"Chains" by Abby Shedd (Oxford County Winner)
If you travel northeast a little, up into the foothills of Maine, you will find the small town of Lovelen. With its hidden rocky beaches and its narrow winding roads, it possesses a house that many depict as haunted. The house, a few miles out of town, back from the main road a little, with a massive tunnel of trees towering over it, their bare branches sticking out like bones. The owner of the house, Mr. Otis Hickory, was a mean old man who was slightly eccentric and liked to keep to himself. He usually didn’t talk but when he did, he stormed.
One day he came into town in a very cheery mood. “I’m selling out!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “I’m going back to my own folks in Minnesota!”
A few weeks later, a businessman named Carson Carter bought the house. He wanted to fix it up to rent out. With a little help from his old friend Henry Smith, he decided to stay in the house and fix it himself. On the first day of the job, he cleared the lawn of debris and replaced old boards. That night, he couldn’t sleep. He just kept tossing and turning in his bed.
Around the stroke of midnight, a horrifying site appeared. An old man in glowing white robes appeared over his bed. He wore chains and rattled them in Carson’s face. “Help!” Carson screamed, and the ghost disappeared.
The next morning, Carson drove into town to tell the people what he had seen that night. “You’re crazy!” they said, “You were dreaming.” Maybe I was dreaming, he thought.
The next night the same scary sight appeared. The ghost rattled his chains and moaned and screamed. Even more scared Carson froze with fright but did manage to let out a small moan. Again, the ghost disappeared.
The next morning, he told the same story, but nobody believed him. Angered, he asked Henry Smith to sleep in the house with him. He agreed and that night, they set out together.
Just after midnight, the ghost came again and repeated the weird movements. Carson was about to scream, but Henry had a great idea. He picked up the flashlight beside him and followed the ghost out the door. Puzzled, Carson followed. They walked down the long winding stairs and through the giant living room with its barren walls, longing for paintings. At last, they reached the courtyard where the ghost vanished. Thinking quickly, Henry made a pile of leaves where the ghost had disappeared. The next day Carson called the police and asked them to dig where the ghost had disintegrated. To their surprise, they found a skeleton of an old man with chains wrapped around his arms and legs. “Wow!” Carson cried. “That’s what the ghost that was haunting me looked like!”
As soon as the skeleton had received a proper funeral, the house was left alone, and the town of Lovelen was peaceful again.
Abby Shedd, is nine years old, and lives in Stoneham, Maine. Abby is homeschooled. Currently her favorite book is the graphic novel Queen of the Sea. Her entry, “Chains,” was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s descriptive writings.