Too Curious By: Anna Suliman In the middle of the woods, in a place covered with hundreds of trees, there was a small house with no windows or doors. It seemed you had to find your way in. Lani and Willy, the kids who lived a mile away from the so called “haunted house” were curious young children. Not only had they spotted the house through the trees, but they apparently played a bit of “ding dong ditch.” Of course, they couldn’t find the door, so they knocked on the wall instead. Within a minute of hiding behind trees, waiting for whoever was in there to open the perhaps invisible door, a loud BANG came from inside the house. They ran back to their homes, but you can’t say they learned their lesson. Returning to the haunted house after a week of thinking, Lani and Willy spot an old lady in front of the house. With no hesitation, the kids went along to say hi. The lady heard them but wouldn’t face them at all. She would talk with her face away, as if she was hiding something. She tells them they need to leave and that if they come back, things won’t end well. Willy was focused on seeing the lady’s face, but as soon as he turned around, Lani wasn’t there. He felt long fingernails scratching the back of his arms, but it wasn’t him being shocked about Lani, it was the lady. He slowly looked at her face, and as soon as he did, he let out a loud yelp. One month later, Willy sits on his bed thinking about his mistake. Lani, his only friend, was now nowhere to be found. All that he could think of was going to find her, he just couldn’t stop getting flashbacks of the old lady’s face. Running from her was as frightening as running from a bull. But he thought to himself, “I cannot just sit here and wait for her to come.” Right after those words, he got up and started envisioning a plan. Thirty minutes later, he ran off to the woods, hoping to find his friend. He recognized the house, but it looked awfully different. For one, it was bigger, as if they had added another room. “What if they put Lani in there?” He thought. Slowly walking towards the home, Willy notices a hole in the wall. He sticks his hand in out of curiosity, and gets pulled with such force, it felt like an elephant with human fingernails as its trunk. “Willy is that you?” It was Lani behind the wall. Lani asserted, "the home isn't haunted, it's the humans."