Asinine

ASININE

BY: RAMISHA ASIF

We stepped into the lawn of the house, flashlights in hand. The house appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary except for its beautiful façade; it took my breath away. I'd like to live in a house like this. But no one ever bought this house.

It was dark, around two a.m. in the morning. We were in the middle of the lawn of the old house that had been rumored for years to have been haunted.

"Ok listen up!" The alpha dog of our pack and the bane of my existence, Brad whispered.

We huddled together and formed a circle. Brad started giving orders as usual. "Ok, me and Rachel will go upstairs," he pointed at Rachel and himself. I resisted the urge to correct his poor grammar. "You Millie will go to the other bedroom with Ryan," he pointed at me and Ryan.

"No way," I stated unalterably, "We all know what you're gonna do with Rachel upstairs, and I'm so not going up to a bedroom with this fucker," I pointed a thumb at Ryan, who was standing next to me.

He put his arm around me and grinned, flashing too-white teeth. They almost glowed, I shuddered. "Babe, trust me when I say you'll enjoy it." He brought his face way too close to mine and I pulled back, that only escalated his amusement, and he came closer. I blinked and he was on the floor.

"Dude!" Ryan shouted from the ground.

"Shhhhhhhhh!!!" We all whispered in unison.

"Don't worry, you're safe," Madz whispered in my ear with a light smile playing on his face. I shivered. He had been the one to push Ryan. He was also my close friend. Tonight wouldn't be so frightening with him around.

We made our way through the front door and into the hallway. The door closed shut behind us. We all jumped back and stared at it.

Once again, I thought about why I was indulging in this juvenile behavior. If anyone caught us here, we'd be in big trouble; and I for one did not enjoy getting into trouble. This was just a childish bet and I wish I had been confident enough to walk away, but peer pressure can be a very persuasive factor. I sighed.

All of us got our bearings back eventually and the arguing began. Ryan wanted to go with me, while Rachel wanted to go with Madz. Madz was the only one I trusted though, so there was no way I was letting him go. Ryan, on the other hand, was an awful pig. I would rather be trapped in a room with a ghost than go anywhere alone with him. There were five of us in total; me, Rachel, Ryan, Brad and Madz.

Creak...

We stilled.

Creak...

That was all the motivation I needed. I started to make a run for it, and I could see from my peripheral vision that so did Rachel. I hit something warm and looked up. "Not yet."

"Madz?"

"Duh."

"B-ut but. Did you HEAR THAT!?"

"This is an old house, scaredy cat. ANY NUMBER of things could have made that sound," he replied.

What he said sounded completely logical, yet I still wasn't buying it.

Creak...

I whimpered into his jacket, "I wanna go home!"

"A bets a bet," came Ryan's annoying sing-song voice.

"I disapprove of all that you stand for and your existence in its entirety," I flipped him off while my head was still snuggled into Madz's jacket.