A Devil’s Dare

A Devil's Dare-


Where I live, everyone knew about it. Everyone knew about the abandoned house tucked in the forest, where people would go inside and never come out. Where you can look inside and tell that some of the rooms are dilapidated, but no one cared. At least one person each Halloween went in there and never came out.

The house was a massive, hideous piece of garbage. The exterior was once a bright purple and orange, but over the years; the colours had faded leaving the house dull. There was no backyard because it had been overtaken by a graveyard. Every few steps you take to get to the front door, there are little, rancid smelling trenches you have to either walk through or jump over. It smelled musty everywhere within 100 meters of the house.

This year, I was the house’s victim. My friends dared me to go inside and explore it on Halloween night, and I never turned down a dare. I wanted to check out the house anyways and figure out why people never came out after they went in.
I approached the house after I had gone trick-or-treating. My stomach was full of candy and I was in my devil’s costume. I felt like I could face any challenges this stupid house threw at me. As I walked in between the bushes towards the front door, my heart raced and my head spun. I was frightened, confused and proud all at the same time.

The silence was suddenly broken by a deep moan. I looked around, but there was nothing there. As I kept walking, my long, brown hair flicked from side to side, making my neck itchy. I took a few more steps and reached the front door, took a deep breath, and then turned the doorknob slowly. The door creaked open.

It was too dark inside to see anything and it smelled like stale milk. I turned around and closed the door; the floor creaked beneath my feet. I reached into my little backpack I had brought with me and grabbed my flashlight. Still facing the door, I turned it on and screamed. In front of me was a dead, eerie clown, with a knife through its throat, hanging on the door. My flashlight flickered for a second and when the light came on again, my devil horns were in the clown’s hand.

I turned around and quickly took a few more steps into the house, and examined the area. All that was there was a long, dark hallway. For a split second, I thought maybe I should leave, but then something told me I shouldn’t.
I started walking down the hallway, with my flashlight in front of me. The smell of stale milk got stronger with each step I took. Every 10 feet there was a door on either side of the hallway, with a dead body hanging on it, the same way as the clown was, with a knife through its throat. Some of the people I recognized, they had gone to my school.

Finally, I reached the end of the hallway. There was a door, but unlike the other doors, this one had no body on it. My stomach started churning; I had to get out of there! I turned around and was about to run out of the house, but when I tried to move my feet, they wouldn’t move. I was frozen. I heard the door behind me creak open, and then the floor beneath me started moving. I was being pulled towards the door. The door shut in front of my face, almost hitting me, and locked. I was trapped, but I could move again.

I turned around and flicked off my flashlight, this room was a bit brighter than the hallway. I looked up and saw an old, rusty, metal staircase. I decided the only way out was probably up on the next floor, so I walked up the stairs.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I found a strange room. There was blood dripping down the walls and the room was a circular shape. It was huge, but there were no doors. There were no windows except for the skylight, which was partially open. I also saw a ladder sitting on the other side of the room.

As I walked over towards the ladder, I wondered why no one had ever made it out of the house alive. Were they just stupid? Or had they gone into one of the rooms with a dead body on it? It seemed all so easy! I picked up the ladder and carried it over towards the middle of room. I lifted it upright and started to climb.

When I reached the top, I was really tired. It had to be at least 11:00 pm, so I decided to take a quick break. I sat on the top part of the ladder, with one hand on the windowsill. All of a sudden, the ladder was pulled out from under me. I swung my arm up and hung on the ledge, careful not to let go with my other hand. I looked down, the floor was gone and below me was a dark, bottomless pit. As I hung on for my life, I realized why no one ever made it out alive.

The part of the skylight that was open suddenly smashed down onto my fingers, forcing me to let go. As I fell down the hole, my red gown flowing above me, I suddenly vanished into the darkness. The only trace I was there that night was my devil horns in the clown’s fist on the front door, but otherwise, no one knew where I was going, not even me.