Short Stories for Kids

THE BROWN CREATURE

By Allen Dominic Quintes

Retreat are a time to rest tired bodies and soothe weary souls. But what if the retreat house you are staying in is being occupied by an unknown creature? Would you still be able to rest? The following is a true story of a group of college students and their unforgettable retreat.

After a day of lectures, group of dynamics and sharing the student on a retreat headed to their rooms to sleep. The sleeping quarters were located in a single storey building just outside the main function hall. Inside, rooms faced each other with a short hallway in the middle. In one end of the hallway was an exit that lead to a patch of a land with various plants and treed. Tin-tin, along with four other girls, was assigned to a room near this exit.

The walls of the rooms did not extend to the ceiling so there was a small gap on top of the walls where a slender individual could fit through. The five girls imagined one of their male classmates slipping through the gap while they were sleeping or simply peering over it while they were getting dressed. The girls brush off the thought and hoped that the holy atmosphere of the retreat would prevent the boys from doing such naughty deeds.

As ordered, the girls prayed the rosary before going to bed. Since there were five of them, they decided to lead the mysteries alternately. Tin-tin started by reciting the Apostles Creed. When she was in the middle of praying the Our Father, after the line “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” she suddenly froze and stopped reciting. Only after one of the girls tapped her on the shoulder did Tin-tin manage to continue.

It took the girls over an hour to finish reciting the five mysteries. Feeling quite unsettled after their weird experience and unable to explain what had happened, the girls decided to put their beds together and sleep side by side.

The girls were just nodding off to Dreamland when just after a few hours later, they heard a loud noise. Someone or something was banging the wall from the outside. With their backs turned to the source of the noise, the girls were too scared to turn around and check what it was. After a few seconds there came another noise. This time, it was a dragging sound, as if someone or something was climbing up the walls.

The girls decided to face the source of the noise together. At the count of three they turned around. What they saw terrifies them until now. There on the corner of the top wall, sat a small brown creature with long hair running through its back. But before they could decipher its face, the figure leapt from the walls to the floor creating as loud thud. The sound is unmistakably of flesh hitting hard wood.

The five girls immediately jumped out of their beds and hurried toward the door to the hall. They were met by their other classmates who had heard the loud noise and thought that one of them had fallen from the bed. When the frightened young ladies told them what had happened, none of the other student believed them. To make sure one of their male classmates went inside the room to check if the creature was still there.

There were no signs of the creature inside the room but there were several telltale signs. The window, which the girls swore they closed before they went to sleep, was wide open. The clothes rack situated at the foot of the bed was swinging as if someone had hit it. But the signs that sent shivers down the girls’ spine were the strands of long brown hair left on the floor.