The three of us were all sitting in the living room staring idly at each other. My parents were out having dinner for their anniversary, and had left me in charge of my brother, Chris. Thankfully they let my girlfriend Natalie come over to keep me company while I watched him. We were bored out of our minds, and we couldn't think of anything to do. It was a stormy night in March, so that ruled out any outdoor activities. We continued to sit in silence pondering different ideas for something to do to pass the time.

Finally Natalie breaks the silence. “Let's play a game,” she suggests. “What is there to play? There aren't too many games we could play that we could all enjoy,” I reply. “I know, we could play a board game! Everyone loves board games!” my younger brother says. With that, he jumps up from the couch and runs to a closet in the hallway. He reaches up and pulls down a board game and sprints back to the living room. He sets the game on the center coffee table for us to see. I groan. “Ugh, Haunted House? I swear, it feels like we've played that a thousand times.” “Yeah, but you never know... maybe this time it'll be different,” he replies with a grin.

He begins to pull out the game's contents and pour them out on the table. Outside we could hear lightning crackling through the air, and I almost jump as a resounding BOOM rocks the house. Gotta keep my cool in front of Natalie, I tell myself.

Chris finally finishes setting up the game, and we take our pieces and set them on the starting point. “Just remember, if you land on Scared to Death!, you lose!” Chris exclaims. I roll my eyes, and grab the dice. I shake them around in my hand a few seconds, then roll them across the board. Five. I move my piece ahead five spaces, then look to see what I landed on. “Fierce winds rattle the windows,” I read.

Suddenly, outside a strong gale rocks the house. My house's windows start rattling in their frames, and the three of us look at each other with the same frightened expression. The winds soon calm down and return to normal. I'm the first to compose myself, and I say out loud, “These storms always get so violent out here in the country,” trying to appear confident and hide my own fear. “Yeah, they do get pretty bad... I guess it's my turn,” Natalie says.

She looks shaken, but she still grabs the dice in her hand and shakes them a little before releasing them. Six. I look ahead to see what she would land on: Eerie creaks are heard on the staircase. As soon as her piece lands on the corresponding square, we instantly hear creaking on the staircase. My hands begin to shake, and I place them under the table so Natalie wouldn't see; Chris covers his ears and shivers visibly in his seat. Natalie is the next to speak, “Maybe it's just the cat.” “We don't have a cat,” I tell her, my expression grim.

I could tell Chris was very scared at this point, but I suppose he was trying to act brave; he snatches the dice up from the table and shakes them around in his hand. He rolls the dice then begins biting his fingernails. Eight. He slowly reaches for his game piece and starts to move it toward the eighth square, which reads: Loud screams are heard in the attic. He places his piece on the square.

A bloodcurdling scream cuts through the night air, and I can't help it; I jump. Natalie gives a short, terrified scream of her own, and Chris ducks under the table. The screams cease and all that's left to be heard is the wind outside and my own thumping heartbeat. Chris returns from under the table, and his face is white as a ghost. “Maybe we shouldn't play this game anymore, everything seems to be happening exactly as the game says it will,” he says in a shaky voice. “Nonsense, that's impossible,” I say. “It's probably just the wind blowing through the shutters upstairs.”

Though I sounded so sure of myself, I was very apprehensive about rolling the dice again. What if it IS true? I ask myself. I decide it's all just in my head; my house makes weird noises all the time. I snatch the dice from the table and roll them. Two. I glance at the board to see what I'll land on. The lights go out. I move my piece toward the square with agonizingly slow precision. I place it on the square, and hold my breath to see what would happen. Nothing.

“You see, there's nothing to--”. I stop mid-sentence as suddenly all the lights in the house go out, and we're left in darkness. Natalie screams openly this time, and my breath starts coming out in shuddering gasps. I tell everyone to sit still, and make my way to the kitchen to find some matches. I light a candle and return to the table.

Natalie looks very frightened; you would've thought she'd seen a ghost. Chris is staring at me from behind his fingers. “It's just a game you guys, it can't really predict what's going to happen,” I say. Natalie doesn't look so convinced, but she reaches for the dice and rolls them anyway. Four. She moves her piece ahead four spaces to land on a square with the words: The water faucets all turn on.


Suddenly we hear the sound of gushing water coming from the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. I leap up from the couch and dash to the kitchen in the dark to turn off the sink faucet, as Chris races to the bathroom to do the same. We return to the living room and slowly seat ourselves. Natalie is curled in a ball, too afraid to move. Chris says, “Lets not play this anymore, this is getting WAY too freaky.” I wanted to appear cool and brave in front of Natalie, so I tell him, “You wanted to play this game, so lets finish it. I mean come on, you only need to roll a seven or higher and you win.”

Chris reaches for the dice once more, and rolls them across the table. We all hold our breath while we wait to see what he would get. Six. He moves his piece onto the second to last space, and I moan in horror. Scared to Death!


The wind outside begins howling. We begin hearing loud creaking on the steps, and a deafening scream tears through the house. The lights finally turn back on, only to go back out a second later. They continue to repeat this menacing performance. Above all of this we hear the water faucets turn themselves on again. I begin screaming, trying to drown out everything going on around us. I hear Chris and Natalie doing the same. I keep screaming, terrified by what was happening. I continue screaming until I'm out of breath, then keep trying anyway. My lungs devoid of oxygen, I begin to feel lightheaded, then slowly lose consciousness

I awake many hours later, and shake Chris and Natalie awake; it's still dark outside. I make my way to the kitchen, feeling like something's out of place. A newspaper is sitting on the counter, and I snatch it up. I glance at the headline, which reads: THREE TEENAGERS FOUND DEAD INSIDE HOME. I look through the article, and find a statement a police officer had given. “I'd never seen anything like it, we couldn't find any evidence indicating how they died. It was like they'd been scared to death!” I glanced at the newspaper's date: March 15th, 1947. I realized then what had happened. We'd all died that night, and had continued to haunt this house ever since. I set down the newspaper as horror began to envelop me. Suddenly I heard Natalie call my name from the living room, and all my thoughts were washed away.

I returned to the living room, and sat down on the couch. Natalie, Chris and I stare idly at each other, trying to figure out what to do until my parents got home. Finally Natalie breaks the silence. “Let's play a game,” she suggests. “What is there to play? There aren't too many games we could play that we could all enjoy,” I reply. “I know, we could play a board game! Everyone loves board games!” my younger brother says. With that, he jumps up from the couch and runs to a closet in the hallway. He reaches up and pulls down a board game and sprints back to the living room. He sets the game on the center coffee table for us to see. I groan. “Ugh, Haunted House? I swear, it feels like we've played that a thousand times.” “Yeah, but you never know... maybe this time it'll be different,” he replies with a grin.