This is day 37 of @mydivathings' #365daysofwriting challenge

Every day @mydivathings invites you to write a short story based on the image she chooses. Today's image (below) is a Photo by Antony Xia on Unsplash

Find out more about the challenge (you can join anytime!) here @mydivathings/day-37-365-days-of-writing-challenge

Katie was bored. She hated long car journeys. And this one seemed to go on forever. Stuck here in the back on her own. Well, almost on her own. Kevin was with her, of course. Katie didn’t go anywhere without Kevin. Accept for school, because they don’t allow Kevins at school. Kevin had to wait in the car. That was probably why Kevin hated car journeys too. Kevin nudged her with his paw. Are we there yet? he asked her with those big brown eyes of his.

“I don’t know, Kevin,” she said. “Mummy, Kevin wants to know if we are there yet?”

Mummy turned round and smiled at her. It wasn’t the I-love-you-so-much-I-want-to-explode smile, it was the I’m-annoyed-but-trying-not-to-show-it smile.

“You just asked that Honey-bun.”

“I know I just asked, mummy! But it is Kevin who is asking this time!” she held up Kevin, his head lolled to one side.

“Well, tell Kevin what I told you, Katie.”

Mummy turned back to look out the front. Daddy looked at mummy in that way that they do when they want you to stop talking, and then turned up the music. Katie liked this one, it was by the man with the funny name. It sounded a bit like a fizzy drink, or a breakfast cereal.

“I wanna be your dog!” Katie sang to Kevin, bouncing in her car seat, as much as she could. Kevin didn’t sing back. He was already a dog, so he didn’t need to want to be one. He wasn’t a real dog, of course. Mummy said that when they got to the new house, they might get a real dog. Might she said, several times, whilst Katie was jumping up and down with excitement. She heard Mummy tell Daddy that the doctors said it would be good for Daddy to get out everyday, and to take responsibility for a dog would be good too. Daddy didn’t say anything. But he didn’t really say very much, anymore.

The ground sounded different under the car now. Crunchy. They were slowing down now, which might mean they were stuck in a Jam which was bad (there are two types of jam. Strawberry - which is the good type of jam - and a Traffic Jam which is not. It is boring because you usually get stuck behind a smelly lorry), or it might mean they were really Nearly There. Katie looked out of the window. They were driving up a road that was made of little stones. There was a very big house up ahead. This was Aunt Sara’s house. Katie knew this because she had seen pictures of it on Mummy’s tablet. Except, it wasn’t Aunt Sara’s house now, because she had gone somewhere forever and had left the house to Daddy.

So now it was their house.

There was a man standing on the steps leading up to the house. He looked funny. Sort of twisted and broken. Kevin said he didn’t like how the man looked, but Katie had been taught that difference was good and not to judge people on how they looked so she whispered to Kevin that he should do his best to like the man, even if he didn’t look like other people.

The car stopped and Mummy and Daddy got out and talked to the twisted man for a moment. Katie wanted to get out, but knew if she “made a fuss” it was rude and it might upset Daddy and he might have one of his episodes. And Katie didn’t want Daddy to go away again, even if he was a bit strange now. So she watched through the window as the three grown ups shook hands and talked.

Eventually Mummy opened the car door and Katie undid her seat belt - she could do it all by herself - and clambered down clutching Kevin.

“Put your jacket on, Katie,” Mummy said, holding her favourite coat. The one with the hood. “It’s cold.”

“Katie,” said Daddy, when Katie had put the coat on and Mummy had zipped her up. “This is Mr Derry. Come and shake his hand.”

The twisted man - Mr Derry - smiled and Katie decided it was a nice smile and so he was probably very nice too.

“Well, hello there young lady,” Mr Derry said. “And who is this?” he gestured at Kevin. “He is a nice looking… dog!” Katie smiled and showed Mr Derry Kevin. Most grown ups thought Kevin looked like a rabbit.

“This is Kevin.”

Mr Derry shook Kevin’s paw and then offered his hand to Katie. She shook it. It felt dry, but warm.

“You can call me Steve, if you like,” Mr Derry said to Kevin. “And you can too, Kate!”

“My name is Katie!”

“Sorry… Katie. You see that swing set over there?” Katie nodded, she had noticed that. “Do you want to go and have a closer look, whilst I show your Mummy and Daddy a few things?” Daddy looked at Mummy, and Mummy looked at Daddy. Mr Derry - Steve - must have noticed because he said in a nice soft voice. “It’s OK, she will be safe, here. The garden is fenced off. And you won’t go anywhere, will you Katie? You seem like such a good girl.”

Katie smiled and nodded. She was a good girl.

“Just wait over there, honey,” Mummy said. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

Katie nodded and took Kevin over to show him the swing.

Katie put Kevin on the swing and pushed him for a few minutes. The garden was big. Much bigger than their old house. There were bushes that went all round it, and in one corner there were some trees. It looked like a small forest!

As Katie looked at the trees she thought she could see someone waving. She looked back at the house. Mummy and Daddy had gone inside with Steve. She looked back at the trees. There was definitely someone waving over there. It looked like a little boy. About her age. Maybe a bit younger. Kevin said it would be OK if they went over to the trees to say hello to the little boy. But Mummy said to stay by the swings. But Mummy also said it was rude not to say hello. And they could see the house and the swing from there.

Katie picked up Kevin and skipped over to the little boy. He was wearing a red t-shirt and blue shorts. His Mummy and Daddy would be cross with him, Kevin said. Going outside in this weather without a coat.

“Hello,” Katie said.

“Hello,” said the boy.

“I’m Katie, and this is Kevin. What’s your name?”

“Michael.”

“I had a brother called Michael,” Katie said. “But he died when I was littler and we don’t talk about him much because it makes Daddy very sad.”

“Oh,” said Michael. “OK," he pointed into the trees. "I’ve got something to show you, Katie. Follow me.”

Katie looked back at the house, past the swing. Mummy and Daddy were still in the house with Steve. When she looked back, Michael was disappearing into the trees.

“Hold on, Michael!” she said, and followed him. “I know what Mummy said, Kevin. But she also said I needed to make new friends in the new town!”

There was a path through the trees. It wasn’t very long and at the end there was a waterfall and a strange thing that looked like a building with no walls.

“Oh, this is nice!” said Katie, pointing at the waterfall. It made a pretty trickling sound and light danced off the water, as it fell. Katie thought it looked like a hundred fairies having a party in the rain.

“This is where I live,” said Michael. “You can find me here whenever you want.”

“You live in the garden?” Katie laughed. “Don’t you have a house?”

Michael smiled, but looked sad at the same time. He shook his head. In the distance, Katie could hear Mummy calling her.

“I’d better go,” she said. “Do you want to come and play on the swing with me?”

Michael shook his head, that sad smile on his face. Katie started to walk back along the path. Then she stopped. She wanted to ask Michael where his Mummy and Daddy were.

But when she turned to look he wasn’t there.

...

what-did-they-know-an-original-fictional-story-in-just-fiftywords

"Haunted (part one)" an original work of fiction for the #365daysofwriting challenge