Chills & Thrills Anthology

A Daring Halloween | Come Out & Play

The following is a top entry from our A Daring Halloween contest in conjunction with Ghost and Paranormal. Congratulations to our winner!

The full list of winning entries can be found here.

  

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PROMPT

  

It's All Hallows' Eve, and you're gearing up for the most eventful night of your life. While young children are out trick-or-treating, you've made your way to the one house people always skip. It's the abandoned mansion, rumoured to be haunted.

Dared by your friends to spend a night in the haunted house, will you survive the night, or will you uncover the truth behind the rumours?

  

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Come Out & Play

@Meagz56

   

I would always hear stories about the Emerson house. The once happy family of three mysteriously disappeared, yet all their clothes and belongings remained, no one even bothered to get rid of anything. The tragedy happened over thirty-years-ago, with Halloween being the anniversary of their disappearance. Everyone in the town knew to avoid the Emerson house like the plague, no one bought it after their disappearance and the once bright and homey atmosphere the house carried was now dull and fear provoking. The once colorful flower garden is now dead, along with the grass, and most of the windows were smashed to pieces by troublemaking kids trying to act brave in front of their friends, but no one dared to go past the gates.

Dared by my friends, I found myself standing in front of the gates of the Emerson house. I envied all the younger children dressed in all sorts of Superhero and Princess costumes, none even glanced at the house I was standing in front of.

"You ready to go inside, Olivia?" My best friend, Cassidy, asked walking up with our other friend, Jenn.

As victims of peer pressure, we all needed to prove to our group of friends that we were brave enough to go into the haunted house. There were many rumors of what happened that day thirty-years-ago, and I wasn't sure which I believe, but the thought of any of those rumors being true brought shivers down my spine and goosebumps all over my skin. We've been dared to spend a night in the house, and even though I was terrified to my core, it was too late to back out now. So, in reply, I nodded my head and pushed open the gates, and a piercing noise was released since the gates were completely rusted. We followed the pathway, the only sound heard was the distant laughter of the trick-or-treaters and the crunching of dried leaves under our shoes, along with our heavy breathing. We reached the giant double doors and we took one glance at each other before we simultaneously pushed open the door. The door scraped against the wooden floor and released a lurid echo throughout the house. I breathed in the grimy air and started to cough as the dust caught in my throat. The wood creaked after each step we took, as we took in the surroundings of the home, the only source of light came from the bright glow of the moon reflecting through the windows. The home was quite spacious, and as soon as we stepped into the house we were greeted by a large spiral staircase. To our right, was a room filled with three giant sofas and a large wooden coffee table, and to our left, was the kitchen. The kitchen cupboards were all broken off their hinges, some were on the floor and others were dangling, on the verge of snapping off.