Everyone talked about the house across the street. The one that had been laying abandoned for years. There were stories about that house, about monsters and ghosts and things that made people scream. Dean Willshire didn't believe in them.

She had lived across from the house for as long as she could remember, and even though it gave off a weird vibe, she had never seen or heard anything from it that made her think it was haunted, besides the screams of teenagers scaring each other. It was just a general unspoken rule to never go near it. She never intended to stay the night there.

It was summer, and she was lounging in her backyard with her sister Sammy and her best friend Cassie. The grass was yellow and prickly and their giant hammock was in the shade. Sammy was on the ground, stretched out on a towel. They were all content and lethargic from the heat, the high of summer break finally tapering out.

Cassie stretched. "I'm bored." She whined.

Dean elbowed her. "Stop moving, you're making the hammock rock."

"Oh, whatever. I'm still bored. There's nothing to do

"Maybe if you shut up I'd be able to sleep." Dean grumbled.

Cassie tipped over the hammock and both girls fell to the ground.

"Hey!" Dean yelled indignantly. As she was getting up, they all heard the sound of far off screaming. There was collective sighs and groaning.

"Who is it this week?" Sammy asked, eyes still closed.

Dean snorted. "Becky and Chuck."

Cassie started laughing. "I doubt they lasted two seconds."

Sammy chuckled. "I bet they didn't even make it inside."

"I bet Becky saw a piece of wood with a 'scary face' on it and ran." Cassie giggled.

"I bet Chuck screamed when the door squeaked."

They all started giggling.

Dean was the first one to walk back to the kitchen to get some fruit punch, 'cause she liked fruit punch.

Cassie followed, and with a sigh, Sammy the giant gathered up her towel and walked back in with them.

She towered over the other two girls in the kitchen by at least several inches. How she managed to get so tall while still being the younger sister, Dean never knew. Her real name was Samantha, but everyone called her Sammy, and she had shoulder length hair that was perpetually fixed in a ponytail. Dean's real name was Denise, but she had always hated it. She had short, spiky gold-blonde hair, bright green eyes, an impossible amount of freckles, and preferred Florence + The Machine to Kansas, thank you very much. (The bands. Duh.) People called her a tomboy, she didn't really care. Cassie's hair was black and curly, and she had a pixie cut, round face, and blue, blue eyes. They were an odd bunch.

They were all sitting at the counter, snacking and drinking their respective drinks, when Cassie (who's real name was actually Cassandra, but Dean preferred Cassie) brought it up.

They were also playing Would You Rather, which in hindsight had been a stupid choice on Dean's part.

"Would you rather ... spend the night in the house across the street, or go out with Nick?" She asked a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Dean made a face. "Spend a night in the house across the street. Definitely."

Sammy's eyes widened. "Really? You're the craziest person I've ever met. I can't even believe you and I are related."

"Yeah, sometimes I can't believe it either." Dean mumbled, taking a sip of her delicious fruit punch.

"Wait, so, you'd actually do it?" Cassie asked, eyes wide.

She snorted. "Sure."

Her best friend got that look in her eyes, a look that meant something bad was gonna happen, most likely to Dean.

"I dare you to spend the night there." She demanded.

Dean rolled her eyes. Honestly, she didn't get what exactly was quite so scary about the house across the street. "Yeah, fine. I'll go tonight if you want me to."

So now, she was packing an overnight bag, to go sleep in the house across the street. She had, of course, talked both Sammy and Cassie into going with her, because she just couldn't pass up an opportunity to scare the living crap out of them both. She was dressed in boots, jeans, and a plaid overshirt, for practical reasons. Her sister and best friend dressed similarly. After dark, (and a small lie to her dad), they made their way over.

There was a chain link fence surrounding the abandoned home to keep intruders out, but everyone knew there was a hole in the fence on the right side. They crawled under, and soon enough they were standing in front of the weathered door. The two story house was in disrepair, and honestly Dean was more scared about the structural soundness of the building than it being haunted. The paint was peeling on all sides, the grass was tall and yellow, and the wood was splintered and cracked. It looked like it was about to fall over any minute. She clicked on her flashlight and walked up the steps, wincing at each and every creak they made.

The others followed behind her, everyone suddenly nervous about the idea. Dean took a deep breath and held it, and slowly pushed open the door and walked inside. In front of her was a crumbling banister and a crooked flight of stairs, several doors leading in all directions.

Everything was coated with a thick layer of dust. There were a couple crushed beer cans near the door and it looked like one of the walls had been hit with an axe. She pulled out her ipod and put one of the buds in her ears, starting up her favorite playlist.

She motioned for the two behind her to follow, and she tread carefully up the stairs. The sound of a rat scratching in one of the walls filled the silence. She picked another song. They made it to the second floor, which Dean guessed was just bedrooms. She walked up to one of the five doors and pushed it open, revealing an empty room, with a window looking out over the lawn. She walked into the middle and pulled out her sleeping bag, unfolding it and getting it in place. When she noticed there was a distinct lack of gigantic human beings, she looked up to see Sammy and Cassie both standing nervously in the doorway.

She pulled out her earbud. "What?" She asked, staring at the two. When neither of the girls moved, she walked over and pulled them both over to where she was standing. "Look, it' just for one night. Fall asleep fast, the whole thing will be done before you know it."

The two girls shuddered and nodded, and began unpacking with Dean. Soon enough they all were lying down next to each other, and Dean quickly nodded off.


She awoke suddenly, and quickly sat up and looked around. There was something wrong. Sammy and Cassie weren't in their sleeping bags. Dean tried to turn on her ipod to see what time it was, but it was dead. She scrambled up and stared into the corner, convinced she saw something moving. But there was nothing, except shadows.

"Sammy! Cassie!" She called out, and strained her ears, waiting for a reply. There was none. Her breathing sped up, and she could feel her heart beating in her chest. She swore she could see the shadows moving and twisting out of the corner of her eye, but when she stared at them directly, they were the same, normal ink-black shadows they were when they first walked in here.

Dean was getting anxious and called out again, and again, she got no reply. She quickly strode out of the room, determined to kick their butts if they were playing pranks on her. But there weren't a second set of footprints in the dust. She quickly went back for her flashlight, and was making her way to the stairs when she heard a creak of floorboards come from the room directly in front of her. Cautiously, she made her way forward, and pushed open the door, peering inside.

This one hadn't been cleared out when the owners disappeared, and it seemed to belong to a little girl. Everything was faded and washed black and white in the darkness. There was a bed pushed up against the wall, and scrapes from the legs of the bed marking up the floor in sets of lines. There was a white dresser, with an antique bear sitting on top. She was facing the front of the room, looking at a little desk, when she heard it again. That creak.

She spun around quickly, eyes darting wildly around the room. There wasn't anybody there. The creak sounded again. It was coming from the springs in the bed, she realized. She ran.

She ran down the stairs, not caring how much noise she was making, and was almost to the front door when she heard a scream. She stopped mid stride, listening hard.

There was another scream, and she picked up an axe she saw to her left and ran. She reached the decaying kitchen and stopped mid-stride. There was a figure standing in front of Cassie, wielding a cleaving knife. He was humming.

"Don't fret, precious I'm here. Step away from the window.

Go, back to sleep.

Safe from pain, and truth, and choice, and other poison devils, saying they don't care about you.

But I do."

Cassie was gasping, obviously having run here only to be cornered. Her eyes were wide.

The man was approaching her quietly, his steps making no sound. There was blood dripping from his knife. Dean didn't want to know whose it was.

"Dean!" She screamed, backing into the sink. Her hand hit the faucet, and the sink turned on, a screeching sound coming from the pipes, and rusty red water started pouring into the basin. The figure kept stepping forward.

She steeled herself, and swung the axe at the man. It cut right through him, blood splattering everywhere. He kept walking. The red liquid was pooling at his feet, and with each step the puddles grew larger. Desperately, she threw the axe at him, and it stuck in his back. The figure stopped moving.

"C'mon!" She screamed, and Cassie shot towards her. They clasped hands and ran in the direction they knew was where the door was, but when they reached, the staircase, the door wasn't there. Not as in, they were going the wrong way, but as in, the door wasn't there.

"Wait." She gasped. "Where's Sammy?"

Cassie shrugged, face pale and eyes huge. "A better question would be, where's the door?"

"Forget about the door! We're not leaving here without her!"

Was the banister black when they got here? She couldn't remember. The shadows seemed darker in this part of the house. There were no windows here.

She swore she had seen something in the corner of her eye. She could see Cassie looking around wildly.

"Why did I ever think this was a good idea?" She moaned, sounding like she was close to tears.

It seemed like the shadows were moving. But that wasn't possible. It just wasn't. She stepped closer to the banister, only to jump back in surprise. There was a thick black liquid coating it, pooling around the floor. It seemed like it was seeping up from the floorboards, sticking to their shoes. Dean heard yelling from upstairs.

"Sammy!" She screamed back. She heard a response and tried to move, but her feet were stuck to the floor. She looked up quickly, shouting for help, and she saw her sister's figure appear at the top of the stairs.

"Sammy! Oh my god, Sammy!" She tried to tear her feet out, to no avail.

Her sister's figure slowly walked down the stairs, taking it step by step. She reached the bottom and placed a hand on the banister, strangely calm and unaffected.

"Samantha!" Dean screamed, trying to get her sister's attention. Sammy's head turned towards her. Her eyes were black. Not just the pupil, the entire eye. She grinned, and when she spoke, her voice came out grated and warped and all wrong.

"Sammy's not here at the moment, precious. But I can take a message."

Dean's breath stopped in her throat. Her sister's grin spread impossibly wider, blood starting to trickle from the corners.

She took her hand off the banister and stalked towards her sister, holding the hand up to her face.

"I wonder if ... " Flames erupted from her fingertips. Dean screamed again, louder this time.

"What, do you think would happen if I just ... " She lowered her hand to the ground, and the flames jumped from her hand to the ground, the entire floor lighting up. The fire was spreading fast.

"And to think. If you just went back ... to ... sleep." She whispered

Cassie tugged on her arm, hard, and Dean tumbled into her arms. The door was there, strangely enough, and they both stumbled out of it, falling into the grass and staring up in horror as the entire house was consumed by flickering flames, shooting fifty feet high. Sammy's figure stood in the doorway.

Dean couldn't leave her sister there.

Dean ran towards her.