A Warning from the Past

“I can not believe your grandmother is allowing us to have the house all to ourselves for the weekend” Ally said while stepping through the front door.

“Don’t get any ideas about throwing a party because we are here to house sit and must keep the place in good shape. Also, most of the items in this house are antiques and I don’t want them to get broken” Kayla replied.

“Ugh! You make it sound like all I do is party” Ally exclaimed annoyed.

“Well, you go to a party almost every weekend” Kayla countered.

“Not every weekend, maybe once or twice a month” Ally clarified. “You should join me sometime!”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I have to focus on school and college applications” Kayla replied. “Maybe over the summer sometime, but I can’t promise anything.”

“Well, on that note, I am going to do a little exploring of this ancient-looking place” Ally said. “Oh! A library let’s see what type of ancient knowledge your grandmother has.”

“You can go into the library, but I am going to make popcorn and watch a movie” Kayla replied. Kayla walked into the kitchen and rested her elbows on the island countertop pondering where her grandmother would keep the popcorn. Kayla usually eats all the popcorn when she visits, so her grandmother hides it from her so that it lasts a while. Kayla had no idea where it could be this time, so she started to search the kitchen. The popcorn was not in the pantry or on any of the shelves, or even in the cupboards. Kayla then looked in the refrigerator and on the top shelf at the very back was the popcorn. Once she got the popcorn down, she got out a pan and poured the popcorn into cook. After the popcorn started popping, she added butter and salt, then put the popcorn into a giant bowl. Kayla then took the popcorn into the living room and looked through the movies on the shelf next to the television. Kayla decided to watch the movie The Princess Bride and got herself comfortable on the sofa.

…

Walking into the library Ally was in awe of all the books that filled the shelves from floor to ceiling. There were paintings on the wall which she assumed were past relatives of Kayla’s, and honestly, they weirded Ally out a little bit. There was a large painting of a little girl with blonde hair with a blue ribbon tying it back. The girl wore a blue dress with ruffles with a big white bow in the front. The painting stretched from the floor and almost touched the ceiling and Ally felt like the painting was watching her. There was a big wooden desk in the center of the room which had a globe sitting on it. Ally walked over to the globe and noticed that there were pins on it marking different cities. Ally guessed the pins were marking places Kayla’s grandmother had traveled, but she was not completely sure. Ally then turned to see what books were on the shelves and she found everything from poetry, history, music, science, and mathematics. While Ally was focused on all the books, she was not aware that she was walking backward in order to get a better view until she bumped into something. Hearing a crash, she turned around to see the globe which was once on the desk cracked open on the floor. Ally was going to try and fix the global until she noticed something inside of it. She reached her hand into the hollow shell of the global and pulled out an old black notebook that looked to be really worn. She admired the wear of the cover and the stained color of the pages showing age. Ally opened the notebook and found a bunch of random dates with explanations next to them. As she read through them, she realized that the explanations were of major events which have happened consisting of the sinking of the Titanic, the Wildfires in Australia, and even the attack on the World Trade Centers. The notebook looked like it could be from the late 1800s, so it did not make sense why it would have events from the 2000s in it. Ally continued the fill through the notebook until she came to the last entry and froze. It was dated April 28, 2020, which was today's date, and in parentheses next to the date were the names Kayla and Ally.

…

“Kayla! Kayla! Kayla! Look at this!” Ally yelled while running into the living room where Kayla was watching her movie and eating popcorn.

“What?” Kayla answered confused pausing her movie.

“I was in the library and bummed into the globe causing it the fall and break, but inside was this weird notebook and our names are in it!” Ally said talking quickly.

“What? Slow down I can not understand you.” Kayla replied trying to grasp what Ally was saying.

“Look at this!” Ally replied showing the entry the Kayla. Kayla took the notebook and stared at both of their names on the page.

“Where did you find this?” Kayla asked.

“Inside the globe which was on the desk” Ally answered. “I accidentally bumped it onto the floor, and it broke, and I found this notebook inside of it and it is full of events and the dates they happened”.

“Creepy…” Kayla said wearily.

“Should we read the entry under our names because it is also marked with today's date?” Ally asked.

“Um… Sure we will read it together” Kayla replied. “Do you want to read it aloud or do you want me to?”

“You can.” Ally answered.

“Ok fine” Kayla said starting to read. “Hello! My wonderful girls, when you two first got into the house did you lock the front door?” Kayla stopped reading.

“Did we lock the front door?” Ally questioned. She went to check the front door and found it unlocked, so she locked it. “The front door was unlocked; weird it must just be a coincidence”.

“Just make sure the door gets locked by 8:17 pm” Kayla started to read but stopped to look at the time to see it was 8:34 pm. “Protect yourselves with anything you have near you or can find to use as weapons. You are not alone in the house.” Kayla read. At this point, Kayla stopped reading and looked at Ally with a scared looked. Ally had the same look on her face and both of them started to look around the room for anything which did not below. Kayla got up from the sofa a walked over to the fireplace under the television and grabbed the iron poker while handing matching ash pan to Ally. They then continued to read the entry in a whispered voice.

“Try to get out of the house… he has a knife… seems determined” Kayla tried to read the words, but they were broken up and did not seem to make full sentences. At this moment Ally and Kayla both turned to the sound of a door closing in the room next to them. After reading that they were not alone they both got up and were on alert trying to figure out how to get out of the house. The only problem was that the two ways out of the house were both on the other side of the room where the sound came from.

“What do we do?” Ally asked panicked.

“I say we try to quietly get out of the house” Kayla replied. Both of the girls decide to try and go towards the front door which they had just locked. Kayla looked out of the doorway to see if the coast was clear and started to tiptoe out into the opening with Ally following close behind. They were halfway to the door when Ally caught a glimpse of something shining out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head towards the shine she saw the silver of a knife pointing up to a green eye staring at her through the closet door. At this point, she screamed, and the intruder jumped out of the closet towards the girls with a knife in hand. The girls, in a panic, ran upstairs instead of struggling to unlock the door. They locked themselves in the farthest bedroom at the end of the hall.

“What are we going to do? Are we going to die? We need to get out of here?” Ally started to quietly but quickly say.

“Do you have your phone on you?” Kayla asked. “I left mine on the sofa downstairs and we should really call the cops because there is a dude with a knife in the house and I am pretty sure he wants to kill us.”

“Yeah, I have my phone. I’m on it” Ally replied shakily. “Hi 911, there is a man in the house with a knife chasing us” then there was a banging at the door and the girls fell silent while the operator continued to talk on the other end of the line.

“We are at 2241 Nightingale Lane, please hurry” Ally pleaded as there was another bang on the door causing her to jump and accidentally ending the call. “No no no no, the call ended” and at that moment the door flung open at the green-eyed intruder entered the room and slowly turned his gaze towards them knowing they were cornered and could not escape anywhere.

Ally and Kayla both looked towards the guy realizing they were trapped. Then looking towards each other Kayla and Ally formed an unspoken agreement, and all at once, the intruder ran towards them. Kayla and Ally quickly stood up and both swung as hard as they could with the fireplace tools causing the intruder to buckle over in pain. Ally had hit the guy's head and Kayla landed a hit to his rib cage. The guy was now on the floor regaining his strength and swinging his knife at them for a chance to injury them as well. Kayla and Ally sprinted out of the room, down the hall, down the stairs, unlocked the front door, and ran to the neighbor’s house. Knocking frantically on the neighbor’s door it finally opened and Kayla and Ally were both out of breath talking quickly and over each other about what was happening. The neighbor let them in and called Kayla’s grandmother to inform her of the situation.

The police showed up a few minutes later and searched the house as well as the property and found the green-eyed intruder in the woods near the back of the house trying to escape with a couple of bad bruises on him.

“You two sure put up a fight in there based on his injuries.” The police officer said to Kayla and Ally once the intruder was handcuffed and in the back of the police car. At this moment Kayla’s grandmother arrived at the house and in a panic looked to see if both girls were alright. “You girls are lucky to be alive, that guy is wanted for murder in eight states, and had a bounty of $20,000 on him” the officer continued.

“Wait, so since we caught him and turned him in, we get $20,000?” Ally asked.

“Yes” replied the officer. “When all the paperwork goes through you should get the money by the end of the week”.

“Wow, that’s a lot, but if I may ask, girls how did you know he was in the house?” Kayla’s grandmother asked.

“Oh! We found this notebook and it informed us we were in danger” Kayla answered.

“Oh my, your Great Great Great Aunt Linda always knew what was going to happen” Kayla’s grandmother said shaking her head.

“Wait a second” Kayla said opening the notebook and reading the last sentence of the entry. “Enjoy the $20,000 and with all my love Linda.”