “Oh no! Now I can’t change the 
hallway back!” Mat said “We might as well start walking down the twisted hallway.” They started down the hallway and it was 
very strange. They were walking on a red mat that spiraled them upside down on the ceiling, down the walls, and across the 
floor. At the end of the hallway, there was another door. They went through the door quickly, and the room they entered was 
pitch dark. Mat said “Wow, I better get out my flashlight again.” While Mat was getting his flashlight, the room lit up instantly 
by a dozen candles. Mat said “I guess I won’t be needing a flashlight.” In the middle of the round room, there was a blue 
book on a stand. Wynn ran over to the blue book and opened it.  She said “I think this book could translate the strange words 
engraved in the mirror in the library.” Mat said “Great! Let’s go see what it means.” Wynn took the book off of the stand and 
there was a large sound. Mat said “Uh oh, I didn’t like the sound of that.” Suddenly, the lights went out and went back on. 
Mat and Wynn looked around and noticed the room was square with spikes sticking out of the walls and the walls were moving 
in on them! Both Wynn and Mat were freaking out. Wynn walked on an area that sounded hollow and Wynn said “I think there’s 
a trap door right here!” Mat said “Let me see.” While Mat was trying to open the trap door, the walls were moving in on them fast. 
The walls almost crushed them when Mat said, “I’ve got the trap door open.  Jump in!” Mat and Wynn narrowly escaped death. 
They landed in a dimly lit room. They quickly ran through a door and entered into the library again. Wynn said “The mirror is 
over there!” Mat and Wynn headed over to the mirror and pulled the blue book out of the backpack. After ten minutes, 
Mat translated the words on the mirror and he said “Okay, it says I am St Elmine’s mirror.  If you wish to travel somewhere, 
imagine the place, and say friner sakari.” The children did what the mirror said to do and imagined being outside of the house. 
Everything flashed white and when they opened their eyes, they were outside of the house. Wynn looked at Mat and said 
“We are out!” Mat said “Let’s get out of here!”
When they got home, their mother said “How was Halloween?” Mat and Wynn looked at each other and Wynn said 
“Well, we were spooked.” Mat said “It was the best one ever!

By Kyler J. Burnett Age 12