Shrieking Shack
Talia shivered. Sam, my dog we were walking whimpered. The day was as beautiful as scene plucked from a fairy tale, with the sky blue and the warm sun shining on our backs. Although the day was beautiful, the air seemed eerie.
“What?” I looked over, and answered my own question. It was the house. Talia and I named it after the haunted house in Harry Potter, the Shrieking Shack.
The old housed used to be white, according to the old pictures and books on the history of our town. Now, it's so chipped, it's just a dull moldy wood color like moldy cheese. The old fashion Victorian doors and windows are boarded up. The old shutters are have rotted and torn off. Small animals and creatures took it upon themselves to make it their home. Since I used to house many children, it is bigger than most houses on the long wooded road, clear of the many add-on and additions.
No one has dared to step foot in it. This house is beyond creepy even, when you get past its looks. When you know the house’s past and story you’ll understand more.
It used to be a home for mentally ill children. Nothing bad had happened there, people would visit and it was a happy place, for the most part. But, unfortunately the patients in that home all came down with a rare disease or poisoning that quickly killed each one of them. None of them survived, well at least not living. There is still said to be their spirits roaming around the house looking for what ever happened to them. They were all peaceful children, except now they're pretty murderous. You can ask anyone in town about it, all of their stories are different but many of them say they have the ability to kill just as a human would. .
Suddenly, Talia’s phone rang just in time to interrupt these horrible thoughts of the Shrieking Shack. It was a recording made by a girl at school. I recognized the voice, but I couldn’t match a face. Then I knew it… Sarah. She was one of the “popular girls in our school. She was had a medium height, long blond hair that was always very straightened. She had the bluest of eyes, almost aqua.
She was calling people in our school with random dares and you had to accept in order to not be called a wimp for the rest of high school.
“Hey, its Sarah!” she said dragging out the ‘hey’. She was also extremely peppy, usual for a cheerleader,“I’m here for your dare! Anyways, your are to spend a whole night in the old house on Wood Road Friday night. Keep us updated on Facebook! Good Luck! Bye!”
Talia just stared at me wide eyed. The color drained from her face to the color of parchment. Soon tears began to stream down her face.
“Well that was interesting,” I forced.
“I’m terrified...”
Talia shook her head and we kept walking.

…
Later on that Thursday night, I began to pack. Comfortable clothes, a blanket, a flashlight, salt… You might be wondering why I chose salt. Well I watch this show called Supernatural. Best show ever! I never knew it would come in handy. Apparently, if you line all windows and doors with salt, demons, spirits, ghosts will be repelled.
That night when I was laying in bed trying to sleep I thought about something.  “What if tonight is my last night alive?” I suddenly became really scared. Then my phone rang, that snapped me out of the terrifying trance I was in.
“Hello” I said groggily. I knew it was Talia.
“Aimee, I’m freaking out! What if I die? What if I get killed by a ghost? I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m really scared-”
“Calm down!”
“I can’t -”
“Listen, I’m freaking out too. I don’t want to do it either, but we sort of don’t have a choice. No one has dropped out of one of Sarah’s dares yet. We would be mega wimps-”
“I don’t care-”
“Think about what you just said,” I rolled my eyes.
“You're right… I guess. Oh, Abbey wants to come but I said no, and she got really mad. She is going to try and come, you know that right?”
I laughed. Abbey is her little sister who takes every opportunity to copy Talia’s every move. I hung up the phone and put it on my night table.
…
“Bye Mom!” I called out upstairs.
“Bye! Have fun,” She called back. I hope she doesn’t find us out. I said that I was sleeping at Talia’s house tonight and Talia said that she was sleeping at my house tonight. Let’s just hope our moms don’t text each other. Oldest trick in the book. I can’t believe they fell for it.
On our walk towards the house, Talia was hyperventilating, half for attention. I still could tell she was pretty scared. When we got in the house I immediately took out my my salt and lined every window and door doubting it would work, seeing it was from a fictional show and not Ghost Hunters or something a little more believable than that.
“What are you doing?” Talia asked.
“Don’t ask,”
It was extremely cold and the floors were rotting so we didn’t go up stairs. None of the furniture was left. I felt like I was going to puke, this was crazy. Also it smelled like stale rotten food and lead paint.
“So, I guess we just talk,” I suggested, trying to take away some of the tenseness.
“I’m too scared to talk…”
“Okay…”
I heard footsteps coming from the outside. Up the old creaky stairs. I stared at Talia.There was a knock at the door, then a creek. Talia screamed and so did I.
“Whats this?” It was Abbey, Talia’s younger sister. She dipped her finger in the salt curiously.
Abbey was nine, although she was tall for her age. Her long dark brown hair, similar to Talia’s and her mother’s was pulled back into a loose braid.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!” Talia screamed. “HOW DID YOU GET HERE?”
“I wanted to come... so I walked.”
“AND MOM LET YOU?”
“Yeah I told her I was going for a walk… which I was...so I wasn’t completely lying.”
“IF WE MAKE IT OUT OF HERE ALIVE, I’M TELLING MOM!”
“Then you would get in trouble too,” Abbey sassed.
This shut Talia up.
“Great,” I said “Now we have someone else to worry about!”
…
When we were finally calming down, everything became quiet. We were all sitting in the corner of what seemed to be the living room, secretly terrified.
We heard a footstep upstairs. Talia and Abbey jumped, and for some reason I seemed used to it. Something floated through the floor except it looked human. Her long black hair was matted and laden over her non-visible eyes. She was wearing a baby pink night dress that had clearly been through a lot. It seemed like she had been crying for years which she probably was.
“So you're the ones....” she said, slowly walking toward us, her head tilted like a stereotypical horror movie.
“Umm...what do you mean?” Talia shook.
“You poisoned us...killed us all…” the ghost cried. “Now it’s your turn.”
I walked out of the room through the shadows with my phone hopefully out of sight. I went on Google as fast as I could, 8902 Wood Road. I scrolled down a lot to what seemed like a reliable sight. I clicked on the article.

8902 Wood Road, in 1892 it closed, a  former home for the mentally ill. 18 children lived there, 9 nurses worked there. Doctors were always in and out. In December of 1891 a new doctor was hired with no medical background. Dr. Manny Norman of Wyoming was said to have snuck rat poison into the children's food one night. None of the kids lasted for more than 2 weeks after that. The house was officially closed in January of 1892 after several court cases.

“Wow,” I muttered.
I heard a scream and ran back into the room with my hands up. Talia and Abbey looked at me with fear in their eyes. Several more children had appeared.
“Listen,” I said “I am not here to hurt you in any way.” I read off the article to them. trying not to think about how awkward and ridiculous this is, that I’m reading to little dead children.
“See,” Talia said, “We did nothing.”
The little girls and boys all looked stucken. They all disappeared at once through the floor. I waved my hand to say come on to Talia and Abbey. We walked out of the broken front door, strucken ourselves. 
“What just happened?” Abbey said weakly.
“We do not speak of this. We are walking home and telling mom that Aimee and I decided to sleep at our house and we found you walking on the side of the road.” Talia responded.
I just walked behind them trying to regain back my color.
What really just happened?