• A Night to Forget
    “I bet you’ll chicken out. No girl has ever made it inside for a night,” Seth boasted smugly. He laid his head on the soft, green grass. He didn’t look like a 14 year old. Neither did his friends Rose, Beca, and Lizzy. People often told them that they looked like collage kids. All they said was that was what the Montana country did to you, made you older.
    “That’s because they were tourists,” his friend Rose retorted, knocking him out of his trance-like state. “No girl from around here has ever tried. Besides, you know we don’t back down from a challenge, especially one you failed at.”
    “Whatever,” He responded. They waited for Beca and Lizzy for a little while longer. The silence grew between them as the sun began shrinking into the rolling Montana hills.
    “There they are!” Rose shouted while two girls ran towards them, matching pace for pace. She turned to look at Seth. “I told you they would come. They wouldn’t freak out and leave me here alone anyways.”
    “Yeah you were right,” Seth replied when Lizzy and Beca came into hearing distance. “They came.” At once all the girls looked at him. “What?” he asked, his voice tinted with surprise.
    “No duh we came. We wouldn’t chicken out,” Beca pointed out. “We don’t freak, now let’s go check the scary house out. See why everybody fears it,”
    All of them started climbing the dark and gloomy path that led to the strange unfinished farmhouse.
    The wind began to blow and the smell of sawdust mixed with rotting wood reached their noses. “Whatever that is,” Lizzy joked, “it sure isn’t roses!” No one retorted because of the sight in front of their eyes. The strange unfinished farmhouse stood before them.
    Angels sat on the roof, paint was peeling, and the shed next to the house was rotting. “Well isn’t this a beauty? I guess I’ll just run back to town. My parents might worry and my supper is getting cold,” Seth suggested, knowing it would lighten the mood.
    Rose snorted then began, “No this place is much to nice not to bask in its glory. Surely you’re not getting cold feet, are you?”
    “Of course not!” he responded, sounding quite undignified. She simply shrugged as if to say, sure, of course not.
    “Now all we have to do is wait until sundown to go in,” Rose observed. They all settled on the rolling grass to wait for the sun to set.
    Fifteen minutes later, the sun was setting. “Time to go in. Lucky us,” Lizzy grumbled. Rose smiled to try to sooth the moment of dread that they were about to embrace.
    Slowly, the girls approached the house. “Good luck!” Seth shouted. Beca opened the door and they looked at each other as they crossed the threshold.
    As soon as the door shut a voice called out in a broken whisper, “Welcome, to the game.”
    “Who, who are you?” Rose managed to stammer. “What do you want with us?” There was a moment of dreary silence and the soft padding of feet on a creaky stairway greeted them.
    Slowly a figure came into view. There was nothing that could describe it; it looked older than time, then it smiled at them. “Hello, my name is Chester. My dears tonight will be a night you will not soon forget.” He laughed as if it was a joke he found quite intriguing.
    Chester, as it called itself disappeared, like smoke, into thin air. All that was left was a cackling laughter and a note that said, “Play fair.”
    “Well now,” Beca whispered, “I come here to get out of family game night and get into a larger game. Now isn’t that ironic?”
    All of a sudden a slow, steady hum started. Like a fly by your ear, very annoying. Lizzy blinks and when she opens her eyes and screams bloody murder. “What?” Rose asks while she and Beca run towards to the scream. When they got to the room the screaming had stopped and they saw what Lizzy was staring at, and then burst out laughing. A mysterious voice coons, ”Kill it, or it will kill you!” They all stood paralyzed with fear until Lizzy runs and smashes a rapidly growing spider with a glowing candle stick.
    “Creepy much?” Rose called, breaking the silence.
    “Nope, I do this all the time,” Lizzy replied. The candlestick in her had begun growing steadily brighter. They all stared at it in wonder, none of them knowing what to do next.
    “BOOM!” a huge explosion shook the room, and it came from the candlestick.
    “What the…” Rose started to ask, but the question was replaced by a scream when the room darkened.
    Ghosts and many things flew through the room after the scream.
    The brightly glowing figures started to walk towards the girls. Needless to say, what happened after that. The girls ran far away from the ghosts and farther into the abandoned, unfinished farmhouse.
    Rose ran in the direction of the East Wing. She ran into a walk-in closet filled with old dresses smelling of dust. They were elegantly made of silk and satin. The fabric was still smooth; even though it appeared that they hadn’t been worn for 75 years.
    The temperature dropped rapidly, leaving her shivering from the cold. Fear swept over her like an avalanche. She started hearing the soft whisper of fine fabrics. Rose searched the area around her for the origin of the sound. The lights, which had previously been switched on, flickered. She looked around and was tackled by twenty dresses, putting up a mean fight.
    The dresses took her down like a sack of rice. A scream rose in her throat while her hands searched for a way out of the pile that had formed. Her hands reached for fabric, found some, and tore it. The sound of the ripping seemed to echo throughout the room. Suddenly she could move, nothing was holding her down, so she bolted for the door.
    Beca was having a problem of her own. She had run to the northern wing of the farmhouse, and kept running until she reached the last door. She stopped running and stood still, wondering where to go in the darkness that seemed to swallow her whole. The sound of an old door opening sprang her from her thoughts.
    The lights flickered on and a gym was light up before her eyes. Without a thought, Beca stepped through the doorway and onto a wooden floor. Standing there for a moment, she gathered her courage and walked forward. With each step she felt more confident.
    She reached the center of the wooden floor and, Snap! the door shut. “Hello?” ,Beca called out, unsure of herself. “Who is there?” No one called a response, but something did step forward. The something was a suit of padding that you use when you fence. It stepped towards her with two swords in hand. It laid one at her feet and motioned for her to pick it up.
    When she did, it saluted the got into a ready position. “Here goes nothing,” she muttered, and then did the same. It lashed out at the speed of light and she responded with the same quickness. You can best describe it poetry in motion. Their silver blades flashing back and forth with their parries. Sparks flew from the edges of the swords and created a dazzling lightshow.
    After what seemed like hours of dueling Beca, with a sudden flash of speed, disarmed her opponent. Stunned, she dropped her sword and backed up towards the door. Once she made it, she turned and ran, retracing her steps. At that point she didn’t care. She just wanted to get away from the mysterious gym.
    Meanwhile, Lizzy had run into a dog fight. She heard a steady noise coming from the room three doors down from the great foyer. The noise she had stumbled upon wasn’t what she has suspected. It was a dog fight. Although she was surprised to see dogs in the house, she was more shocked to see what form they were in.
    Now if they were normal dos, she probably wouldn’t have shrieked. They weren’t normal in any stretch of the imagination, they were all bones. Seriously, like the bones in a graveyard, so you see why she shrieked. I would have, too. When she let out a blood curtailing scream all of the dogs turned to look at her.
    They all stood still for a moment, and then the dogs sprang into action. They charged at Lizzy and shocked her into motion. She ran out and began sprinting down the long hall. Of all the things that could have been running through her mind while being chased by bone-dogs, she was wondering what flesh tasted like to them. Was it tender or like ash in their mouths?
    A sharp pain on her hell caused her to focus on what was happening. One dog had a hold of her heel. Pain shooting up her leg like needles she smashed the dog’s head with her foot. As soon as it hit the floor all of the dogs dissolved into dust and settled on the floor.
    Panting from her sprint and focusing on her heel, she didn’t hear someone running in her direction. She sat on the ground to check her heel, and found it in bad shape. Standing abruptly she faltered when she heard someone scream. Not thinking, she ran towards the scream, ignoring the pain in her leg.
    When she reached the room, she heard something walk towards her. “Turn around,” a familiar voice commanded.
    “Beca?” Lizzy inquired, shaking from fear. There was a pause in the room, and then Lizzy turned to face her captor.
    “Oh, thank you Lord! Sorry, I thought you were something else.” Beca gushed. Then she noticed how Lizzy was standing, off-balance. “What happened to your foot?”
    “I got attacked by dogs made of bones. One got my heel,” Lizzy shrugged like it happened every day.
    “Oh,” Beca said, looking a little surprised. “Have you seen Rose? Because I was looked for her too and can’t seem to find her.”
    “Nope. Guess that means we have to find her,” Lizzy replied with tons of sarcasm. “Yahoo we get to explore the haunted house, just what I wanted to do.”
    So Lizzy and Beca did what they could, wandering though the house for hours upon hours, finding no way though the house. When they heard a noise they would run. Once, during one of these times, Lizzy fell to the ground. “Umph!” she cried as she hit the solid floor.
    “You okay?” Beca asked.
    “Yep, feels like I landed on a group of feather pillow. Now help get me up,” Lizzy commanded her friend.
    “Alright, don’t get pushy,” Beca said sounding agitated. While she helped Lizzy up a light was shone on them and a hand grabbed her wrist.
    “Who are you? How did you get here? Speak up now.” The stranger began in a tone that was shaking with fear, but still commanding.
    “My name is Beca, and this is…” her sound being cut off by a huge hug. Suddenly the light was taken out of their faces.
    “Oh thank you. It’s you!” Lizzy gasped then ran over to hug the girl standing next to Beca.
    Rose grinned, “Well finding you two has been about as easy as finding a needle in a haystack.”
    They all hugged and Rose turned to observe their surroundings. The aroma of fresh meat cooking reached the girls.
    “Wha…?” Beca started to ask then was suddenly silenced.
    A rocking chair began to rock towards the girls. Slow at first, but steadily becoming faster. They all began to back away, slowly at first, then faster.
    Then a sofa moved towards them. Next a loveseat, then every other piece of furniture in the room moved towards them as one.
    “Oh no, this can’t be good,” Lizzy whispered.
    “Really? I thought it would be great!” Rose replied sarcastically, while searching for an exit.
    Everywhere furniture moved to surround them. Beca was beginning to look nervous. “Um Beca, you okay?” Lizzy asked.
    “I’m okay. We just gotta do something. Doing it soon would most probably be best,” she replied, her voice a strangled whisper.
    A chair lunged for the girls. They stepped out of its way and started leaping over anything that crossed into their path.
    One by one they made it to the door and stepped outside. When Rose, who made it there first, stepped out the first rays of sunlight began to shine through the morning mist.
    Beca made it next, the Lizzy. They all walked out of the door, one after another. Seth looked up and smiled at them.
    He stood and jogged toward them. A cackling laughter, surprisingly like Chester’s, came from inside the house. “Until next time, my dears. Didn’t you just love my game, no worries you’ll be back!” The door shut as the laughter faded.
    The girls walked to the steps. A light breeze made the over grown weeds look like waves of an ocean. One by one they stepped onto the grass, and lost it.
    Lost their memories of the night, all memories of the running and challenges. Chester’s last words to them were the only thing they remembered. His voice, an echo fading from the sides of a canyon, was forever burned in their brains. They shared a look and knew, they would be back, and it would be soon.