The Haunted House by Dhruv Bhachawat (find a book to read .TXT) 📕

On a November evening, Henry was playing alone with his ball in the park. Suddenly there was a change in the weather, and it became dark and cloudy. Henry decided to go back to home. Soon after he left it started to rain heavily accompanied by lightning and thunderstorm. Henry hurried to home. Half way through, he heard a loud scream of a boy. Thinking that somebody is in need of help, he followed the sound and reached 'The Haunted House'.

As Henry stood in front of door of the house, he realized that it was open. On hearing the scream again, he hesitantly entered the house... As soon as Henry entered, the door shut automatically. Henry was trapped inside the 'Haunted House'! Henry started moving ahead in the hall of the house which was dimly lit. Henry noticed two cupboards covered with many cobwebs. He curiously opened the first cupboard. It was full armours. As soon as he opened the second one, he jumped back in a shock. The second cupboard was full of human skeletons! While in shock, Henry heard a crying sound from inside the house. He slowly walked towards the direction of the sound and reached inside a small room. It was very dark inside the room and then Henry saw something that froze him... It was a Vampire! 

While Henry was still dumbstruck, the Vampire moved forward slowly towards Henry. He reached near Henry and whispered – “I WILL EAT YOU UP”. The Vampire then started laughing loudly….He- Ha-Haa-Haaa-Haaaa….. Henry was frozen for few seconds to react any further.  Then suddenly he realised that the Vampire was moving it’s claws towards him. He turned around and started to run away. As soon as he ran a few steps, the floor under him sank and he fell down in the basement …DHUM!

Henry was hurt badly on his hips and was moaning in pain for few minutes. He wanted to go back to his home, to be with his mother! He somehow managed to get up and moved slowly. It was pitch-dark in the basement. Henry found few wooden sticks and two pieces of stone. He rubbed those stones to create sparks and lightened the sticks. He held the burning sticks in his hands and started moving around. He found some big pipes fixed into a wall. Hoping that, he might find a way out, Henry entered into a pipe. The pipe led Henry into another room where he saw a boy sitting sadly in a corner. Henry walked up to the boy. The boy’s name was Joy and he was also trapped in the ‘Haunted House’. Henry brought forward his hand towards Joy and asked – Friends?  Joy shook hands. With tears in his eyes, Joy said “I want to go home”. Henry responded- “We will surely go back home”. “Let’s work together to get out of this place”. Then they hugged each other tightly to reassure each other.

Joy was very thirsty as he was trapped in this house for many hours. His lips were dried up completely and had started to feel dizzy. Henry decided to find some water for Joy. He asked Joy to sit down on the floor and not to go anywhere till he is back. Henry went out of the room to find some of water. He moved from one room to another till he found a small pot of water in the corner of a room. He hurriedly picked it up and ran back towards his friend. But when he reached back, he was shocked to find that Joy was missing. Henry frantically searched for Joy in various rooms shouting his name, but could not find him. It was clear to him that his friend was in a big trouble.

Henry was determined to rescue his friend. He moved around looking for a way to get out of the basement. He then reached a corner which had a lift. Henry went inside the lift, there was only one button which was active in that lift and that was no. 2. Henry pressed that button and reached on third floor. This was the top floor of "The Haunted House". There were many rooms on that floor. Henry tried opening each of the room but all of them were locked. Suddenly he heard a loud scream – that was Joy’s voice. He rushed towards the room from which he heard the scream and pushed open the door with full force.

Henry entered the room and saw Joy standing in a corner with his back towards him.  As soon as Henry reached near him, Joy turned around. Joy had blood in his mouth and his eyes were red.  The door for the room opened again and the Vampire entered in. On seeing him enter the room, Henry took back a step towards Joy. Suddenly Joy pushed Henry very hard and he fell on the floor. Henry was shocked to see Joy behave like this and said “What are you doing? I am your friend!” Joy moved forward and gave Henry a hard punch. Thereafter, both Joy and the Vampire started laughing loudly.  Henry then realised that evil Vampire was completely controlling the mind of his friend. While laughing, the Vampire started moving towards Henry. As Henry was trying to slide back using the support of his hands, he laid his hands on a pile of dust lying on the floor. He picked up the dust in his fist and threw it towards the Vampire. The vampire was blindfolded for some time and this gave Henry an opportunity to get out of the room. He locked the room from outside and rushed down.

Henry was saddened at the state of his friend and was not sure how to help him. He then suddenly recalled seeing the cupboard with armours. He decided to wear the armours to give him some protection against the vampire. Henry moved towards the cupboards on the ground floor. He opened the first cupboard and took out a set of armour and wore it. He then saw a wooden box hidden behind the armours. He took out the box and opened it.

Inside the box Henry found a small knife and a glass bottle. He picked up the glass bottle and was surprised to see a little tiny lady inside the bottle. He immediately opened the bottle and was able to hear the voice of the lady. “Who are you?” asked Henry. “I am a fairy and have been trapped inside this bottle by that evil Vampire”. “Who are you and what are you doing in this house?” asked the fairy. Henry narrated his story to the fairy. He told her how he got trapped into the Haunted House. Henry also told her about Joy. 

After telling his story Henry asked the fairy – “How can I help you to get out of this bottle?”. “The Vampire has locked me in this bottle using his black magic and that magic will get over only if he is killed”, replied the Fairy. “Your friend and you will also be free once the Vampire is killed”, the fairy added. “How can I kill the vampire” asked Henry. “The Vampire is very powerful with his black magic, he can only be killed with this knife” said the fairy pointing towards the small knife in the wooden box. The fairy continued - “If he is hit in heart with this knife, he will start melting and his black magic will get over.” “I will finish him and rescue you and my friend” said Henry. “Hurry up then” said the fairy. “He is in the Kriya room on the second floor with your friend Joy and is in the process of making your friend a vampire like him”.

Henry hid the knife in the armours and rushed towards the stairs to go on the second floor. After reaching the second floor, Henry was able to hear the loud voice of the Vampire. He followed the same and reached outside the Kriya room. Henry opened the door and saw that Joy was lying on the ground unconscious and the Vampire was sitting in front of him doing some chanting.

Henry challenged the Vampire to fight. Hearing Henry’s challenge, the Vampire moved angrily towards Henry. Both of them started hitting each other. Henry put a brave front, but the Vampire was too strong for him to handle for long. The Vampire gave a hard punch to Henry and threw him on the ground. Joy became conscious with all the noises. Vampire started to move back towards Joy. Henry somehow managed to get up again and challenged the Vampire again. Vampire rushed again towards Henry. As soon as he came near, Henry jumped towards him and kicked his legs hard. The Vampire lost his balance and fell back on the ground. Without losing any moment, Henry took out the small knife from his Armour and pierced it into the Vampire’s heart. The Vampire screamed and started to melt. His black magic was over! With this the Haunted House also started to break. The fairy got free from the bottle and rushed towards Henry and Joy.  She picked them up and flew out of the house. They all landed outside and saw the Haunted House breakdown completely.

In a while Joy was back to normal and happily hugged his friend tightly. The fairy also thanked Henry and praised him for his courage and bravery. She then dropped them to their houses. Their