It was a typical, lively Christmas eve. Children were preparing to receive gifts from Santa Claus. Milk and Cookies were set. Stockings were hung.

“Em, what gift have you asked for this time?” Sammy asked his sister, Emma. Emma said that it was a secret and grinned. 

They were twins. Kind yet Mischievous. They were well-known for their pranks.

****NEXT DAY****

**CHRISTMAS DAY**

They were excited. It was Christmas morning. The day when they would be showered with gifts, blessings and treats had arrived. 

“Time to wake up”, Emma shouted, as if to scare him instead of wake him up.  

Sammy woke up and mumbled sleepily, “Really! This is my sister.”

And then the Christmas vibe hit him.

“Yeah! Christmas!”, he declared. 

They both hurried downstairs for breakfast. They had honey pancakes with banana milkshake.

“Mmm…Delish”, the twins chimed in chorus. 

“Time for Unpacking”, Emma said excitedly, ready for business.

They both almost attacked the gifts impatiently. 

“Wow, a mystery book, an action book and comedy book!”, exclaimed Sam, going through the gifts.

“OMG, Horror book, I love it”, Emma continued.

So, they had horror, comedy, mystery and action books now. What a collection! Now what? Of course, it was time to read.

Sam started with horror followed by action, mystery and at last comedy.

Emma was exactly the opposite – laughing at the suspense, moving to feeling energetic and then to being terrified.

**AT NIGHT**

**ON THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS**

At night, when they were sleeping on their cartoon themed bunk beds, an adventure was brewing for them.

They were no longer in their comfy room on their comfy beds. They were in a dark room and could barely see themselves. The dark room was covered with cobwebs everywhere. They were as scared as rabbits on the Kirrin Island from the book series “The Famous five” by the famous author Enid Blyton, when someone unfamiliar stepped on the island. They huddled together as it was slightly cold.

“This scene is from a typical horror movie”, said a shivering Emma.

“What should we do? I am scared”, responded a worried Sam.

Soon, they heard some voices.

“They are sleeping right now; we will get a fine ransom for them”, a man said to someone.

“Yeah, but do we have to scare them or just keep them locked?” questioned the second man.

“I think they are talking about us. Let’s pretend we didn’t hear that and try to escape somehow”, Sam whispered.

“I have a better plan, let’s go rogue”, Emma whispered back.

“How?”

“Let’s scare them and then lock them.”

“How?”

“Oh man, you are so foolish!”

“What! My brain stops working when I am scared.”

“Alright, Whatever!!”

“Go on with the plan, will you?”

“Yeah, do you have the all-noise producer prank whistle that you sleep with because you think I would steal it?”

“Uhm… I did not sleep with it yesterday.”

“Perfect, classic you.”

“Yeah, classic me. Oh wait! What’s this whistle?”

“You had it all along, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“Oh really.”

“Fine, yes.”

“Hand it over.”

Sam gave the whistle to Emma who set it to ‘Ghost’. It was a big thing shaped like a cone. It had knobs to go up and down with the sound written on it and a tube at the end. She nudged Sam to move to a corner and started playing the whistle. They could hear the men’s voices again.

“What’s that?”

“Uh…must be the wind.”

“Ok”

Emma continued playing.

“No, it not the wind!”

“I think so too.”

Emma whispered to Sam. 

“Now they are scared. Keep playing this. I am going to go and start pulling the curtain rope.”

The rope was a pulley system attached to the curtain. She tiptoed to the curtain and started pulling it, and the curtain began to open. Emma looked around for the men but could not see them. She went to look out of the only window with an open curtain, the same curtain that she had pulled. She could see the men running away as they had seen ghosts, no heard “ghosts.”

“Sam, you can come now, the men ran away”, called Emma triumphantly. 

“No need to be proud, I… I just did not want to scare them”, said Sam, coming up to the curtain feeling a little jealous.

“No need to be jealous, we need to get out of here”, Emma replied, still feeling victorious. 

They went out of the back door just in case the men were still around.

“They locked us in a castle”, Sam noticed.

They were apparently in a forest and had to get out of there. They decided to sleep on their troubles and slipped into deep slumber.

“Get up, sleepy head”, Emma shouted in Sam’s ears.

Sam woke up with a jump and bumped into Emma who was hovering over his face.

“Ouch!”, both of them muttered in unison. 

“Let’s go”, Sam said crossly, rubbing his nose.

They walked, walked and walked.

“We have been walking for SO long”, Emma complained.

“I know! I am so tired”, Sam complained back.

“Wait, is that a ginger bread house?” Emma asked with disbelief.

“Yup! Looks like”, Sam replied.

They stood up and started running towards it when the ground started shaking violently

“What is happening?”

“I don’t know.”

“Wake up sleepy heads! It’s 10 AM.”

“Oh! We are almost near the gingerbread house.”

“What gingerbread house? What are you talking about?”

Emma woke up suddenly, and rubbed her eyes. Her mother was glaring at her curiously. 

“What were you dreaming about? You were screaming gingerbread house!”

“Uhm……It was much more. From being kidnapped and playing ghosts to a forest adventure and an escape into the wild, we had finally reached the gingerbread house.”

“Really?”, Sam asked amused. 

“Yes!”

They all laughed like crazy.

“What are you doing today?”, their mum asked.

“We don’t know yet.”

“Why don’t you read your books?”, mum suggested.

“We finished reading them yesterday itself.”

“No wonder Em saw those weird dreams”, Mum stated.

“Can we take our food and go to Lena and Johnny’s house?”

“Run along! I will make your basket.”

The twins had a wonderful day playing with their friends and narrating Emma’s weird yet fun-filled dream.

// This fictional story has been penned by 10-year-old Ridhika Gupta and was submitted as an entry for the Box of Tales – Volume 2 International Creative Writing Contest. The story made it to the top 25 based on jury scores and hence, was chosen for publication on our website //