Chapter One

Getting inside

The children arrived in front of the abandoned building. Dozens of people used to live in its apartments, and when it was active the building looked rather antique; aged but pleasant. Now wooden plants were nailed to the windows black garbage bags were taped over some of the others, bricks were missing from some of the corners of the building and it was clear that if the building didn't fall over by itself; it would soon be torn down.

The building had been in the neighborhood for decades but no one paid attention, no one ever really stopped by, maybe it was because of the stories… or perhaps the fact that the neighborhood had a horrible history of violence. Shootouts between gang members, deadly robberies in the near by stores, the bodies of dead homeless men and woman alike were often found in the bushes of the parks nearby. All of these things plagued the areas reputation and resulted in it being mostly secluded.

But this was most likely to change soon, new buildings were being built, a richer population was starting move in and soon this building, as well as many others in the community was going to be replaced with new apartment complexes. Perhaps that would be for the better.

"Ralf showed me this place" A girl named Erica explained. She was one of the youngest in her group. She had olive colored skin and jet black hair that curled at the tips it was long and messy and went down the length of her back. She put a hand on her hip. Despite her girlish face, she was a tom boy dressed in bummed down jeans and a loose shirt. Her once white sneakers had holes on the bottom but she never seemed to mind neither did her friends who she turned to waiting for their approval.

"I don't care, I never liked Ralf" Her friend Lisandra explained.

Lisi; as she was also known as had pallid skin and a thin face. Her body however was full and developed for her age. She wasn't very athletic and had been dressed appropriately for school, accounting for her reluctance to try to climb the barbed wired fence or try to do anything that would require physical endurance whatsoever. The girls were cutting school and Lisandra didn't want her mother to have any suspicion of her missing class. Her worst fear was getting caught and disappointing her mother, but the adventure that her friends portrayed was inspiring to her, for she had a bit of a rebel inside too that she kept under locks. The girl played with her dark brown hair idly in thought. "I'm not going into that place-- it seems dangerous…"

"Not to mention disgusting!" Tatiana added.
This girls skin was a darker shade of caramel her hair was short reaching up to her neck in length. She looked at the others with her big brown eyes and seemed already set in her ways. "The only thing we'll probably find there is a homeless guy jerking off or something" She shot a glance at her friend Erica, knowing she would respond to it.

"Eww" The girl flinched at the thought but ignored her friend's statement. She walking over to an opening in the fence but it was tight and it was clear that even she would have trouble fitting through it. Looking for another alternative she pointed at a concrete wall that was as tall as the barbed wired fence itself. The wall intersected with the fence and she thought if they could only get on top of the concrete wall they could hop over to the other side easily, and unhurt.
"Let's get up there and then climb over,"

"Behind that wall is where they found a body a few weeks ago, some prostitute I think, she was all beaten and bloody!" Lisi informed. "My mom told me to be careful around places like this."

"That's why people shouldn't listen to the news! All they do is try to scare people away from places. Imagine we get inside and we find, like treasure or something!"
The girls stopped and gave Erica a look, she giggled stupidly and shrugged. "But seriously come on, let's get in there! Snoop around, they're gonn'a tear this place down soon. Wouldn't you want to tell your childrens' that you wasn't a boring kid; sure we all want to be prestigious and all but-"

"Alright let's do it" Tatiana said with a sudden change of heart. The girl fixed her hair into a pony tail and began inspecting the area to see if they could really get over there safely.

"Why?" Lisi asked her face was confused she knew that with Tatiana on Erica's side she might be more easily persuaded into doing something stupid. She had the feeling that this was a losing battle but she still had hope.

"Why not,"

Lisandra sucked her teeth but shrugged reluctantly. They began to look for a stool or anything that they could use to give them stability and height when climbing the wall. Minutes later they stumble across something around the junkyard near by; it wasn't hard to find. The girls find a plastic create and lean it against the wall so that it may give them the best height possible. Erica's the first to lift herself up she struggles at first but balances on the wall sitting with one leg hanging off either side and the other two follow suit. Within minutes they manage to avoid the barbed wire fence and clumsily land on the ground on the other side.

"See? That wasn't too bad" The girl exclaims, Lisi gives her a hateful glare.

"This is stupid" She mumbles, trying to brush the dirt off her hands. "How are we going to get back over?"
Erica rolls her eyes, dark hair bouncing as she skipped towards the main entrance. "So what's the real reason we're doing this?" Lisi asked, ignoring the fact that her other question went unanswered.

Tatiana tries to suppress a smirk but fails and smiles sheepishly. The girls know each other very well and Lisandra is smart enough to know that there was some other motive for this adventure.
"Alright" Tatiana sighed "We'll tell you"

The two tell Lisandra the local stories about the buildings past. They tell her about why the building was shut down. They explained the stories of torture. One story stated that the owner would cook people in the boiler room on the lowest level he would steal them away from their apartments and eat them sometimes he would even do so while they were still alive. Another story stated that tenants would just simply disappear; when police began to suspect it was an inside job the owner of the building committed suicide not wanting to be blamed for any of the murders. But whatever the story was it always ended tragically, the building was shut down and the owner was found hanging off the roof by his neck.

"So which story is true?" Lisandra asked with wide eyes.

"Well I don't know fully. Ralf told me that the owner of the building really did commit suicide, after that no one really wanted to live here. People moved out- and never looked back"

Tatiana nodded and added on "At night people passing by can hear screams sometimes- even though this place is completely abandoned. They say if you wait around and look at the roof at around two in the morning you can see his silhouette. The shadow of the old owner- walking off the edge of the roof…"

"You guys do know that ghosts don't come out in the day time right?" Lisandra laughs.

"Listen, people would disappear from this place all the time; any time. Let's try to talk to them or something I've seen something like this on show Ghost Hunters. Speak to the spirits and they'll make themselves known. If something happens… anything! It'll be worth it."

"And if not?"

"If not, we had fun at least right?" The girl gives a bright smile.

The main entrance of the building was locked and sealed with heavy chains. The windows on the first floor were too high to climb into comfortably, and even if they weren't they were all closed by wooden planks from the inside. They searched around the whole building for any openings in the windows. Yet they had no luck. The girls were beginning to become frustrated with each other. Tatiana was checking her text messages. Lisandra seemed reluctant to even pretend she was interested and Erica was getting plain old annoyed. The tomboy kicked a small pebble and sat on the grass. They stay there a while, not talking much at all they were about to come to the silent conclusion of leaving all together until they hear a thud come from inside the buildings walls.

Their eyes snapped shut and then they looked at each other. A mixture of surprise and fear shot through them, and Lisandra grabbed each of the girl's hands and pulled them together. She spoke in a low voice as she tried to read their expressions.

"You hear that?"

"Absolutely"

"Should we go in?"

"We're already here, besides this is an old rusty place. That sound easily be mistaken for a noisy pipe…anything. I assure you it's going to be fine- and even better when we get out of this place you'll probably slap me for wasting your time" Erica explains.

"Yeah I will… How'd you know" Tatiana threatens, receiving a sly smile from her best friend. The girls continue to fool around making jokes as they looked for a way to get in. They knew that Ralf and the crew had been inside before and they looked for their means of entry.

Walking over to the back of the building they finally found an opportunity. If they could climb the fire escape and make it to the second floor then they would be able to go in through an open window. They climbed the ladder, trying not to make much noise and attract much attention, and soon they made it to their destination undisturbed. Erica opened the window even more for better access and was the first to climb inside. The floor creaked as the girl stumbled in, she turned to help her friends inside and they all made it inside the 'haunted' building looking around in silence.