The Neighbor’s House: Dead Pieces

A book by Jonathan Amos, age 8. Written in April of 2022.

  1. The Neighbor’s House: book cover

    The Neighbor’s House: Dead Pieces, by Jonathan Amos

  2. The Neighbor’s House: page one

    The Neighbor’s House, written by Jonathan Amos.

    [ home address redacted ]

    This book is for my family.

  3. The Neighbor’s House: page two

    One day, in my house, I was staring at the other house across the street. Then, the downstairs door slammed open and in came my friend James. He rushed upstairs and came in my room.

    Darby, he said, Have you seen that creepy house over there?

    I have, it’s weird right?

    Then mom comes up.

  4. The Neighbor’s House: page three

    You two wanna play outside, she says.

    Mom, we’re not little kids anymore.

  5. The Neighbor’s House: page four

    Now we’re walking down the street.

    James.

    What?

    I think we should go down to that house.

    No way, I’m not. It’s too scary.

    In my head it’s a tiny bit scary.

  6. The Neighbor’s House: page five

    Then I trip over a rock.

    Ow, James.

    You OK, Darby?

    I think I broke my leg, can you help me up? Ow, this really hurts.

    OK, lets get you back to your house, you might need a doctor!

  7. The Neighbor’s House: page six

    Chapter 1 5: Creepy House

    In the hospital, they brought me into a room with fancy what-looked-like weapons, but they weren’t.

  8. The Neighbor’s House: page seven

    [ A drawing of a hospital room with fancy what-looked-like weapons, but weren’t. ]

  9. The Neighbor’s House: page eight

    They poked and pinched me; it was very harsh, I didn’t like it a lot.

    Then they said, this might hurt just a little.

    ZAP!

    A moment later I was fine and walking down…

  10. The Neighbor’s House: page nine

    …the road with mom and James. We get in the car and start driving home. I go upstairs and lay down; my leg still hurts a little but I’ll be OK.

  11. The Neighbor’s House: page ten

    [ A blank page. ]

  12. The Neighbor’s House: page eleven

    Then I wake up, and downstairs my mom is talking. When I look up, all my friends are standing in front of me.

    Marshall Darby, we want some answers, Mya said.

    What do you mean?

    James told us that you were looking at that house over there, and we wanted to go inside it!

  13. The Neighbor’s House: page twelve

    …and if you don’t go in, then we will.

    I’m thinking I’ll go, but guys, do you understand that the neighbor went inside his house and never came out?

    Maybe he was doing something else, then getting outside, Mya said.

    Fine, I’ll go in.

    Good, Aaron said, now lets see what’s inside that house.

  14. The Neighbor’s House: page thirteen

    [ A drawing of the neighbor’s house. ]

  15. The Neighbor’s House: page fourteen

    [ A blank page. ]

  16. The Neighbor’s House: page fifteen

    That day, we went inside the neighbor’s house to see what was in it, so we went in.

    Mya, brave as always, opened the door.

  17. The Neighbor’s House: page sixteen

    Chapter 2: Darkness

    When we walked in it was all just dark in that creepy house.

    I wasn’t ready for this and we didn’t have any weapons, we didn’t even have armor on. We…

  18. The Neighbor’s House: page seventeen

    …probably needed it, but we didn’t bring it.

    Wait guys, did any of you bring a flashlight?

    James and Mady had one.

    Then I hear a TV on—I can almost hear it—it’s talking about the news! And it might be upstairs.

  19. The Neighbor’s House: page eighteen

    Do you hear that?

    I do, Mya said.

  20. The Neighbor’s House: page nineteen

    Mady points to the room upstairs, You think we should go up there?

    I don’t think we should, I say, it says do not enter.

    Lets go in, Mya says.

    This is not going well, I’m getting the creeps.

  21. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty

    We step inside and go up stairs. As we walk in, the wood on the floor creaks. As we walk, I see a wallet covered in blood.

    Guys, look at this.

    Ew, don’t touch it.

    Mady says, on it it says Mr. Cowy.

    Wait, I know that guy. It’s my dad’s best friend.

    I wonder if he passed away…

  22. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty one

    …or what if the neighbor killed him. This guy really doesn’t like people.

  23. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty two

    I should probably keep that in my pocket just in case we need it.

    I said don’t touch it, that’s gross!

    Mady, we might need it for something.

    Well, you can have it but stay away from me with that gross wallet. I don’t want to touch another person’s blood!

  24. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty three

    [ A drawing of a bloody wallet in a coat pocket. ]

  25. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty four

    As we step into the highly weird room, we see somthing you don’t see every day; it’s a poster with everyone in town crossed out on it, but on the last one I’m on it and my face is circled on it.

    Has our neighbor been killing everyone in town but me?

    I stare at my friends, but on the board they’re not on it or even crossed out.

  26. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty five

    I wonder if they’re not alive right now, and they’re dead.

    Marshal Darby, alive still.

  27. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty six

    We go out of the room and then we see another creepy door; As always, Mya wants to go in. I will never get used to this creepy house–it’s got to be haunted. As we step in, the floor still creaks.

    Guys, any of you see anything?

    Whoa, watch out!

    You know what? I see stairs. We almost fell down, Mya says.

  28. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty seven

    I wonder if this is a basement kind of room, James says.

    Wow, sure looks inviting, I say.

  29. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty eight

    Well, you guys can go get yourselves in trouble, I’m getting out of here, this place needs a new paint job, James says.

    Come on, I said, it’s not that scary.

    Well, look at that door over there, it’s locked, that means something bad is in there!

    Then lets go in it! Mya said.

  30. The Neighbor’s House: page twenty nine

    Are you crazy, you really want to go in there?

    It’s all of us against you, come on James.

    Fine, lets go, but if we get killed I’m blaming you in heaven, you got it?

    I got it, dude.

    So how do we open this door?

  31. The Neighbor’s House: page thirty

    Just pick the lock, Mady said.

    I don’t have a key, but I have a paper clip, Aaron says.

    Just use that, I say.

  32. The Neighbor’s House: page thirty one

    Anyone know how to unlock a lock with a paper clip? Aaron says.

    I do, but it might take a little time.

    [ Cling! Cling! Cling! ]

    All right, I got it, open it up!

    Whoa look at that, there’s so much tunnels, what do we explore first?, I say.

  33. The Neighbor’s House: page thirty two

    Guys, lets think this through. If we want to go in there, we need to be safe. There must be a lot of tunnels down here and we don’t even know where they go, all right, so we need to be very safe, OK, you got it? First door to open could lead us to death.

  34. The Neighbor’s House: back cover

    In this creepy story, Marshall Darby and his friends go inside the neighbor’s house to unlock blue prints and secrets, so what will happen, will they get out or not?

    [ More books to explore: 2. Meet the Neighbor, 3. Out of the House, 4. Find the Note Book ]