Playground

The basketball posts were there and the football goals were there, but there was nobody around.

“It’s very strange” thought Mike. It was eight o’clock and nobody was there: his team, his friends weren’t there. Mike phoned his mum, but she didn’t answer her phone. He was scared, and decided to go home.
When he arrived, the door had been knocked down. Suddenly, Mike received a call. It was his basketball trainer, he said:
– Hello Mike. Where are you? We are at Kennedy’s Secondary School Sports Centre. Come with us. Bye!
Mike couldn’t answer anything, but, where was that sports centre? [by kas14]

He thought that he could phone his basketball trainer again. And that’s what he did. His basketball trainer, Tim, didn’t answer. And he thought that he would stay there while he didn’t have any answer.
Five minutes later, Mike decided go to the street and ask where that sports centre was.
People didn’t know that sports centre and that was very strange. And he thought he’d better go home and call other friends of him.
When he arrived home, he took the phone and quickly called Frank, one of his best friends.
– Hello, is Frank there? [by LuCHy]

Frank didn’t answer. Mike tried to get to the sports center but he could not find it.

-It’s very strange -thought Mike.

The basketball trainer called:

– Mike, the basketball match has finished.

– I could not find the sports centre –thought Mike– but he could not answer, the call finished. Mike was scared and decided to go to his aunt Mildred’s home. When Mildred saw him, she asked him to come in. Mike told her he did not know where his mother was, but Mildred could not help because she felt ill. Mike decided to go and try to find his mother. [by dgparga]

However, on his way to find his mother he phoned Frank again.

-No, there isn’t any Frank here. Your telephone number is wrong.

-Ok, excuse me. Thank you.

Mike  tried to call another friend, John.

-Hello John, we had to go to the Kennedy’s Secondary School Sports Centre but I don’t know how to go.

-Ok, no problem. Are you at home?

– Well, I’m nearly there.

-Well, then I’ll go to your place in ten minutes and we’ll go together.

-OK, see you then.

When John arrived at Mike’s place, both went to Kennedy’s Secondary School Sports Centre, it was near Mike’s house. But when they arrived at the place where the sports centre must be they couldn’t see any building, there was only a big garden.

-Oh, my God! John, where is the sports center? It’s not possible. Try to call the basketball trainer again. [by arleet2]

Mike was astonished. He didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, his uncle appeared walking along the same street. Mike told uncle Henry all things that had happened. But he couldn’t explain it either. While John was trying to speak to the basketball trainer, Mike decided to phone his father who was working that day in another city. He didn’t tell him about his mum. He only asked him when he was returning home. [by noeeemi]

The basketball coach did not answer… Mike was very worried and did not know what to do. Then it came to his mind calling his best friend, who is called Katy. The mobile was ringing and ringing and Mike was already becoming nervous, but at last, Katy answered:
Katy: what’s the matter, Mike?
Mike: I am feeling a bit bad, because something I cannot understand has happened to me, and to tell you the truth, I’m a bit frightened of all  the things that are happening.
Katy: Well don’t worry, tell me everything and we’ll see what we can do.
Mike: OK, but I’m here with John who will also help me. [by αиgιε]

After the conversation, Mike felt strange. All the things that happened were unusual and Mike didn’t know  what to do. John was nervous too, the sports centre didn’t appear to be at the place that he thought it was, the same place it had always been. Mike knew this and when he went to talk with him, he saw a dense fog that enveloped his friend’s body. Mike was frightened, this was incredible, this couldn’t be happening, he thought. When he was going to help his friend, suddenly John disappeared in the fog. Mike tried to find John in the empty street, but John wasn’t here, he had vanished. Mike started to cry, he felt powerless, he didn’t know that to do with his disappeared friend, he didn’t know if should come home or stay there to look for John. He decided to look for his friend, he was frightened if his family or his friends asked him for John, this would be a difficult situation. This is one of the magical things that can happen once in your life, and one of these things that can be unbelievable. [by rubeen14]

“What had happened?” Mike asked himself again and again. Up to now his life had been very mundane, boring even, but now, he didn’t know where to start.

“John? Where are you? Can you hear me?” His voice echoed around the foggy, empty street. A shiver ran down his spine, the cold or his nerves.

“Looking for someone?” A voice came out of the fog. It was a man dressed in a long dark coat, wrapped up in a scarf and a balaclava hat.

“I’m looking for Kennedy Sports Centre” Mike stammered. The man looked at him oddly.

“The Kennedy Centre? He repeated. “That was knocked down 20 years ago…” [by isaknight95]

At that moment Mike was increasingly nervous, because the man was tall and strong. Mike asked him in surprise:
– Are you serious?
– Yes, I am. I’m really serious.
Mike remained thoughtful for a moment. He thought the only possibility was that the man was very old and he had lived there 20 years ago and he saw the Kennedy Centre as knocked down in the past or in his dreams.
Then the man walked away and told Mike before leaving:
– I thought that you were confused because of the situation but…
Mike stared at him but the man walked away very slowly. Mike stayed there and waited for anything to happen or for the man to turn and talk to him. [by LuCHy]

At this moment, Mike listened to the sound of his mobile phone. It was his mum. When he answered the phone, he took a deep breath in relief.
-Mum, where were you? I’m very worried for you, moreover for the strange things which are happening.
-Calm down, Mike, I was at the hairdresser’s. I’ll be home for supper.
-Ok, mum.
Then, Mike, remembered his friend John and he shouted very loudly “Jooooooooooohn!” His friend answered:
-What’s the matter, Mike?
-Am I dreaming? You had disappeared in the fog!
-In the fog? I was always here with you, Mike.
-Omg! -Mike shouted. I’m afraid, John, I’m going crazy! [by staywithmee]

Mike went home and saw his mother there. He said:
– Mother, where is John?
– John is coming in a moment -she said.
An hour later John came home.
Mike quickly asked John:
– Where were you today?
– I was home, why?
– Were you? Are you telling the truth?
– Yeah.
– Ah, OK.
During the supper he thought about what was happening. He was nervous, was he dreaming? He decided to go to bed. John talked to Mike’s mother for a while before leaving and they thought, what was wrong with Mike? [by kas14]

Mike went to bed because he was exausted after a very particular day.

John and Mike’s mother continued the conversation for a long while. They talked about Mike and his stange way of acting, they couldn’t understand anything.  His way of behaving had been very particular all day. Finally they decided to finish the conversation. John decided to go home and Mike’s mother tidied up the kitchen and finally went to bed. It had been a very long day. The next day everything was going to be different.

At eight o’clock,  the alarm clock woke Mike up, just like every morning during last few years. Mike got up, had a shower, got dressed and went down to the kitchen. His breakfast was ready like every morning. His mother was waiting for him to have breakfast together. [by noeeemi]

After having breakfast, Mike got up and he saw a letter coming in under the front door. Mike got the letter and saw his name on it. What a surprise! Who could be writing to him? He thought.

He turned the envelope and saw that the letter was from his grandfather. His grandfather  had been in the British Army for many years. Mike was surprised, because it was the first time that his grandfather was writing to him.

Mike was scared to open the envelope, He didn’t know what he could find inside. But finally he decided to open the letter. Inside the envelope there was a sheet of paper and a small photograph. It was a picture of an old man with an old lady beside him. Mike didn’t understand what was it all about, so he decided to read the letter. [by noeeemi]

“Hi Mike, I’m your grandfather, it’s been a long time without contacting with you and with your mum. I wanted to tell that in all these years I’ve been in the army and I couldn’t speak to you. In this photo you can see me with your grandmother, who was always speaking about you. I wanted to tell you that I will probably go a few days with your grandmother to visit you. At last, after so many years you’ll see us, thank God. At last! My dream is to actually see my grandson. Give our love to your mother for me, and tell her about my and your granmother’s near visit. Love, your grandfather” [by sehbaoui]

After a week, Mike’s grandfather arrived at their humble house in Kansas City. It was getting dark and Mike was doing his homework when the bell rang. Mike was scared by the sound and he stood up from the chair in a jump. The person who had made the bell sound was an old man, Mike thought that he may be his grandfather.

Mike asked the man that was behind the door:

– Who are you? What do you want?

And the man said:

– I’m George, my dear Mike.

Mike opened the door. Suddenly, the sky became grey and sad. A strange fog surrounded all the things around the man that was in front of Mike. The old man was very similar to the man that he had seen when John disappeared. He was dressed in the same clothes as the last time, but now Mike noticed his blue penetrating eyes. His look was gloomy, like the look of a vampire, Mike thought.

Suddenly Carol, Mike’s mum, arrived. When she saw her father her face turned scared and pale and she said and inaudible “hello”. George came into the house. All the plants of the hall withered and their dog, Puppy, ran away scared, with its tail between its legs. [by rubeen14]

After a few days, Mike began to have strange dreams about his grandfather and this particular day. Mike dreamt that he was Gerard, one of his grandfather’s partner in the war. Gerard had saved Mike’s grandfather from a certain death. They were being bombed by German planes in the same place where the sports center was. Then, Mike’s grandfather began to read the Old Testament, Ezequiel 25:17: “I will execute  great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengance upon them.” At this point his dream mixed with the film Pulp Fiction. Mike woke up scared, not knowing what to think about this dark dream.

What did that dream mean?

Who was Gerard?

What had happened at the Kennedy’s Secondary School Sports Centre? [by joseantonio]

Mike was very frightened, but he knew that that dream should mean something, although he didn’t know yet and he had to discover it. He was surprised by his grandfather and all was difficult for him to understand. He spoke to his mum and told her how he felt and she told him:
-Don’t worry Mike, this is normal when things that you can’t explain happen, but now you are with your grandfather, so try to be happy with him and try to do funny things with him to recover the lost time.
But Mike remained thoughtful about who Gerard was. [by αиgιε]

The next day, everything went quietly: Mike had breakfast, got dressed, went to school… everything went quietly, however, lately, there was something about his grandfather, there was something that he missed. The next night, he had similar dreams to the night before:

-Who is your grandfather, what kind of bad person is he? -asked his conscience.

Now, night after night, he had similar dreams and the moment came that he couldn’t stand it any more. Mike decided to follow his grandfather for the next few days and know the true identity of his grandfather. [by andree21]

His grandfather used to go every morning to and old apartment in Westmoreland Street. Mike pursued him closely, but quietly, so that his grandfather didn’t discover him.
His grandfather came to an old wooden staircase and rang at the door on the top floor. Mike waited downstairs, at the door, and he tried to read the names on the mailboxes. His heart skipped a beat. On top floor mailboxes he could read ‘Gerard Smith’.
-How strange- he thought. And he decided to run back home before his grandfather discovered him there.
One hour later, his grandfather returned home. His face was calm, it was as if that his face had changed. He looked happy suddenly. He had even bought chocolates for Mike and his mother. [by sooofía]

In the middle of the night, Mike saw his grandfather go to Kennedy’s Secondary School Sports Centre. Mike was going after him, when his grandfather turned into a very small bat. Mike closed his eyes and, when he opened them again, he saw his bed and his bedroom: “It has been a dream”, he thought.
In the morning, when he was having breakfast, Mike saw a TV programme about horror and vampires. He saw that to stop a vampire you have to do two things: “You go with the vampire to a mirror and you look at him. Then you kill him with a sharp stick.” Mike thought: “Well, I’m going to go to my grandfather’s bedroom and I will place a mirror in front of his face.” [by kas14]

What he didn’t know was that there were three things you had to do: go with a mirror and a sharp stick but also a clove of garlic to stop the vampire from attacking you.

What happened? Well, that night he crept to his grandfather’s room with his mirror and his stick, shaking like a leaf because he was so scared. His grandfather was fast asleep, snoring loudly.

Just as he was about to strike, with the mirror in his hand, he remembered something. Every morning his grandfather looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, while shaving, and nothing happened. What if he wasn’t a vampire after all!

What would he do? Risk killing his grandfather? He stopped and went out of the room.

“I know! The garlic!” he thought. [by isaknight95]

“I will use garlic, I’m going to put it on his table.” He thought.

Mike went to the kitchen to get a clove of garlic. Mike opened the bag where they kept the garlic. But suddenly he heard someone was coming down the stairs, it was his grandfather! Mike quickly hid under a table so that his grandfather would not see him.

The grandfather was looking for him. Mike was very scared, because he had seen his grandfather coming down, but he couldn’t see him from where he was now. Mike thought that his grandfather had gone to his room but his grandfather hadn’t gone to his room. Mike came out and and his grandfather saw him. [by sehbaoui]

Mike was petrified. His grandfather, that was allegedly a vampire, was looking at him with his usual penetrating look. He stood there, looking at Mike, as if he was identifying the smell that came from the tool that Mike was going to use to finish with his life: the garlic. Mike noticed this and he returned to his bedroom running, knowing that his grandfather knew his plans to kill him. Mike thought that he could kill him with other methods. He was going to go to the library and make a thourough research about the vampires: their habits, the ways of killing them, the characteristics of their victims and whether they could kill the members of their own family (Mike was interested in this because he was afraid of his sinister grandfather’s intentions).

He was eager to know more about vampires, so he decided to go across a little street that in another time was the most important street of the city. But as time went by, the stores started to close down and the street sank into oblivion. Mike didn’t use to go across that street, so he stopped walking when he saw an old and ramshackle store that was almost imperceptible if you didn’t pay attention. He wanted to come into the store, but he had to go to the library too. Even so, he thought: the library can wait. So he came into the store. When he pushed the door open, he heard a long creak. At first sight, Mike observed that there was a lot of spiderwebs, so the store couldn’t have a lot of activity. There wasn’t anybody behind the worn counter, so Mike started to look at one of the innumerable shelves that were there. He found an old and long book about vampires. All that Mike needed to know was in the book. Suddenly, as he was having a look at the marvellous book and lifted up the look from the book, he saw his grandfather there, behind the counter looking at Mike with his usual look. [by rubeen14]

Mike was scared and he started to think how his grandfather had found him or if he had followed him. Before his grandfather realized that he had a vampire book, Mike hid it under the old books. His grandfather was looking at him intensely at his eyes and Mike couldn’t control the fear that he felt and he wanted to go away quickly,but his grandfather started to ask him some questions:

– What are you doing here, Mike? And how did you come in?

– I was going to the library to do a school project, but I noticed this store, but I was already leaving the store, so…bye!

The grandfather looked thoughtful for a moment, but then he went away. Later, Mike came back to the old store. He went to look for the old books and he took the last of them, that was the book about vampires. He took it and went to the library. [by αиgιε]

On his way to the library, Mike  noticed that a woman was following him and he turned round. At that moment the woman stopped in front of a shop and Mike went on walking but he noticed again that she was following him, he turned round again and asked her : “Are you following me?”, but the woman didn’t asnwer. Suddenly, the woman fainted and Mike helped her to sit down on a bench. When she recovered consciousness Mike asked her : “Who are you?” and the woman answered : “I don’t know”.

Mike told her : “You are in Queen Street and you were following me when you fainted and I helped you”.

The woman answered : “Oh, I remember, this morning I woke up, I got dressed and went out. When I was buying some bread and milk a man approached me and started to talk: “Do you want to earn a lot of money?”, I didn’t answer so he went on talking : “You’ll earn the money but it won’t be dangerous for you” so I asked : “What do I have to do?” and the man answered: “Its very easy, you have to follow this boy” and he showed me your photo.

Then Mike asked the woman: “What was the man like?”[by carmen527]

The woman was shocked, she didn’t know what to answer. She was scared, her face was very pale, her eyes were staring at Mike. She didn’t say anything. Mike was very impatient. He wanted to know the truth, but he was unable to take a single word out of the woman’s lips. Suddenly, the woman got up and she started to speak. Mike cound’t believe what was happenning:

– The person who paid me is your grandfather or at least that’s what he said. The woman said.

– Are you sure that… that is the truth? Mike asked.

– As far as I know, this is the truth.

– Ok. Thanks a lot.

Mike was about to leave when the woman said to him:

– Your grandfather will never do any harm to you, but be careful.  Your grandfather is not a vampire, but there are other people around that are worse than vampires. They are the sort of people you should never go with. Be careful with every movement you do. Good luck!

Mike went home to think about all the things the woman had said to him. [by noeeemi]

“Other people worse than vampires” What could the woman have meant? Mike wondered of all the ghouls and creepy crawliers he had seen in horror films, what could be worse than a vampire? A zombie? A witch? And what about science fiction films? He shuddered when he thought about the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Alien.

On the other hand, there are plenty of ordinary people who are worse than anything in a horror film. Mike thought about his maths teacher, a repulsive, uncaring moson. There are many ways to wreck a life. [by isaknight95]