darkSpyro

There it was. As I stood in the empty parking lot of the old restaurant, I felt like I was in a ghost town. The restaurant in front of me, now old and worn down, was once known as Cooper’s. It used to be really popular back when my grandparents were young, but when the original owner, Cooper himself, died, the company went bankrupt and the place was totally abandoned. As I stood there looking at it, I thought that it looked like the perfect place for a ghost or zombie to live in a horror movie. The windows were cracked, the door was held shut with a rusty chain and a padlock, and the roof was breaking away. The restaurant's sign, which once glowed brightly with neon lights, had been mostly shattered and dented. I knew some other kids from my school who would hang out here and throw rocks at it. There were ropes and traffic cones all around the parking lot to keep people out, but that didn’t mean kids couldn’t get into to it. You just had to come through the woods and jump the fence, and you were there. There were stories going around that the place was haunted, that the spirit of Cooper still lurked the old place. But I didn’t believe any of it for a second. Fairy tales and scary stories like that were for sissies. I wasn’t a fool. And I intended to prove that it was all just a stupid lie - by spending the night there myself.

I told my dad I was going to sleep over at a friend’s. He’d never let me go if he knew where I was actually planning on going. But I was in the clear for now.

I left my house at about 7:00 PM on Friday night. I took my sleeping bag and backpack, filled with some junk food, my phone and some bottles of water. I was ready for the night. I knew that if I spent the night at the place and took a video on my phone to prove it, I’d become the most popular kid in school. At that time, I felt like nothing could go wrong.

As I walked around the restaurant, I tried to find a way to get inside. As I’ve said, the doors were chained up, so I had to find another way in. Then, closer to the back, I saw a cracked up window that looked like it could fall apart any minute. I grabbed a stick and poked it hard, and it shattered, making a terrible racket. I flinched at the sound, but it didn’t matter. No one was around to hear it or see me do it. I crawled inside through the window and looked around at the inside of the restaurant. I was in what I presumed to be the dining room. It was very dark and ominous. There were spider webs in every corner, weeds growing out between the cracks of the worn tile floor, and I even heard what sounded like the scurrying of a mouse or rat. This place creeped me out, but I wasn’t gonna come all this way just to turn back at the last moment. I put down my bag, pulled out my phone, and started to record as I slowly walked around the place. Then, when I turned to look at one of the darker corners of the dining room, I saw it - a shadowy figure just standing there. I let out a yelp and looked down to see if this was being captured on the phone, but when I looked up it was gone. I turned my phone off. I told myself I had done enough recording. Now I was chilled to the bone. What was that?

Quickly, I turned on my phone flashlight and panned around the area. I didn’t see anything. Well, nothing except rats hiding in corners or spiders creeping across the floor. I managed to calm myself down, telling myself not to believe the stupid stories behind this place, and I went over to my bag. I pulled out a bag of pretzels and a bottle of water, and sat in the darkness while I ate and drank. When I heard scurrying and scratching sounds in the corner, I assumed it was a rat, and tossed a pretzel in the general direction so it would leave me alone. The sound stopped, but then I heard another - the sound of a loud thud coming from the kitchen. I ignored it, telling myself I was being stupid, and I checked the time - it was only 8:00 PM. I still had a long ways to go yet. So, to pass the time, I pulled out my sleeping bag, swept the area around me for rats and spiders, and started to watch a movie on my phone.

I must have fallen asleep while watching the movie, because when I woke up, I felt groggy and the credits were rolling. I looked at the time. 10:27 PM. I had been asleep for a while. I sat up in my sleeping bag and looked around. It was almost entirely pitch black around me. I then jumped out of my skin when I heard the sound of glass shattering from the kitchen. For whatever stupid reason, I decided to go check and see what it was. With my phone in my hand and the flashlight on, I found the big doors and peeked through the little windows. I didn’t see anything at first, except for some smashed glass on the floor, and some pests crawling around, so I thought maybe a rat had just knocked something over. I was about to turn, when I saw it again - the shadowy figure. It was standing in the corner this time, looking right at me. I stumbled backwards as I gasped, and as I did so, the figure seemed to vanish. I was really creeped out and I decided right there and then that I was gonna leave. I ran over to my bag and piled everything inside. Looking around to see if anyone was watching me, I headed towards the window I had entered through. I planned to head home and tell my dad that I had to leave the “sleepover” because my friend had gotten sick.

But as I headed towards the window, I heard a loud creaking from behind me. I turned, and saw a dark figure emerging from the shadows. It was about my height, and all black. It had a hood over it’s face. It moved towards me with slow steps. I screamed.
But then, the figure stopped, and started laughing. That laugh sounded familiar. It then reached up and pulled the hood back, revealing the face of my best friend Jack, laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face.

“Got you!” He said at last, “I got you good, you big scaredy cat!”
I angrily shoved Jack a few times and shouted at him, but he kept laughing. Then two of my other best friends, Morty and Jonathan, came out of the shadows, also laughing hard. Morty was holding a video camera. My heart sank. They had recorded the whole thing. I punched them, and they fessed up to making the noises, but not before continuing to call me a big wuss. I made Morty delete the video, much to his disappointment. I was mad at them, but part of me was also laughing. They had gotten me good.

As we climbed out the window and headed to Jonathan's house to spend the night, we were all joking about the incident, including myself. I told myself I’d get them next time, whenever that was. I’d make sure that I would get my revenge. Not now, but soon.

As we walked away from Cooper’s, all joking and goofing off, I felt a chill, like a cold wind, hit my back. I turned around as my friends kept going, and looked back at the abandoned restaurant. And in the window, I saw it again - the shadowy figure, looking like it was staring at me. But it wasn’t my friends - it couldn’t have been - they were all outside with me. Then...what was it actually? I looked at it for a few seconds more, and it faded away. I then turned and ran to catch up with my friends.

Looking back at the incident, I can laugh about it and tell it to others as a funny story. However, I still wonder what or who that shadowy figure I saw was. Was it my own imagination? Or was it actually something - like the ghost of Cooper? Whatever it was, I don’t intend to find out. I’ll leave that job to somebody else.

THE END

So, thoughts?

Pretty neat