Irene gulped.

The redhead tilted her umbrella back to look up to the imposing mansion. It’s dilapidated and rundown look was scary in the daylight, not to mention how it looked now, in the dark and the biting rain. Most of the old house’s windows were cracked or broken outright. Some even boarded up hastily from the outside, almost as if trying to keep something in. For all intents and purposes, it looked like something out of a horror movie.

The five teenagers lingering in the rain outside the fell mansion looked about each other, waiting for someone else to make the first move. Naturally, Dash took the lead. He always wanted to be the leader, the one everyone looked at, the one everyone respected.

“Don’t tell me you’re scared,” Dash goaded as he smirked at her. His expensive fake vampire fangs poked over his lip. He gave his umbrella a little spin and wiggled his eyebrows at his friends.

“Dude, do you even know the history of this place?” Jason grumbled, scratching uncomfortably at the fake fur under his wet shirt. His werewolf mask was resting on top of his head rather than wearing, he must have been getting warm under  the rubber confines.

“Who cares? It’s Halloween! This is the perfect place to get a few scares in!” Zane laughed and high-fived Dash. The cheaply made ninja outfit he was wearing made him rather hard to see in the dark. Just as he wanted so he could lift candy or more as he passed by.

“You guys can’t be serious,” Daisy said as she scowled, tugging at the wet material of her outfit. She was dressed as a skeleton, a costume no one foresaw her choosing.

“Oi, I think it’s bloody brilliant!” Alex cheered with the two more adventurous boys. She went as a bear, a costume everyone foresaw. That girl had an unhealthy obsession with bears.

Irene just kept staring at the place. Her silken witch’s costume was not keeping her very warm in the breeze that started to pick up, but her nervousness was enough to make her shiver. But despite the chill outside, the sight of this house put a deeper one in her bones.

A flash of light illuminated the old wood door as lightning struck off in the distance. The remnants of what might have been gold leaf or some other kind of finery on the paint still lingered but the grand effect had been long lost to time. The clap of thunder came along soon after as the six of them started to make their way in. 

Irene’s feet seemed to dig into the mud and gravel. Perhaps from apprehension or maybe she simply thought of other things to do. Daisy took her by the wrist, dragging her along out of sheer not wanting to be left alone in such a place.

Irene’s eyes widened as she saw something move in one of the windows higher up on the house. The attic, she surmised. It was barely a flicker or a shadow in the near light. Still, even just the hint of movement gripped her chest.

“G-guys... I think someone’s in there,” she stammered and pulled her tattered cloak tighter around herself.

“Ooo... someone’s getting into the spirit of things! Was it a ghost? A masked murderer? A scary clown?” Dash exclaimed with gleeful sarcasm. He grinned at her while she scowled in return. With a dramatic flourish, he waved his cape as he turned around and entered through the unlocked door.

The six of them shuffled in, turning around in circles as they looked about the decrepit and ill-kept foyer. Long gone were the days where servants polished floorboards and tended the candles. Now the floorboards were rotten and the candles wax stubs.

Slowly they shined their phone’s shitty flashlights around the room, drinking in the sights. The light bounced off bits of glass from broken windows and doors to old grandfather clocks.

With a sudden bang the front door slammed closed. They all jumped or yelped with fear at the sound, even their bold leader. As one they turned towards the door, trying to understand. Most of them, all but Daisy and Irene, laughed and blamed it on the wind from the storm outside.

Emboldened by their laughter, they started to move about the foyer. Every step making the uncared for house creak and groan in distress. They drifted apart, each to whatever part of the room struck their fancy, but none willing to stray too far just yet.

“This house had a string of murders happen here. The first was back when it was built. The dad went crazy and axed his family. Then there was a woman that killed her husband and his mistress. Oh, there was this one where a serial killer lived here and he ate his victims,” Jason said idly as he looked around, as if he were talking about the weather.

Irene started feeling her stomach do flips. She’s heard all this before. Sometimes it felt like she’s spent her whole life in this town. And anyone living here had heard the rumors. They were less fact than what Jason thought. More dark and deranged myth. But everyone knows of the house that sat on a hill overlooking the town. It almost seemed like every horror movie cliché she’s ever heard was inspired by this place.

“They say the place is haunted... cursed... that whoever stays here ends up going crazy and has the urge to murder and the taste for blood,” Zane said playfully as he stepped into a different room.

“Irene, you’ve lived here the longest, any recent murders?” Alex asked with a devil-may-care smirk. Irene scowled at her for a second before looking away.

“Um, not that I can recall...” Irene said quietly. 

A crash from upstairs startled them more than they would like. Zane rushed back, looking a bit more frightened than his cocky and cool attitude would like to appear.

“What was that?” Daisy asked, a little panicked.

“Probably just the wind blowing something over. A house like this has to have a missing window,” Jason reassured her, though all eyes were still on the ceiling above them. 

However, dread grew within them as small creaks came from the wooden planks. Slowly the sound moved across the ceiling, making them all follow slowly their gaze. What sounded like footsteps came to a halt, right directly above them, drawing a stifled gasp from the group.

“I told you someone was here!” Irene whispered harshly at Dash.

“We’ll go check it out,” Dash said, frowning at the thought someone could be ruining their fun. He grabbed Zane to head up the stairs to investigate and confront their would-be trickster. Alex followed close on their heels as she was never one to let the boys have all the fun.

“I’ll stay here and protect Irene and Daisy,” Jason said with fake bravado. Irene and Daisy both rolled their eyes. Their hero. They could hear the other group walking upstairs but their attention was pulled to the hallway that seemed to stretch for miles into the black.

In the dark there seemed two glowing eyes staring back at them. Their phone lights couldn’t illuminate anything distinguishable, but something was back there and looking right at them. Irene swallowed nervously and took a step towards it but Jason and Daisy clung to her arms, preventing her from getting closer.

“I-It’s probably just a cat,” Irene said softly.

“It’s too high up to be a cat,” Jason whispered.

Lightning flashed again, illuminating the dining room next to them and throwing all kinds of shadows across the floor, making them all look over in surprise and fear. The peal of thunder across the skies made them jump apart but Daisy clung hard to Jason for comfort.

When they looked back down the hallway and raised their phone lights up, the eyes were gone.

“I’m still going with cat,” Irene said as she exhaled, adjusting her vice like grip on her bag. She walked into the hall and cast her light on all the ruined paintings and portraits. Neither of her friends seemed to share her relaxed state, standing stock still in the foyer, almost shivering with fear.

Upstairs, the three of them had decided to split up, cover more ground they reasoned. There were three wood doors down the hallway and a ratty old rug running along the floor. Without even speaking, they decided to choose a door each. Dash took the nearest one on the left, Zane the middle one on the right, and Alex would take the far one at the end of the hall.

Dash pushed open the heavy door, wincing at the bone chilling creak it let out. But what he found was worth the small bit of terror he just caused himself. It was what once must have been a grand study. A whole wall was one big bookcase with one of the rolling ladders to get to the highest reaches, though most of the shelves were broken and any books left looked like they had decayed and rotted over time.

Just off center was a massive table, no, a desk. A desk that would make anyone feel like a king sitting behind it. There was no chair to sit on, at least none he could see, so he settled with standing behind it, running his hands over the cracked wood.

“Now this is a desk meant for a very important man,” he said, briefly wondering if it belonged to the original owner. Did he make this mansion and put this desk in to be the king of his own castle? Dash could relate to that desire.

Slowly, his fingers felt something odd on the wood and turned his light downward to inspect it. Deep, violent grooves in the wood, causing the surface to splinter up. Its shape confused him. Only time he had seen marks like that was from… Dash swallowed uneasily. Only time he had seen marks like that, it was from an axe.

While he pondered that, something hit his back between the shoulder blades. A hand, perhaps? He felt a strong push and ended up face down on the desk. He cursed and grunted, trying to get free but whatever was holding him down was far stronger than him. The jagged shards of the wood cut into his cheek, making him hiss in pain.

“Hey man, what gives?” he hissed angrily. 

The light of his phone caught a flash of metal as a hatchet was buried into the wood mere centimeters from his nose. Every panicked breath of his fogged up the tempered steel.

And then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. The pressure on his back was gone. He stood upright fast and looked around, shining his light into every corner of the room in one smooth sweep. From the door to the window. But there was nothing. He sighed in relief and turned back to the door.

Dash yelled in fright and tossed his phone. It bounced off the desk and hit him on the foot. He could’ve sworn he saw someone there. Someone tall, too tall to be possible and with big black eyes. He didn’t know what he saw. All he knew was that he needed his phone right now and needed his heart rate to drop down below 200.

He reached down and picked it back up, carefully looking around the room again. This was more than he bargained for when they agreed to come here. His eyes lingered on the hatchet in the desk. If people were going to be messing around like that, he wasn’t walking around empty handed.

The hatchet was buried far deeper than he could even imagine. Fit with how they could hold an athlete like him down like that. He put his foot up on the desk, grabbed the hatchet again and pulled, finally ripping it free. 

Dash made to leave the room but the door was closed. Which was weird, because he didn’t close it when he came in. His hand felt cold and clammy as he tried to turn the knob but it wouldn’t budge. He was locked in.

Zane found himself in a grand bedroom. One far better than he had ever slept in. His opportunistic mind briefly wondered if there was still jewelry or valuables left from previous owners. After all, a house like this was only owned by rich people and rich people had a ton of over high price objects.

“Surrounded by enormous piles of money…” he sang to himself as he rifled through a few drawers.

But like the state of the rest of the house, there was nothing of note or really of value to take. He did find a drawer with some old copper rings left behind in it. Not worth selling but a good souvenir and a better story. It wasn’t like there was anyone to miss this old stuff.

“One man’s forgotten treasure is another man’s-ack!” Zane yelped as he felt something thin and metallic wrap around his neck. He tried to claw at it but it was braided wire. He stood in front of a vanity mirror but he couldn’t move to see his attacker in it. Zane silently choked and clawed desperately to get free.

Spots formed in his vision and his phone slipped from his other hand. His struggling started to dwindle and soon he went limp, crashing to the ground. The last thing he saw before blacking out was someone walking away.