Seek Adventure, but at Your Own Risk

seek adventure, but at your own risk1

Seek Adventure, but at Your Own Risk

Noel Tae Yang Kim

Korea University

Seek Adventure, but at Your Own Risk

The floor creaked as the young boy took his first step in the mansion. Tom, whose face was as pale as a ghost, already knew he had made a mistake, and was regretting it. However, he could not back out now; Cody was right behind him, and he did not want be seen as a coward.

“What’s the matter? Hurry up and get in so I can,” whispered Cody from behind.

“Quit pushing,” hissed Tom, turning back angrily at his friend.

The two boys had not been friends for long, but Tom knew much about Cody. Cody was brave and adventurous. Yet he was still childish in the sense that he liked to brag and put others down. That was the exact reason why the two boys were sneaking into the old mansion.

Only a few weeks ago, Tom had moved into the suburban town of Stratham in New Hampshire. His father had been offered a job at a factory on the eastern end of town. The factory was always puffing up grey smoke and covering the otherwise blue sky. Perhaps it was the old factory’s large build sticking out of the eastern horizon of houses that gave the town a glum atmosphere. Maybe it was the smoke. Whatever it was, Tom didn’t like the town. He missed his old home and the friends he had left behind in Florida the first day he got to Stratham.

Three days after he had moved to Stratham, Tom was walking along the street looking for something to do. His family had settled into the new house, with all the furniture and luggage set out in place. His dad was at work at the factory, and his mother was looking after his baby sister, Suzy. Tom was bored of reading books and watching TV at home all day. It was still the middle of Summer break; school was a month away.

Just as he was about to turn around and return home without any success of finding something interesting, a blonde boy who seemed to be around Tom’s age came out of the house Tom was walking past. They looked at each other. Tom gave the boy a nod and walked off, uninterested.

“Hey, you must be the new boy in the family that just moved in, am I right?” the boy asked.

“Uh, yeah? How’d you know?”

“It’s a pretty small town here. Everyone knows who’s who.” The boy paused and mumbled, “except that house o’er there.”

Tom asked what he meant by “that house o’er there,” looking at the direction the boy was glancing at.

The boy explained, “Well, there’s an old mansion down the road away from other houses… and nobody knows who lives there. I haven’t heard of anyone who’s gone near it- it’s the end of town, so there’s no reason to. I reckon it’s a haunted house- maybe ghosts live there. Only somebody brave would dare go near it.”

Something tingled in Tom’s mind. It seemed as if he had been granted what he had been desiring deep inside since he moved to Stratham: something new, something exciting- an adventure. So the adventure began. After a few days of meeting Cody, the name of the neighborhood boy that Tom had found out later, Tom agreed to sneak into the house- partly out of curiosity and partly because they wanted to prove their courage. A few weeks later, the boys had become pals. They had talked about the house- their predictions of what they would encounter when they got into the house.

Finally, here they were, sneaking into the mysterious house.

Tom reluctantly took another step in, moving his body through the open window on the right side of the house. Inside, it was dark, but Tom could tell that it was an empty bedroom with the help of moonlight. Cody followed in, and Tom heard a sound of a man screaming, causing him to wince. They looked at each other in silence, as if they had promised to keep quite.

Having no choice but to go first, Tom walked towards the door and opened it to find a corridor that was even darker than the room. The long corridor seemed like a cave. The gloomy atmosphere gave Tom a chill down his spine. Taking a gulp, he advanced into a random direction, letting his body move without thinking. He had to constantly turn back for the reassurance that he was not alone. Yes, he was definitely terrified, and regretted his childishness that lead him here.

Just as he was about to turn the corner, a light appeared from the other side of the corner and a strange old man’s voice called out to them.

“Who’s there?”

The two boys froze. The light got bigger and bigger as the light footsteps of the old man sounded closer and closer. They wished that their bodies would move. There were only two possibilities: the man was human, and they would get in trouble for trespassing or the man was not human. Tom knew that either possibility was bad. Also, his fear was doubled by the gloomy atmosphere of the house and the unexpected surprise that somebody was actually in the house.

It was only a few seconds later when an old man holding a lantern appeared from the corner. The boys could not see him clearly due the light being shone at their faces, they could tell that the man was not a ghost. Instead, he was an ordinary old man in his pajamas with a skinny build not much taller than the boys themselves.

“And, what do you boys think you’re doing in my house?” demanded the elderly man, yet not in a mean way but in a benign tone.

His unexpectedly kind manner somewhat seemed to have calmed Tom. He finally managed to say,“We… we thought this house was empty, sir. Sorry we broke in without permission…”

“Ah, you were seeking an adventure ay?” the man seemed amused, “Well, I’m sorry kids, but this house isn’t exactly what you anticipated.”

“We’re so sorry,” Tom said.

“Don’t you worry. I’m just relieved that you aren’t burglars!” the man said cheerfully, “but the thing is, it’s too dark outside and I don’t want to send you boys back home so late in the middle of the night.”

The man offered to let the boys stay over for the night in a guest room. The boys tried to refuse, but the man was stubborn. So the boys accepted the man’s kind offer. The man lead to them to the guest room. One of the two things that Tom found interesting about the house was the its walls and floor were all covered in reddish brown paint. There were some streaks that were redder than the rest.

Noticing his puzzled facial expression, the old man explained, “Oh, don’t mind it, I just like the color.”

The other thing was that Cody, who was following behind him, was making the creak that sounded like a man’s scream with his footsteps.

However, he decided to ignore it as he was tired from the failure of an adventure that they had planned for weeks. On the way, they passed a kitchen, and the boys ate some biscuits that the man offered. They were sweet.

Tom assumed that the man had fish or meat for dinner because there was a kitchen knife in the sink that had traces of blood.

When they got to the guest room, the boys each lied down on a bed. The man left them, saying “goodnight”.

Tom closed his eyes, but only a few minutes later, Cody woke him up.

“Tom, wake up!” Cody whispered.

“What’s the matter? I’m sleepy,” Tom replied.

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” Cody said in a shaky voice, “that man’s a murderer!”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you hear the screams that came from underneath the floor? Someone was definitely in the basement.”

Tom opened his mouth to defend the ever-so- kind old man, but he thought again. If the sound was merely floorboards creaking under Cody’s feet, Cody himself would know best. Then his eyes opened wide in enlightenment.

“The knife! It was covered in blood! And there was no smell of any cooking!” he told Cody.

“Exactly.”

The boys panicked. They had to get out of the house quick. Just as they were scrambling to their feet, footsteps approached the door of the room afar in the corridor. Tom looked at Cody helplessly, only to see two enlarged eyes filling up with tears that seemed to mirror his own.

Before they could do anything, the door squeaked open, and the old man appeared, holding the bloody knife in his right hand. The two boys lost consciousness.

Tom woke up in a dark basement. Realizing that he was tied to a chair, he desperately looked around. To his left was Cody, also tied to a chair. Tom screamed as he noticed the man to the right, whose fingers were cut off somewhat coarsely, and whose eyes were dug out.

Cody woke up from Tom’s screaming, and it wasn’t too long before they were both crying out for their dear lives.

“You’re finally awake! The biscuits did a better job than I expected” the old man said, walking into the basement and into sight under the sole lightbulb in the space.

“Please, don’t kill us!” the boys wailed.

“Oh, don’t worry I won’t kill you right away. You’ll die slowly like that bloke o’er there,” the man said shrewdly.

A few weeks later, the blue sky was still covered with the smoke from the factory, and the factory still radiated gloominess over the town. The people of the town were still going on with their everyday lives. The only difference, however, was that two boys had disappeared.