The Whispering Manor

This is a story I wrote 1 - 2 years ago for school, and found once again. I wanted to post it just for little me. Feel free to tell me what you think, I promise I won’t be offended all such I have gotten (in my opinion), much better since then. Of course I got weird looks from my teachers the next day.😅

P.s. Sorry, it’s a bit long.

Content Warning: This story falls under the horror genre and contains themes of psychological terror, jump scares/creature encounters, mild violence (physical assault/injury), betrayal, and emotional manipulation. Reader discretion is advised for younger audiences.

On the night of the Beaverton's' Night Parade, a celebration of the founding of the small town of Beaverton, three girls were sitting in a treehouse, whispering about the Manor. The treehouse was lit by orange fairy lights strung around the roof. It was a cold, star-speckled night, and it was eerily quiet out, as everyone had left for the parade. The three girls were reviewing reports of encounters at Whispering Manor. "I would love to go and check out the place one day," Isabelle says. "Yeah, right!" her friend Jenne says. Jenne is a thirteen-year-old girl, like the rest of them, with wavy brown hair that falls to about mid-back, streaked with pastel pink. She has blue eyes and a face with a sharp jawline and chin, and she has a confident air to her. She is the tallest of the three girls, and is about a head taller than Isabelle, who is the shortest of them all. "You get scared too easily to do something like that!" Her friend Anabelle teased. Annabelle has light, cunning hazel eyes and also has a similar face shape to Jenne, a sharp jaw, and chin. Annabelle is about four inches taller than Isabelle and has a suspicious air to her, causing her to be constantly accused of the most random things. "Do NOT," Isabelle said, folding her arms in front of her and swinging her hair behind her in the process. Isabelle has wavy golden-blond hair coming down to her waist and beautiful, big, bright green eyes. Isabelle is the bravest of the three, but because she projects an innocent air, she is often teased jokingly by her friends about being too innocent and easily intimidated. She has a round face and baby fat instead of having a sharp jawline like her friends. "Fine, if you really think I get scared so easily, how about I prove to you that I don't by coming with you and going to the Manor Anabelle." "No way! You know how superstitious my parents are, they would never let me go!" Anabelle replied. "How about we go today?" Jenne sujusts. "Our parents are at the festival, and we could be back before sunrise." "What happens if we come back late?!" Anabelle says. "We could just say we were staying late for the festival, it lasts until about noon tomorrow. Wait, are you afraid? Ha! After teasing Isabelle..." Anabelle cuts off Jenne." Fine, we'll go in one hour." "See you then," Isabelle says. One hour later, the three friends are gathered in front of the Manor, and Isabelle is the first to say something. "Are you ready? I'm so excited!" "I'm not," Anabelle replies in a grumpy tone, "do we have to do this?" "No, you can go home if you want, Anabelle, but if we find treasure, we keep it," Jenne says, obviously irritated. "Fine," Anabelle replies. Isabelle opens the door and steps inside, pushing cobwebs out of the way, "Come on, guys, what are you waiting for?" Isabelle asks. Jenne steps in next, and then Anabelle hesitates, but after a second, she steps in, sighing. "Ok, everyone, wait here for the moment, I'll get the flashlights out of my bag and... Anabelle? What did I say about waiting here?" "Sorry, I just thought I saw something and went to check it out." "Ok, well, at least tell us before you go and slay monsters, ok?" Isabelle replies jokingly. This earns a small laugh from Anabelle, as if she thought the idea of her running off towards some monster was ridiculous. "Yeah, right," she says. "Me? Monster? Slay? You sure you are telling this to the right person?" "Ha ha, very funny, now come on, girls, stop stalling," Jenne replies to the insult. "But you JUST told me to wait," Anabelle says. "And now she told you to go, so come ON," Isabelle says in an exaggerated tone. The three girls start walking, and the floor creaks with every step. "What are we even looking for? We have been in here FOREVER!" “Annabelle, we have been in here for fifteen minutes. I have a watch. Two, we are looking for… For… Hm, I don't know." Jenne says. "The Travelers' treasure!" Isabelle says excitedly, "We could look for that!" "I don't even think that is real, and we read about it in one document, a document that was trying to sound fancy and give reason to people not coming back, which I also don't believe in because..." Jenne says, trailing off because Anabelle decided this would be a great moment to run ahead, and the two girls stopped their arguing, hearing a shout of surprise from Anabelle. As Anabelle shouted, seeming surprised, the two girls spotted her with her foot going into the floor. "Now look what you did!" Jenne said. "What I did?" Anabelle yelled, "The floor is trying to EAT me!" "It's not, you must have just stepped on a decaying board," Isabelle replied. "Will you two stop arguing with me and help retrieve my foot!" She yelled again. "No, because the spot of decay might be bigger than we think, and adding extra weight might break it further. We don't know how far down the hole falls, meaning we could try saving you but end up killing or injuring two of three of us instead," Jenne said, seeming to ramble slightly. "Oh, wow, Mrs. Smarty Pants, now come help me already!" "Maybe I could get her all such I'm lighter..." Isabelle said, but Anabelle cut her off, "someone's grabbing my leg... HEL..." The two girls watch in horror as their best friend, Anabelle, is yanked down into the hole, completely out of sight, breaking the decaying boards even further. After a moment of stunned silence, a tall, thin figure rose out of the hole. It had an impossibly big smile, legs, and arms, being two times the size of Jenne (who was about five feet six inches), its gaze seeming psychotic and wild. The two girls screamed and ran away, the creature slowly following them. They heard it say something. They stopped at a dead end. "How about we play a game?" a haunting voice said, "You didn't help your friend, so she won't help you." It pulled an unconscious Anabelle out of the floorboards, then, mimicking her voice perfectly, it said, "Sounds fair to me. Oh, and as it turns out, the hole really wasn't that deep, just about eight feet with hay at the bottom, you could have helped me and would have only gotten a little scratch or bruise. How do you feel now?" it asked, the voice turning slowly back to its own deep rattling voice during the last sentence. "Let's play a game of hide and go seek. Let's call it tag and hide for fun," it said, dropping Anabelle into the hole again. "You get about a minute, so you better run, friends," its voice again changing into Anabelle's, being completely hers on the last word. The two girls ran as hard as they could, hearing the countdown. "Don't leave me, Jenne!" Isabelle screamed, tears rolling down her checks. "I come first," Jenne said, running faster than Isabelle could on her small legs. Isabelle then ran into a room with a small door and hid in the smallest, most covered box she could find, and sobbed quietly. She started watching out of a slit after a while, but didn't see anything; she kept watching anyway. Then, in horror, she heard it speak, now using her voice. "You left me, you ran so fast, but the faster you run, the louder you are. Found your friend." She heard it say in its normal voice, then a metal bar hit Jenne's head, and Isabelle saw the creature dragging Jenne by her hair past her room and heard Jenne being dropped into the hole. "Now, the only nice one left, I find you interesting, you see, even knowing you were too heavy for the decaying boards, and knowing the floor was hollow underneath, you still chose to try and help. You always seem to help, but you seem to get ignored by your friends. They seem to be your friends to disguise the bullying. I won't hurt you, and I know you're curious, so come out here, you won't get out if I don't let you anyway." Isabelle stepped out, tears streaming down her face, "they would never... they would never do that," she whispered. "Oh, but they would," it said, "you know they would because they did. Years of fake friendship, and you wonder why you always let everyone else win. Conditioning, squishing, that's all they ever did, and you know it. Go before I change my mind." "Can they come with me?" Isabelle asked. "You want to go back with them, again. They changed you so much, why did you let them? Go, just go." Isabelle decided not to fight, she just ran, she had tears streaming down her face the whole way. She ran out the door, towards the town, and right back to the statue where the trio first met. And then she remembered all those years ago, when she first met the two, how they used to bully her. She remembered how they always cut her hair, threw her in fountains, and stole her work. She sat there and stared up at that very statue. Then she left. She went home, and she convinced her parents to leave town. She was never seen in that town again. A week later a group of fifteen police went missing in the place while looking for the two girls, and because of the superstition, no one moved back into the town, so soon the mayor stopped funding the town and everyone moved out. No one ever crossed the place again, at least, no one came back to tell the tale.