In this story, we’ll call the main character George, after one of my classmates.

The year was 2022. George and his family drive up to their new house in Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, a place in New York State known for the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. However, this story is going in a different direction. Anyway, George’s mom gets out of the car and walks up to home. It’s a black house, a bit dusty, with two floors and an attic. George’s dad and George himself follow his mom out of the car and the door swings open before they can turn the knob. The inside of the house is actually quite nice. Down the hallway is a stairwell leading upstairs, and on the left and right of the entrance are doorways leading into the kitchen and living/dining room, respectively. Now, fast-forwarding through the day, everything was pretty normal. George stayed home, played Minecraft on his PC after he set it up, he set up his room, and then he helped his parents with unpacking. However, things got very weird that night.

It was almost 9 PM. George had finished dinner and had Devil’s Cake (see my wall post about it) for desert. Anyway, his mom said good night, gave him a kiss, and then closed the door. For the first few minutes of being in bed, everything was normal. Then, he heard knocking. Now, George’s room was at the end of the hallway, and it wasn’t directly next to any other rooms in the house. He got out of bed and looked in the window. There was nothing there. George got back in bed. Then, he heard more knocking. He got out of bed and looked in the window. Nothing. It happened a third time. Nothing was there. George was getting nervous. Now, when he got in bed, he kept his flashlight and a switchblade his dad had gotten him for his birthday last year under his pillow. All of a sudden, he heard footsteps outside the door. George got his things and peeked under the door. Nothing was there. He got back in bed, but then he heard a door creaking open and a ladder swinging down. Someone was going into the attic. George thought that maybe it was one of his parents, but then he realized that they had no reason to go up there except to clean, and who the hell would do that at 9:30 at night?


George heard footsteps above him. His room was directly below the attic. He grabbed his things and slowly opened the door. He turned on his flashlight and activated the switchblade. The attic door was closed, but he had never heard it close after it had opened. George reopened it and climbed into the attic. What he saw terrified him: a dark, shadowy apparition as black as the night. He ran out of the attic and banged on his the door to his parents’ room. They let him and he told them about the apparition. They went up into the attic together and everything was normal. For the rest of the year, the nights in the house were normal. There was the occasional knock on the wall or footsteps above him, but nothing major. And George never returned to the attic, whether it was the morning or the night.

Now it was 2041. George was married to Alexis, the love of his life, and all was well. One day, while Alexis was on a trip to Hawaii with her college friends, George returned to the house in Sleepy Hollow. There was a sign outside saying, “For sale.” The door creaked open, and he walked inside.

This next story follows a girl named Mishka (after one of the girls in my Math class who “likes making boys hate her.”). Anyway, the story will also feature Chaos (TheCrypteral), LogMaiden, and me!

Now, the story. It all started on Halloween night. Mishka was a girl who lived in the Forge and who was considering becoming a yellowsmith. Her idol, LogMaiden, was a master yellowsmith. She had created incredible things, such as the Golden Phoenix Armor. Anyway, Mishka was helping out Log for the day, and that included gathering materials. Log had sent Mishka to the woods to chop down some spruce wood to use as the handles for her next set of weapons. Mishka agrees to do it, and she stops by IGEBM’s house to grab an axe. IGEBM hands her a freshly-forged Netherite axe, and she continues in her way to the woods. She ties her horse to a nearby tree (she had ridden her horse to the woods with a carriage attached to it to carry the wood back to Log.)

Now in the woods, Mishka begins chopping down a tree. The sun was setting. Mishka was planning on handing out candy to the younger kids in the Forge later that night. She chopped quicker, and then heard something in the bushes behind her. She didn’t think much of it and continued chopping. Eventually, the whole tree had been cut down. Mishka heard more rustling in the bushes, this time to the right of her. She held up the axe and creeped towards the berry bushes. She was about to chop them in half, but then a squirrel ran out, the light from a torch Mishka had set down reflecting off of its eyes. She let out a sigh of relief. However, that relief quickly disappeared when she saw two yellow eyes glowing in the darkness. (By now, it was dark.) She screamed, hopped on her horse, and rode back to Log’s house. She had forgotten the wood.

Log asked her what was going on. Mishka explained everything. Log didn’t believe it, but she suggested they tell Chaos, the founder of the Forge. They head to Chaos’ home, a large mansion on the other side of a small stream. After Chaos gives some candy to a few kids, Log and Mishka walk in and tell him about what happened in the woods. He suggest that they go to the spruce forest to see what’s going on. So they do. And guess what: the pile of wood is gone. The torch has also gone out, and it’s only been 10 minutes since Mishka left the site, and she had re-lit the torch after she finished chopping down the tree, so there was no way in Hell it could have gone out that quick. Mishka tells Chaos that she swears there was a log pile there. Before Chaos can say anything about the missing logs, a gust of cold air breezes by them. Then, from the darkness, two glowing yellow eyes on a pitch-black body emerge. The creature creeps towards them, but Chaos, Log, and Mishka are able to outrun it.

When they get back to Log’s house, however, the creature appears outside the door after they go inside. Mishka turns off the lights and Log grabs two reinforced golden swords from the emergency chest under the living room carpet. The creature looks in every window, but Mishka and Log hide under the windowsill. It seems as if all is well, and when the two of them look outside, nothing is there.

Mishka would never forget that experience. Years later, she is a master yellowsmith, learning from Log. The two of them start a gold-selling business, and one day, when Mishka goes to chop down some spruce trees at night, all of the torches go out…