The basement walls were gray and cracked. Spiderwebs were stitched perfectly in all corners of the room. The stench of mold and mildew drifted in the air.

We all glanced at one another. I rested my head on my hand and sighed. Chris was twiddling his thumbs and totally out of it. Alex was picking up loose cement chunks from the floor and flicking them at Jessie. They bounced off of her. She continued to ignore them and was still asleep on Chris’s shoulder.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea!” Chris exclaimed.

Jessie shot up from his shoulder. “What is it?” she asked excitedly.

“How about we go to that old, abandoned house down the road?”

Alex stopped flinging rocks and looked up at Chris. “You mean the house of that old lady who passed away years ago?”

“Yeah, I heard it’s haunted by her granddaughter. Boo!” he said as he waved his hands in the air.

We all glanced at one another again. Then they all leaned closer to my face and looked questionably at me. “I guess we could go tonight...” I answered and swallowed the lump in my throat.

Later that night, we arrived at the house. It was already past dusk. The light from the full moon shined down, providing enough light to see the house.

It was a brick house. Some of the bricks were missing or loose, and some were stained black from the fire. All of the windows were broken, and the grass was yellow and dying.

I stood there while all of them headed towards the house. I stared blankly at the house. I

scanned all of the windows until I got to the last window. There was a little girl standing at the window. Her fingers were grasped around the window pane. She seemed to be around five or six years old. She stared at me, without even blinking. I took a cautious step back and shut my eyes. I gulped and took a deep breath. Then I opened my eyes again, and she was gone.

I stood there in shock until Alex snapped me out of it. He popped out of the doorway and called out to me, “Hey, what are you doing out there? Get in here already!”

I proceeded towards the house slowly. The door was torn off of the hinges and was rotting away on the sidewalk. I stepped over the door carefully and entered the house.

The inside of the house was just as dilapidated as the outside. The paint on the walls was chipping and stained black. All of the paintings or photographs were knocked on the floor and broken. The glass from the photographs was scattered all around the floor. The furniture and carpet was charred. Spiderwebs filled the corners of the room and between the spaces of the stairs railing.

Chris broke the silence. “Jessie and I will search the upstairs. You guys take the downstairs,” he said as he flicked on his flashlight. He grabbed Jessie’s hand and ascended the stairs. One by one, they stepped on them, and each one of them made a creaking noise.

The feeling of this house gave me the creeps. Especially with what I had seen earlier, the house seemed even more foreboding. I grabbed Alex’s warm hand and followed him.

For a while it was dead silent. You could even have heard a pin drop. Then we heard Jessie and Chris scream horridly in unison. Alex and I looked at each other wide-eyed and bolted up the steps.

We ran through all of the hallways and rooms. Neither of them showed up. All we found was their flashlight. It flickered on and off. I picked it up and turned it off. The coldness of the metal shot through my fingers

“Chris! Jessie!” we both shouted. We waited for a few seconds, but there was no response.

“What do we do?” Alex wondered.

I told him about what I had seen outside of the house before I came in. He listened closely and stared at me with his mouth dropped open. “Why didn’t you tell us?!” he questioned eagerly.

“I...I’m sorry. I didn’t want to scare you guys...” I cried.

“Well, they’re gone. They disappeared into thin air. We have to get out of here now!” he said as he headed towards the exit.

Then, the girl popped up just a foot in front of him. Her hair was black and looked like a rat’s nest. Her dress was torn up and singed. Scars ran up her arms and legs, and her skin was sooty. She stepped her left foot forward. Then her right foot. Alex dropped the flashlight on the ground and stumbled back. He tripped over the flashlight and fell onto the ground with a thump. He sat there, motionless, with the most terrified look on his face.

I threw everything in the house around, looking for some sort of weapon. I went into the kitchen and found a knife on the counter. Grabbing it, I ran back to the exit, but both Alex and the girl were gone.

Then I felt cold breath on the back of my neck. I turned around slowly, my heart beating out of my chest. I closed my eyes. Once I turned all the way around, I threw my eyes open. There she was, standing right below me, looking down at the floor. She lifted her head gradually and finally looked me straight in the eyes. She cracked a grin and then shrieked with laughter. Her head was cocked back, and her eyes were wide and blood-shot. She stopped and smiled wickedly and pushed me down on the ground and crawled on top of me.
The knife I had grabbed earlier was right beside me. I reached for it and stabbed her right in the chest. She stumbled back and ripped the knife out. She laughed and glared at me and continued to pursue me. I quickly jumped up and ran to the door. I escaped without looking back. I got home safe and sound. I never saw my friends, or that house, ever again.