Ghost stories, Mihaela Bogdan [web based ebook reader txt] 📗

felt small movements through their beds that shook them and when they wanted to leave from there, the door was locked.
  -Hurry, grab that chair and try to break the door!
  -I am the one doing the hard work.
  -Stop complaining, man. Do you want to get out of this creepy place or not?!
  The man didn’t said anything in return and did as his wife ordered him. He managed to break the door easily, he grabbed his wife by the hand and out they went.”
                                                                               *
  -What happened, did they managed to get out?!
  -This is the weird part, child. Although the story says that the old couple ran away from that abandoned hotel, nobody ever saw them again.
  -But why grandpa? And what about the stranger with the black hood?
  -Some say that when the couple tried to run, the stranger killed them or that he took them somewhere else, because they vanished completely. But if you think about it, who wears a black hood to cover its face?
  -I don’t know grandpa!
  -My child, the answer is The Grim Ripper!
  With these being said the old man pointed with his index finger The Gray Hotel to his grandson. It was the last time someone will ever see this dumpy hotel because some bulldozers began to bring the old building down to build instead a new modern hotel.
  -Grandpa, is your story true or you just invented it to make me feel relieved that it is going to be demolished?
  His grandfather was looking at the gray hotel and said to his grandson with a smile:
  -What do you think?!
  After this given answer, the two of them left, avoiding any accident that could happen because of the falling pieces from the old gray hotel, which brought nothing but bad luck for the last years. Since it went bankrupt, many cases of disappearances, murders and terrible rumors about a fake Grim Ripper made The Gray Hotel famous.
  For this reason the local mayor decided to demolish it and build a new modern hotel to reassure the locals and tourists as well.
  But ... it will work? Or the so called Grim Ripper persona will strike again?
  We shall wait until the new hotel is done and see what will happen next! VI. No Name Game

It was a cold autumn evening with rain and sad looking gray sky. The streets of a small neighborhood were deserted. Everybody stayed home, where it was warm and comfortable, ignoring the bad weather from outside. Only two children were staring at their bedroom’s window, looking with fascination at the rain drops hitting the window pain and streaming down very fast, like tears on a cheek.
  -Is the rain going to stop soon? The little boy asked his older sister.
  -I don’t know. Why don’t you bring one of your board games to make time go faster?! His sister tried to cheer him up.
  -We played every board game that we have at least five times. Can’t we do something else?
  So the girl went downstairs, followed by her younger brother, where their parents were discussing how to pay the bills for that month. After the two children done explaining the reason for their state of boredom, their father went to the kitchen and brought from there a rusty key.
  -See this key? He asked his children as if it was the key to a lost treasure. This key is for the attic door. Go there and you will find in a large box labeled “Dad’s toys”, my old toys from my childhood. Maybe you will get a clue about how I used to play when I was your age.
  Without hesitation, the little boy took the rusty key and went upstairs, at the end of the hallway where the door leading to the attic was waiting for some brave explorers. He had to wait for his sister after he reached it, because he was too short to put the key into the key hole.
  -Next time let me take the key, OK? His sister scold him with a smile, to show her little brother that she is joking with him.
  This time, the sister was the first to enter into the attic and her brother followed her closely, being scared of the small darkness. He felt better when the light bulb was on and they both searched carefully in their dad’s old toy box.
  Those old toys didn’t impress them much and when they were almost close to empty the box, they found a rectangular wooden box. At first the children thought it was a chessboard, but it didn’t have squares painted on the outside. Not knowing what sort of board game it might be, they decided to open it.
  It was good luck that the box had a broken locket, therefore the children opened it without a struggle. Inside it was similar like a chessboard, but it didn’t had its unique design painted in red and black. Its inside was as blank as it’s outside. But this matter didn’t seem to bother its finders.
  -What’s in it, sis? Hurry up and read this paper, I want to know the rules of the game.
  -Hold your horses! This game doesn’t even have a name. On this paper are written only three rules:
                                                                                   *
  “1) Throw the eight sided dice once at each turn.
  2) When you reach a colored square, follow the clue on the card with the same color as the square on its back.
  3) Do not cheat because you will regret it.
  Have fun!”
                                                                                   *
  -Look what I found: a purple dice with eight sides and a big folded cardboard. The boy said after his sister finished reading the rules for him.
  -Okay, now let’s unfold it and see how it looks. She said to her brother taking the cardboard from his hand.
The cardboard wasn’t that great. It had one hundred squares, connecting one side of the board with the other one with numbers, of which a quarter were painted in six colors: blue, green, yellow, red, brown and orange. Her brother also showed her six cards, with their back sides painted in the colors mentioned earlier and on the front side the clues.
  -Now let’s play, I choose the boy figure. The box also contained two figures only, so it can be played by only two players at a time. One figure was a boy and the other a girl.
  The two children placed their figures at the start circle, the brother was the first to role the dice and to his disappointment, the dice showed him the number one, which meant that he could move his figure one square further.
  His sister had good luck, when her turn came she threw the dice hard and it showed the number eight. Not only she had an advantage from her brother, but she moved her figure to the first colored square. It was green. She picked the green card and read it loud:
  -“Flora’s food is water and sun light, but Venus likes to eat flies. Answer correctly and you may go three squares ahead. Give the wrong answer and you will eat poison ivy.”
  -Who is Flora? Her brother asked, ignoring the card’s warning if his sister gives the wrong answer.
  -I am the one to answer it. If you help me then you will cheat and it is against the rules. The correct answer is: a plant-eating flies.
  To their surprise, the figure moved three squares ahead by itself. Now the boy was more found in rolling the dice.
  -Number five. The orange square is near it.
  And so the two children played not noticing its strange clues and rules. This time, the boy’s figure landed on the orange square.
  “My color is my name. Answer correctly and you will go eight squares ahead. Give the wrong answer and your skin will change.”
  -It is an easy one. An orange! The boy said being happy to see that he past his sister’s figure.
  To make the story short so that you, my readers, won’t get bored, here is how things developed: The brown square was the girl’s turn to answer the clue:
  “I am liquid, I am solid and everybody loves to eat me. What am I? Answer correctly and you will go ahead ten squares. Give the wrong answer and you will have a painful diarrhea.”
  -The answer is chocolate. And luckily that this clue was easy as well, otherwise ... ughhh ...
  The yellow square was the boy’s turn and his clue was hard to guess: “I am very sour. What am I? Answer correctly and you will go ahead five squares. Give the wrong answer and you will it ten pieces of the right answer.”
Unfortunately, the right answer was lemon, but the boy said something else and for his inconvenience, he had to eat ten lemons that appeared out of nowhere after he answered wrong.
  The blue square was next and the girl was concerned about the clue:
  “I have the same color, only when its day I am light and when its night I am dark. What am I? Answer correctly and you will go ahead six squares. Give the wrong answer and you will have to hold your breath until you become blue.”
  Sky, this was the correct answer. Too bad the girl didn’t guessed and had to hold her breath until her brother said to stop before she became purple. The game was almost done. There were only ten squares left until the players reach the other side of the board and the last square, the red one, was the ninety nine.
  The boy reached it and when his sister was about to read him the clue, she was staring at the card frightened.
  -What’s wrong, sis? What does it says?
  -“Answer correctly and you will win the game. Give the wrong answer and you will die. Would you be so kind to cut your wrists?”
  -NO! The boy answered without hesitation, but unfortunately, the right answer was ‘YES’. Are we going to die, sis? He asked his sister, looking at her through his tears.
  -I don’t ...
  She couldn’t finish her sentence because her heart stop beating and so did her brother’s. After the two children collapsed on the floor, two big foggy hands grabbed them and put their dead bodies inside the board game, along with the other accessories.
  Three days later, the worried parents didn’t lost hope in finding their lost children. They searched in the attic, at first, but the only strange thing they found was that the old board game had two new wooden figures that looked perfectly like their missing children.
  After reading this story, I hope you wouldn’t be too scared to play board