A Dare Was What It Started With by babymickey98 (best ereader manga txt) 📕

“I dare you to enter that house.”
That was my friend, Alyssa. The house we were talking about was the house opposite mine. Ever since we were young, we always talked about how horrific that house was. The house was rumored to be haunted. By the looks of it, the rumors may be true. The house was a dark grey color, overgrown grass and it had some kind of a dark aura surrounding it. I don’t even know who lives there. It looks empty but it has been like that for as long as I could remember.
My name is Amy Christian Role. Thirteen years of age, light brown waist length hair and grey eyes. My family and I just moved to Washington D.C. a few years ago. I am not the most sociable person but when I have true friends, I keep them. When I say not sociable, it doesn’t mean that I have attitude problem. For crying out loud, I was not even rude or obnoxious and especially not snobbish. I was just a ‘bit’ weird, I guess. I mean; I like horror stuffs and for that guys find me weird. Most of them. Do they think that all girls are like those Malibu Barbies who only think about whether they are fat, how gorgeous they looked and act like they are scared when any horror shows comes along. Seriously! That is just PATHETIC.
Anyway, coming back to the matter at hand; the haunted house. Shouldn’t scary music be coming in now? That always happens in movies. Alyssa was looking at me with a daunting look on her face about the dare she just gave me. I was 100% glad that Alyssa was not a Malibu Barbie. She was pretty but the best part was that she like horror stuff too. That was why she was my one and only friend resulting in her being my best friend too. We were playing a game of Truth or Dare. It was just the two of us. So far, Alyssa has chosen Truth for all of them but when my turn came, I chose a dare and I was not going to back out of it. After all, it was my choice. She gave me a smug smile.
“Are you going to accept the dare?” she asked the smile still on her face.
“Yes.” The look on her face was totally worth agreeing to the dare.
“What?” she shouted; flabbergasted. “Are you serious? We are talking ‘bout real life horror here, Amy not movie horror. You got to be kidding me.”
“Nope.” I said popping the p. I was really serious. Even though I was scared, I was dying to see what was in that house. After all, it was the house that intrigued my curiosity in horror stuff. I ran down from my room with Alyssa trailing behind me. We exited my house and slowly walked towards the haunted house and stopped at the beginning of its path. There was a strong wind surrounding us now and evening was coming. I wrapped my jacket tighter around me before taking a deep breath and continued walking up the path towards the house that was now in front of me. It suddenly looked so huge. I swallowed. I tried whistling to get rid of the fear when suddenly a hand grabs mine.
“Amy.” I turned to face Alyssa and for the first time, I saw fear in her eyes. She has never once showed fear before not even when she was summoned to the school’s principal office for putting a spider there. She loves playing pranks on people especially our school’s principal.
“Amy, I take back the dare. You don’t have to do it. Let’s just go back.” She whispered so soft that I barely got it.
“No, it’s seriously fine,” I said forcing a smile. I just wanted to see what’s in there and get out. “If there is anything wrong, I’ll scream, okay?” She looked unsure but nodded her head. I shrugged my hand out of hers and ran up the path to the house. I figured the faster I get there and get out, the better. My consciences told me that I can still don’t go but the dare has plagued my curiosity till there was no turning back. I knocked on the door twice before opening it. I could feel Alyssa’s eyes on me. I turned and waved to her to show her that I was fine before stepping into the house.
The inside of the house was dark. Sunlight flickered in through the windows but it didn’t do much. One. Two. Three. Four steps. I stood in front of a long stairway that spiraled upwards. The door behind me slammed close suddenly. I jumped.
“It’s just the wind. It’s just the wind.” I muttered to myself trying to calm my heart that was beating fast. My breath was coming out in short gasps. I turned to leave but something stopped me. It was a sound and it was coming from upstairs. I turned back and walked up the stairs; curiosity in me.
‘Thump. Thump. Thump.’
There goes my heart; beating fast continually. Stupid heart! Can’t you calm down? By the time I finished silently scolding my heart; I was already on the first floor.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. My eyes scanned my surrounding. It was empty. The floor was covered up in a thick layer of dust. Something suddenly fell in front of me. My hand reached up to my mouth to stifle a scream. My heart rate calmed down and I laughed softly when I realized that it was just a spider. There were no rooms on this floor, though. Weird.
I continued up the stairs to the second floor. I put on a brave face even though I was the total opposite. There was nothing except for a few rooms that was empty. There wasn’t any furniture in sight. That was not surprising though as there was no one that stayed in this house, I guess? Then, where did the noise come from? I turned to leave thinking that maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me when I heard it again.
Dum! Dum!
It sounded like a bouncing ball. I turned back and continued up the stairs. When I said I thought this place was huge, I was wrong. It is huge. I slowly trudged up the stairs, thinking about the curious sound. So far I have not seen a single person so could it be…be a ghost?
As soon as that thought came to mind, my mind started protesting. There wasn’t such a thing as ghost. There couldn’t be, right? I took the last step up to the third floor. I looked to my left, relieved that there was nothing there except empty rooms like the second floor. I nearly screamed when I looked to my right. There was someone there and I was certain it was a male but his back was to me. Is he real? I didn’t know ghost were that good looking. My eyes scanned him. He was holding a basketball in his hands; bouncing it up and down randomly. So that was the sound. He was wearing sneakers, brown knee-length pants and a red jerky that has the word Zach on it and the number 9 on it.
Wait. Zach?
“Zach?” I asked needing to confirm whether it was really ‘The Zach’. He turned and I was able to see his face. Yup. It is him. The almighty, famous Zach was actually here, in this haunted house? I laughed. The person that scared me so much was Zach? I burst out laughing again. He gave me a look that said ‘What ate your brain till you lost your mind’. I controlled my laughter and stopped.
“What are you doing here?” I asked stepping closer.
“Amy?” I nodded my head surprised that he knew who I was.
“You didn’t answer my question.” I walked closer till it was only a mere distance between us.
“What question?”
“What. Are. You. Doing. Here?” I repeated myself slowly as though I was talking to a small kid that wouldn’t understand if I don’t go slowly.
He blushed. Zach actually blushed. The cool and popular Zach blushed? Was the world coming to an end?
“Umm…I always come here to…you know…play.”
“Play?” I was confused and then it struck me.
“Oh…I get it. Play. So… where’s the girl?” He looked at me, confusion clearly stated in his eyes before it widened and he turned a deeper shade of red.
“No. That was not what I meant. There is no girl here. I play here by myself. This house used to belong to my grandparents before they pass away. When I was little, I come here a lot and even after they passed away, I still come here.” His eyes held a look that was almost…loving?
“I’m sorry.” I placed my hand on his shoulder to help in some way. I felt really bad. He came here because of his late grandparents and here I was thinking dirty thoughts
“What are ‘you’ doing here?” I removed my hands from his shoulder and smiled at him sheepishly.
“Alyssa dared me to come in here and I accepted the dare. I admit it was really creepy at first what with the sound your basketball made but curiosity got the better of me. By the way, Alyssa is my friend. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Nope.”
“By the way, how do you come in here? I mean if you entered by the front door, I would have seen you but I never did. You don’t have superpowers, do you?” This question has been bugging me ever since I saw him here. Not about the superpowers. That was just meant as a joke. He laughed.
“There is a back door at from the kitchen downstairs and I don’t have superpowers. What world do you think we live in?”
“I was just kidding. I think I should get going. Alyssa may be practically freaking out right now. Nice seeing you here, though. Glad to know it was a human instead of a ghost.” And just to prove myself right that Alyssa was freaking out, I peeked out of one of the windows and there she is; jumping up and down outside the house looking like a lost bunny. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing even though I knew she was just worried for me. He too, looked out of the window and laughed. I turned to walk towards the stairs when I stopped.
“Um, Zach?” He left the window and looked at me. “Why are there no rooms on the first floor but only on the second and third floor?” I knew it was a random question but it did struck me as weird.
He laughed at my randomness before answering “The first floor used to be more of a play land. My cousins and I keep all our toys and stuff on that floor and when we have the time we will play with them. It is also easier for our grandparents to keep an eye on us.”
I nodded and smiled. “Sure. Thanks.”
I walked about a quarter down the stairs when he called me. “Amy?”
“Yes?”
“It was really nice seeing you here too.”
****
That night as I lay in bed, my thought went back to earlier in the evening. After I walked out of the house, Alyssa bombarded me with questions. I told her everything except about Zach and after hanging around for a bit, she left. I didn’t know whether he would be comfortable with me