The hallway was silent, but I knew what was coming. I should have never come here, I thought to myself. If I had just stayed home this would have never happened.

My friends ditched me and now I was on my own. I was silently thanking/cursing whoever it was that put carpet in this house. On one hand it covered the sound of my footsteps as I ran down the hall, but on the other hand it also covered the sound of the thing that was chasing me’s footsteps. As I was thinking about that, I almost didn’t notice that the hall came to an abrupt stop at a brick wall. I had two options: One, I could keep running down the hall to my left, or two, I could go into the room to my right and risk the chance of being found. I took the obvious choice and kept running.

Oh, I knew I never should have accepted the dare, I thought. I should have just stayed home and watched a horror movie, instead of lived it! I couldn’t run any more. I was out of breath and wishing—hoping—for an escape, but wasn’t getting one. My heart started to race with panic (and fear) as I started to notice my surroundings. My worst fear had come true—I had gotten lost in this stupid, tangled maze of hallways and now I was going in circles.

I quickly turned down a hall I (don’t think) I’d seen before. Wrong decision, not only had I not been down it before, but it also had no carpet. Now I could hear the thing’s footsteps, and it could hear mine. I started thinking of how I got myself into this.

Come on, it’s only going to take you a half-hour, an hour at the most, they had told me. And, stupidly, I had agreed. Okay, what am I supposed to do when I get in there, again? I had asked. It’s simple, all you have to do is get inside, find the book titled The Complete Encyclopedia of Ghost Ships, and then get out. If you bring the book back, then we’ll know you actually went in.

I realized that while I was thinking about this, I had stumbled upon a large open area, and all along the walls were books. Books of all shapes and sizes, hard cover, paperback, thick, thin. Any type of book you could imagine. I have no time to waste, I thought, I have to find that book. So I began searching, searching through this vast sea of books. I was so preoccupied by listening for the thing that I almost tossed the book I needed aside. It was a big book—leather bound, with yellowed pages—it also smelled musty, like it hadn’t been opened in years, centuries even. I quickly shoved it in my bag. Just then, I heard the thing coming. I ran to the nearest door and tried opening it—no luck. I went to the next one, and the next, but all the doors were locked and I had no where to go. Wait, there’s a window. I tried opening the window, but it wouldn’t budge. I don’t know what it was that I pulled on, but just then one of the bookcases slid open. I couldn’t believe it! I might actually get out of here, I thought. I ran down the stairs and through the door at the bottom, and when I came out, I was in the basement. I quickly looked around for stairs that led up to the main part of the house, and when I found them I quickly ran up and tried the door. It was locked. I was getting really tired of this, so I went back down and grabbed an ax. I went back up and hacked the knob off. Then I threw the door open and sprinted to the front door. I left the ax on the front porch and kept running until I was home, and never looked back.