Long ago in a small village lived a rich family by the name of Fujisaki. They had a daughter called Nadeshko, who was ten years old. As she grew up, the Fujisakis decided to leave the village so that their daughter can go to a better school. They wanted her to have a good life when she grew up and that could only be possible if she had a good education. But before they left, they hid some treasure in the house that they left behind.

A few years later, the villagers started to hear strange voices from their house and thought that it had become haunted since it was abandoned by the Fujisakis.

It so happened that a brother and sister came to that village for their summer vacation. Gray was 13 and his sister Sera was nine and they were staying at their grandmother’s house.

One day, they both went to buy some fruits and heard people talking about the haunted house. They asked some villagers about the location of the haunted house and the villagers told them about rumours of a hidden treasure inside the house, but warned them not to go near the house as it was considered to be haunted.

But Gray and Sera decided to visit that house at night. They wanted to see which one of the two was the braver one and who would find the treasure. They decided that the treasure would belong to whoever found it first.

When they arrived at the gate, they were both a bit scared, but then Sera had an idea that she wanted to play a game of rock, paper, scissors and the loser would have to enter first.

Gray lost the game and had to enter the house first. Sera was right behind him, but when they entered the door, it suddenly closed because of the wind. They thought that it was a ghost and they screamed and ran forward, but they came to a hallway which led to two different paths. Here, they decided to go separate ways. They were really scared but they promised to each that they will not cry and moved forward with confidence.

A strong wind was blowing outside and the owl hooted. After a little walk, they both came to the same place and were relieved to see each other again. They started to move forward and now arrived in the TV lounge. Here they saw many pairs of red eyes on the roof. As they moved, the eyes moved too and they got even more scared.

As the curtain blew due to the wind coming in from an open window, they realised that the eyes were just bats sitting on the roof. As they walked a few more steps, they came to a room in the centre of which lay a chest. This must be the treasure box, they thought.

Just as they were going to open it, the room lit up with bright lights. They could see the police arriving with the villagers breaking in through the backdoor. They were shouting to ask them if they were okay. They both answered that they were alright. Apparently, a watchman had seen the kids enter the house and had raised that alarm, worried for their safety.

Soon afterwards, the treasure box was opened, which was filled with gold and silver. The police said that the money would be used to provide infrastructure for the village. Everyone praised Sera and Gray for being courageous to enter the house by themselves, but the policeman scolded them for making everyone worried about them.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 29th, 2020