Gothic Horror Story, Paragraph 1

At my school, in English, we have been learning about Gothic Horror Stories. And as the end of topic assessment, we had to write a Gothic Horror Story, and I decided to post the first paragraph of my story on here. So, I hope you enjoy it.

It was a chilly evening, the sky was a pale pink with only a few clouds. I decided to take my eight month old Alsatian, Rex, out for a walk. We set off down the quiet street. We were alone and it was starting to get darker. The street-lamps flickered, sending shadows dancing along the walls.

We turned the corner and carried on walking, until we got to a small wooden bench. I carefully tied Rex to a lamppost, and then sat down to tie my shoelace. 

The next thing I knew, Rex was free of his lead, running off wild down the street. His tail wagged round the corner and I ran, following him. I tried to catch him, reaching out for him, but he was too fast and kept escaping me. I was out of breath, panting hard, my heart hammering against my chest, but I carried on running, I didn't want Rex to escape, we had only just got him.

He led my down a small alley and down another lonely street, and then up a small hill. 

And then, he stopped.

He just stopped, he sat down on the muddy grass, looking up at the sky.

I ran over to him, and started stroking him, brushing his fur, not noticing where he had led me. It was when a crack of thunder rumbled in the distance, I decided to look around. I stopped stroking him and looked up.

My mouth dropped open. A large, old house stood at the other side of the hill. One side was a pile of burnt rubble, while the other had ivy growing up the walls, crawling all over it like fingers.

The windows were smashed, some of them boarded, and some of them with long scarlet curtains billowing out from them, in the wind.

Another crash of thunder rumbled in the distance and I looked up to the sky. The sun had disappeared and grey clouds covered the sky like a blanket of dust. Rain slowly came pouring down, and I knew a storm was near.

That was the first paragraph of my story. Please leave comment on it, if there is anything I could improve, or if there is something that you like. I would love to hear what you think of it. I may post the second paragraph soon.

   Jessica xx :)