The Furry Gown.

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During summer break, two best friends: Jenny and Laura decided to have a girl's night in. Jenny's parents were on holiday for a week so they had their sleepover at her house. During the night they watched DVD's, put on face masks and had a good time.


At about 11:00pm Jenny decided that they should tell some scary stories to put them in the mood for a horror film. Although Laura wasn't a massive fan of all things scary, she was having a nice evening so she joined in regardless. After telling a few ghost stories they flicked through the channels on the TV to see if there were any horror films playing. They scanned through the many channels pausing briefly to see what was on each. On the news channel there was a report on an escaped inmate from the criminally insane prison in the next county.


"That's fitting for tonight isn't it?" joked Jenny, "Maybe we should grab some bats and go lock all the doors".


"Haha Jenny" Laura replied, warily "We should probably do that actually, best to be safe".


"Ok, you do upstairs and I'll do down here. We'll meet in my room and get our pyjamas on" Jenny laughed.


So the girls went round the house locking all the doors and making sure the house was secure. Laura arrived at the bedroom first. Finding her overnight bag, she changed into her night clothes.


After about 10 minutes she began to wonder where Jenny was. Walking over to the door she listened out for Jenny locking doors. What she heard when she got there made her heart stop. A dragging sound was coming down the hallway, muffled cries following. Running over to the wardrobe she climbed in and watched through the crack in the door. Seeing a shadow in the doorway, she held her breath, her heart almost beating out of her chest.


The bedroom door burst open and a very healthy looking Jenny jumped into the room laughing. Falling out of the wardrobe with fright, Laura gave Jenny her most annoyed look and threw a book a her. "Thanks for that" she said, "I've just aged 20 years".


"Sorry, I couldn't resist" laughed Jenny. Throwing the book back playfully, she changed into her pyjamas and took her dressing gown out of the wardrobe. "Do you like it?" Jenny asked, "My parents bought me it as a way of saying 'sorry we're going on holiday without you'".


The dressing gown was floor length and was covered in luscious black fur.


"It's not real fur, is it?" Laura questioned.


"Noo, we're not that rich" Jenny joked, wrapping the furry gown around herself.


"So what shall we do.." Laura was cut off mid sentence by a muffled bang downstairs. Looking straight towards Jenny she asked, "What have you set up now?".


Looking puzzled Jenny replied, "Nothing, I'm not stupid enough to try to scare you twice in one night". Creeping over to the door together, they listened for another sound. Certain that Jenny was just pulling another prank, Laura pulled open the door and shouted "Oooh, so scary".


The silence was broken with another bang. Suddenly the house was in darkness. Pulling Laura back into the bedroom Jenny whimpered. "I promise that it isn't me, I'm right here, how could I be doing this?".


Grabbing her phone for light, Laura illuminated the room. Seeing the look on Jenny's face made her instantly scared. A scuffling noise pierced the silence. Panicking, Laura instantly dialled the police number on her phone. As the phone began to ring, it made a beeping noise and died.


"Great" she whispered, "What are we going to do?".


"My phone is downstairs, I'll creep down and get it" Jenny replied, pulling on her shoes.


"WHAT? No way! What if someone's down there?" Laura cried.


"It's my house, I know every creaky stair and floorboard, I'll be back in a minute" Jenny didn't wait for Laura's response and she crept out the door.


Heart pounding in her chest, Laura looked out the window to see if she could jump out. 'Nope, way too high' she thought. Before she could return to the bed, a loud noise startled her. Almost in tears, she had no idea what to do. Hearing heavy footsteps downstairs, she hoped that it was Jenny.


After about 10 minutes, Jenny hadn't returned, so Laura decided to go look for her. Creeping out the room, she tried to make as little noise as possible. She'd been to Jenny's house hundreds of times before, so she knew which stairs creeked and which didn't. When she reached the ground floor she heard a shuffling noise. Getting to her hands and knees, she began crawling along the corridor, making sure not to make any noise.

Picture from: www.altitudeart.com

She reached the living room, where Jenny had last had her phone. Crawling along to the sofas she put her hand out to feel for Jenny. "Jenny, are you in here?" she whispered. Making her way to the armchair she stopped. She could feel a presence in the room. Reaching out she felt the welcome texture of the furry dressing gown. "Thank god Jenny". Standing up she groaned "So this was all a trick. Nice. Well you scared me, again".
When she didn't receive an answer, she pushed Jenny playfully. Again no answer. Suddenly the electricity flashed back on and the sight that met Laura was horrific. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she was staring straight at Jenny. Jenny was still wearing her new fluffy gown, but all that was visible of her body was the bloody stump of her neck. Her head was nowhere to be found.


The police found that Jenny had not infact locked all the doors downstairs. She had been playing along, not really believing that her house was at risk. The back door was wide open and a bloodstained, blunt axe was left on the kitchen counter.