Creep Over: "Truth Or Dare?"

CHAPTER 2

After Abby and Leah finished buying everything they needed for the sleepover, Abby's mom drove them to Abby's house. They had just started unloading the groceries when there was a loud knock at the door. Chester, the Miller's oatmeal-colored cocker spaniel, jumped up and ran toward the door, yipping in excitement.

"Woo-hoo!" Abby exclaimed as she hurried out of the kitchen. She flung open the front door to find her friend Nora Lewis waiting there, holding a purple duffel bag, a pink sleeping bag and a stack of DVDs.

"Am I too early?" Nora asked as she walked inside. "My brother had to drop me off before he went to work."

"No, you're fine," said Abby. "Leah and I were just getting some snacks ready."

"Hey, Nora," Leah said, pouring the tortilla chips into a bowl. "Which movies did you bring?"

Nora's brown eyes lit up. "I raided my brother's DVD stash!" she said excitedly as she spread three DVD cases across the counter. "What do you think?"

Abby grabbed one of the cases and read the title. "Attack of the Bee People? " she asked.

"Oh. it's sooo funny," Nora said. "It's this movie from forever ago, and it was supposed to be really scary, but the special effects are horrible! It's hilarious!"

"What's this one?" asked Leah curiously. "A Love Beyond? Seriously?"

Nora sighed. "Very romantic. This guy dies, but he never stops loving this girl, even though she tries to go on with her life. My brother would kill me if it got out that he owned this."

Abby picked up the last DVD case, which had a black cover with a pair of spooky green eyes on it. "The Hole," she said as she read the title aloud. "This one looks scary"

"It is," Nora said, nodding. "It's about a cursed grave that can never be closed, and whenever anybody visits the person who was buried there, they get sucked into it too."

"Cool!" Leah exclaimed. "I love scary movies! Let's save that one for right before we go to sleep."

Abby shook her head as she dropped the DVD back to the counter. "No way," she said firmly. "If we watch that one last, I'll be way too scare to sleep."

Leah laughed. "Exactly! Then we'll stay up all night for sure!"

There was another knock at the door.

"Got it," Abby said as she darted into the hallway. When she opened the front door, she found her friend Chloe Chang waiting on the front porch. Chester barked in greeting.

"Hi, Abby!" said Chloe as she stepped inside. "Hi, Chester."

"I'm so glad you're here!" Abby exclaimed. "Leah and Nora are in the kitchen"

"Excellent," Chloe said as she gave Chester a pat on the head and followed Abby into the house. "I've been looking forward to this sleepover all day!"

"Hey!" Leah said as she waved to Chloe. "Abby, did you unpack the cookies and brownies? I can't find them."

Abby shook her head. "Maybe we left a bag in the car," she replied. "I'll go check." She grabbed her mom's car keys and hurried outside.

Abby's brown hair fluttered in the cool, damp breeze; in the distance, dark clouds threatened to bring a rainstorm before morning. She unlocked the car and found one last grocery bag that had fallen under the backseat.

Then Abby felt it again: that spooky sense that someone was watching her, just as she'd felt in the grocery store.

In the silence, she heard a crackling sound, like the crunch of fallen leaves. Almost like footsteps.

'But that's not possible,' she thought.

Abby's house was located at the end of a suburban street, next to a wood-land nature preserve where people were forbidden to trespass. In all the years she'd lived there, Abby had never seen anyone in the woods.

She'd never stepped foot in them either, not with all the large 'NO TRESPASSING' signs, bright orange warnings that were impossible to miss.

 But as she stood in the driveway, Abby couldn't shake the feeling that someone was standing just beyond the trees, watching her.

Then she heard another sound coming from the woods. This one was familiar, but she couldn't place it. It was sort of like the rusty squeak of an old swings like invisible hands.

But there weren't any swing sets here.

Abby took a deep breath and spun around. "Hello?" she called loudly. "Who's there?"

The noise suddenly stopped. The silence was over-whelming.

'Someone heard me,' she thought.

"Hello?" she called again. A few moments passed. As she glanced at the nature preserve, Abby started to feel silly. 'Are you some kind of baby?' she scolded herself. 'Why are you getting all freaked out for absolutely no reason?'

Suddenly a creature burst out of the trees. The black blur took to the sky, caving noisily, beating its wings with tremendous power as it flew away from the forest as fast as it could.

'A crow,' Abby thought with relief; she almost laughed out loud. 'It was just a crow.' She grabbed the grocery bag and slammed the door shut. She turned toward the house. She was eager to get inside and forget about the feat that had spread through her whole body as she stood, all alone, by the car.

The first thing Abby saw when she opened her door was Chester standing by the front window, growling quietly. She wanted to believe he was growling at the squirrels in the yard, but she couldn't help but think that the same thing that had spooked her had also spooked her dog. No matter how hard she tried. Abby couldn't stop thinking about the strange squeaking sound coming from somewhere in the woods, just beyond the trees.

And she couldn't shake the feeling that someone--or something--had been watching her.