The Haunted Barn

5th Grade, 1st Place

by Sara Haynes Ryan, Valwood School

One day Maci and I were at school. We were playing truth or dare with our friends and our friend, Aaliya, dared us to go to the haunted barn, which is the most haunted place in America and it just happens to be in our city. We were both scared, but we had to go. 

That night, we both snuck out and met at the gate of the haunted barn. The gate was open, which was weird because everytime we drive past it, it’s always locked.I got scared, but Maci told me it was going to be okay, and that it was probably just someone cleaning up the area. Neither me nor Maci really knew what happened or why it was haunted,so we decided to go in and try to find anything that explained what went on at the barn. 

When we first went in it didn’t look that scary, until we really started exploring. There were cobwebs everywhere, creaky floors, broken doors, and tons of bats. We decided to go in the tack room, and in there we found a little sign that explains why the barn is so haunted.The poster said “100 years ago, a ten year old girl was riding her horse, and her horse started bolting and bucking. She fell off and hit her head really hard on the ground and she died five minutes later. She has haunted the barn ever since.” After we read that aloud, we heard what sounded like a horse galloping, then a girl screaming.We ran outside but no one was there. I told Maci that i thought it was the ghost of the little girl, but she didn’t believe me. I looked at the time and it was almost 1:00 a.m. It was pitch black outside and we were all alone. There was no source of light, except for our flashlights, which were almost out of batteries. A couple minutes later, I was looking at the arena, and out of nowhere, Maci screamed really loud. I asked her why she was screaming and she pointed to the empty stall and said “She…was…in…there…” I knew exactly what she was talking about. She had seen the ghost. We both got really scared so we tried to leave, but the gate was closed, and LOCKED! We started panicking and i tried to call someone for help, but we didn’t any cell service. Our only choice was to try to run through the woods until we could get to town. 

After running for about thirty minutes, we saw city lights! We followed the lights and made it out onto a road that I was familiar with and then i knew my way home from there. After we got home, we went straight to sleep, and we never went back to the Haunted Barn…