Strange Neighbourhood Paper Example

Ghosts were things I only heard of as a baby when my elder brothers described them in a terrifying way to make sure I was so scared that I could not leave the house immediately after the fall of dusk. I always knew ghosts were my worst fears even at the age of ten; this was even strange to me as I already know ghosts do not exist in the real world or do they? Anyway, the mysteries of the world are only best known to God and little known to man.

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It was early in the morning when someone knocked on our door, and I rushed as usual to open. When I usually did this, I expected good things such as the delivery of food, parcels or letters. On that particular day, I met a rather unpleasant situation. At the door stood a tall man with two teeth missing, he smiled sarcastically at me and went past me without asking to be allowed in. all this happened so fast that I did not hear my father stop me from going to the door.

"Where is your father?" even though it was our house and my father is the head, I felt the authority with which the man asked after my father was not normal. Anyway, nothing had been normal with my father lately as well. He was always quarreling my mother and keeping late nights. He would come back to the house drunk and disorderly. By disorderly I mean, he would shout at anybody or anything, including the objects he stumbled upon on his way in. this was not characteristic of my father, even though I grew up knowing he always came home drunk.

"My father is not home," I blatantly lied. Maybe it was my little way of making up for my mistake of opening the door against my father's will. The tall guy brought out a huge envelope that he threw on the floor and demanded me to pick up. I did as he wanted and that seemed to excite him. "Tell your father that he should leave the property before dusk today, or he will see my ugly face again tonight" I knew his face was ugly, what made me make a funny face was why he would mention it and laugh about it at the same time. After saying that, he walked out without another word. Obviously, he was disappointed he did not find my father, but I never felt guilty for lying as my father did not complain.

Later that day, an old track stood in front of our house, and all our belongings were loaded onto it. It was not until we reached our destination, which took us the rest of the day and the entire night, when my father informed all of us that the old log cabin that was standing in a desolate land will be our house from then. I never questioned anything as my other family members were in such a bad mood and me in shock. All the time that I was there something had attracted my attention. Next to our cabin was an old farmhouse with large, black birds patching all over its roof and on top of the trees in the old compound. This probably did not attract the attention of the other members of my family as for where we were was an old abandoned village with only a few people having scattered homes. Later that night, my father gathered us a fire outside of our cabin and told us what we all had been waiting to hear; the explanation as to why an ugly man would walk into our house and drive us out.

"This will now be our home as we could not be able to pay for the house we were driven out of," he said. It was a bad way of saying what would change our lives forever, but he said it anyway. "As some of you know, your mother and I lost our jobs, and we have been living in that house for five months without paying the rents, which is the reason we were forced to quit the premises. Where we are right now is the village where my grandfather lived. He died close to twenty years ago and left the property under my name, it is not much, but I now appreciate his gesture for giving me a place to bring my family when I have none." Just when he said his last word, I heard the sound of a huge track drive into the old farmhouse next to our cabin. My father had mixed reactions of fear and shock written all over his face. I guess it is because he knows no one lived there. Little did I know that there was more to it than just knowing no one lived there. Actually, he hoped no one lived there.

"The reason I never wanted to come and live here is the stories I heard as a child about every member of that neighboring house disappearing with no trace. Any person who came to live around here either died or disappeared too." My father said in a shaky voice. What my father said gave none of us any comfort. To make the matter worse, he was scared too.

"What! Does that mean we may be in any kind of danger?" my elder brother asked in shock. It seemed like it was what was in everyone else's mind as we all demanded to know if we were in any sort of danger.

"I don't know, but I guess we need to be careful where we go, especially from dusk till dawn. We always need to stick together and protect each other if need be." My father said while showing a lot of uncertainty regarding the safety of the place we were. That night I hardly fell asleep. However, when the sleep finally came, it was interrupted by the most shocking thing I have ever imagined I could ever witness in my life. A huge headless man was standing over me holding a huge, sharp axe that would chop off my head at a drop. Before I could call for help, the headless man punched my face with his huge fist driving me back to sleep.

When I came to, I was tied to a cross right in the middle of a corn plantation. There were several other crosses across the field probably with people tied to them. I shouted at the top of my voice calling out for my father but I did not get any reply. After some minutes, I heard my brother shout too; then I heard my mother, then my father. That is when I knew no one would help me at that point. What I did not know was that I was the only one tied, the rest of my family members were actually nailed to the crosses. I learned about this when I finally freed myself from the cross by freeing one of my hands and untying the rest. It could not be that easy; I guess whoever tied me wanted me to free myself and try to help my other family members. Since it was daytime already, the shouts by the people, either tied or nailed to the crosses, served the purpose of driving birds away from the corn firm. How would someone want to use living human beings to drive birds from corn firm by nailing them to the crosses? I could not get an appropriate answer to this, but I knew it could be the reason no one lived around that neighborhood.

I walked to my brother first only to find him bleeding profusely from the points where the headless ghost had nailed him to the cross. The cross was erected firmly, and it was too tall for me to reach my brother in any way. "Please help me; I am in great pains." My brother pleaded but I could do nothing to free him. As I ran to my mother, I passed some crosses with dead people nailed to them and some crows feeding on them. When I saw this, I realized it could as well be the fate of my family members. It could even be my fate as well since I could hardly find my way out of the corn plantation, let alone reaching any town around there. My mother was in pain too and begging me to help her. I sympathized but could not do much, so I hurriedly went to the cross where my father was nailed, he hid his face from me, probably feeling guilty for being the cause of all that the entire family was going through.

I guess I cried until I blacked out as the next time I opened my eyes it was night again, and none of my family members was making any sound. I called out, but none answered. All over a sudden, the headless ghost came from my back and grabbed me by the neck. He dragged me for about twenty minutes before we reached the old farmhouse. When he finally dropped me on the floor, I stood up to see the worst shock of my life. Around me were six ghosts, some with heads and ropes tied to their necks and others headless. Judging from their body sizes and dress codes, the ones with ropes around their necks were probably the two sons and a daughter to the owner of the farmhouse who disappeared some decades ago. The two headless ghosts, a male, and a female were probably the parents. The ghosts were laughing as they teased me. I was scared beyond words. In fact, I did not care about asking for help as I already knew no help could come to me.

I struggled and stood on my feet despite the fact that I was very weak, I tried running only to stumble upon an axe on the ground and cut the big toe on my right foot, the stinging pain made me cry at the top of my voice. I cried calling my mother and father to come and help me even though I knew they needed more help than I did. Even in my pain, I could see the malformed faces of the young ghosts and the heaps of dead bodies that filled the entire house with a foul smell. Next to the exit door was the kitchen where huge pots were probably used to cook the human meat that was served on large bowls for the young ghosts. On the floor was fresh, dry and stale blood that made me slide and fall every time I tried to go for the door.

When I finally ran out of the door and into the corn plantation, no ghost bothered to come after me. I ran back through the same way I was dragged into the house and finally stumbled on the cross where my father was nailed. It seems I had banged my head as I blacked out again and the next time I was awake it was morning. When I looked up the cross, I saw my father, but he could not make any sound as his mouth was sewed. I ran to my brother, and his mouth was sewed too. My mother was already dead as she was not struggling in any way. Her head remained bowed down however much I called to her. Not only did I feel helpless but also scared as I knew the fate of my other family members was to face me sooner or later.

Conclusion

Before I could figure out what to do next, the headless ghost with the axe came at me, knocked me down and raised the axe up ready to strike. Before he could bring the axe down on me, I shouted loudly, and upon opening my eyes, I realized it was all a dream. From that point, I knew I was not going to stay in that old cabin, I told my father about the dream, and he said we could not spend another night in that place as he had also had a bad dream.