Paris, August 29th, 21:28
April Graves sighed. On the lit screen of her up-to-date phone was an all-caps, angry text message from her mother ordering her to came home. She rolled her eyes. April felt something bang her elbow and she looked up. Her best friend Amy Chandler was looking curiously at her.
"So, what's that?" she asked, looking innocently up at her. April quickly secured the phone shut and slipped it into her small golden clutch, her mind running on double-time.
"It was, um… It was… my mother," April stammered, pushing a strand of red-blonde hair behind her ear.
"And…?" Amy inquired further. Her eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Is she okay? Did something happen to your father?" April smiled and put her hand on Amy's shoulder. Sometimes her best friend could be a bit emotional and a worry-wart.
"It's fine. My mother just said that I could have a few more hours here," April lied. Amy gave a big, heartfelt sigh of relief. She could also be a bit dramatic at times. "And since I can stay a bit longer… I'm thinking... the haunted house on Ashburn," April smiled deviously. April's eyebrows shot up.
"Are you sure? I mean, I've seen it and it's really scary. There are cobwebs and everything, I mean," Amy put her hand back on April's shoulder, "are you sure?" Worry laced her voice, making April feel a slight twinge of guilt, but a over-whelming sense of rebellion, which made her smile again.
April put Amy's favorite stuffed animal back in it's spot, nestled among her collection of purple pillows, and got off Amy's fluffy bed. Amy followed her lead and they both started putting on their shoes.
"Allons-y!"
April hands had started shaking about a quarter-mile away from their destination. Amy's older sister Jessica Chandler had a driver's license and offered to drive them. April used the word 'offered' tentatively, given that she had pretended not to see Amy give her older sister a long, heated argument in french (too fast for her to understand) and a look that killed while she was waiting for them in the car. The tiny european vehicle shuddered to a stop and Jessica turned around, raising one perfectly plucked eyebrow at Amy and April.
"Vous doivent departer!" Jessica commanded. April sighed. Besides April's teachers, Jessica was the only person who she knew spoke english but refused to talk in anything but french to her. Amy opened the door of her sister's car and both the fourteen-year-olds scrambled out. The second that April shut the door, the car screeched off into the distance, dust flying up everywhere.
April coughed and Amy helped untangle her filmy baby-pink scarf from April's earrings.
"Sorry about that," Amy apologized, trying not to rip her friend's expensive scarf. "Jessica's been a bit... moody lately." The pair finally managed to detach the two accessories. April gave an exasperated sigh, annoyed at Jessica, and turned around.
The old house was bigger than April remembered. When Amy first introduced it to her, it was on the way to a party and she remembered Amy insisting that her mother pull over. April recalled the shiver that ran down her spine from hearing the old house moan and listening to ghost stories about it. The most prominent story she remembered was about a crazy man who tried to move into the house. The story went that he had gone crazy inside. The day he died, he had run around screaming that the house was placed there by demons, and then he strung a rope onto the ledge of the house's roof and jumped off the railing, hanging himself.
There were cobwebs hanging from the roof, which had missing tiles. The house creaked and groaned, as if the light wind could push it over.
April slowly eased her way up the front steps onto the porch, scared that the fragile wood would give way underneath her. Dead plants littered the windows, which were boarded up. April looked back and saw Amy was wringing her hands with excitement and fear.
April reached up for the brass doorknob and slowly painfully twisted it. Adrenaline laced her bloodstream and she started to hyperventilate from it. April opened it just so she could slip in and turned. Her eyes reflexively snapped shut against the bright light that greeted her eyes. Before April got a look at what was causing the light, there was a loud bang. Every horror movie she could think of raced through her head and fear clawed at her brain. It was never good news when the door closes on its own. April yanked at the doorknob and rattled it fiercely, trying to open the door.
And that's when she realized that the door was just sitting there. Not attached to any creepy, rotting wood walls. April screamed.
There was a scraping sound and Amy flung the door open, tripping into April. The best friends tumbled onto the ground, sprawling onto each other. When they had both gotten over the initial shock of the fall, the two looking into the light. Amy's mouth hung open in surprise, ad April's was formed in a scream. There was a huge, running amusement park. Amy's forced herself to speak.
"There's an amusement park… And no one's running it, but all the rides are working… And we're supposed to be in a mansion… And—" Amy's eyes rolled back and she fainted. April screamed.