I walked along the stone path that led to the old abandoned estate on Cederlink Road, just like I had every day before and after school.  Normally, I would walk past the mansion that was covered in vines, past its overgrown garden of wildflowers and weeds, past the stone gargoyle and through the hole in the fence.  That’s how I always got to and from school even though my friends would always take the long route to their houses because they were too scared.  Everyone would always say that the stone gargoyle is cursed.

          One day while I was walking home after school it started raining.  Soon the wind picked up, and there was thunder and lightning.  For the first time, it occurred to me to go into the mansion. I ran up to the door, it was un-locked.  I was shocked at what I saw inside.  It looked exactly like you would expect an abandoned house to look.  Everything was dusty, the floor boards had no polish on them, there were moth eaten curtains covering broken windows and there were holes in the ceiling.  But on the floor, the curtains, the walls and even the ceiling, the name Samantha was written.  I could see my name, Samantha, written in every corner of the room!

          I wanted to run away, to go home!  But instead, I took a step forward.  I walked through a door into the next room.  There was an old mirror in the corner, more windows, moth eaten curtains, and a dull gray couch sitting in front of a fireplace that looked like it hadn’t been used in ages.  My name wasn’t written everywhere in this room, but it was still scary.

          I walked up to the window and pushed back the curtains.  I saw the overgrown garden of wildflowers and weeds that I passed every day, the dark green grass that had not been cut for years, and the fence with the hole in it that I walked through all the time, but… THUNCK!  …Not the gargoyle.

          THUNCK!  The noise now came from right behind me.  I was petrified with fear.  I wanted to run all the way home and lock the door!  I wished more than anything that I had just kept going, and had never gone into the house!  But the only thing I could manage to do was turn; slowly. I now faced the mirror.

          ‘Samantha…” said a deep, twisted voice.

          The mirror was positioned in a way so that I could see behind me.  Lurking in the shadows near the doorway, I could see the stone gargoyle…  Except, it wasn’t stone anymore.