The old Bonnefoy Manor stood before her, its' decrepit, rotting boards were aged grey since it was built and painted who knows who many decades ago. It seemed impossible that such a beautiful that such a beautiful house could've ever shared the same space as this disgusting dump. And that's what brought the young woman and her friend here today.

"A-al, I don't know about this…"

"Oh, come on, you aren't scared are you?" His right blue eyes were shining brightly, even in the dark of night which the two stood in. He was so excited for this new adventure that his knuckles began to whiten as he tightened his grip on the flashlight he held. He was definitely more excited than the young girl standing there. But she couldn't let him know that.

"N-no!" she attempted to mask her fear with a façade, a face of denial that her friend wasn't bright enough to see past. She glared at her slightly obnoxious friend who had received what he called "The Challenge" from the seniors at the school they began to attend just a month ago as freshmen. The challenge to enter the so-called "haunted" old mansion at the edge of town, the one that got him "in" with the seniors. He had impulsively accepted the challenge, but she guessed he was too scared to go on his own and included you in his endeavor. You could hardly believe the offer to be true, anyway. "I'm not scared of any old haunted house."

"Awesome!" He grinned and pointed to the mansion, then made a sweeping motion at the house, a motion to direct one into the old mansion. "Ladies first."

She stared for a moment in disbelief, though deep down, she knew that he would try something like this.

"Dude, the seniors taught me this was part of this 'shovelry' thing. Isn't that friggin' badass?"

"Chivalry, Al, and right now this is the opposite of it anway!"

"Aw, you gotta be kidding me! You said you weren't t even scared, either." He grinned evilly as he poked a hole in her denial. His blue eyes moved from her to the mansion, to the mansion and back and she cringed a little, knowing all too well what was going to happen. Al's puppy-dog eyes came into effect and stared deeply into yours. She tried to move her flashlight's beam away from his face and look away, but the young blonde was not swayed. He followed the shaft of light wherever she pointed it until she switched off the light. But even then, he pointed his light towards his face.

"A-al, come on…" The girl knew how futile it was to resist the eyes that could melt her heart even in the epitome of her rage such as she found out through their friendship spanning many years.

He whimpered in reply.

"Al!" Her resistance was slipping.

"Please? Come on, dude…Please?"

She bit her lip, still vainly trying to retain her sternness.

"I'll be right behind you," the young man promised.

She grumbled a little, finally giving in.

"All right!" Al jumped up with a yell only to be shushed angrily.

"A-al, it's almost midnight! You'll w—"

"What, wake up all the spooooooky ghooooosts? You know how far we are from the nearest house? WAAAAY too far for anyone to hear us!" He laughed and wiggled his fingers before her, as if to simultaneously insinuate and mock paranormal activity of some kind.

"…W-well…it's just not polite…" The young woman grumbled.

"Then let's just go!" The boy took off wildly towards the house in excitement, apparently forgetting his fear in favor of stupidity. Again.

"Al!" Only hesitating a moment, she decided to dash out after him, up the stairs, and into the residence. She couldn't just let Al in there all alone!

Meanwhile

In the bushes, two young men were nearly toppled over laughing while a third looked mildly concerned and lost in thought. The first out of the other two finally began to regain some composure, and in a moment had enough to talk.

"Zhat was sho aweshome! Almost as aweshome as me! They both totally ran in there just because we told zhem to!" The first boy's scarlet eyes almost glowed with mischievousness as he brushed some moss out of his snow white hair.

"Oui!" The second boy could just begin to reply as his laughter weakened as well, his long blonde hair also getting moss and twigs caught in the luscious golden strands as he regained his breath on the ground. "I cannot believe they ran into zat dilapidated old 'ouse!"

The two burst into a fresh fit of laughter as the third stared with guilty green eyes at the house before them. "I don't know, chicos, they looked pretty scared…Are you sure that house is really safe..? It looks really old…"

The albino sat up a little, wiping a tear from his eye. "You worry too much, Annie! Zhey will be fine! It's just an old house."

The blonde glanced at the worried one with sky-blue eyes. "Oui, what iz ze worst zat could 'appen, anyway?"

The brunette starred worriedly towards the portal where the two had disappeared through.

"That is just what I was thinking about…"