I walked up to the house on shaky legs. My heart pounded in my chest as if a prisoner trying desperatlely to escape to freedom. It didn't need the store bought halloween decorations, the house itself looked to be a haunted house and if the rumors were proven true, then it was one. I shivered in the cold october wind, recallig the many stories people told of this very place. Shane claims that his neighbor had gone here to trick or treat and never came out. There were plenty of reports of missing children throughout the town and they all seemed to lead back to here. I looked back behind me to see my friends watching from a safe distance behind a tree. If only Alex were here. She could calm me after anything and I always feel safe around her. If she were here I'd probably go parading in, not a care in the world, but she wasn't. I'm supposed to be mad at her right now. She had promised she'd join the group this halloween but she never showed and she wont answer my calls. She promised I'd spend today with her, and she broke it. I took a deep breath and reached for the door knob with a shaky hand. I barely found the strength to wrap my fingers around the cool metal . I turned the knob and opened the door, causing it to creek loudly and echo throughout the empty house. I couldn't see a thing inside. It was dark outside and even darker in the old musty building. Why'd I agree to this again? I would usually never trespass onto someone else's property, even if it is condemned. No one that we know owns this place and it must be condemned for a reason. I wouldn't be surprised if it was too weak. The fear I had earlier lessened a little. Now instead of worrying about all the old ghost stories, I was more concerned with falling through the most likely rotten floor boards. I took a hesitant step in, testing the wood before allowing my full weight on it. This is how I continued on in.
I made if a good 10 feet from the door before it slammed shut. Startled, I spun around quick. I had been relying on the light of the streets from outside to be my guide, but with the door shut and the windows boarded closed, it was now pitch black. I couldn't go on if I couldn't see anything so I started back towards the door. I tried to open it but the knob crumbled into peices at my touch and landed in my hand. I tried using the hole that was now in the door to pull it but it wouldn't budge. I looked through the small hole to see my friends who had been across the street were gone. What!? How could they just leave me in this strange place!? I decided it was best not to panic, so I took a few deep breaths to calm myself as I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Maybe theres a back entrance or a forgotten window I could go through. I opened my eyes to find it brighter in the room and I spun around to find candles throughout the room lit, casting long shadows across the floor. How'd that happen? I started my way cautiously through the old mansion trying to find my way to the other side. Then I heard a thump. I stopped dead in my tracks. It sounded like it had come from somewhere upstairs. More reason to get the hell out of here. I picked up my pace and tried not to think. I got into the next room and spotted a door on the far end. I ran to it and yanked it open about to run out when I found it was suspended at least 50 feet in the air. I immediately ran back inside and slammed the door myself, putting my back against it. I calmed my heart that was racing wildly within my ribcage, though it felt as though it was in my throat. I heard another thump and a groan. I listened intently holding my breath praying that my presense wasn't known. It was silent before there was a whine.
"Justin!" Wait, I know that voice.
"Alex!?" I called into the empty house fearing the worst, but hopeful that it really was my best friend. It was silent another moment before her voice answered back.
"Mitchie!?" The voice was muffled but there was no doubt in my mind that it was indeed Alex Russo.
"Alex!" I yelled and ran up the nearest set of stairs. I found myself in a gloomy dark hallway. Another few candles lit there spaces allowing me to see just enough to not run into things. there were five doors, two on each side and one at the other end of the hallway. "Where are you!?" I called out. I heard her muffled yelling, but it sounded like it was coming from all directions. This was hopeless! Why couldn't she just tell me? I ran to the nearest door and cautiously cracked it open to peek inside. I looked to be an old fashioned room. A canopy bed sat in the center of the room, a nightstand on either side as if guarding it. There was a small desk beneath a window on the far side of the room and a full length mirror adonred the closet doors on the other end. No living thing in sight. I closed the door and tried the next one. It was the same as the first, only it seemed to be a mirrored copy. I tried the two on the other side. One was a small hall closet with a couple musty old ouit of date coats and the one next to it was a small bathroom. Like the rest of the house, everything was coated in a thick layer of dust. It looked undisturbed which was odd if Alex was in here. She had to have walked through here before to get wherever she is. I went down the rest of the hallway and reached for the door at the end when I found myself falling through a hole that had been hidden by the rug that laid across the floor. I landed on my stomach, feeling my breath knocked out of me.
"Ugh" I groaned before picking myself up. I looked around expecting to be back in the front room, but instead found myself in another bedroom. This one had a grander bed and a balcony. The architect must have been a genious, being able to create all these eye tricks. I stood up and looked around feeling myself start to panic when I couldn't spot a door. I was trapped, the only way out was the way I came in. The windows were all boarded up and ... the balcony. The windows leading out onto it were open and the curtains blew in the slight breeze. I made my way over to it and stepped out. I screamed and jumped back when I saw what was behind the curtains. From a rope, there hung a body of a girl with raven black hair. Her glassy brown vacant eyes stared lifelessly and her skin was whiter than snow, and not the fairytale way. Blood leaked out of Alex's mouth, her face a bluish purple and blood drenched the entire front of her dress. It had been a white dress until her blood stained poured out of my eyes as I screamed. It couldn't be, this can't happen. Alex CANNOT be dead. I was horrified, sickened to my stomache. It hadn't hit me fully yet, i suspect I was still in shock. Then her hand twitched. I watched in horror as she started moving and squirming. Her hands that looked like her nails had been ripped off went up to the rope and undid it. She fell to the ground in a heap before getting up. I slowly backed away still in shock. Fiinally I turned and ran. I didn't know where I was going, there were no doors. I glanced behind me to see if the zombie Alex had followed but she was gone. I wasn't looking where I ran and I ended up falling onto the bed, only I didn't stop there. The bed broke through the floor and I fell even farther down. I jumped off the bed as fast as I could and glanced around this new room. It had a mini bar in the corner and an old style radio ontop of a dresser. There was a rug in the middle of the room and there were too doors. Besides that it was empty. I started towards one door when there was a flash of white, red, and black. Zombie Alex landed on her feet in front of my. The blood still gushing out of her mouth as she groaned creepily. She came towards me, her neck broken so her head hung to the side. There were dark circles around her sunken eyes.
I screamed again and ran into the first door I saw. I slammed the door and put my back to it in case she tried to get in. Tears were cascading down my face. The room I now was in was pitch black. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I didn't hear anything from the other side of the door so I decided to keep moving in case she did try to follow. I took three steps forward before my face came in contact with a wall. I cried out and my hand flew up to my flattened, throbbing nose. I heard a muffled voice coming from a few feet away and I was again more terrified than I had ever been in my life. I reached forward hesitantly trying to find it. I used to always make fun of those idiots in horror movies that would follow the sound but right now that was the only thing I knew of in what I assumed was this closet. I'd rather have the noise in front of me than behind. I came closer until a string met my face. I put my hands up and felt for it before I grabbed it. It was a chain. I pulled it down and there was a click as a light illuminated a terrified and very much alive Alex. She was bound to a chair and gagged. She had a mixture of fear and relief in her eyes as they met mine.
"Alex" I whispered. I untied her and she barely had time to take the gag out before I tackled her into a hug, clinging for dear life. I buried my face into her chest and started sobbing. She rubbed circles into my back and held me close as I cried.
"It's okay Mitch. I 'm here." She told me repeatedly.
"Alex what's going on? I thought you were dead." I told her and she started running her hand through my hair.
"Don't worry Mitch, that wasn't me. It's Justin. I made fun of him earlier and his little nerdy heart couldn't take it. " She said bitterly.
"But why would he go this extreme? This is awful." I cried.
"I don't know. He's sick and twisted." I didn't say anything, only stared into her eyes. I wanted to tell her right then and there. I wanted to know I thought of her as more than just a friend. That she was my world, my everything and I wanted to live the rest of my life with her. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to tell her I was in love with her and thats what I was about to do. Then out of nowhere, freaky Alex dropped down in front of us and thrusted herself forward. At first I didn't understand what was happening but then I saw blood start spurting from Alex's front, a knife peeking out of her stomache. My hand flew to my mouth as tears again found their way down my cheeks.
"No. NO! Nononono!" I cried as she fell to the floor, still. Lifeless. Dead. I fell to my knees and hovered over her body sobbing. I just wanted to die right then and there. I couldn't live without her. Freaky Alex still stood there but I was no longer scared, I was mad.
"Why!? Why would you do this!?' I cried and she straightened her head, her neck making a sick popping sound.
"You waited too long. You should have said something." She told me in a casual voice I stared confused before she disappeared. I woke up in a cold sweat, disturbing Alex as she slept next to me. We were having our annual halloween sleepover. Pigging out and watching horror movies before the we passed out.
"Mitchie?" She said groggily. "Whats wrong?" I felt something warm sliding down my face and relizing I was crying.
"Alex, I can't do this anymore. I can't be your best friend anymore" I rushed out and she looked hurt.
"What-" I cut her off.
"I love you. I'm in love with you. I want to be you're girlfriend, I want to hold your hand, I want to kiss you're lips and I want to call you mine." I told her in a rush. It was silent for a moment, and my heart was pounding in my chest. Then she chuckled to herself confusing me.
"I love you too Mitch. I was just waiting to see if you felt the same" She told me as she wiped my tears away. Before I could say anything she crashed her lips onto mine. It was passionate yet sweet and gentle. It was everything I had been waiting for.


Happy Halloween! Tell me what you thought!