While baby-sitting the neighbors’ new children for the first time, Katie answered the phone when the phone went dead. She thought, “Oh well, they’ll call back.” While in the kitchen, the phone rang for the second time, she picked up the phone and the voice said, “It’s not safe here!” and hung up.

The time was 7 p.m. and Mr. and Mrs. Newton weren’t going to be home for a while. The lights flickered over and over. Katie made the kids go to bed early as though not to scare them.

Katie started to call the cops when all of a sudden the phone went dead. The lights flickered again. Katie got the kids up to go over to her house.

When at the front door the man in a black hoodie started calling out names and pounding on the door. Katie left everything as it was and headed the kids to the attic. The man still screaming. Katie didn’t know what to do. She started thinking: “What do I do? .. The phone is dead … don’t answer the door is all she could think about.

Katie decided to leave the kids in the house and run to her house. She told Tommy and Mallorie to stay right here. “I need to get something at my house. I will be right back. Don’t go back down stairs!” When she reached the back door a second man appeared and tried to get in. She went back upstairs to the bathroom and climbed out the window, and down the side of the house.

She snuck across the street and into her yard. She heard something running up behind her. One of the men had spotted her sneaking off the street. She ran faster and faster, but he was still gaining on her. She reached for her front door and the knob turned. She rushed in a locked in the door. Gasping for air, the man started hitting the door. “OPEN UP!” he said.

She reached for the phone to call 911. They answer “911 emergency how …” Katie answered, “I …I need help … P…Please come…They’re trying to break in … the address … is 1904 Main St.” Katie hung up the phone and ran to her back door. She swang the door open and ran back to the street. Halfway across the street the man spotted her again. She ran to the side of house under the bathroom window.

As soon as she got to the house and on the fence climbing the house one of the men started climbing too. Luckily the window was still open. She climbed inside and shut the window and locked it.

Katie ran up to the attic and Mallorie and Tommy were gone. Katie looked in the trunks and under the blankets in the attic. Still no signs or the kids. She went to check their rooms. She checked under their beds and their closets. “Finally!” they were in their closets. “I told you two to say in the attic.

As Katie raised her head she heard the sirens in the distance. The noises stopped and Katie went downstairs, blinded by the darkness of the house she found her way to the door. When she reached the door and turned the knob. There was a knock on the. The cop asked “is everyone OK? Katie answered yes. The cop wanted Katie to step outside to ask some questions. As soon as she stepped outside she noticed that the cop didn’t have a badge. Katie tried to go back inside, when the cop hit her on the head with his nightstick.

When she came to, she found herself in a cemetery outside of town. She couldn’t remember what happened. She walked back to her house, 3 miles away. When she reached her house she fell asleep on the couch. When she woke up the next morning she was looking at her own body. She was a ghost.

— Rachel Coleman is a Tonganoxie Junior High School student.