... head to our long, oak table directly behind me. I sit in the large chair and run my hands along the knots of the wooden table top. With the steak are cheesy twice-baked potatoes and a fresh garden salad covered in creamy Italian dressing. After dinner ends, I head through the kitchen towards the staircase. I go up the stairs. Immediately to the right is my sister's bedroom. I enter and see its warm ... another door leading to the screened-in porch. We sit on the porch and feel the cool November breeze blow across our faces. In the background is the sound of the rushing water of my paren...

• Word Count: 943
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... is it, Mom?" I would ask, in anticipation of the moment she would reply, "Time!" Off I would race, through the aisles of our small connivance store, across the long black parking lot, passing the tattered gas pumps, making the sharp right bounding down the stairs that led around the building, dodging the big oak tree that stood towering over the walkway, and finally, the last leg of my trek, running as fast as I could up ... much as my brother and I. In the bright sunshine, the sounds of Nana's handball games with my brother and Don helping build entire cities in the sandy confines of t...

• Word Count: 524
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... hiding in a closet and you will never know who is on the opposite side of the house. And you may never know. My whole life I have been surrounded with numerous family members constantly in and out of the house. There was always so much going on that I never really had the time to be afraid of my own house. After much thought, when I was 11 years old, my parents decided ... immediately cut on the lights, so I slowly walked through the kitchen toward the stairs in the dark. As I approached the stairs I looked up the long dark stairwell and stared into the blackness. Suddenly I thought as ...

• Word Count: 902
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... as night purring from the front door; I pulled a line of the engine and headed for the front door. It was me and another firefighter on the first line in as the others set up ventilation and attempted the situation from the exterior only to find the Childs second story room have heavy gauge steel bars on the windows. We started in the front door of the house me on the front of the hand line and one ... of my brothers at my rear. The thick black smoke hit me and all I had ... us and told us that another team was entering the front of the structure to knock down the remaining first floor...

• Word Count: 1069
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... as she passed into the hallway. I turned around and followed her congratulating myself on thinking up of such a plan, now she will definitely be thrown out of the house for stealing. Mother headed straight for the stairs to the studio, and waited furiously at the top for her to come. As she came up the stairs she gave me a concerned look as she entered the studio to fetch the jewellery box for my ... mother. "Bring the box to me" mother ordered her ... impatiently. She stood there as mother snatched the box from her hands ... ...

• Word Count: 727
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... the halls of the house in her wedding dress looking for a husband. Our friends, Dawn, Wendy, and Heidi lived in the house; we would ask them if they heard sounds or saw things. All three agreed the house was haunted. They said sounds would come from the basement at night. It sounded like a person walking around sliding their feet. The sound would work its way toward the basement stairs and up into the house ... . Their parents also heard the sounds and encountered strange disturbances in the house, which ultimately led to their decision to move out. The house never sold; it just sat vaca...

• Word Count: 814
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School