Dares. Oh how I hated them. Never did I think that my friends would be capable of thinking of such a bad one.
Here I stood, in front of the old mansion that hadn't been occupied since the 1800s. It wasn't that it was haunted, it was simply that no one wanted it; our little village consisted only of old mansions and little stores. Our village was out in the middle of nowhere- the original founders of our village's families still lived here. No one ever moved here; and people rarely ever moved away.
I turned around to see my friends cheer me on out of the banged-up pick-up truck.
"MEL-LY! MEL-LY!" they shouted, barely audible over the blasting radio that was more static than music.
This was one of the disadvantages in the middle of nowhere. You had crappy radio connection, extremely old black and white TVs that our ancestors had somehow managed to get, and no internet connection. We only knew that the Internet existed because of our old TVs- even though we only received very few channels, one of them was a news channel. That was the only way we knew what was actually going on in the world.
Living in a secluded little village also had its advantages, of course, but being a teenager, living without makeup and internet was quite frustrating. Our TVs did a pretty good job of making the women modeling some new beauty product in the commercials look crappy, especially with the beautiful black-and-white staticky patterns dancing across their faces, but that didn't mean that we didn't want make up!
I walked towards the mansion slowly and cautiously. Obviously I didn't think that there were any traps in the yard, but I still walked as though I was maneuvering myself through a minefield. I got to the front door without any mishaps. I considered knocking on the heavy hardwood door for a second, but quickly dismissed the thought.
No one lives there, I reminded myself, you're not invading anyone's privacy.
I pushed the door lightly, and, to my surprise, it opened. The door's hinges groaned as I pushed it open completely. I cautiously looked inside.
