Week 9 Story: Maya and the Haunted House

 Maya and her brothers came from a very strange family. They were very close with their mother, however they had never really known their extended family. Their mother had told them for years that they should stay away. Their family had many secrets and it was not safe. Maya never really understood what this meant. She wanted to know where she came from and what her other family members were like. Therefore, as she got older, Maya began to do some investigating. She would spend hours searching on the internet, looking for some sort of connection to her family members. One day, after many failed attempts, she finally found someone. She had found a distant uncle! Fearing that her mother would be angered at her secret search, Maya kept this to herself. She began to chat with her uncle online, learning more and more about where her mother had come from. After a few days of these online conversations, Maya agreed to meet her uncle in person. It was at this point that she knew she had to tell her mother. 

"Mom, I have to tell you something," she said to her mother, hesitation in her voice and fear in her eyes. 

"What did you do?" her mother asked, instantly knowing something was up.

"Remember how you said we shouldn't ever talk to your family? Well, I got curious and I may have found one of your brothers online," Maya confessed, avoiding eye contact with her mother. 

Her mother's expression instantly turned to panic. "Why would you do that? I told you never to do that for a reason!" she shrieked, her panic quickly turning to rage. 

"I know but I just wanted to know! It isn't fair that you tell us these things but never explain why! I agreed to meet him in person," Maya explained, unapologetic for her actions. 

Her mother didn't say anything for a long time. She sat down, closed her eyes, and tried to think. It seemed like hours went by from Maya's perspective. Was she grounded? Was her mom ever going to talk to her again? Finally, after what felt like forever, Maya's mother stood up and let out a sigh. 

"Well then I guess it's time you meet my family. I'm going with you," she muttered before walking away. 

Maya was ecstatic! She finally got to meet family other than her mom and brothers! It's not that she wasn't happy with her small little family, but sometimes she was lonely. She just wanted to have more people around, that's all. In the days leading up to the meeting, she was so happy and prepared all the things she was going to say to her uncle. When the day came, she could barely contain her excitement. 

Maya and her brothers skipped to the car with joy when the day finally came, but their mother did not look nearly as thrilled. They drove for three hours before finally reaching the house that her uncle had told her to meet him at. It was in the middle of nowhere, but huge and luxurious. When they arrived, they were shocked. It was a beautiful mansion nestled in the woods with no neighbors in sight. Maya could already see the hesitation on her mother's face. As they walked up the steps, they began to smell gasoline. This is when Maya began to get scared. 

"Mom, it smells like gasoline. What if it catches on fire?" she asked, feeling uneasy. 

"Well we at least have to go say hello your uncle sweetie, but we don't have to stay," replied her mom, easing her fears a little bit. 

Once they got inside, everything seemed to get creepier. The house was so strange. There were statues of goblins everywhere and everything was black. It was full of dust and cobwebs, and appeared much like a haunted house. A tall man descended the winding stair case. He was skinny and pale, with scraggly facial hair and a grin on his face. 

"Why hello, welcome. You must be Maya," he spoke in a creepy voice, embracing her. 

Maya didn't really say anything. She was uncomfortable and nervous. She realized she had made a mistake. After what felt like an eternity of weird small talk between her uncle and mom, her mom said that it was time for them to go. 

"But you must stay! I have prepared the house for you for tonight! I want to get to know my niece and nephews! I have to head into town to pick up dinner but I will be back in an hour," he insisted. 

Out of fear, Maya's mother agreed to stay for the evening. She was clearly scared of her brother and did not want to anger him. Only moments after he had left, a shorter, kinder looking man came running down the stairs. 

"You must go! You must go now! He drew you out her because he is going to burn this house down with you inside! You must run!" he shrieked, taking hold of Maya's mother and warning her. 

Maya later found out that this man was her other uncle. He was the good brother, the one Maya's mom was sad to leave when she ran from her family. He had always been kind. He told them that they only had about an hour before the house would burn down, but that the evil uncle had stolen their car keys and locked the doors to the house. This is when they had to get creative. 

They found the basement of the house, which was only made up of dirt floors. They then found various tools and got to work on digging. They dug and dug like their lives depended on it because their lives did in fact depend on it. After forty-five minutes of digging, they made it out of the house with fifteen minutes to spare. Once in the woods, they ran as fast as they could until they found a main road and hitched a ride into the city. Maya never spoke of this day again, and she never went searching for family.

Wikimedia: Haunted House 

Author's Note: My story is loosely based off of The Princes Arrive at Benares from the Mahabharata. In the original story, Purochana tells the Pandavas of a great house outside the city they are welcome to stay. It is a haunted mansion. Yudhishthira went with his mother and brothers to check it out and  smelled tar and oil all over. They decided to stay so that they did not look suspicious to Purochana. While in their new home, their uncle came to visit and told them that one night this house would be burned to the ground. He told them that they should dig a tunnel in order to escape. I changed many things about this story, but did keep some things the same. I definitely changed the characters to make it more modern, and I changed the background story leading up to the haunted house. However I did keep the plot of the haunted house and the uncle warning them that the house was going to be burned down. I also kept the ending, where they tunnel their way out and escape. However, I did change this story quite a bit to make it my own. I thought it would be interesting to make it a story about family secrets and use a young girl as the main character. I wanted to make it easier to understand, while still keeping the creepy, mystery theme.