BRING .  The final bell had rung. It was the start of Christmas break, and Jennifer and Hailey were so excited. After all, Christmas is every kid’s favorite holiday. On the bus, Lucas and his gang were busy harassing a 6th grader named Thomas. 

“Poor kid,” said Hailey, “I know what a great way to spend the day before the best day of the year!” 

SCREECH ! The bus came to a screaming halt. Their bus driver, Mr. Mathews, was not the greatest. The sister rushed through the front doors only to find their parents standing there with a suitcase filled to the brim with all of their clothes. One for Jennifer and one for Hailey. 

“What in the world are these for?!” exclaimed Jennifer.

“Are we going on vacation?” stated Hailey excitedly. 

“Nope,” replied both of their parents, “You are spending Christmas with your Great Aunt Macy.” 

“AUNT MACY is still alive!” said the sisters in sync but almost instantly regretted it.

They pulled up at Great Aunt Macy’s home. It was hidden in Surposston, a town which is known for its historic houses. The house was lifeless. The gloomy front door mocked them as they stood awaiting it. 

“Maybe she just forgot to take down her Halloween decorations,” declared Hailey. 

“I doubt it, I think this is just what her house looks like ,” indicated Jennifer. The doorbell hissed as Hailey pressed it. 

“Well darn looks like no one’s home, we should just go back.” 

“HEEEELLLLOOOO my darlings ,” screeched Aunt Macy. The only word I can use to describe Aunt Macy’s voice is… dying goat.

The parents wished their children goodbye. As the car faded out of view Aunt Macy’s smile grew wider and wider. But not a happy smile, more of an evil old lady smile. The front door slammed behind them as they walked through the foyer. The inside looked almost exactly like the outside just dustier. 

“How do you like my humble home? Really I want you to be honest.” 

“It looks lovely . . .”

“I’m so glad you like it. I worked really hard to clean up when I heard y'all were coming.” 

They crisscrossed to the next room, this room was relatively large and was filled with vintage cooking items from the 1980’s. As they weaved through the mansion the more they realized how messed up in the brain their dear Aunt Macy was. For example, on the fifth floor in the second room to the right which had an unusually colored door (bronze mixed with a sort of burnt yellow flair) this room was packed with the most peculiar items. Here are some of the few ones worth mentioning. A stuffed owl , an old corroded television set that looked like it was the very first model of the T.V, and the strangest thing of all was an old trunk that had , one combination lock, one directional lock, and three key locks. 

“What’s in that thing ,” the girls stated in unison. 

“ Oh, nothing , just some random old person’s junk .” 

They all sat down for dinner at this rustic victorian table . Two girls and one Aunt . 

“Ebenezzer has made us a real treat ,” replied Aunt Macy to break the silence . Right about the same time as she said this a tall brisk man that was about as pale as their Aunt's bed sheets came bursting through the double kitchen doors . 

“Dinner is served,” spoke Ebenezzer. 

His voice was a lot deeper than the girls thought . He opened the casing around the food and a rancid stench arouse . 

“For dinner tonight we will be having Turkey with a side of greens , tomatoes , all topped with coleslaw , enjoy .”

The turkey was stale . The greens and tomatoes were sour . The only decent thing was the coleslaw but with that being said it was still kind of inedible .

After dinner , Aunt Macy conducted the girls to their bedroom. She unfolded the bedsheets that were neatly tucked in the ginormous dresser.

“Good night my dears .”

“Good night Aunt Macy .”

Aunt Macy gently closed the door. 

“ Aunt Macy’s not as bad as I thought,” said Jennifer in a hushed tone.

It was almost noon when the girls woke up, the only reason they got out of bed though was that the sun shone so brightly through the see-through curtain. They walked around the house in their jammies looking for Aunt Macy.  No luck. They scurried throughout the home. No luck.

“We have got to get out of here right now Aunt Macy has trapped us.”

“Remember that trunk in that room on the fifth floor,”

“Yeah”

“I think maybe that might be our only chance of escaping.”

The first lock they wanted to solve was the combination lock. They went to the room where they had seen the trunk and took a look at the combination one. On the back of it had a zoo of jumbled up letters, but the sisters were lucky because one of them was great at unscrambling letters.

Hailey looked at the letters and you could see the brain hard at work trying to understand the following letters on the back of the lock.

Akte hte taolreev ot hte ateembns dna ookl bhdeni eht fnglii abectin

Hailey just looked at it. This was obviously the hardest unscrambling job she had ever done.

Jennifer came to try and help. About a half-hour went by and Hailey shot up with excitement.

“ I’ve got it !!!,” she exclaimed happily, it is 

Take the elevator to the basement and look behind the filing cabinet

“I didn’t know she had an elevator,” shouted Jennifer.

“I think I remember seeing one in the kitchen,” replied Hailey.

“Who puts an elevator in the kitchen ?”

“Aunt Macy” relayed both of them.

They puzzled their way back to the kitchen, and sure enough, there was an elevator beside the refrigerator. Jennifer pushed the rusted button and consequently, it made the same sound as the doorbell. The elevator came up and then it went back down with the girls inside. The basement smelled like musty fish guts. Along with all the other rooms in the house, this one was packed full.

It was like going through a maze trying to find the filing cabinet. Once they found it they used all their strength to try and push it aside. Behind it was a yellow piece of tape that printed on it was 36-98-07.

They took the rickety elevator back to the 1st story, took the stairs to the fifth floor, and went into the second room to the right, and put in the combo that was printed on the rear side of the filing cabinet. It popped open.

“One down three to go,” said Hailey

On the back of the directional lock it had the following riddle:

This sounds like a paradox it's found in the boondocks but it's not a toolbox and on your way, you might spot a red fox.

Jennifer was the opposite of Hailey. Hailey was good at unscrambling and Jennifer was good at riddles. Hailey stood aside to let Jennifer do her thing. 

“LOLLIPOPS,” exclaimed Hailey.

“No no,” said Jennifer disappointedly, “the only things I can think of are raindrops, shoebox, or… Mailbox!”

“Does Aunt Macy even have a mailbox?” stated Hailey

“We don’t know if we don’t try.”

They walked together up the twisted gravel driveway to where the mailbox should have been. They had not seen one. When they thought their hope was lost, Hailey had spotted a broken down miniature mailbox in the very corner of the driveway.

“No wonder we didn’t see it it’s only 3 centimeters tall.”

Jennifer opened the little wooden door on the shrunk mailbox, inside the only thing was left, right, right, down, up.

“That must be the directions for the lock.”

“No, it wouldn’t be that simple maybe it's where you should go after you walk in the front door.”

The sister entered the house and went left, right, right, down, then up down the narrow hallway. They dead-ended into a bright orange door. There was the only item inside this closet was a binder. Hailey was the one bravest enough to open the binder.

“Down, down, up, right, now that must be the code,” read Hailey.

They ran upstairs once again and put the direction combo into the lock. It unlocked.

The last 3 locks were the padlocks. When you put the locks together it made this image…

🎂🐜👨‍🍳🐈🌳  🐻🦊🧶🦁🔵

c=t       -nt      c=l       -c      r=h -e     li+     +y  x=r   a=ou   l=f  +al  b=c

                                                            e=r                -n        -o

This time they had to put there skills together.

“I’ve found out the first word, it is “take”,” exclaimed Hailey.

“The next one is “a look at”,” shouted Jennifer with excitement.

“THE LIBRARY FOR THE FINAL CLUE,” the girls screamed together.

The sisters trotted up to the library which was on the very top floor,(seventh) to only find an ordinary library. They started pulling out books thinking about how in that one episode of Scooby-Doo how it unlocked a tunnel from behind when they pulled the right one. That didn’t work though. They looked under the bookcases. That didn’t work. Finally, they worked their way to the desk and shuffled through the scattered papers. The only one that seemed remotely interesting was a quote from a Shakespeare play, “The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”

This one was obviously a quote from “Hamlet-1603”

“Wait I remember seeing that somewhere’

“Where ?”

“I don’t remember”

“THINK harder !”

“I’ve got it! It was engraved on the side of the elevator, remember”

“Oh yeah”

Hailey and Jennifer rushed back to the elevator once again. 

“AHG”

There was a lady outside of the elevator once the girls arrived.

“Hello what’s your name?” said Hailey humbly.

The lady shuddered a little bit then finally said,

“M-My n-names Barbra” stated the lady,” I am the maid here at this home.”

After the sisters and the maid finished having their conversation they took a look at the elevator,  and there enough was the quote.

“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”

Of course, it was kind of faded though. What could this have meant? They snapped a quick look at the inside and there was a sticky note beside floor number 4. 

“Barbra must have put this here,” Jennifer announced.

They walked inside the elevator and Hailey pressed the 4th button gently. And up they went. Brinng, they arrived at the destination, the fourth floor. The double doors opened and outside was the most peculiar painting the girls had ever seen. Hailey pressed the nose on the painting for no real reason but to their surprise, a tunnel to the side of the house opened. They crawled throughout the damp concrete tunnel and finally reached the outside by the garden. The only thing in the garden was some rotten greens and the gardener, Tim. Tim told the girls how lucky they were to be able to escape because he had never got the chance to. They thanked Tim and walked back up the gravel driveway from where they had begun.

By Grayson