Hawk High School Horror Story (not an actual horror story)

[Nevesaro]

To tell the truth, this story doesn't really have a title. I just call it HHSHS becuase . . . well I don't actually know why. Maybe it's an inside joke. My memory fails me once again.

Anyway, this is my novel that isn't a novel. Well it is a novel, but this version isn't. I shortened it into a short story so I could turn it in for an assignment in my creative writing class. And this is how it turned out. I'm not happy with it, by the way. The characters did not get a chance to develop, and the ending is not what I wanted. It was simply the only thing that worked with this version. The ending of my novel will be different.

Well, enjoy my "short" story. Warning: It's 14 pages long on Word.  

[Nevesaro]

The columbines had turned brown. They were wilted, and the striking purple was gone from their petals. Apart from Kayla, Don’s flowers were all he had to love and nurture. Now they were dead. Dead just like Dana.

"Bad things happen in threes," Don Nelson said aloud to himself. Dana was dead. The flowers were dead. Would Kayla be next? Don ran inside to search for his beloved niece. He had to be careful this time.

Rushing up the stairs to the second story of his house was beginning to take its toll on Don’s old knees. It was the reason he slept on the couch these days; his only injury from the accident was finally starting to hurt him almost as much as the tragedy hurt his heart. As he struggled to fight the pain, the memories came back in flashes:

An extra bottle of beer. Or two. Dropping the keys a few times before finally fitting them into the ignition. The headlights of the other car. Swerving to avoid the inevitable collision. His wife, alive in the passengers’ seat for the last time.

"Why don’t you let me drive home?"

"Not with that shattered ankle."

"But Don, you’re drunk! And it’s only my left foot."

"I’ll be fine."

Don Nelson closed his icy blue eyes, forcing the memory out of his mind temporarily, and continued to search his house. He checked every room on the main level twice, but did not dare to climb the steps again. When the search was complete, Kayla was still missing.

"She’s out with that boy again," Don concluded softly to himself.

"You don’t know that, Don," replied another voice calmly. It was a voice Don knew well, and it was the eerie voice of a ghost.

"Yes, I do," Don protested, "because he’s her only friend. Either she’s out with him, or she’s out alone. And you know she doesn’t do that. She may not have many friends, but she still doesn’t like to be alone."

Dana’s pale shape slowly looked down in shame. She didn’t want her husband to worry, but she also didn’t know what else to say.

"Dana, I can’t lose her like I lost you," Don moaned helplessly.

“You haven’t really lost me,” Dana replied with solid determination. “I died, but I’m not gone.”

"But I have lost you," Don sighed. "I can still talk to you. I can even see you when no one else is around. But for eighteen years, I haven’t been able to touch you." He lifted his hand to stroke his dead wife’s cheek, but it slipped past her transparent skin. "In eighteen years, we’ve been unable to share even a single kiss."

Sparkling tears began to flood the banks of Dana’s barely visible eyes. She covered her face with her thin hands, knowing what would come next. Suddenly, the bloody wound could be seen on the left side of her forehead. Blood ran down Dana’s cheeks, just as it had the night she died. She screamed in agony, and vanished from sight just in time.

"Mr. Nelson!" shouted a voice from outside. Don did not recognize the voice at first. He looked in the direction of the front door but couldn’t see who was outside.

"My flowers are ghosts, too," he muttered to himself. As quickly as his aching knee allowed, Don ran to the front door to make sure he was wrong.

"Mr. Nelson!" repeated the seventeen-year-old boy on the front porch. His hazel eyes were wider than usual and flooded with panic.

"You," said Don, "You’re that boy. Where did you take Kayla?"

"Kayla! The school! The wall! But then- solid!" blurted the boy unintelligibly.

"What are you sayin’, boy?" inquired Don, though he had some idea of what was going on. He simply didn’t want it to be true. Once again, he was in denial.

"Hawk! Hawk High!" explained the troubled teen as color returned to his thin face.

"Brian VanWey, you better be lyin’ to me. Tell me where she is, and use complete sentences."

"Kayla’s inside Hawk High School," Brian managed to say despite his panic.

"The haunted one?" asked Don, running a large, callused hand worriedly through his prematurely grey hair.

"Yeah. She walked through the wall, but when I got there it was solid again. The doors are locked, too."

"Take me there," said Don firmly. Determination was set in his sad blue eyes. "But let me go get something first." He added quickly, turning away.

Don walked back outside a short while later with a set of ancient-looking keys.

"Are those-?" Brian tried to ask, but Don interrupted.

"The keys to that haunted school," he answered with slight hesitation. "Let’s go."  

[Nevesaro]

That's all for now. I'll finish later.  

[KirbyVictorious]

oooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOoOOoOoOooo/

I liiiike this!  

[Nevesaro]

seriously? Well, I guess I have time to post a little more now.  

[Nevesaro]

Inside Hawk High School, Kayla was trapped. She knew there was no way out, for the ghost of a little boy had informed her that the walls were solid to anyone inside the building. Of course, that included the ghosts.

Another apparition made herself visible in front of Kayla. This one was a teenage girl with elbow-length hair that had once been a gorgeous blend of red and medium brown. In Kayla’s opinion, she was much prettier than the first ghost. He had been a pudgy little boy who juggled rocks.

"Hi, I’m Ally," said the ghost cheerfully. "I like pineapple."

"Um, I don’t think I have any pineapple with me," Kayla told the spirit nervously. Ally just laughed. As frightened as Kayla felt, Ally’s laughter almost made her happy again. But the feeling soon passed as a rope became visible around the beautiful ghost’s neck.

After Kayla realized that the rope was a noose, Ally’s body went limp and slipped through the floor. Kayla didn’t even have time to react before a hand flew up to grab her ankle. Screaming in pure terror, she felt the ground fall rapidly from beneath her.  

[Nevesaro]

"Where did you get those keys, Mr. Nelson?" asked Brian curiously.

"You can call me Don, you know."

"I would, Mr. Nelson, but I’m pretty sure you hate me."

"I don’t hate you, Brian. I’m just trying to protect my niece."

"Kayla’s my best friend. I would never intentionally do anything to hurt her."

"Neither would I, kid. But right now she’s stuck inside a haunted building, and we did nothing to prevent that."

Brian and Don walked to the front doors of Hawk High School without saying another word. Brian’s stride was flowing and unbroken, his lengthy legs showing more confidence than he felt as they propelled him forward, whereas Don walked unsteadily with his bad knee. Although Brian cleared his throat once or twice, he never found anything worth saying to Kayla’s uncle.

The constant, repetitive clanging of the flagpole increased the awkward feel of the silence. To avoid this feeling, Brian observed the abandoned school. It seemed so much like his own school that it was almost even more terrifying than he had imagined, though he doubted that was really possible. Still, it was nearly identical to East Hawkville High School. The bricks were the same color of dark red, and there were just as many glass doors. Brian thought he could even make out some subtle evidence of spray paint vandalism.

Don took the keys out of his pocket and located the one for the front door. He shoved it into the keyhole and closed his eyes hesitantly. It was a rusty key, and the years had made it weak and brittle. As Don turned it in the lock, the key made a sickening crack. The old glass door with peeling green paint at its edges did not want to open.

"It broke!" exclaimed Brian, pointing out the obvious because he had nothing else to say in this helpless moment. This was a talent of his which many of his friends often laughed at, but this particular moment was not a laughing situation.

"This isn’t the only door," said Don in an unusually calm tone, refusing to give up early.  

[Nevesaro]

The basement of Hawk High School was even more dark and musty than its main level. Kayla squinted until she saw the white ghost of Ally again.

"Stupid rope," Ally said, rolling her vivid emerald eyes. Her eyes were the only part of her with color remaining.

"Why does it do that?" asked Kayla in a wavering voice.

"Everyone here, in the basement, must face their sins again for all of eternity. Suicide was my greatest sin. What’s yours?" Ally questioned the strange human curiously, causing the emerald of her eyes to brighten slightly more.

"I’m not dead yet," said Kayla slowly, unsure of what else to say.

"Then how did you get in?" she asked in utter amazement.

"I threw a rock," Kayla began, remembering the anger inside her just less than an hour before. "I was just trying to prove that this place was a normal school. I didn’t think you guys were real. But the walls did something weird. The rock went right through, just like Brian said it would. I tried to pick it up again, but the building sucked me in."

"So you really aren’t dead? That means you can’t be my friend."

"Oh, I’m sorry," Kayla whispered breathlessly, suddenly feeling very sorry for the strange ghost.

"It’s alright," Ally replied with a shrug. "Jill keeps me company."

At that moment, an equally beautiful ghost gradually became visible next to Ally. She seemed a bit darker than her best friend, and her hair was long and curled.

"Hi," said the new specter, "I’m Jill. I like shrimp."

Both Ally and Jill burst into hysterical laughter and continued to introduce each other and shake hands. After hearing Ally tell Jill five times that she liked pineapple, Kayla knew they had forgotten all about her. She turned away to find a staircase, but Ally suddenly screamed.

"There’s blood on my hand!" she screeched.

"Sorry," said Jill, "it’s my wrists again."

Kayla glanced over her shoulder to see that Jill had several slits on each of her wrists, all bleeding profusely. Horrified, Kayla ran away to find her way out of the basement.  

[KirbyVictorious]

!!!!!  

[Nevesaro]

The last key. The last door. Now Brian and Don were at the back of the school, and Brian was starting to think that his own school had been modeled after this one. Every brick was the same, it seemed to him. Just like East Hawkville High School, it was a plain, L-shaped building with few windows. The only difference, Brian realized as they walked around it trying keys in all of its doors, was that it looked newer. Of course, it had been built nearly thirty years before the school on the east side of Hawkville, but that didn’t seem to phase it. It had somehow managed to preserve itself over the years, whereas the other school aged properly.

Brian tried the key in the lock this time, certain that this was his last chance to save his best friend. He wiggled it, but it wouldn’t fit. A thick layer of rust had formed on it, making it too large for its hole.

"Is this the right one?" he asked Don.

"What if it’s not? We can’t try another one," the old man said simply and truthfully. Most of the other keys had broken just like the first.

"Mr. Nelson, we have to get in there. I need to tell her the truth before it’s too late," pleaded Brian.

"That’s not the only way in," Don sighed. He called for Dana, but someone else heard him shout.  

[Nevesaro]

Still running for her life, Kayla tripped on something hard. The ground beneath her was no longer flat. Stairs! She thought to herself, almost happy enough to kiss them.

Now that there was a way out of the dank basement, Kayla stopped running. Taking the seven stairs slowly one at a time, she began to see light filtering through the windows. Her throat closed up, and her ocean blue eyes became glossy with tears of joy.

Kayla could see the halls again. She took in the sight of dirty tile and sickly yellow lockers. Looking down the hallways that had once felt like a maze to her, she welcomed them now. They were starting to look familiar anyway. The nearest hallway looked similar to the one she walked through every other day for chemistry. There were three doors on the left and four on the right, as well as two bathrooms at each end. Kayla smiled suddenly, wondering if she could locate and open her locker. Just a right turn here, then a left at the next hallway and eleven lockers from the corner . . .

Something tugged the sleeve of Kayla’s shirt. A small girl stood next to her, trying to get her attention. At first, Kayla didn’t even notice it was a ghost. She was a small girl in a frilly dress with large, round eyes.

"I have to show you something," it said in a small voice.

"What is it?"

"Locker fifty-one," she whispered, turning the corner into the next hallway. Kayla followed obediently, hoping the girl would eventually lead her close to an exit.  

[Nevesaro]

"This area is off-limits," stated the burly police officer.

"We’re just trying to get my niece out," Don explained hurriedly. "She’s trapped inside. She walked through the wall."

"We have a code silver on our hands," the officer said, speaking into his radio this time.

"Code silver?" Brian inquired, overwhelmed with confusion.

"It means someone finally did get trapped in this building. We’ve been waiting for this to happen so we could do something about the place. We always knew it was dangerous, but we had no proof. We have permission to burn it down now, to make sure this never happens again."

"What about Kayla?" asked Brian and Don simultaneously.

"I’m sorry for your loss."

Brian stopped breathing and found himself suddenly painfully lightheaded. The thought of his best friend killed in a fire started by the Hawkville police frightened him terribly. What if she never knew the truth about his feelings?

Don, however, was not afraid or sad. His eyes darkened to an almost cerulean shade of blue as anger filled them. He was here to save his niece, not have her murdered inside a haunted building just because someone else was too stupid to burn it down already. After offering the officer another cold glare, Don turned away and headed to another side of the school. He had to get out of sight so he could get Dana to show up before it was too late.  

[Nevesaro]

Kayla and the little girl walked through the halls. They walked slowly enough for Kayla to take in more details. Hawk High was starting to look almost like an exact replica of East Hawkville High School. Minus the spectral students, of course. And the fact that the inhabitants were of various ages, ranging from about six to sixty.

The little girl stopped and pointed. Distracted by the appearance of the haunted school, Kayla walked right through her.

"Locker fifty-one," whispered the young spirit again. The locker was identical to the ones around it, except for the dent in its top right corner. Other than that and the smear of dark red across its middle, it was a normal pink locker with the number 51 written in black on a silver plate. "His shedge-hammy hit here," the girl told Kayla, indicating the dent at the top. "It hit my head, too."

Out of the shadows came another ghost, a man holding a sledgehammer above his head. The hammer was as real and solid as Kayla herself, and with it the man charged at her, screaming wildly.  

[Nevesaro]

"Dana, go in and find her," Don instructed quickly. "Get her out of there before they burn the place down."

Brian’s sand-colored hair rustled in the breeze created by Dana as she floated by, disturbing the short, messy curls atop his head. Soon, the two people Don Nelson cared about more than anything else in the world were inside the one place he never wanted either of them to be. Pictures of them flooded his mind. He could see Kayla at the ages of five, six, and seven with hair the color of dead grass. He could see the sheer joy in her ocean-colored eyes at almost every Christmas, and he could see the emptiness in them just after Amber’s death.

Startled by the sound of a loud burst of air, Brian looked over at his best friend’s uncle. He saw that Don had opened his mouth to breathe because his nose. Before Don’s face turned away to hide his pain, Brian even thought he saw the sparkle of a tear on his left cheek.  

[Nevesaro]

Dana glided through the halls, following Kayla’s shrill screams. Just when she found her niece dodging the swings of the crazy murderer’s sledgehammer, the air began to smell of smoke. Dana concentrated all of her energy on Kayla and lunged forward to grab her wrist. They both slipped backwards into the locker before the hammer could touch Kayla’s blonde head. It plunged downward instead, causing the evil ghost to fall through the tile floor and into the dusty basement below.