Chapter One: The Haunted House

It was just after sunset, the end of a beautiful day in early April. A group of boys was tempting fate, and their parents' wrath, by staying out well past curfew. They had taken flashlights and ridden their bikes over to the old abandoned house just beyond the edges of their neighborhood.

"It's haunted, you know," one of the oldest boys whispered to the others nodding toward the dark house.

"No, it's not," Jacob protested. He was the youngest boy present, in fact he'd only been allowed to come because he'd overheard his older brother sneaking out and had threatened to tell their parents. Now he was afraid and wishing that he'd stayed home. He hoped that a show of boldness would mask his fear.

"Yes, it is," his brother Eric countered. "Josh said he and Andy came out here last night and he could hear a woman screaming." He relished the chance to report this gruesome detail that he'd picked up in school that morning.

"Wicked," Steve answered.

"You're just making that up to try to scare me," Jacob said, his shaking voice evidence of the fact that, if that was the case, Eric's plan was succeeding.

Eric's response was a nasty smile. "Oh yeah," he said. "Well then, why don't you go in and see." Seeing his brother hesitate he continued, "Come on, if it's not haunted then there's nothing to be afraid of, so go on in."

"No," Jacob said.

"I dare you," Eric replied calling on the time honored tradition by which boys forced each other to do ridiculous things. Seeing Jacob continue to shake his head he added fuel to the fire. "Why not, you scared?"

Jacob looked around the group of older boys and saw the scorn in their eyes. "I'm not scared," he countered weakly. "I just don't want to."

"Yes, you are," Steve broke in. "You're chicken. You're too chicken to go in," he taunted the younger boy.

"I'm not chicken," Jacob cried, but he could see that he'd get no support from any of his brother's friends. Hearing them all laugh and jeer at him, shame and impotent fury overwhelmed his fear and at last he yelled, "Fine, I'll prove it to you." With that announcement he surprised them all by walking toward the old house.

Startled by his brother's sudden bravado, Eric didn't have time to stop Jacob before he started off across the lawn. White-faced he looked over at his best friend. "I didn't think he'd actually do it," he confessed to Steve. "Should we try to stop him?"

"No," Steve snickered, "Let's just see what happens."

"Come on, Steve. If he freaks out or gets hurt or something my parents will kill me." Seeing that his friend wasn't about to do anything to help, Eric looked back at his brother who had nearly reached the porch. "Oh hell," he muttered, "I better go after him." He yelled his brother's name and ran after him catching up just as Jacob reached the top of the porch stairs.

Hearing someone come up behind him Jacob whirled around and then gave a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Eric.

"Come on, Jake," Eric whispered. "Let's go. You don't have to do this."

Pale underneath his freckles, Jacob looked back across the lawn at the crowd of watching boys, "And have them all keep thinking I'm chicken?" he answered. "No, I'm going to go in there."

"Then I'm going with you," his brother said firmly. They approached the front door and with a trembling hand Jacob reached for the handle, only to find that it wouldn't turn.

"There, you tried," Eric said, relieved at the excuse to back out. "That's good enough. Nobody can call you a coward when you couldn't get in."

Jacob started to agree and turn away. He hazarded one final look around the porch before starting down the stairs. That's when he noticed the partially opened window in the far corner of the porch. He caught Eric's arm and pulled his brother to a stop pointing at the window. "We can get in that way," he said.

Eric squinted at the window, it was pretty small and only about half way open. "Maybe you could," he said looking down his little brother, "but I don't think I'd fit. Let's just go." This place was seriously starting to give Eric the creeps. He remembered the chill he'd gotten that morning when Josh told his story in the hall before home room. The other boy had sworn he heard a woman screaming, and from the feeling that was starting to creep up Eric's spine, he suspected that Josh hadn't been making things up.

Clearly Jacob didn't share his apprehension; the younger boy's sense of adventure had started to overcome his initial fears. "So I'll go in the window and come around and open the door for you," he suggested.

"I really don't think that's a good idea," Eric said. "What if something happens once you're inside and I can't get to you?"

"Nothing's going to happen," Jacob said starting towards the window without waiting for his brother's agreement. First he tried to push the window further open in the hopes that Eric would be able to follow him in, but when it didn't budge he decided to go in by himself. Resting his palms on the windowsill Jacob ducked his head and shoulders inside. It took some wriggling, but he was able to squeeze through. He landed hard on his shoulder, but then stood up and brushed himself off. He looked back at his brother through the window and grinned. "I'll go open the door and then we can explore a little," he said.

"We don't need to explore," Eric muttered. "Just get out of there and let's go. You went in; you don't have anything more to prove to anybody."

Jacob just shook his head and started down the hallway. It wasn't often that he got to feel superior to his big brother, but this time Eric was the one who was scared and Jacob was kind of enjoying the situation. That feeling of superiority was wiped away by terror a moment later when he heard the distinctive sound of someone crying.

Jacob couldn't tell where the sound was coming from but he sprinted toward the front door suddenly desperate to get out of the haunted house. He was crying as he scrabbled at the door handle in panic trying to open it without paying attention to the lock. He could hear his brother calling his name from the other side of the door, asking him what was wrong. And from somewhere behind him he could hear a woman's voice calling for help.

He was sobbing with fear and relief when he finally got the door open. Without speaking to Eric he stumbled down the stairs and raced across the lawn, his brother following close behind him. He collapsed on the ground as he reached the group of boys on the other side of the lawn. The boys circled around him watching as Eric knelt beside his brother and tried to find out what had so badly frightened him.

"There was someone in that house," the terrified boy managed to gasp out between hiccupping sobs. "She was crying."

"Did you see her?" Steve asked in horrified fascination.

"No," Jacob whispered, "I only heard her. She was asking for help."

"It's okay," Eric said hugging Jacob and trying to comfort him. "I'm sure you just imagined it."

"I did not imagine her!" Jacob's responded indignantly. "She was there! I heard her crying."

"I'm sure you heard something, but it was probably just the wind," Eric said desperate to calm the younger boy. He looked around at the circle of his friends, none of whom were helping. He was already breaking curfew, if he took his brother home like this he'd be grounded for the rest of his life.

"It was not the wind," Jacob protested, not at all calmed by what he perceived as his brother's lack of sympathy. "It was a woman. She was begging for help."

"Alright, it wasn't the wind," Eric said trying to placate the younger boy. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Jacob sniffed, beginning to calm down. "Help her," he answered.

"Help her?" Eric sputtered. "You want me to help the ghost?" he asked appalled.

His brother nodded; his eyes still liquid with tears and his chin wobbling. Eric sighed, little brothers could be beyond annoying, "How exactly do you want me to do that?" he questioned.

"I don't know," Jacob said pitifully.

Eric became aware of the whispering from the group of boys behind him and turned away from Jacob for a moment to see what was going on. Steve was arguing with two of the other boys about whether or not the 'ghost' was just a product of Jacob's imagination. When he heard the boys start to laugh and call Jake a wuss, Eric got to his feet.

"If Jake said there was someone there, then there was someone there," he declared confidently, ignoring the fact that just a moment ago he himself had declared the voice a product of Jacob's imagination. When they just shook their heads and laughed, he said, "Fine, then we'll all go in and see. If there's nothing there, then that's the end of it." He glanced down at his brother, "And if there's a ghost we'll try to help her."

A few minutes later all of the boys were in agreement, once most had agreed the few holdouts had been forced to agree or be declared cowards, a fate none would risk. Eric put his arm around Jacob. "You don't have to go back in," he suggested quietly. "You went in first and by yourself no one will make fun of you for not going in now."

"No," Jacob said bravely. "I want to go. I want to help her."