Chapter 1,

Katherine glanced at her new teacher. He was very tall and athletic, and was the type of person who was popular with boys. Naturally, Katherine hated these types of people. Her best friend, Hannah Rig, showed a huge dislike towards the teacher, too.

"Why did Mrs. Shim-shot leave?" she grumbled. Mrs. Shim-shot was their previous teacher.

Katherine looked around. Her classmates all groaned. They already knew each other enough, so what was the point about finding out more? Plus, people like to keep their secrets and achievements to themselves, unless you're a gossip.

"Don't worry, kids, I do this with everybody, including the ones from my old school. Get in a circle everybody!" Mr. David grinned. "I want you all to take a turn to share something new and interesting about yourself. Starting with me."

Mr. David smiled and took off his jacket that had a family coat of arms embroidered with three blue lions passant all wearing crowns in a golden shield, accompanied by red hearts.

"I am related to the royal family in Denmark!" he exclaimed and everyone's eyes widened in shock, everyone, that is, except for Peter and Katherine.

"We're really going to a haunted house, sir?" asked Peter, a very short and chubby new boy whom Hannah, for no reason at all, had fallen in love with.

The whole class turned their eyes on the teacher.

Mr. David smiled and punched the air with his fist in celebration. "YES, WE ARE!"

"My pen is gone! My sister, Samantha, gave it to me for my twelfth birthday. To be honest, it's not worth a lot of money, but it's still very valuable to me !" Peter sobbed.

"A robbery?" Katherine asked. This made her ears perk up. What an interesting situation, she thought.

"Yes! It's always kept in my safe in my locker! Somebody hacked into my locker and my safe! And I need to find out who and get my pen back!" Peter cried desperately.

"No, it's that boy that we just walked past," Katherine said. "He's not drenched in water, like we are."

"That's Steven, my best friend," Peter replied. "He probably dried himself off with the hand driers at the toilets."

"I wish I could do that. My body's all wet and clammy," Hannah replied, gazing enviously at Steven, who was struggling to hold a large cardboard box that had stamps planted all over it as well as a large sticker with SCS written on top.

Chapter 6

"I can't believe he dumped me!" Hannah wailed.

Katherine barely heard her. She was too engrossed in her own thoughts about Peter staging the stealing-of-the-pen.

"Why would he do that?" she muttered to herself.

"Katherine!" Hannah wailed. "Are you listening?"

"Sure, sure," Katherine mumbled.

"What? I don't get it!" Katherine said.

Peter scoffed. "Of course you don't. Detectives are sooooo eccentric and lame." He turned away.

Katherine didn't mind. She was too busy jotting down notes of everything Peter had said in the last few weeks.

So far, she had,

"Why don't you just shut up?"

"Stop being such a know-it-all!"

"That's none of your business!"

"Stop sticking your nose in my welfare!"

"Detective girl here again? Go pester someone else."

"Stop asking me these silly questions? Why don't you leave me alone? I'm getting ready for our Haunted House camp!"

Katherine sighed and she peered up from her notes. Hannah was sitting beside her, leaning on the window pane and staring out into space. She was still upset with her break-up with Peter.

"You alright?" Katherine asked.

"Leave me alone!" Hannah snapped, glaring at her. "This is all your fault? Why did you have to catch Peter out?" Then she burst into desolate tears.

"Alright then..." Katherine scooted as far from Hannah as possible.

"Do you have it?" Katherine heard someone hiss quietly.

She turned around.

It was Peter and his mate, Steven.

"Don't get so stressed, bro!" Steven whispered back, glancing around him to make sure no-one was listening. "Just chillax."

Peter wasn't pleased, Katherine guessed from the expression on his face, and so he turned away and said nothing. Katherine didn't mind, though.

She had heard enough.

"Gosh, it's like this is a candy store instead of a haunted house," Mr David laughed to himself.

"In a way, it is," Katherine said and hurried after her classmates.

Mr David shook his head and followed her.

Chapter 9

Katherine stared at the house. It had a very lived-in feeling and was cozy. When she ducked her head into the bedrooms, the beds were made and the desks were cleared. Everything was so neat, yet it had that creepy neatness, tidy, haunted feeling.

Katherine shook her head. That Haunted House talk had taken its toll in her head.

"We will be sleeping in the family room," Mr David said, gesturing to a large empty room that had tables and chairs stacked in rows alongside the walls. Everybody immediately dumped their heavy luggage on the floor, making a mess.

"No, no, not like that! Please put them in nice neat rows going across the wall. We need enough space to gather round.

Everybody gathered round on the floor. Katherine noted where everybody sat, like she usually did. Peter sat near the door entry, Steven sat right under the light switches, Helen sat near the teacher, Hannah was near Peter.... and so on.

So Katherine sat alertly in her spot while Mr David droned on about being on their 'absolute best behaviour' when suddenly the lights went off.

"What is the meaning of this?" Mr David demanded while everyone screamed in terror.

"It is I, 'tis ghost!" a raspy voice said, and everybody screamed even more. Katherine eventually collected herself together and walked towards where she thought was the light switch. Just as she was opening the light, she felt a hand brush past her. She shivered, then flicked on the light.

And just underneath her was the dead body of Steven Wallson.

Chapter 10

Now, normally Katherine is a perfectly logical girl, and does not normally scream, but when the shock past and she saw blood on her fingers, and fear that people would think she murdered Steven, which was her worst nightmare, she let out a blood-curdling scream, drawing everyone's attention from Steven to her.

Katherine had never seen so many people look at her at the same time, so naturally she blushed.

"Sorry," she muttered, but already everybody's attention was back on Steven.

"What happened to him?" Mr David whispered.

"It looks as if he's been stabbed in the stomach," Katherine said. Everybody winced at her words.

Then the lights flicked off again.

"I will find revenge, Katherine O'Brien," the same raspy voice said. "For thee will suffer!"

And when the lights flicked on again, Steven Wallson's body was long gone.

Chapter 11

"I'm getting scared," Helen said, which was an understatement.

"We all are," Miles Mika agreed, shaking in his spot on the floor.

"I told you this was a haunted house! Its previous owners have suffered terrible pain after its first owner, Helda Rig, a hated woman, died in a fire started by her daughter, Milla Rig," Mr David said.

"Did you just say Helda Rig? As in, like, Hannah Rig?" Katherine asked.

"Yes, why?" Mr David asked.

"Because Hannah is gone."

Chapter 12

"Goodness, what happened?" Mr David said, turning incredibly pale. "If I lose a student right after another has been murdered, I'll be in deep, deep trouble with the parents, as well as....gosh, no. I don't want to be fired." He shivered at the thought.

"I wish you were," Katherine heard Peter mutter under his breath. "I never thought I would see you again."