The Howling Haunted House

There was always something strange about that house. Each night, as I laid in bed, I heard eerie howling coming from the abandoned house next door. My two friends and I agreed that the house was haunted by a restless ghost who was out to get us. They kidded me for living in the house next door to it but admired my bravery to live that close (as if I had any choice!). 

We couldn't remember when the noises had first started. Our neighbors down the street had lost their dog a few weeks back. They said it had run away. My friends and I believed that the spirit in the house had captured the dog, never to be seen again.

The next Wednesday, at school, we were talking about that spooky house while we were in the hallway. One kid, who thought he was a tough guy, walked up to us. 

"You scaredy cats," he chided. "I dare you to spend a night in that house - not on the property, not next door, but in the very center of it! I'm going to check back a week from tomorrow and see if you have. It'll be known to the whole school that you're chickens if you don't."

We were terribly afraid! My friends and I didn't want to be called chickens, but we certainly did not want to go in that house, much less sleep in it. However, we had been dared. What should we do?

That Friday night, we were in that house. We were in a small room near the center of the house but only a couple of seconds from the door out. We didn't know how we had worked up the courage to come in here. We figured we might as well find out exactly what was haunting the house while we were there.

At 10:15PM, we heard a clanking noise. My friends and I huddled close together. A steady pattern of THUD! THUD! THUD! sounds touched our ears. They got louder and came closer. We began to shudder. Then, the sounds stopped. Silence. We peeped around the corner. Just as we did, the howling began. My friends and I froze in fear. But then we broke into giggles. A lousy basset hound was stationed in front of a portrait of another basset hound. The basset hound in the portrait was all pretty and dressed up. Silhouetted in moonlight, the basset hound was howling at the portrait. The portrayed dog must have belonged to a family that had lived here before. We laughed so hard that our stomachs hurt, and we fell to the ground. A basset hound was in love!

Finally, the howling hound noticed us and came over. It began licking our faces. So, a cute little dog was the answer to the mystery. 

We found out the dog belonged to our neighbors down the street, the ones who had lost their dog a few weeks ago. We returned it to them, and they thanked us. We were proud that we had solved the mystery of the howling and eagerly awaited putting the tough-boy bully in his place.

Only, strange lights began shining at night from the window in the house's attic...