Those magic words had been uttered.
"Dave, I dare you." Eric said and now I could not back down.
That was three days ago, it was easy to be brave three days before Halloween, but now that the day was here, and more importantly the night was here it seemed like one of the stupider things I had ever done.
Three days ago I had been talking about the Deforest house at the farthest end of town at the top of the hill.
The Deforest house was reputed to be haunted. It sat right on the border of my humdrum town Shady Water and the next Galstonberry.
It was said that the father had gone into a rage when his daughter had brought home a boy from school that she had claimed to fall in love with. In his madness he killed the boy with a shotgun and then he raped and murdered his only daughter before taking his own life.
That was the legend, and it had been told and re-told by all of us in high school. It was a popular senior dare to go up to the house and knock on the door before running off.
Nearly everyone had said they had either heard the sound of a shotgun being cocked as if the father were ready to kill any man who might try to take his daughter away, or the call of the daughter who wanted to have love with a man who loved her.
I had gotten to talking big about how there was no such thing as ghosts and no such thing as hauntings and how there was nothing to fear from the house. I had been one to take the dare to knock on the door and I had heard nothing threatening or menacing. Just the creek of old boards under my feet.
Well the next step was obvious, I claimed I could spend the night in the house and wouldn't suffer any harm. Of course that was the moment that Eric said, 'I dare you'.
And no scare dare would be complete if the sleep over night was not Halloween.
Now looking up at the rickety old house I realized I had not taken in one thing to fear. The house had been abandoned for nearly a century, stepping up on the porch was one thing, but going inside was something else.
I slowly checked the doorknob and found it loose, the locking mechanism had rusted out completely and turned to dust as I turned the knob.
I stepped across the threshold and gently closed the door behind me, half expecting the entire building to collapse down around and on top of me.
To my pleasant surprise the building remained standing and I began to move into the next room.
The door had an older styled entryway they it opened into, but on the other side of that was a much larger greeting/living room type area.
There were stairs going up from this level to the next, and a door on both the left and right of the room.
I went up the stairs, and found that one of the bedrooms at the top of the stairs was not in too bad of shape, so I three my sleeping bag down on the floor, and got myself ready for my night alone.
I unloaded my bag full of snacks (chips, snickers, soda...), my flashlight, and my portable T.V., after all there was no reason to be without the basic necessities in life, and tonight was Monday night football.
I then settled into my bag, with no more concern about the safety of the structure I was in, and certainly no concern about haunting. I got my T.V. tuned to the appropriate station, a little bummed about the crappy reception but resigned to my fate.
By the end of the game it was pretty dark outside, and I was a little antsy to walk around. So I got my flashlight and began going around the rooms in exploration.
The rooms were mostly empty, with crumbling ceiling and wall pieces littering the rooms.
Just as I was completing my rounds I heard a sound coming from the stairs. I spun and slammed my flashlight into the doorframe I was standing in.
My light went out, and I was standing in the dark trying to see if anything was coming.
I was going to be really pissed if Eric was trying to play some prank on me.
