The Carrot
        by Mandy Ward

The kitchen was dark and damp. No one had lived here for years. The other rooms were the same and in many of them mould grew along the walls like a thick carpet. Instead of furniture, fungus grew from the floorboards and some of them glowed faintly, providing just enough light to see things that were better off left in the dark.

In the corner of the Dining Room a peanut sat, quietly rotting away. A kid that had climbed in through the broken window and had never climbed out again had left her there.

She wasn’t sure what had happened to him, except that he had dropped her when he was exploring. A little while after that his screams had echoed up from the cellar, making the peanut very nervous. ‘Don’t worry,’ she thought ‘What ever it is won’t be interested in a tiny rotting peanut.’ Although this sounded very brave in her mind, it didn’t make her feel any better and she found herself straining to see in the eerie glow of the fungus, hearing soft footsteps coming closer to her corner. Finally, she thought to herself, ‘Stop it! It’s just your imagination. There is nothing in here except mould and fungus!’ This did make her feel slightly better, so she took a deep breathe and settled down to do some serious rotting, hoping that if there was anything in the house, she would be gone before it found her. She was dozing slightly when she heard the first whisper. It was so soft that at first she thought she had dreamed it.

“Little Peanut,” The whisper said “Little Peanut! Where are you?”

The peanut shivered and ignored it, hoping in her heart that the whisper was just a figment of her rotting imagination. When she didn’t hear it again for a while, she tried to tell herself that it wasn’t real, even though she strained to hear it. She had half convinced herself when she heard it again.

“Little Peanut, where are you my Love?”

She swallowed in terror and refused to answer. A Soft footstep sounded on the floor over the other side of the room.

“Where are you my Lovely little Peanut? Why won’t you answer me?”

The peanut sat very still and held her breath, hoping that what ever it was would go away if it couldn’t find her. The footstep was heard again, further into the room this time. The peanut found herself trying to make out a shape in the darkness of the boarded up Dining Room. The whisper came again.

“Come out Little Peanut, I won’t hurt you. The big bad human has gone and we can be together.”

The peanut started to shake with fear as the soft footsteps came ever closer. “Ah! There you are my Love. Now we can be together forever.”

The footsteps stopped and against the glow of the fungus the peanut could make out a vague triangular shape. It was very big and had hair growing out of the crown of it’s head. The moment seemed to last for hours as the shape bent over and reached out a hand…

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