By: Elaine Li

Rose’s neighbor, Mr. Gilmore, gave her the creeps. His house was the messiest house she’d ever seen. The shutters were broken, and the grass was yellow, but the worst thing was the lights, an eerie blue glow that shone through her windows at night. Rose only saw him exactly at noon every day, he would be sitting on his porch in a broken chair staring into the distance. Even in the winter Rose could see him there until the first day of summer.

Rose woke up and looked out the window. “That’s strange, Mr. Gilmore’s blue light is always off in the morning,” she thought, but she shrugged this off as she went downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast she went back to her room and went on her computer. Suddenly there was a loud crash outside. Rose ran to the window. She looked down to see what caused the sound, but she didn’t see anything. “Why is Mr. Gilmore’s light still on,” she wondered. She felt like something was off until she looked at her clock and realized it was noon. Rose ran to her window to check, and sure enough, Mr. Gilmore wasn’t there.

“He probably is somewhere else,” Rose thought as she stared out her window, but the next day Mr. Gilmore still wasn’t on his porch and the blue glow didn’t shut off. Rose decided to ask her mom about it, but her mom just replied, “Maybe he went on vacation and forgot to turn off his lights.” However, Rose still wasn’t convinced. The next day Rose headed across the street and carefully made her way up the walkway and knocked on the door. No one answered. She knocked again louder this time but again no one answered, so she headed back home.

The next four days were the same, until the fifth day as Rose knocked on the door, it swung open by itself, revealing a dusty hallway lined with cardboard boxes. “Hello?” Rose called, but no one answered. Rose decided it was best for her to go back home. She started to close the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Then she stepped into the house to pull the door but as she took another step, the door slammed behind her, and she couldn’t open the door. She was locked inside.

Rose shivered realizing how cold it was in the house, but the weirdest thing in the house was the silence. It was so silent she could hear herself breathing. Rose ventured down the hallway. Turning at the corner, she gasped. The next room contained statues made of jade and all of them were different sizes and shapes, some were animals and others were just random shapes. She went back to the hallway and noticed there was a staircase and at the top of the stairs was a bright blue glow.