A silent night

"Woo-hoo! It's finally Friday!",13-year-old Brenda exclaimed with sheer excitement to her two best friends,Polly and Melina as the final bell in school rang."It would be so awesome tonight at my house,we will have so much fun"!"Yes,I was waiting for this night this whole week since monday", declared Polly,"my mom said that i would only be allowed to come over at your house at friday night if I only cleaned up my room...""What do you mean,you did'nt clean up your room?!",both Melina and Brendy said in chorus."Well,of course I did!You would not definitely suppose that one of your best friends will miss this opportunity of a fun-filled night!",Polly said without taking a single breath in between her words."Okay,whater!Hey,my mother is standing at the school gate, so I should be going by now.She said she had to do some shoppin with me after school for the sleepover,so see you tonight!Bye!"Brenda waved to her friends when she reached her black Mercedes Benz and hopped inside.She kept waving to her friends until they were out of sight."Mom,can we go over to Target store?I think I can get all the supplies I need for the sleepover there",Brenda demanded her mother."Well, ofcourse dear,anything for my munchkins!",Mrs.Oliver said making a funny face.Sometimes Brenda got sick of her mother calling her munchkins and by all type of babyish names,but Brenda was now so much used to it,that she didn't even utter a word from her mouth when her mother even called her shweety-tweety pie!"Mom,are we there yet?"

"Yes honey almost there.I am just waiting for the red light to change into yellow and then to green.That's all.",said mom.While Brenda waited for the light to change,she made a list of all the stuff which she wished to buy from the store.Fianlly,after waiting for 5 minutes that almost seemed as waiting for 5 hours to Brenda,they finally reached the store and fortunately, Mrs.Oliver had find a very suitable spot for parking her car.It took Brenda almost two hours buying all the stuff.Ofcourse,what else would one expect from a teenage girl whose having a sleepover and doesn't even takes time for shopping for all her stuff?Finally,after a lot of mom's precious time and money spent on shopping,both mother and daughter were relieved to return to their home and turn up the heater as it was winter and it was awfully chilly out there.Brenda decided to go upstrairs and give her room a makeover nd while brenda got busy ingiving her room a makeover,Mrs.Oliver got busy in preparing food for her and tears came into her eyes as she looked at the picture of her husband,Mr.Oliver on the wall,who had passed away a year ago.While Brenda was giving her rooma makeover with decorations she had bought, she realised that her friends were coming at her house for the very frist time.When she give this a thought,she decided to clean up and tidy up the whole house to give her friends a neat impression.Brenda was living in this house for a year or so,but she never had a sleepover ever before,neither at her old house,nor at her new one.That was the main reason for why Brenda was so excited for the sleepover and waited for 9:30 pm-the time of fun to finally arrive!Meanwhile,after cleaning up the whole house, Brenda had her unch nd then checked her email on ehr laptop.Sadly,there was no email for her.Then she took a bath.When Brenda came out after taking a bath,she noticed it was almost 8:30 pm!She raan down the stairs to help her mother in cooking pizza and burgers and french fries.Finally,at 9:30 pm,her friends arrived and after having a delightful dinner,the trio ran up to Brenda's room.Suddenly,before entering the room,Melina and Polly stopped at the door."What happened guys?Come in.There's no need to feel shy!",Brenda said in astonishment."Brenda,for how long have you been living here?",Melina asked Brenda ina shaky voice."Well,for almost an year.Why?""Well,Polly and I just remembered some strange happenings which happened to the people who were living here before you.",Melina said."They all died in a very strange way.There was a teenage girl anmed Kerry and her mother and father living here before you did.Their names were Mr.Walter and Mrs.Sally Walter.Rumour has it that they all were leading a very good life,but on 4th October night,that is, tonight, two years ago, Kerry also had a sleepover and just like you she also invited two fo her very best friends only."    "So what?I dont think there is something wrong in it!",exclaimed Brenda in a shattering voice.

"Just keep listening brenda,please."Melina continued,"So on that night while having a sleepover,Kerry's two best friends had ...had...."

"Had what?",Melina said shivering.

"Had murdered Kerry due to jeaousy and her popularity at school!"

"What!You must be joking,Melina..!How can two best friends murder their own friend!?",Brenda said shouting.

"Well,Brenda,you dont really know what happens when you are really popular.People get jealous against popular people and can do anything to them!",Melina then continued her story,"And rumour also has it that the two evil friends had also murdered Kerry's parents,so that they could not tell anyone else about them and both of them have burried the Walter family right underneath the basement of this house!"

"Melina,please stop it.Dont try to scare me.There are no such things as ghosts,and if you are trying to warn me that Kerry and her parents will come back tonight to take revenge against all of us,why would they do that?We weren't involved in the crime and you know that very well.",Brenda said trying to act brave.

After a long moment os silence,Polly said whispering,"Brenda,we weren't involved in the crime,but we are having a sleepover tonight which is the same night on which the Walters were killed."

There was extreme silence after Polly had said this horrifying sentence.A tree branch made a scratching voice against brenda's window and broke the silence as the three of them shouted and ran to hide under Brenda's bed.

"Hey girls,please keep it down up there or else the neighbours will be disturbed.",MrsOliver declared from downstairs.

"Okay mom!",Brenda shrieked.Then she got out from under the bed and demanded her friends to come out too.They did as they were said.Then Brenda locked her door and said,"Okay you guys.Enough of this talk!I had invited you both to have fun with me over here, not to scare me!Now lets talk about some cool stuff at school.Okay?" Both Melina and Polly nodded as of they were dumb. Then after having a long talk about school,it was twelve o'clock.At twelve o'clock,Brenda watched her favourite horror show.The fact was that Brenda was never frightened by horror shows.She always laughe at them!      Brenda was almost going to switch th television on,when suddenly the lights went out. There were no chances of loadshedding, "Maybe the main circuit went off!",Brenda said with extreme courage.Then she called out to her mom after noticing that Melina and Polly seemed afraid,"Mom!Please can you quickly get the candles?Melina and Polly are feeling extremely afraid like a scaredy-cat!",she said laughing.Mrs.Oliver didn't reply.Brenda called out again,but she still didn't reply.That was the moment when Brenda really became afraid.She went downstairs by using the small torch she had in her mobile, with Polly and Melina by her either side.The three of them searched the whole house and then they decided to go upstairs to her room."Maybe mom has gone out to the nearest store to get some candles without telling us.",she said foolishly.

"Why would Mrs.Oliver do that!",Polly said after a long time of silence,"that is not true.She must have told us.She's got to be here somewhere!" When the trio reached Brenda's bedroom,they saw Mrs.Oliver lying on Brenda's bed.Brenda hurried towards her but Melina and Polly stood still at the door."Mom,what happened?Are you alright?How did you get here?I didn't saw you coming upstairs!",she had just started asking questions when she saw that it was not Mrs.Oliver who was lying on the bed,it was a skeleton in Mrs.Oliver's clothes with a dagger in it's skull!"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"Brenda screamed and rushed towards her friends who had just saw what happened.They were all so scared,they did'nt knew what to do and where to go.They just held each other tightly and went to hide under Brenda's bed again.They all shicered with fear.There skins were shning white in the shining light of the moon which had find it's way from Brenda's window to under her bed.Brenda cried and cried and cried.She felt as she was no more.Meina tried to calm her as she cried too.Pollyy remained silent.She was as silent as the grave.After 5 minutes,she said,"Brenda,don't worry,I have been through even a lot much pain then what you are suffering from.",Then she laughed.

"Good heavens ,Polly,are you mad!",Melina said and then she shouted as she saw that Polly's eyes were red and rotting as she laughed.She quickly grabbed Brenda and hurried downstairs."What happened?",Brenda said crying.She was so busy in crying , she didn't even knew what happened!

"There's no time to waste!We have to get out of here,as soon as possible Brenda!"

Then Melina reached out in the darkness to grab the doorknob.She could barely feel the doorknob.It was not there!And the door was locked and shut tight ! Melina quickly explained everything to Brenda.Brenda cried even more than before.Then both of them decided to break the windows to go out as they were locked too."Quick Brenda,lets break the windows with our hands!We have no time to find an instrument or a thing to break them down!"

But no matter how much they tried,the windows broke but built themselves again! The house was under control by the spirits of the Walters! They were trapped inside the house!

"Melina,"Brenda said as she remembered,"there is a trapdoor in the basement which leads through a tunnel to the backyard.We must get out of here through that door!"

"But we cant do that,we shall be killed if we even try to go there!"

"Melina,we shall be killed even if we dont try to go there!"

They both agreed and rushed to the basement.As they were on their way from the living room to the basement,the floor started to melt and take them down under the ground.They were getting eaten by the floor!

"Brenda,grab my hand and try to jump ont he sofa over there infornt of us!"

"Okay,Melina...1,2,3, go!"

They both cheered as they landed on the sofa.Then they skipped from the sofa to the stairs leading down to the basement. Suddenly,they were standing infront of a trap door,the one Brenda was talking about. They both quickly opened the door and screamed as three blood-dripping dead bodies took them down to the floor.Both of them got the bodies of off them and ran through the tunnel finally reaching to another door.They quickly opened it and found themselves in the backyard.Then  they ran away from the house as fast as they could and suddenly somebody pulled them from behind........

"Melina,Brenda,wake up!Its almost two o'clock!",Polly shouted as she switched off the television.They both woke uo suddenly and Brenda rushed downstairs to her mother's room to find her sleeping.Then she came upstairs and touched Polly and kept staring at Melina.Then both Melina and Brenda shouted,"Was that all just a nightmare!"

Suddenly the lights went out.

Then the three of them noticed three white figures standing at the door.

"Who said that was a nightmare?",they all howled at the same time."Whats going to happen now is what

we call a nightmare!"Then they all laughed wickedly.

And suddenly in a flash,the night went silent at Brenda's house.........