The Haunting Of Rotten Robbie
One Day. In an ordinary town, in an ordinary house, lived an ordinary family and a not so ordinary little boy. His name was Robert Howard. But everybody knew him best as ‘Rotten Robbie’.
The name came from the fact that just like a rotten apple, on the outside it looks lovely and sweet. But on the inside its sour and disgusting.
Now boys and girls, Robbie never used to be rotten. He used to be a sweet and good little boy. But after staying awake night after night hearing his mum and dad shout and scream at each other, resulting in Robbie’s dad leaving him and his mum, he went from being mum’s perfect child to absolute terror.
With his unpleasant smile and unlikeable behaviour, he was one problem child that no one wanted to deal with. He would pick on all his classmates, bully students younger than him steal sweets from other kid’s lunch boxes and terrorise girls in the playground. If a child went home crying after school, you could tell they spent the day with Rotten Robbie
Because of this no one at school liked him very much. Not even his teachers. But Robbie didn’t care, in his world he was getting away with murder. That was until one fateful day when Rotten Robbie’s world was about to take a turn for the worst.
While on a school trip to the national museum of Dunning, Rotten Robbie and his classmates (though they wouldn’t say they were classmates with Robbie) were visiting an exhibition on ancient Egypt.
Wandering around Robbie looked inside a giant decorated stone coffin which he learned was called a sarcophagus. The sarcophagus opened up to reveal an old decorated body. Covered in bandages all over, except for the head.
Covering the face is what looks like a mask. Covered in jewels and a large silver beetle on the forehead.
‘And here lies Prince Amal. Who was the youngest of the Pharos 5 sons’ says the curator or the museum who talks as if he is the only one interested in what he has to say.
‘After his untimely death brought on by the great plague, which resulted in being stung by wasps, beating by hail stones and drowned in bloody water, his father insisted that his face be
preserved in the mask. So that his face stayed young and the god would take his son as beautiful as him’
‘Has anyone seen what the face looked like underneath?’ asked Liam. The school genius. Robbie hated Liam. He was more liked than Robbie, he was smarter than Robbie. Plus his mum and dad were still together.
‘Hey swat. Don’t make this day more boring that it already is’ shouted Robbie from the back of the room.
‘Well young man’ said the curator. ‘His father placed a curse upon the mask and if anyone tried to steal or take the mask, a terrible fate will fall upon them. Because of this the mask has been untouched for thousands of years’. The curator stops himself from getting too over dramatic.
‘But none of us have ever seen the face. Some say the face is still young, others say it’s withered away with age like the rest of him. Now children if you look over here…’
The curator leads the class round more parts of the exhibit while Rotten Robbie had other plans. He hung around the sarcophagus while playing with the red velvet rope separating him from the coffin. He looks around the room waiting for the room to be clear.
With his menacing grin and badly behaved enthusiasm, Robbie lifts the rope over his head and walks underneath it. He climbs on top of the sarcophagus and makes his way to the mask. Walking along like a tightrope walker.
As he reaches the mask ‘Jackpot’ Robbie smiles and reaches down to grab the mask, slowly but surely not to mess it up.
‘HEY!’ Robbie hears a voice yelling that startles him so bad he nearly falls into the sarcophagus. Looking up he sees Liam looking at him through his thick glasses. Robbie stares at him in rage.
‘Oh what do you want 4 eyes?!’ Said Robbie annoyed at Liam
‘Get down from there!’
‘No. What you gonna do?. Tell on me?’ Robbie saying in a pandering tone.
‘Yeah?’ said Liam as if Robbie just exposed his secret plan
‘Knew it! You aren’t brave enough to take me or anyone on in a fight”
Robbie gets back to trying to get the mask. He manages to grab 2 sides of the mask. But when he tries to lift the mask and pull it off the face ‘TUG TUG TUG’ it just didn’t budge.
“Ha! You can’t even move it anyway” Liam sneers at Robbie.
“ And you can barely fight your way out of a paper bag!. So how about you shut up before i show how much stronger i am than you!” Robbie’s threat finally keeps Liam quiet.
Robbie continues to tug and tug at the mask more and more
Eventually:
POP!
The mask lifts off like a tight lid on a jam jar.
“Yes. Finally!” Robbie holds the mask up to the sky. He looks down at the body in the sarcophagus and looks at the face it was hiding.
“Is that it?” says Robbie. Underwhelmed at looking at the face of the body. Liam is now shocked not only that Robbie has pulled the mask off the Egyptian prince, he then looks into the sarcophagus.
“OH MY GOD!” Liam screamed as he looked down to find a rotted greenish brown skin withered skeletal on the skull. There was no eyelids, no nose and no lips. Yet somehow the face still looked… alive.
“Right? I was expecting something cooler. Not something we’ve all seen before” Said Robbie
“What did you do that for?” Liam asks still stunned looking at the rotten face.
“Isn’t it obvious? Halloween is in 3 days and i want the best costume ever!. This is the coolest mask ever. So it’s now mine”
“It’s not a mask. It’s his face”
“Well it’s mine now”
Robbie climbs down from the sarcophagus and puts the mask in his rucksack.
“Didn’t you hear what the old guy said? Whoever takes the mask gets cursed.”
Robbie puts his rucksack on his back but the weight of the mask was so heavy that he struggled to get the strap over his shoulder and on his back.
“That’s just an urban myth to stop people from touching the mask”.
“So why did you take it then?”
“Because it’s not real. Like the tooth fairy or magic tricks!”
Just as Liam and Robbie continue to argue over the mask, the curator of the museum walks back with the class still following him.
“Ok kids. That just about wraps everything up for today. If you could grab your coats and make your way-”
The curator stops and has a massive deep breath of shock. He has now finally seen the face of the body in the sarcophagus but has also seen that the mask that covered his face was now gone.
“oh…Oh my word! This is not good!” The curator getting his breath back.
“The mask…The face of the prince. The artifact. Its gone!” said the curator gradually getting more and more jittery and nervous.
The kids stand around the sarcophagus. All of them are now staring on to the face of the prince. All of them sharing the same level of shock and horror as Liam when he first saw the face. The curator paces back and forth rubbing his head with his hands in stress.
“Ok children. Did anyone see the person who took the face?” the curator asks in the hope that someone has the answer.
The pupils stand silent with faces of confusion. They never saw anyone. From the back of the room a confident voice boomed and echoed throughout the room.
“Yes i saw who took it…It was Liam” said Rotten Robbie
The class and the curator turned to to find Robbie and Liam behind the other side of the sarcophagus.
“I saw him! And he told me not to tell or he’ll beat me up”
“What?!…No! I didn’t take it Robbie has the mask!” Liam says defending himself from Robbie’s lying.
The class sees through Robbie’s lying but the curator who is so lost in a state of panic, he immediately believes Robbie as soon as he started speaking.
“Is this true young man?” the curator asks
“I saw it with my own 2 eyes. Liam stood on the sad-coffin-guts and took the mask. Liam took the mask”
“No! He did it. Rotten Robbie stole the mask!” Liam screams in his defense
“Don’t call me that!. I hate that name!”! Robbie shouted in rage.
He pushes Liam so hard that he flies towards the sarcophagus, pushing it over. It falls to the ground and the the dead body rolls out of coffin towards the class.
The students scream in shock and horror. The curator passes out, Liam picks himself up from off the floor and looks to find Robbie laughing at the chaos he has once again caused.
30 minutes later Robbie’s mum had spoke to the curator and head teacher again and had to apologise for Robbie’s actions for what felt like for her the hundredth time. She regularly has to pick up Robbie early from being a nuisance.
“I’m really getting tired of doing this Robert” his mum said while driving them home.
“It wasn’t my fault. Liam was being annoying”
“I’m not saying who’s fault it was. But you always get in trouble and i have to pick you up from the mess you made. And you don’t even apologise for any of it”.
Robbie sits in his seat still not feeling guilty for what he has done.
“Well i didn’t take the mask”
“I’m sure you didn’t” Robbie’s mum saying without sincerity.
Night came and Robbie was in his bedroom wearing the mask and looking at himself in the mirror. He puts a blanket on his back for cape and holds a mop as a staff.
“Oh yeah. This is gonna get me a lot of sweets” Robbie says, looking at himself with pride.
“Time for bed Robert”. His mother called from down stairs. He takes off the mask and hides it in his sock drawer.
As he tucks himself into bed, he turns off the lamp and begins to fall asleep. The weather outside starts to get worse. Wind was blowing all heavier and wilder, rain was starting to fall cold, needle sharp hitting against Robbie’s bedroom window. Lightning strikes so loud it was as if it struck right outside his bedroom door.
Robbie woke up in a state of fright. He gets his breath back and tries to go back to sleep. Suddenly the sounds of the weather wasn’t the worst sound he would hear. He then woke up from the sound of a low, rough and bellowed voice.
“…ROBBIE!”
He looks up from his pillow in the dark. Eyes wide open with fear.
“Yes?” He replies. Unaware of what answer he’ll get.
“…Robbie!”. The voice repeats itself.
Robbie spots something standing at the bottom of his bed. Unable to make out what he is looking at, he turns on the light and points it in the figures direction. The light shines on the figure’s face. But the figure didn’t have anything left of a face. What was left of it had rotted away. The more Robbie stares he realizes that the figure in the room is the body from the museum.
“GIVE…ME…BACK…MY…FACE!”Bellowed out the faceless ghost. Robbie starts trembling in fear.
“I…I…I…I don’t have it. Liam took it”. Robbie says in horror.
“I…WANT…MY…FACE!”
“You don’t need it anymore. You’re dead!.”
“IF…I…DON’T…GET…IT…BACK…YOUR…FATE…WILL…BE…TERRIBLE!”
“Seriously liam has it. Now go to him and get lost!” Robbie screams at the faceless ghost. The faceless ghost then reaches inside his dry, bandaged chest.Dust spurts out as he pulls out what looks like his heart all wrapped up in bandages.
“YOUR…FATE…ENDS…TONIGHT!”
He crushes the heart inside his hand and wasps begin to fly out. Angry and violent. He throws the wasps nest heart to Robbie. Wasps begin to fly and go for Robbies face. He tries to fight them off, flailing all over the place. He falls from his bed and lands on the floor with a massive thud.
While wasps attack his head, he jumps into his bathroom and turns his shower to wash away the wasps. To his delight, the wasps begin to wash away down the drain. But as soon as the wasps wash away the water goes from clear to blood red.
Robbie looks into the shower head and is sprayed with blood spraying out of the shower. Falling out the shower he grabs a towel and wipes the blood of his face. He walks out of the bathroom and from the end of the hallway, a voice booms “…ROBBIE!”
He looks up, frozen in shock and the faceless ghost is now staring at him from the other end of the hall.
“I…WANT…MY…FACE”
“It’s mine now!..” Robbie screams while gripping the mask for dear life. Just then the faceless ghost pulls a snake out from his mouth. It slithers and slides onto the ground and moves towards Robbie.
It hisses and snarls and begins to strike for Robbie. He ducks and dodges as he runs down the stairs and outside the house. Robbie then runs across the road through the rain and the wind blowing in his face.
He manages to make it to the house across the road and begins beating on the door like a boxer in training.
“Help! Help! Somebody help me!” Robbie shrieks at the top of his lungs. The door suddenly opens to find Liam in his pyjamas
“What do you want?” Liam said not forgetting about the day they went through.
“Liam. The curse. It’s true. It’s all true. The dude from the coffin puss turned up and he’s been attacking me all night. He threw wasps at me, soaked me in blood and had a snake chase after me!. I don’t know what to do. You have to help me!” Robbie said for the first time with a genuine.
“This isn’t gonna be like last time when you told me there was a werewolf in my back garden
and when i went outside you jumped out at me in a wolf mask is it?” Liam asks suspiciously for the right reasons.
“No. No, I’m not making this up! He wants the mask back. Take it from me and hide it. If you do i will be your friend for life!”.
Robbie holds the mask out in front of Liam hoping that he will take it from him.
“No Robbie”
“…What?”
“I said no. You never listened to me, then you threatened me when i told you to stop and you pushed me into the sarcophagus. How about you apologise to the ghost and do us all a favour and leave me and the rest of the world alone?!”
Liam slams the door on Robbie. Suddenly, thunder starts to crack and lightning begins to strike. But rain didn’t fall. Instead hailstones the size of tennis balls began to fall and beat on Robbie. They bounce of his head as he runs back into his house.
Bruising and cutting him as they fall. He makes it back home batter from the hail. In a last ditch attempt to save his life, he runs into his mother’s bedroom.
His mum was lying on a massive bed to fit 2 but slept on her side. Fast asleep. He charges into her room, but that doesn’t seem to wake her. So he starts trying to wake her up.
“Mum, mum. Wake up please. I need to tell you something. I did steal the mask and push Liam and scare my class. I just wanted a halloween mask. I didn’t think all this would happen. I’m sorry mum”.
Robbie pleads with tears streaming down his bruised face. His mother still lies silently in bed not making a move.
“Mum?”. He puts his hand on her shoulder to give her a shake. The mother’s figure disappears into the bed. A large figure grows bigger and bigger in the center of her bed from under the duvet. The duvet falls and appears the faceless ghost.
“GIVE…ME…BACK…FACE!”
“LEAVE ME ALONE!”
“I…WANT…MY…FACE!”
Robbie then shows the mask to the faceless ghost
“Here..You want your face? GO GET IT!”
Robbie throws the mask at the wall. The mask smashes into pieces like a glass bottle. Robbie looks at the ghost hoping that destroying the mask would end his horror.
“HA HA! What are you gonna do now?!” Robbie says trying to get back to his usual self. The ghost looks at the wall and looks to Robbie.
“WELL…IF I CAN’T HAVE MY FACE…I’LL HAVE YOURS INSTEAD!”
“no..It’s mine…It mi-”
Robbie then gets picked up from the roof of his mouth by the ghosts dry, strong boney fingers.
“IT’S…MINE…NOW!”.
Robbie screams through the fingers in his mouth as the ghosts other hand covers his face…
The next thing Robbie Knew. He woke up. In his bedroom. No dead wasps, blood covered towels or bruises or cuts on him. Most of all…his face was still attached. He opened the drawer and found the mask staring up at him underneath his socks. He goes downstairs to find his mum in the kitchen carving a face on a pumpkin.
“Good morning Robert. Better get ready for school. You need to be there in half an hour”. Tears fill up in Robbie’s eyes and he runs to hug his mum. This was a pleasent surprise for his mum. Because Robbie didn’t really hug much when his mum and dad split up.
“Hey, hey. You ok little man?” Robbie’s mum says hugging him back happily. Robbie was happy to see his mum again, but he knew he had to make things right.
“Mum. There’s something I need to tell you”
3 days later on halloween, after Robbie admitted to his mum, school and museum that he stole the mask. Not only was he expelled from school, but he had to go round apologising to everyone he teased and bullied.
He was also grounded. He couldn’t go out on halloween. Which didn’t matter to Robbie. Since he had to give the mask back to the museum he didn’t have a cool halloween costume
anymore. Instead he would have to answer the door to other kids and give them sweets.
He answered the door a few times. To kids dressed as zombies, vampires and ghosts. Not enjoying a second of it.
Until he heard a knock on the door. He got up to go answer it. The bowl of sweets ready in his hand. He pulled open the door and saw a figure covered in bandages and wearing a very similar mask…like the one he stole.
He screamed at the top of his lungs dropping the bowl of sweets on the floor. If only he waited. He would have seen Liam, lift up the mask and bend down to pick up the sweets.
“You could have just bought a fake one from the gift shop. They were only a pound” says Liam. He puts his mask back on and laughs his way to the next house.