Chapter 1

The four girls walked up the long, dark lane to the house that didn't look so inviting. "This is the most ridiculous dare ever! That girl is going to pay!" Hissed Marianne.

"Did you see her face as we walked out the door? It looked almost... evil" whispered Harry (formerly known as Harriett by her parents and teachers) "Couldn't we just not go in. I mean its not as if she attached a camera to one of us to prove that we did it."

Meg darted her eyes left and right suspiciously with an innocent look on her face and they all burst into laughter.

Michelle looked around, feeling a little paranoid. "I. Really. Do. Not. Like. This. Guys." she said through gritted teeth and the others all turned around with their eyes rolled back into their heads, and making groaning noises. Michelle screamed and ran five paces back down the drive. "'S'not funny guys!" she whimpered, close to tears.

"Why are you so paranoid? It's just a little dare. All we have to do is go into the house for five minutes, then come out and 'report' back to that idiot in my house!" said Meg.

"Fine" Michelle said, walking back up the drive very reluctantly.

When the four of them all came to the door, Meg said, "This is the part where the door creaks open and we all poke our heads round it!"

The others stifled their giggles.

To their surprise (and Megs disappointment) the door didn't creak open, so they gave up with the idea of poking their heads round.

"Well this really sucks" Marianne said as they walked in.

The room was very bare, with faded grey wood and a gold brass standing lamp with spiders' webs across the top.

"Its creepy" whispered Harry.

"How long do we have left?" said Michelle.

"About four minutes and fifty seconds, if my calculations are correct, which they are!" said Meg.

And in truth, she had meant partly that, but partly something else with her question.

Suddenly, while the girls were standing around trying to pass the time, they heard a whooshing sound from upstairs. Meg, always up for an adventure started to climb up the stairs.

"What are you doing?!" hissed Michelle.

"I'm having some fun and seeing what that noise was. You can come and join me if you want."

Marianne and Harry both followed Meg up the stairs, so not wanting to be left alone, Michelle followed them.

"Please don't do this. It's probably been five minutes anyway."

There was another whooshing sound, even closer this time and it had sounded pretty close to start with.

"I need the loo!" complained Harry.

"Lets see if we can find one up here then" said Meg. "Even if we do find one it probably won't be working."

"Well I personally think you should go outside because there will probably be spiders or ghosts in the loo. If there is one" said Michelle.

"Cool!" said Marianne. "Then something will finally happen around here!"

Above their heads, a floorboard creaked.

Michelle and Meg gasped at the same time for different reasons.

"What was that?" whispered Michelle.

"Probably just a ghost or something" teased Marianne.

"Wow!" said Meg, her face alight with excitement.

"I found one! I foun-" and then they heard a muffled shriek of terror.

"Harry? Harry? Harriett?" whispered Marianne.

Then they heard a soft thunk.

"Harriett?" shouted Michelle.

"Harry?" Even Megs' voice was slightly shaky now. "I'm going to go and find her. She probably just hurt her head or something." Meg was trying –but failing miserably- to sound brave. She went off down the corridor.

"I am not going down there ever." Said Marianne.

"Me neither" said Michelle.

Another muffled scream.

"We stay together from now on" ordered Michelle.

Another thunk.

"Agreed."

"Okay, let's slowly walk down the stairs, together, then sprint as fast as we can back to Megs' house. Right?" said Michelle.

"But what about the other two?" asked Marianne.

"I don't know," said Michelle.

The truth was, they both actually knew very well.

"How do we get down the staircase? It isn't wide enough to fit us both."

"We hold hands.," said Marianne.

"Deal."

As Marianne went down first, holding Michelle's hand firmly in hers, she heard another whoosh, so close she could have sworn she felt a breeze behind her.

Another terrified scream, and this time Marianne felt Michelle's hand break free of her firm grip. She turned around, to see Michelle being dragged along the floor of the corridor by a black shape, a silhouette almost. Michelle's fingernails dug helplessly into the floor, trying to find some grip on the wood, her face white with terror and pain, and Michelle's voice was pleading and screaming for help.

But Marianne couldn't help her.

Marianne ran down the stairs, focusing so much on the front door she didn't hear the thing behind her. She ran into the room they had all first seen, only to stop dead in her tracks. What she saw was worse than anything she had ever seen in her life.

All of her friends' corpses were splayed out all over the floor, all of their faces white with blood and cuts all over them. She walked around the bodies, trying to find a pulse, a heartbeat, anything to tell her that there was another living creature in this house.

Unfortunately for Marianne, there was.

When she got to Michelle's body, the final body, she broke down in tears, realising they were all dead.

While she was sobbing so intently, head in her hands, a shape, the very same shape Marianne had seen before with Michelle, emerged from the shadows so gracefully that Marianne didn't hear it before it was too late.

The shape coughed.

Marianne's head jerked up at the sudden noise.

The shape looked like it was a human body, and it was wearing a mask but in the faint moonlight, Marianne could just make out a pair of dark, green eyes.

"Who are you?" she whispered. "What are you?"

The figure ignored her questions and came down to squat beside her. It had to put its hand underneath Marianne's chin to force her to look at it.

Marianne had no choice but to look into the things green eyes.

"You really should have taken better care of your friends Marianne" said the figure in a high girlish, almost mocking voice, gesturing to the bodies on the floor.

"How do you know my name? Why are you here?" asked Marianne frantically.

The figure ignored her again.

"You really should've" it whispered, and with the hand that was under Marianne's chin, it jerked her head up, and Marianne slumped back onto the floor.

The shape slunk back into the shadows.