I Dare You...

            She was gone. Amanda was gone. She just vanished. Where could she have gone with a dead body?

            “Amanda!” My voice sounded muffled in the small, dusty furnace room. I looked in the small opening of the secret crawl space we had discovered. Amanda and the body had been right there.

            There was only silence. I didn’t notice it before, never paid attention to it. My heart raced. I was alone.

 

 

            It all started with a simple dare. Stay in the haunted house for fifteen minutes. Easy. There definitely wouldn’t be any dead bodies to find. Amanda and I had been so confident about this dare. Neither of us believed in ghosts and nothing out of the ordinary has ever happened in or around the old, overgrown, orange house. It had been vacant for as long as I could remember. The house was never occupied and was never put up for sale.

            Amanda and I had gotten in the house through a broken basement window. We each had a flashlight in hand.

            “This is amazing,” Amanda said, already inside. I was climbing down the window.

            After landing safely on my feet with a thud, I flashed my light around. The basement was the size of the school gym. It fit a pool table, bar and a small eight-person home theatre. There were two doors on the other wall across. One door was open revealing a small bathroom that had a sink and toilet. The other room was a mystery with its door closed. The stairs to go to the upper level was off the side on the wall to the left.

            The house was clearly outdated and obvious no one had stepped foot in here for a very long time. Everything was coated with a thick layer of dust and there were cobwebs in every corner. The furniture looked like something that belonged in my great aunt’s house.

            “Look at this,” Amanda said.

            I followed the beam of her flashlight and saw a large 4’x6’ framed portrait of a man in what looked like Victorian style clothes.

            “His eyes moved!”

            “Sure it did. Amanda, it’s a painting.”

            “No! I’m positive.”

            I shook my head. I was curious about the closed door. There could be a sauna or Jacuzzi down here. I opened the door, disappointed to find a furnace room.

            “What’s in there?” Amanda asked, standing behind me.

            I stepped to the side and she walked in.

            There were three boxes randomly placed in the room. One was open, papers shuffled on top and around it. Like everything else we’ve seen, it was covered in dust.

            Achoo! Ah-ahchoo! The dust was getting too much for me. My nose was itchy from the inside.

            “Lexy, there’s something back here.”

            In the back of the 10’x10’ room was a blocked off small square that looked like some sort of crawl space. Planks of deteriorating wood had been nailed across it.

            “What do you think it is?” I picked up a couple of paper from the floor. The dust felt grainy on my fingertips. I looked pass the grey dust and saw bars and notes. There were lyrics to the melody.

Swiftly, silently, skilfully

I draw close to a finish

And another journey ends

            They were strange lyrics. I didn’t understand them. I dropped the sheets, not caring where they landed.

“Let’s check.” Amanda used her feet to kick away the planks, causing dust to fly in every direction. The planks broke awake like breaking apart wooden chopsticks.  “Cool! It’s like some secret passage.”

I watched Amanda crawl through the opening. What was that?!? I froze. My heart stopped. A dead body of a girl was falling out. She was on her knees, falling on to her side. I didn’t scream. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even feel my own heartbeat or breathe.

Her face... Her skin was so pale. She had a purple black eye. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her eyes. They were open big as if frightened, but empty as a shell. What must’ve been a few seconds felt like minutes. I was vaguely aware that the body had fallen on top of Amanda. I stared at the empty space where I got a good look of the body’s face, her pale face etched into my brain.

            “Lexy!” Amanda continuously yelled to get my attention, though sounded like background noise to me.

            I had closed my eyes but still saw the girl behind my eyelids as if reliving the event.

            “Lexy!” Amanda screamed in frustration.

            I opened my eyes to see Amanda trying to push the body off her.

            “Lexy, help me move it off me!”

            I shook my head back and forth. “N-no, no, no, no,” it came out as a whisper. My throat felt constricted by an unknown force.

            “Get your a*s over here and help me!”

            I felt myself slowly move back away from the scene in front of me. “I-I c-can’t.”

            Once at the door way, I hurried out up the stairs, through the kitchen and out the back door. I had no idea how I knew the way out. I found Peter, Jess, Ray and Matt across the street where they said they were going to wait. I was panting for air when I stood in front of them.

            “Where’s Amanda?” Peter asked.

            I told them exactly what happened, how we found the dead body and needed help to move it.

            “Oh! I’m sooo scared,” Jess said, sarcastically. “Amanda, time to go home!”

            “I’m not playin’ around! I’ll show you,” I said.

            They wouldn’t listen to any of it. Not even when I started crying did they believe me. Instead, my friends went on home saying they’ll meet us back there.

            Amanda.

            I couldn’t believe I left her there under a dead body and ran out on my own. I was a horrible friend. I took in a deep breath of much needed clean air before I had to go back in the dusty house. My body was shaking as I got closer to the house. My fists clenched to the side. It was getting harder and harder to breathe the closer I got to the house.

*

I went back to the furnace room, but both the body and Amanda was gone. Everything still looked the same except the missing bodies. I felt something cold wash over me. I started playing different scenarios in my mind. Perhaps someone took her. Maybe the body was a zombie. Or Amanda got away and went home. In my heart, I knew she was still somewhere in here. She had to be or we would have seen her when I went outside.

Upstairs. I realized I haven’t checked upstairs. I felt more nervous going upstairs than staying down in the basement. But Amanda was my friend. I couldn’t abandon a friend no matter how scared I was. Instincts told me to get out of here. My gut was doing strange things, causing me to feel sick. I felt the pizza I had earlier rise up to my throat.

 

 

I found myself in the small living room. I could see the empty street where my friends stood before.

“Amanda,” I said, searching around in circles.

Crshk. I turned my head to the direction of the sound. I let out a sigh. I was being paranoid. Ccrrshk. It came louder this time. For sure I was not hearing things. But it came from a different direction.

            I gasped, dropping the flashlight, which rolled under the leather recliner. There was a shadow by the kitchen doorway. I couldn’t tell if it was a ghost or an actual being. For some odd reason, I remembered the lyrics. My mind connected the dots on its own. The song had been about death, ending a life. This person-thing, whatever it was-had killed innocent people and wrote songs about them.  I couldn’t believe it.

            “I-I know what you did,” I said, nervously. Why was I talking to it? I didn’t know how it would help my situation. “Y-you killed her! You wrote a s-song about it. You’re sick! Murder-”

            It groaned angrily, taking a step to approach me and continued to do so as I backed away from it. My stomach tightened in knots.

I had a horrible feeling I discovered something I shouldn’t have. He came out into the dim light of the streets. I saw his face. I didn’t think it was possible. They were in stories, movies and TV shows. But here he was, standing right in front of me. His eyes were black orbs, two rows of fangs bared at me. There was no one to hear me scream.

Author's Note

My final creative writing class assignment. 1200 word limit. Final word count is 1450 (I went a bit over). It was based on a dream I had.

Reviews

[JC]

Dig this, love a good horror story. You'd be great at a series.

[Johanna Scarlet]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate you taking your time to read my story and leaving a review. I don't usually write horror stories, but who knows, maybe something will come up in the future.