“Are you coming Lana? God, I swear your slower than a turtle!” Chase teased.

“Well not everyone is on the track team Chase.”

I rolled my eyes as I tried to pick up my pace with the rest of my friends.

See today is Halloween and Chase had the amazing idea to go up to this abandoned house at the end of our neighborhood street. I’m usually not one for spooky ghost hunting but Liam is here and I can’t make my self look like a scardy cat! There’s 7 of us. Me, Liam, Chase, Brandon, Marie, Leo, and Jade.

All of us are excited to go inside the house… well, everyone except me. I’ve heard people say that whoever goes in, doesn’t come out the same. And that right there, scares me.

“Guys are you really sure this is a good idea?” I ask nervously.

Leo put his arms around me, “You’re not scared are you?”

I gingerly remove his arms and walk next to Marie who is giggling, “I’m just saying that maybe some 16 year olds shouldn’t go to an abandoned house on Halloween night dressed as inmates!”

Marie snorted and Liam let out a chuckle, “It’ll be fine Lana! You’re always worrying. Relax!”

I was going to say something else but decided not to. I’ve always been the one to rain on my friends parade because I’m to cautious. I want to prove to them that I can be fun too! Which means that I’ll have to go along on this stupid adventure.

Within minutes we come across the old house. It’s once pretty blue paint is now peeling away. The windows are dirty and grim streaked, some shattered. And the little gate on the front lawn open and closes from the wind making eerie noises. I guess now I’m not the only one uneasy because no one else has moved or said anything. Just us standing here staring at the house.

“W-well. What are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Jade says quietly.

We slowly shuffle closer to the house, opening the gate and going around the house. Technically we’re trespassing, but no one has lived here for years. It’s not like anyone is going to come here magically out of nowhere. Only the full moon can see us.

Chase points out a large window already smashed in and he climbs inside. The rest go in until it’s just me and Liam. “I’ll be in right behind you. Be carful with the glass that it doesn’t cut you.” Liam says to me.

So I have no choice but to climb in through the window. I hadn’t realized how sharp the glass around the window frame was until I’m inside the house and pain blossoms from the left hand. I quickly start to panick from the feeling of something hot and liquidy flow from my hand. From the dim lighting provided from the moon I see blood trickling down my palm from several cuts.

“Ugh! I cut my hand on the stupid glass.” I exclaimed.

Liam climbed through the window finally and glanced at my hand, “I said be careful.”

I scoff “I was! The glass is just sharp!”

Brandon cleared his throught, “If you guys can stop arguing like a married couple we have a haunted house to explore.”

Married couple? We were not arguing like a married couple. The audacity of some of my friends. We turn the flashlights of our phones and split up to see if we can find anything. I find a staircase leading to the second floor and slowly walk up. Each step I take sends a cloud of dust around my boots. The musty air making me want to gag at some parts. By the time I get upstairs my hair is sticking to my forehead from the sticky humid air swirling around the house. Room after room I explore until I find the rectangle shape in the roof.

“Hey guys?” I shout, “I found the attic.”

My friends rush up the stairs to join me in what looks like the master bathroom.

“It’s so weird that it’s placed in the bathroom don’t you think?” Jade asked.

I shrugged, “This house was made in the 60’s according to my dad. And the man who lived here inherited it from his grandfather a few years back. Maybe stuff was different back then.”

Liam, being the tallest, grabs the string for the attic door and pulls. Stairs quickly creek down causing Liam to jump out of the way. We all point out flashlights to see what’s inside, but I can’t see much from where I stand. So one at a time we each climb inside and stand inside the muggy tight space.

Marie huffed, “For a giant house this is quite the small attic.”

She’s right. It barely fits all of us and the rancid smell coming from here doesn’t help at all. Flys buzz by my ears causing me to get a little squirmish.

“Guys.” I hear Brandon say quietly.

He sounds scared. And I hear the others stop breathing. I push Marie and Liam gently aside to see what their seeing and I have to cover my mouth to stop from screaming. Two decaying bodies are slumped on a wall next to the attic window. And this time I can’t fight the urge to gag now that I know where the smell is coming from. I can’t tell the gender of either one of the bodies. Matted hair falling off and empty eyes staring at us. I can see some bone from some decaying parts and the smell was something out of the sewer. I think my nose actually turned off because of how bad it was.

We all glanced at each other before pushing each other trying to get down the stairs. Brandon and Jade fell down the stairs and while running Liam shouts in pain.

“What happened?” I asked frantically.

“I think I sprained my ankle. It got caught on one of the stairs.”

So with the help of Chase and I, we shoulder carry Liam and make it out of the house and ran as fast as we could away. We make it to a large patch of grass in the center of our neighborhood and we all collapse on the floor at of breath.

“Don’t come back.”

“What?” I said loudly.

The others glanced at me with questions in their eyes.

“Didn’t you hear that?” I said quietly.

Liam put a hand on my arm, “We’re all freaked out. It’s probably your imagination.”

I nodded and agreed with him. But I felt like somebody was watching me.

“Don’t come back.”