Welcome to micro Terrors, scary stories for kids where it's always the spooky season,
full of chills, thrills, and spine tingling spooks. Micro Terrors are
family friendly frights for those ages eight and up, and while our stories are
for younger ears, we are still talking about things that go bump in the
night, and some children may not be able to handle what others can.
Parental consent is recommended now for to night's micro terror. My little mad brain,
it is a house that haunts you, a house that draws you near,
entangling its specters with your own. It is a house that begs for
you to come inside. Will you come inside? This will be your only
invitation. I just stared at the note in my hand. It was within
an unmarked envelope taped to the front door of my house. When I walked
home from school, I brought the envelope inside and that's when I opened it.
I read the note over and over, not completely understanding what it meant.
It was like a poem or something. Behind the note was an old
black and white photograph of a castle. I didn't immediately recognize the castle,
but on the flip side of the photo was an ad for Castle Shade.
According to Google Maps, Castle Shade was located in the Catskill Mountains of New
York and only about a mile from my house. I read the last line
again, this will be your only invitation. Invitation for what a party?
A tour of the castle? I read more from the note, It's a
house that haunts you, a house that draws you near, begs you to
come inside. He was starting to sound like a haunted house attraction, and
with Halloween only weeks away, maybe it was a grand opening for a seasonal
haunted attraction. I checked my watch. It was only a little after three.
My parents wouldn't be home from work until closer to five. Castle Shade
would be a quick bike ride. I thought I could check it out and
then let my parents know about the notes and the invitation. Maybe we could
make it a family outing or something. When the attraction opened, I looked
across my bedroom at Scratch, a doll that I had had since I was
born, and after thirteen years, he was finally starting to show his age.
His brown hair was matted down, his eyes, which were once perfectly
painted on, were now feeding in their vibrants, and his clothing smelled musty.
And old. Sometimes I thought I was too old to hang on to
Scratch, But when I thought back to how many times over my childhood that
I was able to confide in him, I knew I just couldn't bail on
him. He would never bail on me. He was my trusted confidant.
What do you think, Scratch, Should I check it out? I asked
my doll, and just like always, he stared blankly back at me.
I tossed my backpack over my shoulders and wheeled my bike out of the garage.
A distant rumble of thunder brought my attention to the sky. The day
had been mostly clear, but now there were dark, gray clouds moving in.
For a moment, I thought about just going back into the house and
forgetting the whole thing, But then I remembered the last line, this will
be your only invitation. I couldn't pass this up. I hopped on the
bike, pedaled down the driveway and onto the main road that cut through a
seemingly endless sea of trees. It took me fifteen minutes to reach the iron
gates of Castle Shade. The gates swayed, opened creakily in the wind,
as if it had been awaiting my arrival. Another distant rumble of thunder maybe
dropped the bike to the ground and hurry through the gates. I jogged up
a dirt road, a thick forest on either side, and may blocked out
whatever light of day the incoming storm clouds failed to I rounded a corner on
the dirt road, and that's when I saw it, Castle Shade. It
was much larger than the picture made it seem. It was made of black
stone, looked slick like, it was covered by an wheelie glaze, and
dark green moss was present on most of it. I saw the front door,
an arched wooden doorway reminiscent of that belonging to a medieval castle. Gripping
the straps of my backpack, I approached the castle door and pulled it open.
The hinges creaked loudly as I entered. It was dark inside. Only
the hindered daylight from outside snuck through tiny square windows along the walls. I
stepped into the large empty room. Each step I took echoed. Then a
thunderous boom from the sky outside was followed by a howling wind. Dad leaves
spun in through the front door before it slam shut. I ran to the
door and tried to open it, but couldn't. The heavy slam must have
damaged the handle or lock or something. Hell. I called out, only
hearing my little voice echo through the room and return Swad helped me. When
no one responded and no one showed themselves to help me, I realized something
that made my skin crawl. There was no one here. There was no
help coming. I had been lured to castle shade, and now I was
trapped. But why. I dropped my backpack to the floor and pulled out
my phone. There was no signal, but I was still able to use
the flashlight. I flipped it on and aimed it around the large room from
one corner to the next. The room was decorated in spider webs and old,
dusty furniture, some of which were covered by white sheets. I heard
the hiss of air coming in from somewhere above me, a ventilation system perhaps.
I walked through the room to get a closer look at a door across
the way. I reached for the metal knob, but just as my palm
touched its cold surface, I heard something rustling behind me. My heart stopped
and I slowly turned around I didn't see anything at first, but when I
trained the light on my backpack sitting on the floor, I saw it moving.
Something wriggled inside of it. I trembled, unsure as to what would
emerge. Then a small hand ripped through the side of the bag. Another
hand came out along with it, and eventually I watched Scratch pulled himself out
of the bag and stand up. He just stood there, motionless and stared
at me. Scratch, I called out. I rubbed my eyes, knowing
my mind was playing tricks on me. Scratch was just a doll. I've
had him for thirteen years and never once had he done anything like this.
He was a doll, and now as he stood in the room across from
me, I felt a fear of him. It was a feeling I had
never had before. Get go, I shouted it at him, but he
just continued to stand there. A soft, disembodied voice then spoke from the
shadows of the room. This house songs you. This house will entangle its
specters with your own. Do you fear this house? Do you fear me?
Was that Scratch? Was Scratch trying to speak to me? I chose
not to answer, because now I was convinced that Scratch was the one who
lured me here. He was the only one home before I arrived after school.
He was the one who left the note on the front door, and
come to think of it, I didn't remember even putting him in that backpack.
Why are you doing this, I asked Scratch, looking ahead, though
I no longer saw him standing in front of the backpack. I panned the
light from one side of the room to the other. Nothing. Scratch was
gone. I looked up to the ceiling next, but all I saw were
small vents that were blowing cold air into the room. I heard something scamper
in the shadows next to me. I aimed my light but saw nothing.
Scratch, I called out. He was choosing to ignore me. Now he
knew that I knew, and that was going to thwart his evil plan,
whatever it was. I heard the door behind me creak open by itself.
I turned and aimed the light into the darkness. A crack of thunder and
blinding flash of lightning exploded all around me, rattling my nerves. I pushed
forward, knowing Scratch was in the next dark room, but I didn't expect
to fall When I crossed through the doorway. I fell down a flight of
stairs, smacking the stone floor at the bottom. I groaned in pain and
reached for my light, but someone picked it up before my hand could reach
it. When the light glowed on his face, I saw it was Scratch.
Let my specters tangle with yours, he uttered, without moving his mouth.
Just then I was lifted up by unseen forces. They held me tightly.
Torches along either side of a long hallway burst to life, letting me
see the forces that held me so tight. They were white and whispy,
transparent and evil looking. They were ghosts, horrible ghosts. I screamed,
trying desperately to pull myself away from them, but they held on. They
weren't going to give up so easily. I screamed again, kicking my legs
at Scratch. Eventually I made contact, knocking the doll down. I'm not
afraid of you, I shouted, and I meant it. After being filled
with such fear, I conjured up every ounce of survival instinct I possessed.
I wasn't going to let this doll and his ghosts take me. I'm not
afraid, I shouted, and with that the ghosts all let go. I
raced up the stairs and through the large entry room under ward outside and lightning
lit the room with blinding flashes of blue and white. I hurried for the
arched doorway, but just before I reached it, it flew open. I
skidded to a stop as a flurry of dead leaves and rain blew in.
Standing outside the door, with a swarm of police cars behind them, were
my parents, mom dead. I screamed and ran into their arms. That
night, after the storm passed, my parents tucked me into bed. Turns
out, one of my neighbors, who was on their way home from work,
saw my bike outside the gates of Castle Shade and called my parents.
A man named Hector Shade, the owner of the castle, was arrested that
night. It was him who left the note on our front door. He
left notes on a lot of doors around town, but I was the only
one who irresponsibly accepted the invitation. Hector told the police that he inherited the
castle from his grandfather and planned to open a one of a kind haunted attraction
for Halloween. But instead of filling the castle with faked body parts, animatronic
monsters, and creepy sound effects. He chose to use a chemical agent that
his grandfather had perfected years earlier under the orders of a secret government assignment.
The chemical agent was called Madness and would be filtered in through the vents,
causing the willing participants at the attraction to see and hear terrifying things that weren't
actually there. In hindsight, it was kind of an ingenious idea. It
was a way to experience a haunted attraction like never before. To actually believe
the things you were seeing and hearing were real would dress raised the bar for
Halloween thrill seekers. But without my knowing consent, Hector Shade was arrested for
alluring me to his castle of horrors in the woods. My parents turned off
my bedroom light and closed the door. When I left, I took a
deep breath and tried to erase the horrible things that experienced from my brain.
As I lay in bed with my eyes closed, breathing fresh air instead of
madness, I couldn't help but notice the silence, the silence that was just
begging to be broken. I imagine hearing something scampering around in the dark,
giggling and asking me if my specters wanted to tangle with his specters, tangle
with yours. I imagined that Scratch was back, followed me back home,
that little creep. Thank you for listening to micro Terrors. Join us each
Saturday for another scary story. For more fun, visit our website at micro
terrors dot com, where we will also have spooky games you can print out
and play like wicked word searches, mysterious mazes, and more. Micro terrors
dot com is also where you can find us on your favorite social media and
even sending your own scary story for us to tell. Plus, you'll learn
more about our author, Scott Donnelly, who has other horrors for both young
and old. I hope you'll join me again soon From micro Terrors Scary Stories for Kids