Friday, November 2, 2018

Rescue in the haunted house.

Dear reader, sorry about it being late.
Rescue in the haunted house.

“What are you dressing as?” six year old Hannah asked her sixteen year old sister.

“I'm going as Alice, remember?” Helen answered as she helped Hannah’s twin sister Hayley in to her Six Of Hearts costume from Alice in Wonderland . She had just helped Hannah into her custom that was exactly like her sisters.

“How much longer is it going to take?” Hannah asked.

“Don’t be so impatient.” Helen said “And we are done. Come on let's go down stairs the others are probably ready.”

When the three girls got down, they spotted their father, Jerry, dressed as The King of Hearts wrestling with their ten year old brother, Henry, who was dressed as The White rabbit.

“Help me!” their father called out to the girls. Laughing the twins started helping Henry, where Helen tried to help their father.

“That's not fair!” their father said trying to keep the little people off him.

“Now, now children.” their mother, Allana, dressed as The Queen of Hearts, walked into the living room saying, “I don't want those custom messed up before we even get started.”

Laughing, the lot of them untangled themselves and stood up to face their mother.

“Let's get going. We don't want to be late.” Allana said smiling and taking her husband's arm. All six of them made their way down, outside, and to their seven-seat SUV.

The family was going to a old mansion that a church friend had bought. He had turned part of it into a haunted mansion. The house would be opened Halloween, as well as the two days before.

The car pulled up to the mansion that was just outside the city. The family jumped out of the car and made their way to the front of the house, which already had a group of people in front of it.

The owner of the house, Chris, came out and stood on the steps, and proceeded  to say, “A little bit of warning before we get started; This house is really old, and we are in middle of renovating it. The part that we set up for the haunted house is one hundred percent safe, but we ask you to stay on the path because rest of the house isn’t as safe. Okay let the party get started.”

“Are you sure we should do this?” Allana asked her husband.

“Chris said it safe, but if you don’t want to we can just go ourselves.” Jerry reassured.

“No, no. I’ll go, but I'm not sure of this.”  Allana said. Oh, if they only had listened to her.

The family went in with the others. The house was poorly lit and quite spooky. It was full of twists and turns that took them through secret passages and dark corredores. Even with a clearly marked path it was easy to get turned around.

It was on the second floor, in the middle of four different coordores that the trouble set in. Part of Hannah's costum had come undone at the back, so she and Helen stopped a moment to help her, and Hayley stayed back as well.

When Helen had fixed the costum she looked up and noted that there was no one there. Their family must of continued without them.

“They went down there to the left.” Hayley said when Helen commented on this.

“Are you sure?” Helen asked as she looked for a sign to tell them where to go.

“Yes, I'm mostly sure.” Hayley said.

“You can’t be mostly sure of something, either you are or you're not.” Hannah commented at her twin.

“You can’t. I can.” Hayley retorted.

“Okay you two.” Helen said, “Let’s go this way and see if we can catch up with the others.” Helen took the two girls down the left corridore.

The farther they went the more sure Helen became that they were lost. Not that she said that to the twins. No, she reassured them, they would find the others.

Helen almost believed this when they found a staircase that went back down to the first floor. But that hope was quickly lost when they ran into a dead end.

“We’re lost!” Hannah cried.

“It’s okay. We will find our way out.” Helen said, as she pushed the two girls in front of her back to the staircase.

A loud groan from under them made them stop and listen.

‘What Was that?” Hayley asked her sister.

Before Helen could answer another groan sounded with a loud crack. Helen gave both girls hard pushes that sent them to the ground, then a loud crash sounded from behind them.
When they turned around they didn’t see Helen, but they did see a large hole in the floor, where they had been standing.



                                            **********************************

Ah, Halloween. It used to be one of Officer Rowan Connors favorite holidays, but the last few days of dealing with drunk people in their costumes, and believing they were said costumes, had kind of ruined some of the holiday.

But tonight was Halloween night, and it would all be over.

His partner, Michael Welsen, pulled their cop car into a makeshift parking lot in front a “haunted house.”

The two officers knew the owner of the house and stopped by to make sure everyone was behaving themselves.

While the two cops and Chris were talking in front of the mansion, a couple and a boy about ten, came up to them and politely interrupted them.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you Chris, but we got separated from the girls about half an hour ago, we were waiting for them outside, but they haven't came out.” The Father quickly explained.

“Are you sure they haven't come out?” Chris asked, slightly worried.

“Of course we’re sure!” The Mother retorted.

“Okay.” Officer Rowen calmed the mother, “Why don't we go through the house. They should be right along the path.”
The five of them slowly went through the house calling the girls names. The mother decided to stay outside incase the girls came out.

They went through twice and neither time found them. They quickly decided they needed to search the entire house.

Chris, the Father, and his son started on the top floor and worked their way down. The two officers would start at the bottom, after they called in some help first.


                                             ******************************
Helen’s thoughts were hazy. She lay stunned on the ground. Her breath had been knocked out of her, but it hurt too much to take big breaths.

She could hear her two sisters calling her name and asking if she was alright.

Slowly, she turned onto her back from her side, and stared up the hole at her two sisters staring down at her.

“Are you alright?” Hannah asked.

“I... I think so.” Helen said slowly and rather quietly.

I’m going to see if I can find help.” Hannah announced.

“No” Helen said as she rolled onto other her other side and tried to prop herself up on her arm. “The floor is too weak. You could get stuck too.” she paused again as she moved to lay against the wall. “If we stay in one place they will find us. We should have done that from the start.”

“Okay.” Hannah said hesitantly.

While they waited Helen did a scan on her body. Her left foot was obviously broken. There was no doubt about that. It was her side she was unsure of.

She had first landed on her foot but then preceded to fall onto her side, mainly her side of her chest. Those two spots took most of the impact.

Her breathing was still off. She couldn’t inhale too deep, because it hurt her side. But she tried to hide the pain, because the twins were watching her closely.

So she started up a conversation. “What do you suppose this is?”

“It kind of looks like a well.” Hayley said.

“It’s not deep enough to be a well.” Hannah said.

The two of them talked back and forth trying figure what it was. Helen just laid her back against the wall and tried not to move much.

                                            *****************************

“Helen! Hayley! Hannah!” the two officers shouted as they went through the rooms. They were just about to go to the next floor when they heard an answer to the shouts.

“Over here! We’re over here!”

The two hurried towards the sound. When they came around a corner, they spotted two girls that had to be twins, sitting by a hole in the floor.

“It’s the cops!” one girl said excitedly

“The cops are here Helen. They will get you out.” the other girl called down into the hole.

“Can you girls get over here safely?” Welsen asked them.

“Probably.” one girl said “But what about Helen? She fell in the hole, and I know she’s hurt even though she says she’s not.”

“Don’t worry. We will get her out.” Welsen reassured them.

The two girl hesitated “It’s okay girls.” a voice from the hole said “Go ahead with them. They’ll get you back to Mom and Dad.”

The two girls slowly got up and made their way to Welsen, while Rowen made his way to the hole. He lay down and looked over the edge.

The hole was mostly round, and about seven or eight feet deep. Helen was leaning against the wall, looking up at him.

“Hi.” he said smiling down at the girl.

“Hi” she replied, amused.

“I’m Rowen.” He continued “My partner is taking your sisters back to your parents, and getting more help. How are you feeling?”

“I’m alright.” She said slowly “I’m pretty sure my foots broke, and my chest hurts when I breath. Besides that, I’m great.” She said it so matter factly, that Rowen had to smile.

Welsen came on his radio saying that the fire department was on its way. Rowen rellaid Helen’s complaints.

“How did you guys get lost, and how did you get down there?” Rowen asked, to pass the time waiting for rescue.

“We got turned around in one of corredores.” Helen said slowly. “We got down to this dead end, so we turned around, but the floor under the girls was giving way, so I pushed them away, and ended up down here.”

‘Wow.” Rowan said.

They talked back and forth a bit waiting for help.

                                                 ************************

“What do we have.” Captain Arthur of station 38 asked Rowen as he and his five-man crew came into the hallway, followed by Helen's father and the owner, Chris.

“Floorboards gave out under a young girl.” Rowan explained as he led the Captain and his two main medics. The hallway was too small for all of them.

Rowen countuid “She landed on her foot and side. Those are her main complaints.”

“Why is this here in the first place?” Taylor, one of the paramedics asked, looking back at the owner of the house.

“It probably was going to be somewhere you could hide stuff or people.” Chris guessed.

Jason, the other paramedic went up to the edge of hole and looked down.

“Hey down there.” he called down.

“Hey up there.” Helen called back.

“Kind of a deep hole you got yourself into.”

“I’ve noticed.” the girl answered smiling,.

Turning back to the other rescuers, Jason said “I think a ladder will fit down there, and probably at least one guy.”

“Get a ladder and get down there, then.” Rowen ordered.

Quickly, two of the other firefighters went to get the ladder. Slowly Jason made his way down to the girl.

“Hey, we’ve met before, right?” Jason asked, as he knelt beside the girl’s foot.

“Yes, we have.” Helen said “You rescued my sister from a drain pipe.”

“Is she here now?” Jason asked, as he moved up to check her side for broken bones.

“Yes. My whole family is here.” Helen said, wincing slightly.

“How does it look down there?” Taylor called down to them.

“Definitely a broken ankle.” Jason said as he stared to wrap her foot and ankle. “and Possibly some broken ribs.”
“The next question is how to get her out.” Came their Captain’s voice.

“Let's get a wire basket stretcher, and pull her up that way.” Jason suggested.

And that's exactly what they did. Mother went with them to the hospital. The news spread through the doctors to the paramedics to the other firefighters and finally to the two cops, that Helen only broke her ankle and bruised a few ribs.

It wasn’t long before Helen was up and about again, trying to keep her sisters out of trouble.

THE END.

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