My name is Maximilian von Buedingen, which I know, is quite a mouthful. My name is German and my story takes place in Germany, where my Oma and Opa (grandmother and grandfather) live. I've had a few scary moments in my life, but this one takes the cake.
I was 8 years old. My brother Oscar and I went to Schlier to visit my grandparents. Their house is beautiful and old, and has a really big garden. "Time to have a great time," I yelled, not knowing that just the opposite would, in a few days, be true.
One morning, Oscar and I were playing upstairs in the attic where there are two bedrooms, a playroom and a small storage area. In my opinion, it's the most creepy place in the house. It's dark and secret and a little bit scary. While we were up there, we didn't hear our grandparents say that they wanted to show our parents something. Oscar was, as usual, droning on and on and on and I remember getting sleepy, very sleepy. Suddenly, all that quiet woke me up. In that moment, Oscar and I realized how eerily, weirdly silent things had gotten. I admit I was a little scared. We tried calling out to everyone, but no one answered. "Oma, Opa, Mama, Papa?," we bellowed. Since no one answered, we screamed downstairs. "Hello? Is anybody there?" When we got no reply I remarked "Come on let's look for them." My voice was totally calm even though I was feeling a little worried.
Downstairs it was silent. I was very scared. When we peeked inside the room where they keep their t.v. We found no one except my grandparents' house cat Mimi, who just "mmmmrrrrrrpppp'ed" at us.
All that quiet and the middle aged sleepy cat somehow caused us to panic. We ran around in the garden screaming "AAAAAAHHHHHHHH." We even looked in their little one-room guest cottage near their teeny-tiny play structure. We screamed, we yelled, we bellowed for our parents. We looked if our car was still there and for any signs that they might have gone shopping or into town. Unfortunately for us, there were no shopping or city clues to be found and our car was still there. It was then that we started to actually cry.
Finally, we decided to explore the one room in the house we found really creepy -- the cellar. The cellar is dark and the air smells of mystery. My grandparents have their wine down there and shelves and shelves of stuff. When we looked downstairs, a light was on. We took a deep breath and burst into the cellar. We felt so silly when we found our grandparents simply showing our parents a new wine rack they had just bought. Once we got over the shock, it was hysterical and we all burst out laughing. We were happy to find our parents, but we were a little mad and at them too. It was a nice sort of family reunion and everybody laughed their heads off.
