“Ana?”

I blinked open my eyes.

“Ana!”

Was someone calling my name?

“ANAAAAAAA!”

I yanked my sleep blindfolds off, threw off my covers and snatched my door open. And there, standing in my doorway, were Lauryn and Jasmine, my five year old little twin sisters. I scowled.

"What do you two want?!" I snapped.

"Ana, it's time to go!" said Lauryn urgently. I stared at them, confused.

"Go where?" I said.

"On the ROAD TRIP, silly!" said Jasmine, jumping up and down excitedly. "It's going to be so fun! Mommy said we're going to be on the road for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!"

I rubbed my eyes. "Wait," I said. "Mom and dad were serious about that whole road trip thing?"

"Of course!" said Lauryn. "You'd better hurry up and pack. Everyone's eating breakfast!"

And with that, the two little pests sped off, probably to harass some other member of the family.

Great, I thought. Just great.

It was the first day of summer vacation, and I'd planned to spend it sleeping in and maybe hanging out with my best friend Tiffany, and now I find out I have to go on a stupid ROAD TRIP? With my WHOLE FAMILY? In a tiny little CAR? So. Not. Happening.

Furious, I snatched my "emergency" cell phone from my desk and punched in my best friend Tiffany's number furiously.

Pick up... pick up... pick up...

"Hello?" said a sleepy voice on the other end.

"Tif!" I screamed. "This is the WORST DAY EVER!"

"Ana?" said Tiffany, still sounding drowsy.

"Yes, it's me!" I spat. "Are you even listening to me?! This is the worst day ever, and I only got up like two minutes ago!"

"Well, what happened?" said Tif. She sounded more awake now.

"I found out my family is going on a ROAD TRIP today!" I screamed into the phone.

"What?!" said Tiffany. "But we had all these great plans!"

"I know!" I said. "It's SO ANNOYING! Anyways, I'd better go. I've got to pack. Bye."

....

An hour later, I was sitting in my family's minivan, wedged between my seven year old little brother Wyatt and my one year old sister Angela. Lauryn and Jasmine were sitting in the seat behind me, kicking as hard as they could and screaming a song about fairies and unicorns and beautiful winter wonderlands. In the front of the van, my dad was driving at a fast, jerky pace that made me carsick, while my mom was in the passenger's seat, screaming:

"Honey, you're going too fast! Honey, stop tailgating! HONEY, YOU TOOK A WRONG TURN!"

I stared at my phone, willing Tif to text me, but, of course, she didn't. Probably too busy having fun with all her other friends.

I looked out the window. The sun was beginning to set. Up ahead, I saw a tiny cluster of houses and shops. What a creepy town.

Suddenly, the car began to make funny noises. It gave a few violent jerks before stopping altogether. My dad quickly exited the car and I saw him open up the front. After a few seconds, he slammed it shut and slapped the car angrily, causing Lauryn and Jasmine to squeal.

"Blasted thing's broken down," my dad grumbled once he was back in the car. "The closest repair shop is probably in that town over there."

"But how will we get there?" said mom.

"We could push it," said Wyatt.

So that's how, a few minutes later, me, Wyatt, Lauryn, Jasmine, mom and dad ended up pushing the car to the town.

"C'mon, princess," said my dad to me, "Push!"

I scowled.

About twenty torturous minutes later, we managed to push our car into the town. It was even creepier up close! Everything was dark, and the streets were totally deserted except some guy slinking along in a black trench coat.

"Alright," said dad, "Your mother and I are going to find a repair shop with Angela. You kids go find a good restaurant for dinner. We'll see you later."

So me, Wyatt, Lauryn and Jasmine set out to go find a restaurant. About a minute down the road, we spotted a place called The Dusty Barrel.

"This seems like a good place," said Wyatt.

"Yeah, I guess," I mumbled.

But when we entered the shop, it seemed dark and deserted, too. Then I heard a door creak open and, instinctively, we all dove behind a barrel in a corner.

"I swore I heard something," said the voice of an old woman.

"Yeah, me too," said an old man.

"Aw," said the woman, "I was really looking forward to skinning some plump, juicy children."

Umm... WHAT?!

"Don't be silly, dear," said the man, "There haven't been children here in decades."

I saw Jasmine's eyes widen in terror, and I slapped my hand over her mouth. We could just sneak out of here once they left...

Brrrzttt... brrrzttt...

I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket.

Why, oh why oh why did Tif have to text me NOW?!

"What was that?!" said the old woman.

"RUN!" I screamed at my siblings. Together, we darted out of the abandoned restaurant.

"Get back here, you little whippersnappers!" screamed the woman. "We want to eat you!"

While I was running, I checked Tif's message:

So how's the road trip going? Tif.

Terrible, thanks.

I turned around and saw that the old cannibal couple were standing in the middle of the road, waving broomsticks at us.

Suddenly, I saw our minivan careening down the otherwise deserted street. It was our parents.

"Hop aboard, kids!" said dad.

"we just got attacked by some weird old people mummy" ..the twins squeaked out together..

i couldn't say a word as I tried to catch up my breathing pace

"Bad news, kids," said mom, once we were safely in the car. "We'll have to go back home. The people at the shop said that they couldn't fully repair our car, but they repaired it just enough so that we can get back home safely, so we're cancelling the road trip."

I was quite shocked my parents didn't cone across any incident in the weird town....I was buried in thought about what just happened until I drifted off to sleep. A couple hours later I was jolted awake.

"Hey!" said my dad. "Didn't we just come from here?" I blinked open my eyes and saw the most horrifying thing:

WE WERE BACK IN THE TOWN!!!

"WHY are we here?!" I screamed.

"I have no idea," said my mom, checking the map.

"Well," said dad. "As long as we're here, we might as well go back to the repair shop!"

Was he TOTALLY oblivious to danger?!

But when we got there, all the windows were boarded up.

"Hey," said my dad, to the man in a trench coat I'd seen earlier. "What happened to the shop?"

"The shop?" said the man. "That shop's been abandoned for over twenty years!"

"Impossible," said dad. "We were here only a few hours ago!" The man's eyes widened, and he ran down the street, screaming,

"Bad omen! Bad omen!"

"Well, that was-" my mom started, but was cut off abruptly by a voice behind her:

"There you are, you little whippersnappers!"

We all whipped around. And there, standing with knives and torches, was the old cannibal couple. Behind them was a large group of other cannibals. They wore bloodstained aprons and two of them held a huge spit.

They grabbed us and tied us to the spit and began chanting:

"You dare enter our town!

You dare enter our town!

We'll boil and bake you,

Make you into a cake, you

Dare enter our town!"

I saw them light a fire and begin to sharpen their knives. One of them took out a book titled:

Cooking Children Made Simple

The fire blazed beneath me.

"Ana! Ana!" a voice called out. Who was it?

I blinked open my eyes. I was in my room.

"Ana!" It was Tif. Had it all been a dream?

"Ana, you have to get up!" she said. "Some old couple is here, and they say they're looking for 'the little whippersnappers'!"

Uh. Oh...