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| - A few years back here in Macedonia, my friends and I loved to play and explore. Any place that we would find interesting, we would go there. However, a few years later two of my friends moved away and the one of them moved to a different part of town. I was still interested in exploring some locations around the city. Then, I found out about a place about three-point-two miles away from where I am now. I went to the other side of town to get my friend, but there was an unfortunate delay. We had to wait a few months so that Ricky and Alexandra could come back here. Four months later, they came back. They made themselves comfortable for a week or two and then we went to the location. We took our bikes because well, we are kids. After forty-five to eighty minutes, we reached our destination. The house was pretty big for its age. After we sat down to rehydrate for a brief moment, we tried to open the big doors. To my surprise, they were locked from the inside. That's strange, this house is pretty old. The house looked very creepy. Alexandra, as being the only girl in front of the house, said, "Do you think this is a good idea?" To which I replied, "Come on, it's just an old house. We've seen many of these around." "Yeah sis, don't be a wuss," said Ricky, her brother. Konsantine, the oldest one here, exclaimed. "Hey, let's stop fighting and go into the damn house!" We agreed. Together, we busted the door down and went in. It wasn't very clean on the inside; all dusty and old. We looked around. Time to time, I would see something move from the corner of my eye. I just thought it was my imagination. Alexandra said, "Okay, there's nothing here. Let's just go home." I told her, "There are two more floors." Ricky said, "Let's check them out." So, we went up the creaking stairs, being careful because they looked pretty old and seemed able to break at any second. As we went up, CRASH. "GAAAAH!" Konstantine shouted. "WHOA," I responded to the crash. We landed on our bottoms, hard on the ground. "Are we okay?" I questioned. "Yeah, I'm fine... The damn old stairs broke," Konstantine replied. I pulled Konstantine up. "Don't scream like that again. You scared me to death," I rebuked. "Heh... Sorry," Konstantine apologized. Ricky said, "Guys, any day now." Creak, creak. We went to the second floor. Everything looked like just what it would have in any old house, but I still caught some things from my peripheral vision. I didn't say anything, but told myself, "It's must be my imagination." We quickly checked all the rooms. Dusty and creepy. Old lamps, furniture, and one of those old radios. "One more floor," I pointed out. Alexandra happily said, "Great, let's check it out and get out of here." "You scared?" Ricky joked. "Shut up," she said. We went up the stairs and the third floor was empty, so we went back to go home, but then, weird shit started to happen. The door was okay and not busted like when we came in. I tried to open it, but it was locked and it had no keyhole. "What the hell? The door is fucking locked!" I said, surprised. "I TOLD YOU IT WAS A BAD IDEA!" Alexandra shouted. "Woah, calm down. We will go through the windows," Ricky said, trying to open the window. "It won't budge." "Great, just great," Alexandra said. "Don't worry. I'll break it. Hand me that piece of cloth, will you?" "I'll get it," I said. I gave Konstantine the piece of cloth I had. Konstantine said, "Thanks." He wrapped his hand around with cloth. He then proceeded to punch the window. "What the?" he punched the window again. "It won't break!" Konstantine blurted. This is when I noticed something was wrong. I saw some kind of figure go down the hallway. "Guys, did you see that!?" I said, being freaked out. Both Konstantine and Alexandra replied, "See what?" "Come here." I went in the same direction the black figure went. It was a dead end. Then, we heard a scream come from the third floor. Realizing Alexandra wasn't with us, we quickly went to the third floor. We found Alexandra standing there, then we noticed that the whole room was covered in what we thought was red paint. We then realized it was actually blood. "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, fearing for my life. We proceeded down the stairs as fast as we could. I looked behind my shoulders to see something coming towards us. Its wicked smile was stretching all the way to its ears. It was covered in blood. It was also holding a knife, which was dripping blood. The eyes were pitch-black. "RUN!" I screamed. We ran as fast as we can and tripped down the old stairs. We were standing against the door. When it got close, it glowed white and screamed with a very inhuman voice. Then, we noticed it was the cross that Konstantine wore on his neck. It saved us from whatever that... thing was. We found one chest, but when we opened it, a bunch of snakes flew out of it. As we were fleeing, I found one of those old guns and a little bottle of gunpowder. After we got to the door, again, I pulled out the gun, shoved the gunpowder in the gun barrel, and blasted the door. We got out of there safely. We grabbed our bikes and got out of the place. We could see that creature smiling in the distance. We promised to each other we would never go to that place, ever again. To this day, we don't know what that creature was and we didn't want to find out. We never found out what happened to Alexandra back in the house and we don't know where she is.
- The Old House was built in 1767 and was the provincial mansion of the Collins family until 1796. Located on the Collins estate near Widows' Hill, it was formally known as the first Collinwood. Joshua Collins was the patriarch of the last generation of Collins family members to be raised there (366). In 1796, construction was completed on a larger family home on the same property and this would soon come to be known as the modern Collinwood, after which, the original family mansion began to be referred to as the Old House. With the passing of generations, this off-hand phrase became the official nomenclature for the regal estate and the new house was called "The Great House." In the year 1897, two gypsies named Sandor and Magda Rakosi briefly squatted inside the Old House. They were the last known occupants of the home for the next sixty years (701). By the 1960s, the Collins family (under Elizabeth Collins Stoddard) had little interest in the maintenance of the home and the Old House fell into grave disrepair. Young David Collins frequently visited the ruins and regarded the house as a massive playground. He could often be found hanging about the dusty parlour talking to the portrait of Josette Collins, which still hung above the mantle (212). In 1967, the vampire Barnabas Collins—newly released from his coffin and concealing his true age by saying he was a family relation visiting from England—petitioned Elizabeth Collins Stoddard to allow him to renovate the Old House (218). Elizabeth was reluctant at first, but soon gave Barnabas her blessing. With his unwilling servant, Willie Loomis, Barnabas moved into what was once his childhood home (220). Barnabas Collins and Victoria Winters once held a conversation comparing the Old House to the pyramids of Egypt. Barnabas gave a detailed description of the house’s construction in which he said: "The design and construction of this house represented a marriage of the elegance of Europe and the vigour and enterprise of a new world. The foundations were made from rocks left behind by glaciers, thousands of years ago. The beams and supports were cut from ancient local forests. The plaster walls were made from crushed clamshells and horsehair. Bricks were imported from Holland. That dusty chandelier - brought over from France - gleamed with hypnotic brilliance. That faded wallpaper was specially designed by a Belgian artist. The parquet floors were installed by an Italian craftsman. Cornices and mouldings were the effort of a Spanish craftsman. It was a house to be envied by a prince. But in spite of all this, the total effort was an agony to man. Men were driven to their limits. What should have been an act...a labour of love – became a hateful thing. There were the crippled and the dead. Like the pyramids, one could ask…was it worth it?" Excerpt taken from episode 214. According to the architectural plans, the Old House contained "four secret rooms or passageways" (781)
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