Creative Learning-Personal Narrative
Before 7th grade, I never actually believed in bad things. I just didn't think of them as things that actually happened to people. I don’t even know why I thought that, I was actually a pretty nice person. I had a somewhat unremarkable life, except for my mom being gone. I didn’t and still don’t know how she died. I lived with my dad and my bratty 7-year old brother in the suburbs. Life was hard sometimes, but I got through it. Eventually it came to the first day of school yet again. It was a typical first day of school. Rushing to get ready, finding the perfect outfit, cliche first-day-of-school pictures. When I got to school, everything was normal. Life was good. But, in a weird class I had called “Creative Learning”, we were given an assignment. It wasn’t a normal assignment. We had to write a horror story, and we were going to go tour an abandoned and supposedly haunted mill to “get our creative juices flowing.” At least, that’s how my teacher put it. I had read up a lot on paranormal things, but I really didn’t get into this whole paranormal or horror scene. It just didn’t make any sense. I had never been that creative, I was a very rational person before it happened. Horror
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movies or novels never even scared me, and all I saw when I watched or read horror was everything that was wrong or impractical about it. Well anyways, my class went on the trip the next day. I really didn’t expect to get as scared as I did. My first impression of the mill wasn’t great. It was about 40 feet tall and about 40 feet wide. I couldn’t even make an estimate of the length if I tried, it was so long. The unpainted wood was obviously rotting. There was a giant wheel-like thing off of the side of the wall, about as tall as mill itself. There was a creepy looking scraggly old man outside of the probably asbestos filled antiqued mill. He pretty much completed the whole haunted and abandoned mill thing with a tangled white beard in fishing garb and possibly a glass eye.
I quickly learned this man was our tour guide as he greeted us in his gravelly, husky voice with “Hey kids, I’m your guide, now everyone take a flashlight and a whistle so we can make sure no one gets lost.” Now, let me tell you this mill was HUGE, it would be easy for a kid to get lost in it. The sheer size of it was honestly pretty terrifying. When we went inside, it was pitch-black. I’m talking, there’s not even a window in this place or a crack of light in any of the old wooden boards of the walls. My whole class, including my teacher, jumped as the guide turned on a flashlight and revealed all of the various creepy-crawly rodents and insects in the abandoned place. At this point, I was only a little freaked out. Mostly because my crazy teacher actually thought it would be a good idea to take a class of 7th graders to a rat infested, rickety, and probably very dangerous, abandoned mill. The tour went on. Many of students got scared because the guide was telling us a lot about the brutal history of the place. Apparently, it was used as a mill for a couple years back in the 1800’s, but it soon had to close down because a crazy murderer person killed another guy here and everyone got freaked out because mysterious things supposedly started happening. At the time, I dismissed them as simply coincidences. At one point in the tour, we had stopped at a noose where someone had hung themselves a long time ago. The rope of the noose was old and moldy, and everyone was getting extremely frightened and a great many of them were complaining about wanting to go home. While everyone else was huddled around the guide listening, I turned around and started to go off on my own (I know, I was a pretty stupid kid). I got to the dead end of a hallway when I noticed I had stepped in something. Something….dark. And sticky.
I looked around and saw it was a pool of some kind of liquid. I bent down to get a closer look, and suddenly, it was gone. There was nothing on my shoes as if nothing in the past couple minutes had never happened. It was then my grandmother’s silver, heart-shaped, heirloom locket had gone missing, but I didn’t notice until later. That night, long after the mill fiasco, as I was getting ready to go to sleep, was when I finally noticed that my locket had gone missing. I was certain I knew where it was. Right then and there, I made it my mission to go and get that locket back. At around midnight the same night, my parents were finally asleep, so I got my flashlight, changed clothes, and set out to go get that locket. After a ton of walking, I eventually got to the mill. It sure looked a lot creepier at night, but I was very determined and I never wimped out of anything when I was that age. I turned my flashlight on and cautiously tried to slide open the barn-style doors. They were not locked, and surprisingly slid open smoothly and noiselessly. I carefully took my first step inside, prepared for the barrage of assorted rodents and bugs. I was surprised to find nothing. No rats, no spiders, no movement, nothing. I looked around the place and noticed that everything was different. The whole building was rearranged. And I don’t mean like, a few tools are in different places. The walls were totally rearranged. This was really weird, but, being very insistent on getting the very old and expensive locket, I just shrugged it off and carefully started walking in the general direction of my locket.
Finding my locket proved to be a difficult task, seeing that everything in the building was different. At this point, I was actually pretty freaked out. Walls don't just pick up and move like that. Still, I continued on. I walked for a few minutes, and I was getting braver and braver by then because nothing had happened yet. But my luck changed as soon as I turned a corner and a deep, thundering, voice suddenly screamed at me, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” I looked around for the source of the voice, but found nothing. It seemed to come from the ceiling. I was hesitant to say anything back to this eerie voice, so I stayed silent, cowering in a corner where I thought no one would be able to see me, so maybe whoever it was would just go away. The voice boomed again “I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, LITTLE GIRL.” I replied in a shaky, uncertain, voice, “Ummmm, I sort of lost, something here. So I came to try to find it.” This time, the voice replied in a softer, but more threatening, voice. “Well then, you’re gonna have a hard time doing that when you can’t find your way out…” Suddenly, the walls and floor were moving around again, trapping me in a complex maze.
I wandered around the dusty labyrinth of walls for what seemed like hours, but to no prevail. It smelled pretty horrible in there, and the wood was so rotten in some places I was surprised the whole place had not fallen over. It seemed like the old mill had gotten a thousand times bigger, and it didn’t help that the voice hadn’t talked since it rearranged the walls. I was cold and hungry. All hope seemed lost. Suddenly, I turned a corner and saw a familiar glint of silver lying on the floor. It was my locket! I was so happy I didn’t even notice the giant snake hanging off of a beam overhead.
As I rushed toward my locket, the snake suddenly dropped down right in front of my face, a barrier between me and my goal. I was so determined to get my necklace, the snake didn’t even phase me, I just yelled at it and waved my arms in an attempt to get it away. Curiously, the snake didn’t even move to attack me as I walked nearer and nearer to it. I came face to face with it, and, keeping eye contact with me, the snake said in the same voice as the mysterious one before, “Today, you are paying for the foolishness of yourself, your mother, and your grandmother.” As soon as the last word left its fanged mouth, it lunged at me with all of it’s might, biting down on my right calf, hard, and then disappearing into nothing. After wandering around the old mill for hours with no food or water, I was already weak, this just about did me in. Crawling to get my locket back, I finally had it in my hand. But the snake’s venom was already shutting me down. Remembering what I learned about snake bites on some TV show, I quickly tried to suck as much venom out of my body as possible, but I had waited too long. I needed medical help. Unlike a normal snakebite, this one was drawing A LOT of blood. The sticky, dark, liquid was pooling around me as I desperately attempted to crawl out of there, feeling like I was about to pass out.
After a few minutes I was really feeling horrible, I weakly tried to yell for help, but all I could get out was a soft, shaky, “help…” The snake came back, appearing out of thin air in front of me.
I was very weak. It said “Have you learned your lesson?” I couldn’t answer it. It said again, louder, more assertive this time, “I said, have you learned your lesson?” “Yes,” I replied in a feeble voice, even though I didn’t actually know what lesson I was supposed to have learned, “yes I have, now can you please help me? I need to get out of here.” I was extremely doubtful of the snake actually helping me, seeing as it had inflicted the damage, but surprisingly enough it said, “Fine, you may go.” I was so relieved, until it said “.....but if I let you go, I require
payment.”
“What kind of payment?” I asked warily.
“Merly a favor. You must give me that locket.”
I was really angry now. “I came all the way to get this locket….AND YOU WANT ME TO JUST GIVE IT TO YOU???!!!?!?”
“Yes, it’s either give me your locket or die.”
“Ugh, fine” I said reluctantly, taking off my locket and laying it down on the floor near the snake.
“Good”, the snake hissed, “Be gone then.” Before I could answer, I was back at home. I was in my bed wearing my pajamas, and the clock said it was midnight, like nothing had happened that night at all. I wasn’t even hungry anymore. Even the bite on my right calf was gone. I was so scared the next few weeks that I barely talked to anyone or left my room, and I didn’t tell anyone about what had happened. I spent weeks thinking about whether what happened was real or not. The mill wasn’t there anymore either, I kept going back to the spot where it was, but it was just an empty field. Even my teacher didn’t know anything about going to the mill. I thought I was completely insane until I got the note. It was a rainy Saturday, and I was reading my favorite book when a small, folded piece of ivory colored paper fell out of the book as I turned the page. I gingerly picked it up and unfolded the paper. It wasn’t a normal piece of paper, it felt more like a delicate cloth, ripped around the edges with holes in the middle. I immediately recognized my grandmother’s handwriting; delicate, loopy cursive:
I’m In The Locket. I was determined to get that locket back. And I knew just where I had to go.
movies or novels never even scared me, and all I saw when I watched or read horror was everything that was wrong or impractical about it. Well anyways, my class went on the trip the next day. I really didn’t expect to get as scared as I did. My first impression of the mill wasn’t great. It was about 40 feet tall and about 40 feet wide. I couldn’t even make an estimate of the length if I tried, it was so long. The unpainted wood was obviously rotting. There was a giant wheel-like thing off of the side of the wall, about as tall as mill itself. There was a creepy looking scraggly old man outside of the probably asbestos filled antiqued mill. He pretty much completed the whole haunted and abandoned mill thing with a tangled white beard in fishing garb and possibly a glass eye.
I quickly learned this man was our tour guide as he greeted us in his gravelly, husky voice with “Hey kids, I’m your guide, now everyone take a flashlight and a whistle so we can make sure no one gets lost.” Now, let me tell you this mill was HUGE, it would be easy for a kid to get lost in it. The sheer size of it was honestly pretty terrifying. When we went inside, it was pitch-black. I’m talking, there’s not even a window in this place or a crack of light in any of the old wooden boards of the walls. My whole class, including my teacher, jumped as the guide turned on a flashlight and revealed all of the various creepy-crawly rodents and insects in the abandoned place. At this point, I was only a little freaked out. Mostly because my crazy teacher actually thought it would be a good idea to take a class of 7th graders to a rat infested, rickety, and probably very dangerous, abandoned mill. The tour went on. Many of students got scared because the guide was telling us a lot about the brutal history of the place. Apparently, it was used as a mill for a couple years back in the 1800’s, but it soon had to close down because a crazy murderer person killed another guy here and everyone got freaked out because mysterious things supposedly started happening. At the time, I dismissed them as simply coincidences. At one point in the tour, we had stopped at a noose where someone had hung themselves a long time ago. The rope of the noose was old and moldy, and everyone was getting extremely frightened and a great many of them were complaining about wanting to go home. While everyone else was huddled around the guide listening, I turned around and started to go off on my own (I know, I was a pretty stupid kid). I got to the dead end of a hallway when I noticed I had stepped in something. Something….dark. And sticky.
I looked around and saw it was a pool of some kind of liquid. I bent down to get a closer look, and suddenly, it was gone. There was nothing on my shoes as if nothing in the past couple minutes had never happened. It was then my grandmother’s silver, heart-shaped, heirloom locket had gone missing, but I didn’t notice until later. That night, long after the mill fiasco, as I was getting ready to go to sleep, was when I finally noticed that my locket had gone missing. I was certain I knew where it was. Right then and there, I made it my mission to go and get that locket back. At around midnight the same night, my parents were finally asleep, so I got my flashlight, changed clothes, and set out to go get that locket. After a ton of walking, I eventually got to the mill. It sure looked a lot creepier at night, but I was very determined and I never wimped out of anything when I was that age. I turned my flashlight on and cautiously tried to slide open the barn-style doors. They were not locked, and surprisingly slid open smoothly and noiselessly. I carefully took my first step inside, prepared for the barrage of assorted rodents and bugs. I was surprised to find nothing. No rats, no spiders, no movement, nothing. I looked around the place and noticed that everything was different. The whole building was rearranged. And I don’t mean like, a few tools are in different places. The walls were totally rearranged. This was really weird, but, being very insistent on getting the very old and expensive locket, I just shrugged it off and carefully started walking in the general direction of my locket.
Finding my locket proved to be a difficult task, seeing that everything in the building was different. At this point, I was actually pretty freaked out. Walls don't just pick up and move like that. Still, I continued on. I walked for a few minutes, and I was getting braver and braver by then because nothing had happened yet. But my luck changed as soon as I turned a corner and a deep, thundering, voice suddenly screamed at me, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” I looked around for the source of the voice, but found nothing. It seemed to come from the ceiling. I was hesitant to say anything back to this eerie voice, so I stayed silent, cowering in a corner where I thought no one would be able to see me, so maybe whoever it was would just go away. The voice boomed again “I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, LITTLE GIRL.” I replied in a shaky, uncertain, voice, “Ummmm, I sort of lost, something here. So I came to try to find it.” This time, the voice replied in a softer, but more threatening, voice. “Well then, you’re gonna have a hard time doing that when you can’t find your way out…” Suddenly, the walls and floor were moving around again, trapping me in a complex maze.
I wandered around the dusty labyrinth of walls for what seemed like hours, but to no prevail. It smelled pretty horrible in there, and the wood was so rotten in some places I was surprised the whole place had not fallen over. It seemed like the old mill had gotten a thousand times bigger, and it didn’t help that the voice hadn’t talked since it rearranged the walls. I was cold and hungry. All hope seemed lost. Suddenly, I turned a corner and saw a familiar glint of silver lying on the floor. It was my locket! I was so happy I didn’t even notice the giant snake hanging off of a beam overhead.
As I rushed toward my locket, the snake suddenly dropped down right in front of my face, a barrier between me and my goal. I was so determined to get my necklace, the snake didn’t even phase me, I just yelled at it and waved my arms in an attempt to get it away. Curiously, the snake didn’t even move to attack me as I walked nearer and nearer to it. I came face to face with it, and, keeping eye contact with me, the snake said in the same voice as the mysterious one before, “Today, you are paying for the foolishness of yourself, your mother, and your grandmother.” As soon as the last word left its fanged mouth, it lunged at me with all of it’s might, biting down on my right calf, hard, and then disappearing into nothing. After wandering around the old mill for hours with no food or water, I was already weak, this just about did me in. Crawling to get my locket back, I finally had it in my hand. But the snake’s venom was already shutting me down. Remembering what I learned about snake bites on some TV show, I quickly tried to suck as much venom out of my body as possible, but I had waited too long. I needed medical help. Unlike a normal snakebite, this one was drawing A LOT of blood. The sticky, dark, liquid was pooling around me as I desperately attempted to crawl out of there, feeling like I was about to pass out.
After a few minutes I was really feeling horrible, I weakly tried to yell for help, but all I could get out was a soft, shaky, “help…” The snake came back, appearing out of thin air in front of me.
I was very weak. It said “Have you learned your lesson?” I couldn’t answer it. It said again, louder, more assertive this time, “I said, have you learned your lesson?” “Yes,” I replied in a feeble voice, even though I didn’t actually know what lesson I was supposed to have learned, “yes I have, now can you please help me? I need to get out of here.” I was extremely doubtful of the snake actually helping me, seeing as it had inflicted the damage, but surprisingly enough it said, “Fine, you may go.” I was so relieved, until it said “.....but if I let you go, I require
payment.”
“What kind of payment?” I asked warily.
“Merly a favor. You must give me that locket.”
I was really angry now. “I came all the way to get this locket….AND YOU WANT ME TO JUST GIVE IT TO YOU???!!!?!?”
“Yes, it’s either give me your locket or die.”
“Ugh, fine” I said reluctantly, taking off my locket and laying it down on the floor near the snake.
“Good”, the snake hissed, “Be gone then.” Before I could answer, I was back at home. I was in my bed wearing my pajamas, and the clock said it was midnight, like nothing had happened that night at all. I wasn’t even hungry anymore. Even the bite on my right calf was gone. I was so scared the next few weeks that I barely talked to anyone or left my room, and I didn’t tell anyone about what had happened. I spent weeks thinking about whether what happened was real or not. The mill wasn’t there anymore either, I kept going back to the spot where it was, but it was just an empty field. Even my teacher didn’t know anything about going to the mill. I thought I was completely insane until I got the note. It was a rainy Saturday, and I was reading my favorite book when a small, folded piece of ivory colored paper fell out of the book as I turned the page. I gingerly picked it up and unfolded the paper. It wasn’t a normal piece of paper, it felt more like a delicate cloth, ripped around the edges with holes in the middle. I immediately recognized my grandmother’s handwriting; delicate, loopy cursive:
I’m In The Locket. I was determined to get that locket back. And I knew just where I had to go.