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“This is, hands down, the stupidest idea you guys have ever had.”
You got four cheeky grins in response to your huffy complaint, which told you that not only did your best friends know you were right, they also took it as a compliment. Unable to stop an exasperated smile, you rolled your eyes and leaned up against the wrought-iron fence, leaves crunching under your feet.
It was Sam who had gotten the bright idea to visit the abandoned, supposedly haunted house in the Kiszkas’ neighborhood. Though you worried it could technically be counted as breaking and entering even though no one had lived there in decades, Halloween was the one night a year that the local sheriff’s department pretty much turned a blind eye to anyone willing to risk it.
“Come on, baby,” Josh said, giving you a sweet smile. “It’ll be fun.”
“We were already having fun at home,” you said, but you relented a little as he kissed the tip of your nose.
You, Josh, Sam, and Danny had been camped out in the cosy basement at Mama and Papa Kiszka’s, passing around a bowl of candy and keeping up a running commentary through The Shining. Jake and his girlfriend had planned to come by after they made an appearance at her friends’ party, and you were all going to spend the night watching scary movies and eating too many fun sized candy bars. Sam had been convincing, though, and now your boyfriend was as eager as Sam was to see if the old house down the street really was haunted.
So, there you were, the five of you standing outside the admittedly very spooky looking house that you’d walked by a million times but never gone into. Jake had invited his girlfriend to come, but she’d very sweetly declined being haunted in favor of staying at the party, wishing all of you a happy Halloween over the phone.
You stuck your hands in the pockets of your jacket as Josh turned back to Sam to discuss the game plan. The air was crisp and chilly, and the sounds of kids trick or treating on the next block was a comforting buffer for the creaky noises coming from the house.
“You really want to go through with this?” you asked Danny.
He shrugged, his smile a little apologetic. “We’ve never done it before. It could be kinda fun.”
“You forget that we’ve done what you wanted every single Halloween since fifth grade,” Jake chimed in, adjusting the bandanna on his head. He hadn’t changed, just put a jacket over his costume from the party, and now looked like a slightly more frigid version of Jack Sparrow.
“We have not,” you protested.
“Have too,” Jake said. The two of you, as close as siblings, had always had a knack for bickering like siblings too.
“You never wanted to go, so we didn’t,” Jake said. “We’ve been wanting to see if this place is haunted for, like, our whole lives.”
You smiled. Even if he was being a little dramatic, they had gone years without doing what every other kid in the neighborhood had done at least once because you were too scared to go.
“Well, if I had my way, we’d still be trick or treating,” you said. “But you guys always said we were too old for it.”
Danny grinned. “We are too old for it.”
You smiled at the thought of the five of you dressed up and going door to door.
“Yeah, ok, now we are,” you agreed. “But once we hit seventh grade, you guys were too cool to take me trick or treating.”
“Because we were trying to get into the high school parties, remember?” Jake said. “The year we accomplished that was the best Halloween ever. I think that was the first time I made out with somebody.”
Your expression scrunched in distaste at the memory of that party.
“Yeah, Josh made out with somebody that night too,” you said. “And I accidentally walked in on them.”
Danny and Jake gave you a pair of sympathetic smiles.
“Aw, honey, don’t be jealous,” Jake teased lightly. “That was forever ago.”
It had been the worst of teenage heartbreaks at the time, and you wondered what your younger self would say if she knew that not too many Halloweens later, you and Josh would be so in love that you would let him drag you to a haunted house in the middle of the night. You gave a soft laugh.
“Besides,” Jake continued. “Now you can make out with Josh in a haunted house. Isn’t that a way better Halloween story?”
You imagined Josh secreting you away to some corner of the mansion when you got inside.
“Maybe,” you relented. “Speaking of which...”
You turned around to see Josh and Sam still deep in discussion.
“What’s the plan?” you asked.
They looked over at the three of you, their faces alight with excitement.
“We’re gonna explore the whole house,” Sam said, huddling further into his flannel. “We’ll split up into groups and see if we can find something spooky.”
You looked to your boyfriend, who was as excited as a kid in a candy shop. His cheeks and nose were flushed with cold, and you couldn’t help but smile back to his beaming grin.
“It’ll be great,” he said, sensing your hesitation. “Real spooky. Come on.”
He extended his hand to you and you took it. Ah, the things you did for love.
“Jakey, you go with Sam and Daniel,” Josh said, waving them forward through the gate.
“No screwing around, you two,” Jake said. “Literally or figuratively. You’ll make the ghosts mad.”
You laughed. “No worries,” you assured him. As much as you loved Josh, there was no way in hell you’d be knocking boots in a creepy, broken-down, possibly haunted house.
You and Josh followed the boys up the steps and onto the porch, the old wood groaning under your combined weight.
“Are we sure this place is structurally sound?” you asked.
“It’s fine,” Sam said. “Nothing to be worried about.” Still, you didn't miss the way he took Danny’s hand when he opened the door and stepped inside.
The boys turned their phone flashlights on; you didn’t bother, knowing you’d stick close to Josh. The air was dense and dusty, cobwebs and dust motes shimmering in the flashlight beams as you crowded in the foyer and closed the door behind you. Danny was the most affected, ducking to the side and pulling the collar of his hoodie up over his nose to sneeze.
“Bless you,” you chorused.
He rubbed his nose. “Thanks.”
“You allergic to ghosts, Dan?” Sam asked, giving him a cheeky smile.
Danny chuckled, the sound a little hoarse. “No, but I am allergic to dumb questions.”
“Too bad you’re dating Sammy then,” Jake teased. He nodded further in. “Come on. Let’s see what we can find.”
The three of them went into what you guessed was the living room, keeping their voices low to match the eerie quiet in the house. You could still hear the gentle wind in the trees outside, but the heaviness in the air dampened the sound of the boys’ quiet conversation, and your footfalls creaked as you and Josh made your way to the study.
“This is so cool,” Josh said in a hushed voice. You couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm, even as you kept a tight hold on him.
“Everything you always dreamed?” you asked.
He looked back at you and smiled, his features sharp in the light of his phone. “I knew you’d come around one day,” he said. “Even though you never wanted to go with us when we were kids, I knew curiosity would win out eventually.”
You breathed a laugh. “I’m not here because I’m curious to find out if it’s haunted,” you said. “I’m here because I love you, and you wanted to go into a spooky old house on Halloween.”
“Aw, sweetheart,” he said. He kissed you. “I love you too, especially when you let me take you to a spooky old house on Halloween.”
After a few minutes of wandering around, you felt a little less nervous — nothing had jumped out at you, and you were brave enough to let go of Josh’s hand to look around the study. There was a mirror on the wall, and you traced your fingers through the thick layer of dust before brushing your hand off on your jeans. Your reflection, barely visible with how far you were from Josh’s phone, seemed distorted in the darkness.
“Hey, baby.”
You turned and saw Josh opening the door to the closet.
“What’d you find?” you asked.
He waved you over. “Come here. I have something cool to show you.”
You left the mirror, still a little unsettled, and crossed to him.
“What is it?” you asked again. In the beam of the flashlight, you couldn’t see anything remarkable about the cobwebby space.
“Go in,” he said.
Your nose crinkled. “Why?”
“Just trust me.”
With a slight frown, you stepped into the closet, looking on the walls for anything other than dust and chipped paint. You heard the door close behind you and whirled around, barely missing a full-on collision with Josh.
“Josh!” you protested.
His smile was crooked in the glow of his phone. “Scared?”
“No,” you said. You huffed, less put out now that you knew you weren’t alone. “I thought you locked me in here.”
He looked genuinely surprised. “You think I would?”
You didn’t — though he liked to play pranks, he wasn’t mean. Still, though, you were in a dark, cramped, dusty closet in an abandoned house. Not exactly your idea of a fun night.
“Well, why are we in here together?” you asked.
He smiled and snaked his arm around you, pulling you closer even though you were practically on top of each other already.
“I told you I had something cool to show you.”
“Josh,” you chided, making him chuckle.
Your faint annoyance was quickly mollified as he kissed you, turning the flashlight off and leaving you in complete darkness. Your hands wandered over him as you opened your mouth and let him kiss you deeply, any hard feelings you’d had towards the house gone with the feel of your boyfriend against you.
“Now, isn’t this nice?” he asked, his voice soft and a little breathless. “We should have come here years ago.”
You smiled as he kissed your neck. “We wouldn’t have been making out in this closet if we’d come here years ago.”
He nosed against your jaw. “Yeah, you’d probably have brought that guy you were always ogling in Chemistry. And I’d be sulky and jealous the whole night.”
You laughed. “Who? I never liked anybody from Chemistry.”
“Whoever he was. I don’t remember. I just remember being jealous of him.”
You carded your fingers through his curls. “Joshy,” you cooed. “You didn’t ever have to be jealous. I never liked anybody but you in school.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is,” you assured him. His hands moved under your shirt, his cold fingertips tracing over you. “And I was convinced I was never going to be with you because you were too popular and too pretty, and you could have had anybody else in town.”
His fingers grazed your ribs as he kissed you again. “I didn’t want anybody else in town.”
You smiled. “Me either.”
His hands slowly warmed against you as he held you, and you were sure you’d have love marks on your neck from the way he was kissing you. You had just looped your fingers over the waistband of his jeans when a loud crash came from further down the hall.
You jumped and pressed closer to Josh, who bit out a curse.
“What the hell?” you asked. Turning the flashlight back on, both of you stumbled out of the closet and stood in the hall.
“Sorry,” you heard Sam’s voice call, along with the sound of Jake and Danny’s laughter. The light from their phones shone from the kitchen. “Tripped over a chair. No ghosts.”
“You scared us to death,” you said, trying to lower your heart rate. Josh still gripped your hand tightly, and you gave it a comforting squeeze as the boys joined you in the hall.
“Maybe if you two hadn’t been so distracted,” Jake said.
Danny brushed a hand over Josh’s curls. “You’re all dusty.”
Josh batted his hand away. “Yeah, well... whatever. Tell your boyfriend not to trip on any more chairs.”
“Why, so you two can get freaky without thinking there’s a ghost watching you?” Sam teased.
You took Josh’s phone and pointed the light up towards your face, like you were telling a scary campfire story.
“No, Sammy — so you don’t annoy the spirits with how klutzy you are.”
All the boys laughed as you let go of the phone, your brief fright eased as you stood all together.
“You guys find anything cool?” Josh asked.
“A shit ton of knives in the kitchen,” Jake volunteered. “A little weird.”
“Yeah, and this old music box in the living room,” Danny added. “We wound it up, and it still played, but it was super creepy sounding.”
“Fantastic,” you said, wincing a little as the light wind made the house creak around you.
“We’re going upstairs,” Sam said. “You coming? Or are you... too busy?”
You gave his arm a light smack and headed upstairs, Josh in tow. Josh steadied you when you met a loose board on the steps, and you gave him a slightly embarrassed thank you as his thumbs kneaded circles against your waist.
“You guys go that way,” Jake said, pointing to the right side of the top landing. The house was much more spacious than you’d always thought looking at it from the sidewalk, and you wondered who had been the last person to live here. From what you could tell under the dust, it had been a beautiful house in its prime.
You heard a clinking sound as you took a step forward, and Josh’s flashlight showed a pair of beer bottles you’d nudged with your shoe.
“Damn kids,” Josh said in an exaggerated old man voice. You laughed.
“By the way,” you said, “you’re making me as many salty dogs as I want when we get back to your parents’, and we’re getting drunk and watching whatever movie I pick.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said sweetly, following you into one of the rooms. It was a bedroom, and the only furniture left was a huge bed and a bookshelf with a few faded books still on the shelves collecting dust.
“The collected works of Edgar Allan Poe,” Josh read off, brushing off one of the covers.
You hummed. “Appropriate.” You crossed to the window and looked out onto the street; a few kids were walking by, their steps quickening a little as they passed the house on the way to their next trick or treat destination.
“You remember when we had to memorize ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ for school?” he asked. “I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!”
“Honey,” you complained. His theater-kid knack for persuasiveness was a little too good, this time.
He chuckled. “No scary poems for you, huh?”
To apologize, he came up behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist.
“Dance with me,” he said.
You laughed as he started to sway you back and forth. “In a haunted house?”
“Yeah, why not?” he asked, pressing a kiss to your neck. “Here, I’ll even sing you a Halloween song.”
You leaned back against him as he swayed you, relaxing at the warm feel of his voice through his chest as he started to sing.
“I’m gonna wait ‘til the midnight hour,” he sang. “When there’s no one else around, I’m gonna take you, girl, and hold you, and do all things I told you in the midnight hour.”
You smiled as he held you close, his voice soft and sweet enough to ease any fear you had. You stayed like that for a few minutes, listening to the faint sounds of the boys talking across the hall.
“You want to go look somewhere else?” he asked eventually. “See if we can find anything else spooky?”
You put your hand in his and he kissed your knuckles.
“Lead on,” you said.
You followed him to the master bathroom, where you found a gorgeous clawfoot tub and a cracked mirror above the vanity. You crossed to the tub, wanting a better look, and something jumped out of it towards you.
You shrieked, stumbling backwards in fear; Josh’s flashlight swung towards you and illuminated the glowing eyes of a tabby cat on the floor.
“Jesus, baby,” Josh managed. “You scared me to death.”
“Yeah, well, that cat scared me to death!” you said angrily, still shaking with fright.
Josh gave a sympathetic laugh and crossed to you, pulling you securely against him. You let yourself be held and comforted, glaring at the cat as it looked disinterestedly up at you.
“My poor baby,” Josh cooed, amusement in his voice.
Sam, Jake, and Danny came bursting in a few seconds later, their faces bright with panic.
“What happened?” Jake demanded.
You pointed at the culprit from the safety of Josh’s arms, your heart still hammering in your chest.
“There was a cat in the bathtub,” you said. “It jumped out at me.”
They let out a collective sigh of relief, and Sam frowned.
“Not a ghost, then?” he asked.
You huffed. “No.”
Danny picked up the cat and it let him pet it. He examined the collar around the tabby’s neck.
“He belongs next door,” he said. “You think we should take him back?”
“Nah, he’ll go back when it's dinnertime,” Sam said, giving the cat a gentle scratch on the head. After allowing itself to be loved on for a few more seconds, the cat leapt from Danny’s arms and padded off to a dark corner.
“You’re ok?” Jake asked you. “You sounded like you were getting axe-murdered.”
“You try having something jump out at you in the dark in a supposedly haunted house,” you said, still a little raw. Josh gave a soft laugh and kissed your cheek.
“You’re alright, baby,” he said. “You want to go home?”
You knew the boys weren’t done looking around, and you didn’t want to cut it short for them. You snuggled against Josh for a moment, gathering your courage, before you stepped back.
“No, I’m ok,” you said. “Let’s go see what other traumatizing experiences we can have tonight.”
The light waterfall of laughter from the boys was a soothing sound, and you followed the boys out to the top of the stairs. Directly across from the top landing was a door that none of you had gone through yet; you guessed it was the attic, and a reveal of a flight of stairs when Sam opened the door showed you were right.
“Ladies first?” he said, giving you a smirk.
You stuck your tongue out at him, holding Josh’s hand a little more tightly. “No way.”
He grinned back at you and started up the stairs, Danny close behind with his fingers in Sam’s belt loops. Jake let you and Josh go next, and you were thankful for the buffer of the twins in front and behind you. You let go of Josh’s hand but held on to the hem of his hoodie, feeling the warmth of his back through his shirt.
“Aw, check this stuff out,” Sam gushed from the top of the stairs. You all filed into the attic, careful of low beams and the sprawl of cobwebs on every surface.
“What is all this stuff?” you wondered aloud, curiosity overcoming your hesitation. There were boxes and trunks filled with all kinds of things, and you couldn’t imagine how it had stayed up here this long without getting nicked by would-be ghost hunters.
Jake found a record without a sleeve and blew gently on it to reveal the weathered label.
“Hoosier Hot Shots,” he read. “Interesting.”
“Who are they?” you asked.
He laughed and set the record back down. “No idea.”
The five of you looked around for a while; you stuck close to Josh, wary of any other animals that might decide to leap out at you from the shadows. Josh knew you were nervous, and made sure to check up on you every few minutes.
“Hey guys?” Danny called from the far corner of the attic, his tone a little uneasy. “Come take a look at this.”
“Is it something scary?” you asked, wanting to know before you went over there.
“Um, kinda,” he admitted. “It’s creepy, anyways.”
The rest of you made your way over to where he stood, the boys shining their flashlights ahead of them. You leaned your head against Josh’s shoulder, unable to decide if you wanted to see what it was.
“Oh, sick,” Sam enthused. You peeked out from behind Josh’s shoulder to see a row of porcelain dolls sitting on a shelf, each of them broken and dirty from years of abandonment. Their shiny eyes caught the light, cracks webbing over their faces, and one was missing an eye completely.
“Yeah, that’s creepy alright,” Jake agreed, wincing a little.
“Josh,” you said quietly, almost pleading.
Before Josh could say anything back to comfort you, Jake swore.
“Did you see that?” he asked. “Tell me you guys saw that.”
Your pulse raced. “What?”
“The doll on the end blinked,” Danny said, his voice a little flat. You paled. In addition to being the bravest out of all of you, Danny was also the least likely to come up with something just to scare you.
“Are you sure?” you pressed.
“I thought I saw it too,” Josh said. “Hey — shit, look, there it goes again.”
All five of you watched, entranced, as the eye of one of the dolls slowly blinked closed, then opened back up again. You felt a thrill of terror.
“I want to go,” you said, tugging on Josh’s sleeve.
“Yeah, me too,” Jake agreed. He’d taken one step towards the stairs when both his and Sam’s phones inexplicably died, taking two of the flashlights with them.
“What the hell?” Sam said, his voice cracking with panic. “Danny?”
“Right here, love,” Danny said quickly, taking Sam’s hand. “Come on — let’s get out of here.”
Following Jake, the rest of you quickly made your way down both sets of stairs until you stood in the foyer. Without wasting any time lingering like you had when you walked in, Jake went straight out to the porch, the rest of you following like a line of ducklings. You didn’t stop until you were all huddled together on the sidewalk, the iron gate slamming behind you.
“That was definitely a ghost,” Sam said, looking with awe up towards the windows.
“Yeah, and it scared the shit out of you,” Jake said with a delighted grin.
“It did not,” Sam protested.
“Oh, Danny!” Jake said, mimicking Sam’s voice crack. “Don’t let the ghost get me!”
Sam frowned, put out, but Danny just took his hand and kissed his forehead with an affectionate chuckle.
“I wasn’t going to let the ghost get you, Sam,” Danny said sweetly. Sam huffed, but Danny’s gentle smile wore him down after a moment.
“Fine, I was freaked out,” he conceded. He gave Jake a pointed look. “But weren’t you? Your phone died too.”
“Yeah, because it was on one percent,” he said. “That’s not exactly paranormal activity.”
“Mine wasn’t,” Sam said. “Mine was fully charged.”
Jake grimaced. “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. That might have been a ghost.”
“I think we’re all forgetting that the doll winked at us,” Josh said.
A shiver went through your little group.
“Let’s go home,” you said after a moment, holding tightly to Josh's hand. “I don’t want to mess around with any more ghosts.”
You were a little surprised with how quickly the boys agreed, and the five of you stuck close together as you left the house and walked the couple of blocks to the Kiszka’s. You felt yourself relax as you came back into the more populated side of the neighborhood, where families were still trick or treating and houses were decorated and warmly lit.
“So, were you guys satisfied with that?” you asked. “Or are we going to have to make this a yearly thing?”
They all exchanged slightly bashful smiles.
“I think we’re good,” Danny said. “At least, I don’t have to go back ever again.”
The brothers chimed in with their scattered agreement. You smiled; while you were glad they’d finally gotten to do it, you were also secretly glad they didn’t want to do it again.
You were all freezing when you got back to the Kiszkas’ house, cheeks flushed with cold as you went around and came in through the basement door. Sam called upstairs to his parents that you were back, and you heard Mama Kiszka say there was hot chocolate and pumpkin pie ready for you when you wanted it. Jake called his girlfriend and asked her to come over while the rest of you loaded your very dusty outerwear into the washing machine.
When Jake’s girlfriend arrived, you cooed over how cute the two of them looked in their matching pirate costumes. With her and Jake’s help, you brought slices of pie and mugs of hot chocolate downstairs; Josh put on Beetlejuice, and the six of you talked and warmed back up as the movie played. Jake and his girlfriend snuggled on the loveseat and Sam and Danny shared the giant bean bag, Sam’s lanky limbs all tangled up with Danny’s.
“How’s this, mama?” Josh asked you, putting his arm over his shoulder as you cuddled close to him on the couch. “A good way to spend the rest of your Halloween?”
You smiled and rested your head on his shoulder, enjoying the sounds of your friends’ conversations and your boyfriend’s closeness.
“This is exactly the kind of Halloween I was hoping for,” you said. You looked up at him after a moment. “Did you have fun tonight, though?”
He laughed. “Besides almost getting haunted? Yeah, I had a good time. Thank you for going with us. I wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun without you.”
You smiled. “Well, I’m glad I went, then.”
He gave you a sweet, gentle kiss before taking the fuzzy throw blanket from the back of the couch and draping it over both of you. You snuggled close to him again and joined in the conversion with him and your best friends, knowing this was exactly how you wanted to spend every Halloween from here on out.