The Cursed Pumpkin

Terror

It was very clearly the smell of something on fire. She jumped up and ran to the kitchen, where the smell was coming from. She screamed as she entered the kitchen. There was a fire, perhaps started from the stove, and it was slowly creeping up the wood cabinets. Sarah frantically grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed everything down. She managed to extinguish it, but the fire had ruined a lot. The bottom of the cabinets on the right of the kitchen were blackened, and there were also dark burn marks everywhere in the place the fire had been. Sarah clutched her head, holding in her tears of frustration, and suddenly noticed something. This time she gasped in horror. The pumpkin sat unharmed in the middle of the counter, and was once again glowing brightly. 

“What the hell?” She shrieked in terror. 

Later that night, Sarah lay in her bed, unable to sleep. She was scared. Scared of everything that had happened, scared of the pumpkin, scared of what was yet to come. Clearly all this had to do with that cursed, disgusting pumpkin. Every time something terrible happened to her without explanation, that pumpkin would calmly be sitting there and glowing, almost as if it was happy for its misfortune that it was causing her. It had to be because of it that she was having this bad luck. How could the fire have started? There was no explanation. She had left everything turned off, especially anything that could start a fire. And the knife? She tossed and turned in her bed.

That’s when she heard a quiet meow from the dark. Sarah smiled, despite her previous restlessness. 

“Hi missy”, she whispered, immediately feeling better as the black cat jumped up onto her bed. She stroked her soft fur gently. But then the cat stiffened suddenly under Sarah’s hand. She stared at something from across the room. Sarah squinted in the dark to try and see what her cat had all her attention on. Then she saw it. The window. It was open. A cool autumn breeze blew into the room. How had she not noticed it before? And Sarah could have sworn she hadn’t opened the window.

Missy darted out from her clutch, running to the open window. She leaped onto the window sill effortlessly, and before Sarah could call out to her to come back, jumped outside through the window. 

Sarah leapt out of bed and ran to the window, perhaps there was still a chance she could lure her cat back in and shut the window. She quickly spotted the silhouette of Missy outside. It was so dark, but she could see the tiny cat running, all alone in the night. Then her small figure darted out into the road, and before Sarah could realize what was happening, a car, speeding down the street, ran over the spot her cat was. It all happened so fast, but she clearly saw Missy’s little body disappear from under the car, and it sped off. All was silent again.