50 Short Scary Stories

37. Party-animals

My friend and I were going to a party a few hours out of town, so we decided to stay at her

 family's holiday house about an hour south of the party (now three hours from home). We 

arrived around mid afternoon, and it was winter in a holiday town, so the area was completely 

empty – no other cars on the street.When we left for the party I spent a moment deciding 

whether to pull the gate all the way closed. I'd had some trouble opening it earlier when we 

arrived, and if we were getting home late at night I didn't want to be stuck outside. I decided to 

shut it for security.Party was great, we got back to the house around 12:30, and the gate was 

open. I immediately felt on edge because not only did I know I'd locked it, but I knew it couldn't 

just blow open in the wind, but I didn't want to make a big deal so I was vague when my friend 

asked if I'd shut it. We went inside, and decided to make a snack. I was wandering through the 

house when suddenly my friend raced from the kitchen into the hallway and virtually tackled me

 to the ground; she was convinced she'd heard someone walking around outside. We tried to 

calm ourselves down, but we had no cell reception and there was no one else around. Over the 

next half hour or so, as we sat in the hallway paralysed with fear, we heard footsteps outside, 

and the back door being jimmied.We decided we had to leave, so we gathered everything up 

and got ready to make a break for the car. Just as we were at the front door ready to leave, there 

was a huge bang in the back yard, and suddenly what sounded like hundreds of birds started 

screaming. We legged it to the car, ended up starting it with all our stuff still on our laps, we 

hadn't bothered to even put it in the backseat. As we reversed out the driveway we saw 

somebody running up the side of the house towards us.Sped the entire way home and even 

once we got back to my place, didn't sleep at all that night.