We did not go straight in as my asthma started, well, that’s what I said to Robert. I was actually scared silly! I hated being a coward, especially over an old house, but it looked so sinister with all the windows fallen out and clumps of bricks lying everywhere. In fact it was more of a demolished building than an old one.
After walking up the remains of the path we took a look through the window. It was just a plain, empty and boring room. I was half-glad, half-disappointed. There was nothing in it. The whole house was just covered in thick dust.
“What’s that noise?” I said, as I heard a bang from inside.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Robert answered.
We listened for a while and there were a lot of rattles and bangs going on. It was the noise I would hear when mum went out shopping and I was alone in the house. Robert pretended that he could not hear them. We walked back to what was left of the door.
“Here goes,” I said.
Robert nodded. We opened the door, ran through and it slammed firmly shut.
“Arggggggh!” I screamed.
“Shut up,” he whispered. “Or the ghosts will come and get you!”
“Arggggggh!” I screamed again.
“Okay, okay, be quiet!” he said.
“HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! YOU FOOLS,” echoed round the empty room. “YOU DIE TODAY!”
“Arggggggggh!!!” we both shouted.
“Oh no! the doors locked as well!” I said banging at the door.
We both spun around, was that a scream? From out of the shadows rushed Dan and one of his friends, John. We couldn’t see each other and those two crashed into us.
“What are you doing here Dan!” Robert jumped to his feet.
“You mean, what are YOU doing here!” Dan got up. “We agreed yesterday that I was to come here and see if it was haunted – not you!”
“Oh… you sure it was you who was meant to come here? I thought we agreed to us coming…”
“It doesn’t matter now, we’re all trapped in this stupid house and it’s all your fault!” I said to both of them. “Lets just find another way out of here!”
“Yeah, well that would be easier if this place wasn’t haunted!” John chipped in.
“You mean it wasn’t YOU that did those voices just now?” Robert shouted!
“It…it wasn’t you either?” replied Dan.
“So we’re trapped in a ghost-infested house? Couldn’t get any better,” I said, not believing a word.
“Lets just go, ok?” replied John.
As we wandered blindly through the darkness, I shut off all thoughts of the possibility of a ghost. They weren’t real, just made up to be used in films like Ghostbusters and stuff. It was one of those things you could not believe till you see it. Dan and John were just having us on. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. Wonder what the phone number for the Ghostbusters is anyway.
This house was much bigger than it looked from the outside. It showed no sign of stopping. But that was just the darkness, I guess. At least, we could not see any ghosts.
“We aren’t getting anywhere here, I say we split up” said John suddenly out of the blue.
“You think that’s a good idea?” said Robert.
“Well, it’s better than going round in circles all this time!” replied John
“OK then, come with me Tom,” Robert said to me.
As Robert and I stumbled around in the darkness, I walked into what appeared to be a wall. I felt for a window…yes! I found it. I could see tiny slits of light cutting through the boards of wood that had been stuck over the window.
“Hey, Rob! Get over here!” I shouted.
“What is it?” he said as he fell over all the bricks and other trash lying around.
“A window. We can smash through!”
“Alright! Ok…now we need to find those two…”
But he was cut off mid-sentence by some noises around us.
“THERE YOU ARE!” came the spooky voice we had heard before.
We quickly started to kick the window through.
“AND WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING?” bellowed the voice.
“Come on! Faster!” I yelled.
Suddenly, Robert stopped kicking the window.
“You keep at it, I’ve got to do something first,” he said calmly.
“You what?”
Then, he turned and walked into the darkness and I heard a sound. A sound like someone was being punched.
“Rob…?” I called out.
And suddenly, Dan was thrown out of the shadows and landed at my feet.
“Ouch!” he cried.
Almost as soon as Dan had been knocked down, so was John.
“What are you two playing at down there?” I asked.
“Being morons actually,” said Robert, walking out of the shadows again.
“Huh?”
“That voice we heard was them trying to frighten us. They were using that loudspeaker of mine I let John borrow. The one where you can change the sound of your voice?”
“But why did you do it?” I asked.
“I don’t like to lose bets,” Dan replied.
“Well, you lost this one!” snapped Robert and delved quickly into Dan’s pockets, bringing out a ten-pound note. “This should do nicely. Come on Tom, let’s go”.
Off we went, through the window (good thing we were downstairs) and walked down the street to the arcade.
“How long did you know they were playing us for fools,” I asked.
“For most of the time,” he answered.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“Nah, didn’t need to, I had everything under control”.
“Are you sure…?”
“Positive,” he smiled.
