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They were coming up on a small, dark home at the end of the lane. It had a worn For Sale sign in the front yard, number torn off the top. Weeds grew in spades on the property; as Leon stepped through the small gate, he saw something slither away in the darkness.
They found an entrance through a first floor window. Glass crunched under their boots as they carefully maneuvered through the smashed panes. Once they were all inside, Leo breathed a sigh of relief.
“Where to next?” He asked, turning to the tallest of his companions. “Kal, you said you’ve been here. Where do you think we’ll find the ghosts?”
“Follow me.” Kel hissed back. They led the group through to a room near the center of the house with no windows that Leo could see.
A light flared to life, making him flinch from the sudden brightness. It filled the small room and illuminated the faces of his four companions. Kel was in the process of balancing the flashlight in the middle of the room. Pepper and Raye were still standing near the door, and Leo saw their hands entwined between them.
Dane was standing closer than Leo expected, looking around the room with hooded eyes, face blank, as if he wasn’t affected by the spider webs, the dark, the creaking around them as the house “settled.”
“This is the place you thought would be a creepy place to spend the night?” He asked, eyes briefly meeting Leo’s before landing on Kel.
“Of course!” Kel said, standing and sweeping their arms out. “Ain’t it suitably spooky for some ghost stories? A seance even? I brought a ouija board, if y’all aren’t chickens.”
Pepper dragged Raye further into the room with a grin. “Ooooh, yeah, now this is what I was talking about. I can just feel eyes watching our every move, can’t you? I bet we’ll get something, right?”
Leo cleared his throat. “Um, guys, we can tell scary stories, but no way am I doing a seance or whatever. That’s bad luck.”
Dane looked over at him again, a grin slipping onto his face. “What, you believe in ghosts? Wouldn’t have expected it of you, Mr. Let’s Wander Into Dark Places.”
“I just don’t want to risk it. Aren’t you worried? What if they do end up being real?”
“Nah, I don’t get scared. Besides, I don’t think there’s anything here. It’s dark and abandoned, but that doesn’t immediately mean it’s haunted. There’d have to be something else going on than an empty house.”
“Doesn’t hurt to try, does it?” Pepper asked. “Let’s tell some stories, get in the mood! Then we can bully Leo into communicated with spirits.”
“Ha ha.” Raye sat on the dusty floor as she gave Pepper a scathing look. “Mock the cautious one. But don’t come crying to us when your ass gets haunted.”
Leo laughed but took his seat as well, even as he glanced around behind them. The house was definitely creaky. He could almost feel it moving as it settled. Some of the floorboards revealed by the wan light were cracked or broken, dark holes almost reaching out into the room. Whether it was haunted or not, he felt that familiar trembling settle into his heart and breath.
Even scared, it exhilarated him.
“Who’s first? Kel, you found the place, want the honors?” Pepper asked. She’d followed Raye to the ground, leaning fully into her girlfriend and stretching her legs into Leo’s space. Dane dropped down on his other side, leaning on one hand, and Kel completed the circle as they flopped onto their stomach, head pillowed on their hands. They would be an absolute mess of dust when they left.
“Sure. I can go first. Let’s see…” They stared into the fire for a moment, head cocked to the side, before wiggling a bit in place. “Oh, yes! Okay, so, when I was a kid, my parents never left me alone. I was always with a babysitter, or one of my siblings, or my parents. My sister and I shared a room, so even at night, I didn’t really get any alone time.
“It was weird, then, when one day I woke up and everyone was gone. My sister wasn’t in her bed. I couldn’t hear my brothers roughhousing around downstairs. The cars were both gone from the driveway, but my babysitter’s hadn’t replaced one of them. I wandered around the house for hours, just looking for any of them. Even though I would have given anything for some more privacy at that point, this just felt wrong, because I knew it wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Eventually, I ended up on my parent’s bed, crying my eyes out. I was staring out the window at the empty street, seeing no one pass by, no cars, and none of my family. The house was utterly silent apart from my sobs. I can’t even remember how long I sat there, waiting for something to happen.
“The weirdest thing is, I don’t remember leaving that spot. I can’t recall moving. I just remember suddenly hearing a car pulling into the driveway, and the shouts of my siblings, and I came back to myself downstairs in the foyer, shouting at my parents that they’d left me, that I’d been so scared and alone. They were shocked. They told me I hadn’t ever been alone, that I must have missed my siblings playing in the back yard or something.
“But I remember searching the whole place, looking out all the windows. I know how silent it was. I know I was alone. And sometimes, still, I’ll wake up in my bed, and it’ll be completely silent, and I’ll feel that empty place pulling at me again. Wanting to take me away again. Then in the next moment someone will snore, or my cat will walk over my foot, and I won’t go.”
They were silent for a moment, as if waiting for more, before Leo let out a breath. “Dude. Are you… okay?” He asked.”
“There’s a perfectly logical explanation for it.” Dane said. “You either had a bad dream that was very vivid, or you mistook how long it was that you were alone.”
Kel shook their head. “No, man, I swear it happened. It doesn’t affect me as much anymore, since I’m more used to being alone, but I know what I felt. It was real.”
Pepper nudged Leo with her foot. “Spooky, eh? Even with party pooper Dane around.” She wiggled her eyebrows at the other boy, sparking a grin from everyone else.
Leo shrugged, but his arms were all goosebumps. Even the mildest scary story tended to push his buttons. It was a common tease among them. This felt different, somehow.
“I don’t know. I believe you, Kel. It sounds scary.”
Dane put a heavy hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Leo. I promise you. I can make you much more scared than Kel over here. They probably made that up.”
Before he could demonstrate exactly how he could do this, a loud banging came from somewhere in the house, making Leo jump and reach up to grip Dane’s hand. “What was that?”
“Probably something falling, nothing weird.” Raye said, a faint tremor in her voice giving her away. “It couldn’t be anything, right? You said this place was empty, Kel.”
“To be fair, I said it was abandoned, not empty.” They shrugged and levered themself up to standing. “Why don’t we check it out? Wander around the creepy house a bit?”
Pepper jumped up immediately. “Okay! Let’s split up! I call Raye!”
“Wait, we shouldn’t-“ Before Leo could finish, Pepper had already pulled her girlfriend up and skipped out of the room. He saw her flashlight turn on, but she ignored his call.
“Alright then! I’ll go the other way, you two check out that room there!” Kel pointed at another door before leaving the same way as Pepper and Raye. They took a left, instead of a right, and left Leo alone with Dane.
He deflated, shoulders slumped. “Fine. Okay. Whatever. You have your flashlight?”
Dane answered by flicking on the light.
“Alright then, lead the way.” Leo followed as Dane went through the door, into territory they hadn’t explored yet. The door led into a living space with tarps draped over a stack of furniture stuffed into the corner. Otherwise, the space was empty. A large window took up most of the outer wall, and another had an archway into the kitchen. Outside, things were still quiet.
“Nothing weird in here,” Dane monotoned. He shone his flashlight slowly around the room before turning to face Leo. “Or is there a big mean ghost for me to protect you from?”
Leo shoved him. “Fuck off, dude. Let’s just check out the kitchen and get back to the others.”
He stomped his way into the other room, leaving behind the small beam of light. The kitchen thankfully also had windows, letting in the smallest amount of light for him to see by. Everything was still. The shapes of appliances and a large table loomed in the darkness, but nothing seemed disturbed. When Dane followed after, his flashlight revealed thick motes of dust hanging in the air.
“Looks abandoned, just as it should. Wanna look under the table? That sheet could be hiding anything.”
Leo scowled at him and yanked the sheet up, revealing an empty space. It also sent the dust spinning and made him sneeze loudly.
As if in response, there was another thud from the next room over.
Leo froze, but Dane started heading that way. “Sounds like Kel’s getting into something over there. Let’s meet up.”
They came into the main hallway, and Dane led the way to the room across from them. The door was open, showing another empty room. Kel wasn’t there, but Leo could see the imprints of footprints on the dusty floor.
“Kel? You good?” Leo called. There was more covered furniture here, but it didn’t seem disturbed. “If they’re hiding to scare us, I swear I’m leaving.”
“Don’t be paranoid. They probably just met up with the girls.”
“The footprints don’t lead out, asshole. How would they have gotten past us, anyway? We came right over.”
Dane shrugged, still looking unconcerned. He continued to sweep the flashlight around the room, but Kel did not jump out at them. Just to make sure, Leo looked under a few of the sheets, revealing a small day bed, a dresser, nothing you could hide behind. Nothing that might have fallen either.
“Whatever, let’s just go see if they’re with Pepper and Raye. They had to have found whatever made the noise, if it isn’t here.”
They found a bathroom that didn’t look like it had been touched, even more empty than the rest of the rooms, and finally another bedroom, the master this time by the look of it.
This last room was a disaster. The sheets had been torn from most of the furniture, and the dust had been kicked up, swirling through the room. Leo sneezed again. He didn’t see any of his friends. He did see a chair that had been knocked over, one of its legs collapsed under it.
“Here, this must have fallen.” He said, pointing at it triumphantly. “I guess they found it and went back to the room. Don’t know why they made such a mess, though.”
“Pepper is unable to not leave a mark wherever she goes,” Dane said. “I didn’t see them, though. Sure they didn’t leave us here?”
Leo shook his head, hard. “They know I’d kill them. No way. They’re just back around the flashlight laughing at us.”
“If you say so.”
The room was empty when they got back. Kel’s flashlight still stood balanced in the middle of the floor, sending up a weak beam of light. Both doors stood open, nothing behind them. Leo could still hear the creaking of the house, but nothing sounded like his friends, hiding or wandering around.
He spun on Dane. “Okay, Dane, this isn’t funny. Whatever trick you’re all playing, I don’t give a shit. Just stop it.”
“What makes you think I’m in on it? I’ve been with you this whole time!”
“Of course you are, you’re the big bad ‘ghosts aren’t real’ dude!”
Dane scoffed. “That doesn’t mean I’d get in on whatever crap prank they’re playing. If you’re that scared, why don’t we just leave them? If you don’t react it’ll ruin their joke.”
“We can’t-“
Both flashlights went out, all at once, plunging them into the dark. Leo immediately flailed his arms for Dane, trying to find the other boy. He just hit empty space, even when he stepped forward to where Dane had been standing.
“Dane? Dane, where are you? This isn’t funny guys! Stop it!”
Nothing responded to his shout. He couldn’t hear Dane, but all he could really hear now was his breathing, loud and sharp in his ears. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, clicking the button to light it up.
Dane was gone. Leo hadn’t heard it drop, but his flashlight was on the ground, still rolling slightly where it had been dropped. The doors had closed, somehow, blocking off the moonlight from the outer windows. He was alone in this silent house, closed off. In the darkness.
He should open a door. He should open a door and leave the house and meet them laughing at him in front of the house and go home and forget this place. He should. But he was frozen in place, staring around the empty room, waiting for something to happen. Anything. At this point, he would forgive his friends their prank, if they would just reveal it.
His light went out. Something moved behind him. He screamed, and didn’t hear it.
The phone dropped to the ground with a light thump, nudging the button on the side.
It lit up. The room was empty