Photorealistic: A silver SUV with an open trunk parked before a dark, gothic Victorian house and dead trees under a gloomy sky.

Our SUV sat facing our garage with the back open in what was once the driveway to the right of us. The small front lawn was yellow, and brown, and dry. And an old dead tree stood near us on the left, with its gnarled arms outstretched. Another, even bigger tree with a massive deformed trunk and dead, mangled willow branches was also visible on the other side of the house. I'm not sure I'd ever seen an angry or sad tree before, but these trees looked like they had been both. It probably didn't help that it was a bleak day with dark skies and even darker clouds. Rain, I thought, we learned about that last year in Mr McGoogle's class. But the main thing wasn't the wilted grass, or twisted trees or even the ominous sky, no, the most dreadful thing was the house. The house itself was a large, dark grey Victorian with ornate trim, straight out of a horror movie, in which a real vampire lures in kids. I didn't like it, not one bit. My mother says it's called a Gothic Revival style, and boy did I believe it! Gothic and revival both sound right up a vampire's alley too, you know. Even the roof was eerie, with its wrought iron fencing and sharp, stabbing looking points everywhere. My mother calls that cresting. Can you imagine a short, sharp fence on a roof? Or tall spikes that look like unicorn horns? Thank goodness there wasn't a treetop taller than our house to fall out of, and onto them! As for the rest of the house, it had narrow windows with arched tops and a porch that went See more