It started out as a harmless game of truth or dare; but it soon morphed into a dangerous game of life or death.

   

        The friends Amaya, Emily, Gabriella and Lucy were sitting around a table at a café; they were discussing their upcoming sleepover and making plans. The friend group had always been too reckless and fearless for their own good. So, as you would expect, they were planning quite a few dangerous things to do. So far, they were planning to use Lucy’s mother’s old tent to camp out in the nearby woods. It was dangerous because there were rumours of wolves and even bears living in the woods. They didn’t care as long as it was exciting, they didn’t have a care in the world.

   ‘So,’ Emily began. ‘What else could we do?’

   The group sat thinking for a few minutes before Gabriella broke the silence.

   ‘I’m pretty sure there’s an abandoned house near the forest,’ Gabriella replied, adjusting her glasses. ‘No one’s lived there for decades.’

   ‘We have to go there!’ Amaya said excitedly, putting her smoothie down. ‘This could be the highlight of the entire sleepover!’

  Everyone agreed and got back to thinking about what else to do. They had 2 days before the sleepover, so they had to come up with the most exciting plan they could. After days of thinking, they came up with the idea to play truth or dare and play hide and seek in the large woods.

 

     Finally, it was the day of the sleepover. They had all packed their bags and were headed for the wolf infested forest. They found a nice clearing to set up camp in and then began doing all the activities they had planned. First was hide and seek, where Amaya succeeded as seeker more than 10 times. Then, they played some horror-themed games. After all of that, it was finally time for truth or dare.

    It was Emily’s turn first, where she dared Amaya to climb up a tree and hang upside down for 10 seconds. Amaya considered it as nothing compared to what she had done before. A few more dares went by and then it was Gabriella’s turn.

     ‘Amaya, truth or dare?’ She asked, already having a dare in mind.

     ‘Dare, of course!’ Amaya replied.

     ‘I dare you to go into the abandoned house alone for a full 20 minutes!’

     ‘Finally, something exciting!’

     The friends made their way to the abandoned house together and, before letting Amaya go in alone, they took a good look at the house. It looked like it was about to collapse and when you looked through the windows you could spiders scuttering around on their webs, looking to get enough food for the day. Even the slightest wind made the house creak after years of providing a home for many families. The house was deserted because the last family that lived there said they had heard and witnessed strange things over the 3 years they lived there. Towards the end of their time at the house, their daughter went missing. Then, 6 months later, the entire family was murdered under mysterious circumstances. The case still stood unsolved 20 years later. After the unfortunate things that happened to the last family that lived there, no one dared to step foot in the house.

    Ready to go, Amaya waved goodbye to her friends and stepped inside the house. They heard the house creak once again as Amaya passed the threshold of the front door. The group waited for 20 minutes, and when Amaya didn’t come out they started to worry. However, the house was quite big so they thought that she could have gotten lost. They waited another five minutes but still no sign of Amaya.

    After 25 minutes of waiting, the decided to venture inside themselves and find her. The second they passed over the threshold, they could tell this house hadn’t been nourished for 20 years. Spider webs covered the walls and some of the windows were so dusty you couldn’t see the many trees outside. Wallpaper was peeling off in various places and the rug laid on the floor was torn in no less than 10 different places. The colours of the rug was washed out so that all you could see was a faint red and green.

    After 5-10 minutes of looking around, Emily broke the silence.

   ‘Amaya?’ She called, looking around for any sign of life other than small bugs scuttling around the rotted, wooden floor. However, no one called back.

    At this point, the group were starting to get worried for their friend. And began looking around was again. They explored the first floor with still no sign of Amaya. They climbed up to the second floor and were horrified to find a trail of dark red blood the stairs. Ifthe blood was dried, they wouldn’t be scared. However, when Gabriella touched the blood it came off on her hand.

   Instantly, the group of friends knew something had happened. They ran upstairs and still so no sign of life. The blood led to a nearby closet, so they ran and pulled the door open. Amaya was sitting in there, trying not to make a sound.

   ‘Sssssh!’ Amaya whispered, pulling them down next to her and quickly shutting the door. ‘We c-can’t let him h-hear us!’

  It was clear Amaya had been crying; her cheeks were wet with tears. Then they heard it. A creak coming from outside. Everyone began to panic until the closet slowly opened and a figure was revealed.

 ‘Go!’ Amaya screamed. ‘Go!’

   Lucy, Emily and Gabriella ran out of the house and, suddenly, everything was quite once again.