I ran, the ancient jewel pendant in my hand swinging madly at my every stride.

The museum was a big place: there were three stories and, unfortunately, I was on the top floor. The security guards were chasing me, hot on my tracks as I darted around the guillotine, the beautiful old dresses, the awesome, fake monkeys in their fake environments and the peculiar buoy. 

They were just doing their jobs, keeping anyone from stealing from their museum. What they didn't know was that this pendant wasn't theirs, but mine. It was them who took it away from me in the first place, and in my desperate attempt to get it back this is what it had come to.

The pendant is special. It was passed down from generation to generation of my family and finally to me. We are the guardians of this pendant which was created long ago and captured the souls of three terrifying demons inside of it. 

Our job is to protect this pendant and not let it get into harm’s way, even if it costs us our lives. 

I see the staircase up ahead, leading down to the second floor. 

Almost at the bottom, I thought to myself, and shook my head in annoyance. 

The security guards came closer still, hurtling themselves down the stairs like a pack of wild baboons.  Courageously, I leapt down into the next room. It was a large one with a very high ceiling covered with big and small skeletons of dinosaurs and ancient creatures held up by big metal cables. 

I heard the guards behind me: they were shouting and stomping their feet as they ran. They knew they had no time to loiter around.

One of them wasn’t looking where he was going and slammed straight into the wall.

The impact was extraordinary; the man must’ve been unconscious after that. Suddenly, a trembling sound came from above. The tonnes of skeletons on the ceiling were falling down, and the security guards’ faces were alight with shock and fear, as was mine.

I didn’t know what was going to happen now. 

I almost screamed as a giant rib fell right behind me. Instead, I ran. I ran toward the row of windows which loomed ahead of me and, before a mammoth tusk squished me to the ground like a bug, I jumped.

The glass shattered around me and stung my skin like a thousand bees. I fell from that second story window and it felt like the whole world was in slow motion, the security guards, the museum and the air rushing past my eyes. I landed on the ground and felt my ankle twisting. I didn’t have time to cry. Instead, I ran down the street out of sight, the pendant still rocking wildly in my hands. When I got around the side of an alley way street, I fell to my knees and tried to breathe.

I felt like an idiot. It was my fault this pendant had gotten lost in the first place. A week ago, I had somehow dropped it on my way to the store. 

Some passerby must have picked it up and brought it to the museum. 

I checked over the pendant more closely. The pendant is made of a dark silver metal which encloses three different jewels, one for each of the demons trapped inside. 

All of the jewels were unscathed.

Phew, I thought to myself.

In all my panic I had forgotten all about my painful injures. I looked down at my shredded clothes and my skin, which was full of glass, and grimaced at the pool of blood around me. 

Suddenly I heard a loud siren going off. 

Great, they had to get the police into this as well, didn’t they? 

I had to get home; I knew my younger brother and my mentor would be there waiting for me. I ran back up the street and tried not to be noticed. The wounds in my body hurt a lot more than they did before and the fact that I was being chased by a police car did not help me at all. I zigzagged from street to street and jumped over fences, but still the car was able to keep a hold on me. I felt like Superman, leaping over my obstacles. If only life were as easy as just jumping over everything in your path.

I raced down the street, but somehow I stumbled and landed somewhere. I could feel something piercing through my stomach, and, oh my, how it hurt. 

And I was just down the road from our house, I thought sadly. 

The police hadn’t seen me take this plunge and I heard the last of the sirens going off into the distance. 

How much blood had I lost? I didn’t know, but my heart felt like it was pounding louder and louder. My breathing felt almost choked and unbearable. I took one last look at the jewels and I knew I had done my best to protect it.

I slowly closed my eyes, but in the distance I heard my brother's little voice, sounding worried. And so he should be. When he reached me, I grabbed his hand and placed the pendant softly into his fingers.

“Look after it well,” I managed to croak. 

I slowly felt my eyes closing. 

I couldn't feel the pain anymore and I thought that was a good thing. I dreamt about my dead parents. I would be able to see them now. With that last thought, I smiled and felt my soul drifting away. I had done my duty and I was glad. Then it was black, just like I always knew it would be.

Suddenly, my world became lighter. I opened my eyes. Where was I? How much time had passed? I looked up and only saw white. Was this heaven, an endless plain of pure whiteness? But then I heard a voice: 

“Mentor, Mentor, he’s awake!” 

It was the voice of my little brother. I instantly jerked up my body. The whiteness was just the ceiling! I looked over at my mentor and gave him a thankful look. 

He had saved my life so that I could carry on my mission, and I would do it to the fullest. The only regret I had was that now I wouldn’t be able to see Ma and Da again. Then again, I knew that day would come. But for now I would be staying in the land of the living.

However, Kat and her family, the Hauk family, planned to
live in the house until their last day; it was a beautiful, homely house. They
didn’t have any intention of leaving. Why would they? The family didn’t know
why anyone would ever want to leave. They, especially Kat, felt a small
connection to the beautiful house. Kat was an adventurous girl, curious by all
means, and brave too, and that is one of the reasons they chose the house. The
last family who lived in the house said they thought it was “creepy, those
hidden compartments, ne’er found most o’ ‘em.” So when they saw the house, and
toured it, A 9 year old Kat begged her parents to buy the house so she could
find all the compartments. She had only found three before, all empty and dusty,
and today was a Saturday, and her parents were at a conference.  So Kat found herself peering in
cupboards and cabinets and knocking on walls. After an hour, she got bored of
it, and went up to her room, which was the highest room, next to the attic. She
looked out of the big window and stretched on the floor. She looked up at the
ceiling and saw all the carvings she had done with her old pocketknife, in the
hopes of improving her skills of drawing. She smirked when she saw her latest
ones, of her and her cat, both of which looked like giant noodles with faces. She,
a bit drowsily, crawled over to her pile of blankets, fluffy and squishy, and
settled down, still looking up at her terrible carvings. And soon, she fell
asleep, drifting into the land of Nod...

Kat ran across the
dreamy meadow, leaping gleefully, rolling in the grass. But then, she came to
the border of a dark forest. She swallowed her fear and charged on, remembering
that is was just a dream.  She
charged into the forest. All was quiet, dark and midnight blue. A man, shadowed
by a shimmering black cloak, clothed in red, orange and black, was striding
towards her. She gulped and tried to talk. He held up his hand, and clenched
her throat. She tried to scream, but couldn’t, the iron grip weakening her
voice. The voice seemed to tear at her mind, willing her to tell him secrets
that she didn’t know she knew... The house! She thought. He wants something in
the house. The voice of the stranger, still clawing at her mind, rasped at her,
“ Ah, yes little girl, true. Tell all the secrets of the house. You know. And
you may tell me. Ah, yes, now is the time, when you may tell all you know...
for I, when I know may find what I seek, what I need, what I want. The place,
you know of it, do you not?” Kat shook her head forcefully. She managed to
whisper, “I don’t know anything! Let go...” the man shook his head and said,
“no, not yet. You don’t know where you are, do you. This isn’t just a dream,
Katarina. It’s reality. You know it’s true, don’t you. I will deal with you,”
He pointed a gnarled black and orange finger at her, “later.” He faded away to
a whisper of a darkness and Kat gasped with relief. The ground was cracking,
splitting, steaming. She screamed again and again. The ground opened up a huge
hole and swallowed her up, eyes peering out of the enormity. Her scream echoed
and echoed and echoed... She couldn’t erase it from her mind... now heat,
terrible heat... slimy slithering worms writhing on her feet, darkness, red,
glow, death...

Kat woke up with a start. Her eyes snapped open; her neck
was hurting and burning, as if a great weight was on it. She had broken out in
a cold sweat. She wondered how her neck was hurting... if it had just been a
dream... She then saw a pair of large, inquisitive yellow eyes staring at her.
She laughed with relief, still shaking from the nightmare she had just
experienced. It was just her black cat, Amar. Amar meant immortal, in an Indian
language. Amar was purring in his raspy voice, and sitting very happily, on her
neck. She chuckled. “Oh, Amar. It WAS just a dream. I always do that. Come on,
let’s keep looking for those secret compartments.” Amar meowed and leaped into
her arms. She put him in the pocket of her brown, fuzzy jacket. Amar squished
into position and seemed to salute Kat. He poked his small, black head out and
purred. “Stop it, Amar! That tickles!” Kat’s shock of the strange dream
disappeared and she forgot all about it.

And that's just a tiny bit of it! I hope you get the time to critique it, I really need some help lol.