We decided to go into the basement next. We were excited to go down there because basements are usually pretty spooky. When we went down there, there was a big framed picture of a man with a brown beard, with a top hat. Under it was a plaque that read: “Dee A. Theodore”. We continued to look around, but there wasn’t that much stuff. All we saw were boxes and cobwebs. “Let’s get rid of all these boxes”, I said to Jack, “So we can have a little more space.” Jack nodded, and tried to pick up a box. “Ugh!” He yelled as he tried to pick up the box. “It’s heavy!” I went over and opened the box to get the stuff out. However, it was empty. “It’s empty”, I said in shock. “That’s weird”, Jack replied in surprise. We walked around to look for a lighter box. “Found one!” Jack said in joy. He walked towards the staircase but tripped. He accidentally threw the box and…CRASH! The box had crashed into the picture. The picture fell off the wall and the glass shattered. The picture inside it ripped. Now it was trash. “Aw, shoot!” Jack said in annoyance. “It’s alright.” I said, “We can just replace it.” We headed back upstairs to hang out for a while.

It was already 6 o’clock. It seemed like it was still 4. This would be our first night in our new home. We decided to get dinner at a place near there. It was called “Flying Saucer”. It had pizza there (which we both liked), so we went there. It wasn’t that cold out. It was at least 50 degrees out. When we got inside, we were brought to a table. We both ordered a coke, and a cheese pizza (my favorite). We started talking about the house. “I like the house”, I said, “It’ll be fun to live in Salem.” “You’re right.” Jack said happily. When our food came, we ate and paid the bill. When we walked out, it was much, much colder. Jack started to shiver. “Gee, it got cold out!” I said, checking the weather. I looked at my phone and it was 30 degrees out! “Oh my gosh! It’s 30 degrees out!” I shouted at Jack. “What?” Jack said, in shock. We ran to the car and drove home. It was still super cold out so we ran inside. We shut the door and took a breath. “It’s freezing outside!” I shouted. I checked my phone again and it was 27 degrees! “We need to close the windows!” Jack said, running into the living room. We pushed down the windows to get rid of the cold. Suddenly, the windows opened back up. “The heck…” Jack started. I ran over and slammed the window tight. I did the same for the other one. We walked away from the windows and went upstairs. “The wind must’ve picked up.” I said to Jack. “A LOT.” Jack said, still shivering. We hung out in my room until there was a knock on the door. “Who could that be?” I asked Jack. “I don’t know”, he replied. We walked downstairs, and opened the door. A huge gust of wind blew at us, and flung us across the room. I ran to the door and pushed the door to close, and locked it. “This is weird.” I said nervously. We walked away, and we went to bed. 

When I fell asleep, I started to have a dream.  But not a normal dream…a lucid dream. In this dream, I was inside our new house. But something about it was different. It was more fancy, and other people were in it. One of the people looked familiar. Until I realized. This was Dee A. Theodore. He had a glass of wine in his hand and was with two people. There was a woman with blue eyes and a white dress. And there was a man with a black mustache. I knew I shouldn't've been watching them but I had to see what would happen. Suddenly, a floorboard creaked when I stepped on it. They looked over but they couldn’t see me. “Let’s have a toast!” Dee A. Theodore yelled. “To money!” The other two people picked up a wine glass and they clinked their wine glasses and took a sip. When they put their glasses down, Dee A. Theodore started to cough a lot. His coughs started to get worse and worse. The woman grinned at the other man, and…I woke up.

When I walked downstairs, I couldn’t stop thinking about the dream. “You good?” Jack asked me curiously. “Yeah”, I replied. “I had a lucid dream last night. And it was about the people in the pictures and paintings.” “Weird Bro.” He said. “Maybe we should get rid of the picture in the basement. It’s already a mess down there.” “Good thinking”, I said. We headed downstairs to clean up the basement. However, when we went down there, the glass that had shattered was gone. “Where’s all the glass?” Jack asked me. “I don’t know!” I said in shock. We were confused for a few minutes and then started to clean up the picture. We picked up the frame and picture and walked upstairs. We put it all in the garbage and we were done. We went downstairs to see if we could lift the boxes, but there was a note down there that we didn’t see before. The note read: “All because of the wine…all because of the wine…” “This is getting really weird”, Jack gulped. “Maybe we should stay out of the basement.” I said, walking towards the stairs. We walked upstairs with chills down our spines. For the rest of the day, nothing really happened. We got groceries at a nearby grocery store, hung out, and had dinner. I finally thought the weird things came to an end. Boy, was I wrong.

It was already night time already. I was ready for bed, so I flopped down on my bed, and fell asleep. This time, I hadn’t had any lucid dreams. “Creeeeeeeeeeek.” A noise made. It was my bedroom door. It was probably just the wind. I looked at the clock next to me and it was 12:00. I just went back to sleep. An hour later, I rolled over and woke up. I saw something. I could see someone towering over my bed. It was Jack. He was different though. His eyes were pitch black with white specks. He had a crooked smile and his head was turned sideways. I cursed and leaned back. “Oh m-my gosh!” I shrieked. “Hey BUDDY…” Jack said in a long creepy voice. “Are you okay?” I asked nervously. “Run and hide…” Jack said, “Before you die….” I started to freak out. I ran out of my room and jumped down the staircase. The trash can started to rumble and it spit out the picture of Dee A. Theodore. At this point, I fainted. 

These weird things weren’t coincidental. I believe there is a ghost in my house. It was 1:00 pm, and Jack was still sleeping in his bed. I went up there and slapped him. “Wake up!” I shouted. “Agh!” Jack yelled. “Jack! There’s a ghost! IN OUR HOUSE!” I shouted at him. “Ghost?” He asked me. “Yes!” I yelled at him. “And it’s the guy from the picture we broke. “Oh no, I’m scared.” He said, nervously. In the window, a bunch of words wrote themselves on the window. They wrote: ‘Give me my respect back’. I remembered my dream. The two people…they killed Dee A. Theodore. ‘Correct’ the words wrote. ‘Now you will follow their fate!’ The words continued. 

‘Thump!’ A noise called. It was a loud thump. We ran downstairs into the basement. When we got down there, I tripped over something. Something big. Not a box, not an animal, not a cobweb. When I looked at it, I almost screamed. It was a dead body. Dee A. Theodore’s dead body. And next to it was the glass from the picture. The glass spelt out: ‘Look behind the paintings’. We ran upstairs and went into our room. I took the picture of the man with a mustache off and saw something unsettling. It was the man’s dead body. And Jack did the same. This time, it was the woman’s body. This was freaking us out. 

This ghost was angry. Very angry. ‘Poof!’ A bunch of dust came from above us. The house was coming down! We ran for our lives. Grabbing our things and jumping down staircases. Planks of wood were coming down, so we grabbed them and started boarding up the windows and doors so the ghost couldn’t escape. We jumped out the window and ran. Before we knew it, the roof came crashing down and the house became rock and dirt. A faded scream came from the house. Jack and I ran into the car and drove back to Essex. Hopefully, we won’t have to go into another haunted house. Hopefully.