title: house that is unknown
 
Story: Allison was about ready to die of boredom sitting at her school 
desk. It was her last class of the day but it was her longer day at 
school. The school had block scheduling, even and odd days. On odd days 
Allison was at school until 1:45 but on even days she was only there 
until 9:35 in the morning. She enjoyed her schedule but leaving one day 
early and the next day late made the long days seem to drag on and on. 
Last week daylight savings time had changed making the days longer. This 
always took a few weeks of getting used to.
 
 Of course it had to be around eighty degrees outside on this 
November day making Allison want to get outside of the school even more. 
Instead of being outside in the fresh air, she was stuck sitting at her 
desk in Creative Writing class. At least her desk was near the two 
windows that were open so she could still get some fresh air. Today was a 
boring class, the first year Creative Writing students were reading 
their short stories out loud but most of them weren't that short. She was 
the only second year student in the class. Allison's mind started to 
drift away from the person reading as she took gazed out of the window.
 
 There was a bit of a breeze coming though the window just 
enough to make the air a bit cool. At first she watched the few cars that 
were traveling on the road but that soon got boring. Then she noticed how 
picture perfect the trees looked. The leaves were all different colors 
and they were slowly falling off their branches. It reminded Allison of 
a painting that she had hanging in her room. The picture was one that 
her father had won for her at some show. It was the last thing her 
father had given her before the divorce. Allison treasured that picture; it 
was really the only thing that reminded her of him. She really didn't 
get to see him that much because her mother said that he was best if her 
father didn't visit her at this time in her life.
 
 
 
Allison knew she better stop thinking about all of that and start 
paying attention to the story being read just in case the teacher asked her 
to comment on it. She listened to bits and pieces of the story but her 
eyes drifted back to the window. She looked across the street and 
noticed a house that she had not seen there before. Allison started to think 
about who lived there and what the people might be like. She would have 
to check out that house when she got out of school. A few minutes later 
the lunch bell rang forcing Allison to come back from her thoughts. As 
soon as she smelled the food, she realized how hungry she was.
 
 Lunch was uneventful as always nothing much ever changed around 
here. Allison sat in the back of the lunchroom by herself just as she 
had done every day for the past three years. Her thoughts were not on 
the food in front of her but on that house. For the first time she 
couldn't wait to get back to class so she could look at that house again. 
Lunch flew by and it was time to go back to the classroom. Once the 
teacher had gotten everyone settled down from lunch and someone started 
reading, Allison was then able to turn her attention to her house. It really 
wasn't her house, but she had started to think of it as her own. She 
wondered what it would be like to live in that house. A quick glance at 
the clock told her there were only twenty more minutes of class. She 
couldn't wait to walk over to explore her house.
 
 She thought she had seen a figure walk up to the house but then 
it seemed to disappear just as quickly as it came. Allison figured that 
it was just a small animal or something that lived in one of those 
trees. She looked at the house more closely and saw that the blinds on the 
very top window were now open. She knew that they had not been open at 
all. Suddenly two figures appeared at the window who seemed to be in a 
struggle, and then she saw a knife plunge into someone's chest. Allison 
wanted to look away, but her eyes wouldn't move. The second figure 
quickly walked out of the room and then came back with something, but 
Allison couldn't tell what it was.
 
 
 
A pair of binoculars appeared held by one of the figures at the window 
of the house and they looked right at Allison. She wanted to scream. 
She knew she had been caught, but when she tried, no sound came out. For 
what seemed like forever, Allison and the figure just stared at each 
other. Luckily, within minutes the bell rang and it was time for Allison 
to go home.
 
  Walking out of the school building, Allison was a bit 
frightened by what she had just seen out of the window but was not worried. Her 
mom was picking her up and her mother was always on time. Her mother 
was one of those people who always had to be on time. Allison walked out 
and didn't see her mother's car at first. Normally she was parked right 
outside the doors but sometimes she parked in a parking spot. Allison 
started to walk up and down the parking lot looking for her mother's car 
but couldn't find it. She walked back to the school and sat down on the 
curb. The minutes passed by slowly and Allison was still a bit 
frightened but was not worried because there were plenty of people around.
 
 An hour passed and most of the kids had been picked up. The 
parking lot was pretty empty. Allison had tried calling her mother but her 
cell phone had died after the third ring. She stayed sitting on the 
curb thinking that maybe her mother was just caught in traffic that was 
due to an accident or something like that. Allison started to work on her 
homework. Another two hours passed and there was still no sign of her 
mother. She lived a few miles away and it was clear to see that the only 
way she was going to get home was to walk.
 
 
 
The idea of walking home was not an appealing one. Allison knew it 
would be a long walk and plus she had to walk by that house. In her mind 
this was both a good and bad thing. She wanted to see the house up closer 
but she didn't want to have to meet up with whomever she saw.
 
 She could not believe that her mom had forgotten about her. She 
knew that those people in the white coats would come looking for her 
soon. They would never find her here. She wished that she never had to go 
back to that place where they kept her after school. She wasn't insane 
like they said; she didn't need to be in that hospital where all the 
crazy people were. She may not be the smartest one but she knew for sure 
that she wasn't crazy. The men in the white coats would not take her 
back to that place, if they even found her they she run away. If she got 
caught then she would put up a fight.
 
 Allison stood at the end of the driveway of the house for a few 
minutes. She couldn't decide if she really wanted to go or not. Finally 
she got some courage and started walking up the driveway.
 
 She stopped a few inches before the front steps. The house on 
the outside was not what she expected. It was clean and looked like it 
was taken very good care of. Allison looked around and didn't see any 
cars or any sign of anyone being there. She was thinking about going into 
the house when a black cat ran in front her. The cat came right up to 
her and started meowing. He didn't look like a stray; he looked like he 
was in good shape. This told Allison that someone had to live in this 
house.
 
 
 
Allison decided to go into the house and take a quick peek before 
taking the long journey home. She walked up to the front door but it was 
locked. The window a few feet from the door was open. Allison threw her 
book bag in the window and then climbed in with the cat following her. 
The first room she came to was the kitchen, which was full of moldy food 
all over the counters and the table. Allison gagged when she walked in. 
She quickly left that room and went into the living room. It was small 
and had only a small sofa. Allison was now at the bottom of the steps 
trying to decide if she really wanted to venture upstairs or not.
 
 She noticed that she cat had disappeared and wondered where he 
had gone. She turned around to look for him and knocked over the vase 
that was on the table next to the steps. The vase went crashing to the 
floor and shattered in many pieces.
 
 Suddenly someone said, "Who is down there?"
 
 Allison froze where she was, she didn't know what to do. She 
thought about sneaking out but whoever it was upstairs already knew she 
was there. Allison had run in the living room and was hiding behind the 
small sofa. She heard the steps creaking and she started to shake.
 
 Allison heard a lady say, "Come out child. I'm not going to 
hurt you. Where are you, child?"
 
 Allison wasn't sure what she should do but knew that she 
couldn't stay behind the sofa forever. She couldn't hide inside the house 
forever either so she decided to step out from the behind the sofa. When 
she did she saw a very pretty lady who looked be in her early thirties
 
 
 
The lady said, "Hi. My name is Diane. What is yours?"
 
 Allison replied, "My name is Allison."
 
 Diane asked, "What brings you here to my house?"
 
 After hesitating for a few moments she said, "I was curious and 
I saw the cat."
 
 
  Diane asked, "What cat? I don't have cat. There are no cats 
around here."
 
 Allison puzzled by this said, "I saw one. He followed around me 
around downstairs but then he disappeared."
 
 "Why don't you come upstairs and let me show you the upstairs," 
Diane said.
 Allison debated for a few minutes but then decided to go ahead 
and go upstairs. Diane seemed like a pretty nice lady who was just 
lonely.
 
 Meanwhile, back at school there was an SAT prep class going on. 
There was this one kid, Mark, who was bored to death. His parents had 
made him take this class. He didn't really know why it was totally 
pointless to him but he went just to make his parents happy. Mark was 
watching outside the window just because there was nothing else to do. After 
a few minutes he noticed a house that was across the street. At first 
he thought he saw a figure but he just shrugged it off as his eyes 
paying tricks on him because he was tired. He still watched the house 
though.