Family Circle

In an evening, a boy was reading a book to his dog. “Once upon a time,” he started,

“A boy called Lleiven Tonsharr had gone out to a mysterious house for trick-or-treating. He slowly walked up the door. ‘KNOCK, KNOCK!’ An echo bounced around the inside of the house. The door slowly creaked open. ‘Commme innn, Lleiven Tonsharr!’ a voice wailed. ‘H-h-ow d-do you know my name?’ He stammered. ‘Commme innn!!’ Exasperating, he slowly walked in. BAMM! The door slammed shut. ‘Helllllp!’ He cried. He tried to open the door, but no matter how hard he tried, the door wouldn’t budge.

Frightened and lonely, he sat on a couch and cried. ‘You’re not scared, are you?’ A queer voice questioned. Lleiven looked up. A girl, about twelve, was staring at him. ‘This will help you’ She handed him a paper, encoded in strange words. ‘Elnqo Ynmux Cwopc Fwzsz Ygatz’ ‘Huh?’ ‘You’d better run,’ she said, ‘or something might happen to you. By the way, I am one of the most powerful creatures in this mansion. I’ll be following you, just in case.’ This didn’t make sense to him at all. Suddenly, the girl mysteriously disappeared.

While he was studying the page, a gruesome laugh sent shivers up his spine. Slowly, he looked up. This message probably means to go up the stairs, he thought, there might be an exit. Very slowly, he walked up. Lleiven was mesmerized by the strange voice. “ Come, my child, and get ready to see your fate!!”

It was a dreadful laugh, unearthly, hideous, and repulsive. It terrorized him, cackling and grotesque.

He soon saw what was making the noise. A cursed epitaph, titled “THE VOODOO GUIDE TO REIHIEDEIS” was speaking into an intercom. The book was opened at a bizarre angle. Next to the book was the girl. She snapped her fingers.

Suddenly, a coffin swept over him. Another code was above him, shining. ‘Gcibn Tjjvu Giupa Kfbnz’. Lleiven thought and thought, not knowing that it read, ‘Free the ghost of Lor.’

‘ CREATE A CHART IN YOUR MIND,’ the book said. Lleiven thought of this:
Gcibn
Tjjvu
Giupa
Kfbnz

‘READ UP TO DOWN, NOT LEFT TO RIGHT!’
‘Gtgkcjifijuvbvpnnuaz’, He whispered.
‘SUBTRACT THE LETTERS BY YOUR BIRTH’
Lleiven remembered that his birthday was 12/26/92, ‘Hmm… G-1=F, T-2=R’
‘AND THAT SHALL BRING YOU BACK TO EARTH!’
After a few minutes of continuous cackling from the book and thinking from Lleiven, he shouted, ‘FREE THE GHOST OF LOR!’

The lid flew off, and Lleiven was free. A piece of paper drifted on to his head. ‘The ghost of Lor is a prisoner of the skeletonys people. They are not skeletons. They carry swords, daggers, guns, shields, et cetera. They are located in the east room’s lobby. The ghost is kept in a cage in the east room’s kitchen.’ It read. Lleiven looked over the page and noticed a page from the book flapping wildly because of the stretch of the spine. It ripped off, and floated above Lleiven’s head. He grabbed it, and it was the map of the house. Soon, he found that he was in the west room’s bathroom. In half a bat minute, he got to the east room’s lobby. The girl followed him. Then, he saw a skeletonys. It was a bloodthirsty, slime oozing, foul creature. It had an eagle head; ten arms, each holding a weapon. It had countless tentacles for legs and stunk badly. Lleiven noticed that someone had tried to behead him, but failed, for he had a cut in his neck. Another slid into view, even bigger and smellier than the first. Lleiven spotted a shield and picked it up. Immediately, they began to fight. After a lot of dodging, hitting, running, slashing, ‘Ow!’ing, and ‘oh no!’ing, Lleiven prevailed. He found the key from the skeletonys’ belt and freed the ghost of Lor from the cage.

‘A wise decision!’ The ghost said. But the ghost was not what it seemed. The girl’s soul got sucked into the ghost. It turned to a great size, thundering with every word it said. The ghost cursed Lleiven, and he became the first vampire. The End”

Finished the boy. He patted on the dog, then turned off the light and went to sleep.

The next day, he was late to school. He came in the classroom when Mrs. Schouenbergen was taking roll.
“Marley Reghetti?”
“Here”
”Marta Lovelace?”
“Here.”
“Lleiven Tonsharr?”

- By David Xie, 2006.10.20