The Third Floor Bedroom Window

It all started when my brother left the window open.  Hi! My name is Fern.  I’m twelve years old and I have a little brother named Tim, and he is nine.  Our parents only wanted to have one child (which was my sister Anne, who went off to college).  Now, it is just me and my brother.  So we have to sleep upstairs on the third floor of our mansion.  Though, one night something very peculiar happened.   My brother had left the window open and I got cold.  So, I woke up.  I looked around and birds were starting to peel off our wallpaper.  My parents loved birds, so almost every room in the house had bird wallpaper. 

I tapped him on the back and said “Tim, Tim!  Wake up!” 

“What?” he said groggily. 

“Look!” I said pointing. 

The birds were off the wallpaper now, flying out the window. 

Tim gazed around in wonder and said, “Wait – is this real, or am I dreaming?” 

“I could never have such a wild dream as this.”  I said

Tim said, “I could but you can’t.  So, it has to be real.”

We played with the birds until 3 am.  Then, the next morning we woke up bright and early.  We rushed downstairs to the breakfast table where we found our mom and dad.

“Mom!” I said when I saw her.

“Dad!” Tim said when he saw him.

“Last night” said Tim “birds started flying off our wallpaper.”

“Ha! Ha!” said Dad “Very funny.”
”But it is true” I said, “it did happen.”

Then Mom said “Oh, honey that is hilarious dear. But I know that is not true.  And, so do you.”

Then, after that we decided not to talk about it to our parents again.

Every night from then on, we left the window open so we could play with whatever wallpaper was up.

On my 13^th birthday, my parents said I could have new wallpaper for upstairs. So we went shopping for wallpaper. I found some jungle wallpaper and that night we went on a safari. One time Tim got pirate wallpaper and we sailed the seven seas all night. We got prairie wallpaper and met the Plains Indians. We met mummies in Egypt. We went walking through forests. We swam with fish in a river. And we played at the beach.

In October, my parents decided to put up Halloween wallpaper. That was my first mistake. Letting them do it.

That night we left the window open, as normal, though suddenly a ghost came to us and said, “Vampires, I smell blood.”

My brother and I screamed and ran. “We need to reach the window,” I said.

“Yes you do,” said a voice. I turned around and saw a pumpkin.

“Great,” I said, “Now I’m hallucinating.”

“No you’re not. You need to close the window before midnight,” said the pumpkin.

We started for the window but we saw a group of mutated people.

“Zombies!” Tim shouted.

I picked up a stick and it turned into a sword. I used the sword and we got through them. I checked my watch. 11:57 p.m.

“Come on!” I said. We ran to the window. Ding! Ding! I pushed on the window as hard as I could.

“Need help?” asked a familiar voice. 

It was the pumpkin that had talked to us earlier.  The vines we saw gathered around him started drifting upwards towards the window.  The pumpkin, my brother, and I all pushed as hard as we could until finally, right before the last Ding of the clock, we managed to close the window.

We stayed up all night hiding in a corner and that pumpkin was still alive and talking to us.  He was one that my parents often used to decorate the house.  Though, we usually put the pumpkins outside.  We decided to put one in our room, this time, though.

From then on we never opened the window again.  The pumpkin explained to us that if you closed the window after midnight, then the room would stay like that all night.  We didn’t want that to happen.

When I turned 21, my parents died.  Our house was still fine, though.  So, my brother, my husband, and I decided to take the house.  Occasionally, my aunt would come and visit.  Then Tim would stay upstairs on the third floor.  One night, he accidentally left the window open again.  And, don’t even think about asking for that story!