If You Dare

Chapter One

I was sitting on my bed, looking out my window with my sketchpad on my lap as the rain fell down in big droplets, splashing onto the ground.

I sigh as I look back down at my sketchpad, examining the drawing I've been working on for hours. I feel satisfied with my progress and decide to sit up more and stretch. I gaze around my room, the walls a nice shade of baby blue, a hardwood floor throughout the whole room, my desk, dresser and end table all matching. I've always loved this room.

I lay back down and stare at the ceiling. I feel so drowsy all of a sudden. What time is it? I look at my alarm clock on the end table. It reads "2:37pm", which surprises me because I thought It was way later than that. I sigh once again and close my eyes.

That's when I hear my mothers voice from downstairs.

"KAIYA, COME DOWN HERE FOR A MOMENT, SOMEONE IS HERE TO SEE YOU!" She's yelling at the top of her lungs, I don't understand why she just can't come up and get me.

I grunt and sit up, quickly yelling "OKAY!" so that she knows I heard her. Setting my feet on the ground, I realize how stiff they are. "This is what I get for sitting there for four hours drawing." I think to myself as I get up and walk across the room. I turn my door knob and open the door. That's when it happens.

"ATTAAAACK!" My little brother rushes towards me with a foam sword in hand. His friend laughs and runs toward me too. My brother lunges at me, swinging the foam sword madly with a look of determination in his eyes. Of course, I easily dodge them and continue walking across the hallway to the stairs. Before I start to go down I turn around. 

"Nice try, Jayse." I say with a wink. I turn around and walk downstairs. Walking past the kitchen into the living room, I can see that my mother is sitting on the couch across from a familiar face. He has longish black hair (A little bit past his ears with bangs), and beautiful blue eyes. He looks up at me smiling, and gets up to walk towards me.

"Hallen!" I squeal and launch myself into his arms. He catches me, hugging me tightly.

"You're back! Wait... You're back?" I look up slightly confused. He just looks down at me with those calming blue eyes and smiles.

"Yes, I'm back. I moved back last week, and I thought I should come visit you and see how you're doing." He hugs me again and I smile. 

Hallen is my best friend in the whole world. He used to live here in Edmonton, but he moved away to live in Texas. I haven't seen him since I was in grade 8. We're both in grade 12 now, and boy, has he matured well...

"Thanks for coming to visit me. You know, I've missed you so much... Talking over text isn't the same as in person.." I say looking away, embarrassed. 

"I know what you mean..." He looks away. I sneak a peak at his face and I can see that his cheeks are a bit red. I shake my head and change the subject.

"Are you back for good?" I take a step back, looking directly into his face.

"Yeah. Hey, why don't we go for a walk?" He walks towards the door. 

"Sure." I bounce towards the door, thats when I realize my mom is still there. She has a really big grin on her face. I glare at her, red faced and walk towards the door. She gives me a wink before I walk out the door. 

We start walking down the street, chatting like we used to. The rain seems to have stopped, although the occasional rain drop would fall and hit my head. I look ahead and see a group of my friends. 

"KAIYA!" Lilia runs towards Hallen and I with Jae, Maylo and Everett behind her. They finally they stop in front of us, all of them breathing hard. Lilia takes a moment before she speaks again. 

"Kaiya, I didn't think we'd see you out here. What are you doi-" Thats when she see's Hallen. The corners of her lips lifts and she gives me a wide grin.

"Who's this?" She stares at Hallen.

"His name is Hallen. He-" I begin but Everett pipes up.

"The Hallen?" She stares at him in amazement. My eyes open wide and I blush hard. I usually talk about Hallen with my friends because sometimes I need to rant. To be honest, I've always liked Hallen. Lilia, Jae, Maylo and Everett all have huge grins on their faces. Hallen looks at their faces, then back to me.

"What do they mean by 'the Hallen''?" He looks at me questioningly. I give them a glare, and then look at Hallen.

"I talk about you at school..." I say, blushing to my ears. I can see he's turning red too. He looks away and ruffles his hair.

"Oh." He smiles a bit. Maylo looks at both of us and starts to talk.

"Do you want to come hang with us? We're going to a haunted apartment. People say its haunted, but I don't believe it." He wraps his arm around Everett's shoulders. Everett and Maylo have been dating for about 3 years now. They're so cute together. Hallen looks at me.

"Do you want to go? I'm down for a little excitement." He smiles that winning smile.

"Yeah. Sounds fun." I say smiling back. For some reason I have a bad feeling about this. Jae takes Lilia's hand and starts walking, followed by Everett and Maylo. Finally Hallen and I start walking behind them. I bring out my phone and tell her I'll be out for a while, that I'm hanging with my friends.

About 20 minutes pass of all of us talking and walking. Finally we reach our destination. It's a four story apartment, with boards on most of the windows, the glass doors are broken into pieces, the grass in the front is up to my thigh in hieght. Everett and Lilia start freaking out, saying they don't want to go in there, that's its too creepy. Maylo sighs and rolls his eyes.

"Fine Everett, we won't go in." Maylo looks annoyed but I know he won't go in without his precious girlfriend. 

"Yeah, I'm out too. Jae I don't want to go in there. Can we go to the movies or something?" She looks up at him with puppy dog eyes.

"Yeah sure." Jae didn't look like he wanted to go in there anyways. Maylo turns to Hallen and I, smiling.

"All right. What about you two? Are you going in there?" He points to the apartment. I don't know how I feel about this...

"I don't know." I say crossing my arms. Maylo smiles and stares at me.

"Fine then, Kaiya. If you won't go in willingly, then I dare you to go in there and spend one night." He sayings slightly laughing. I can feel my face go pale. My friends and I have this thing, or tradition, where once a month we have to complete a dare. I guess this is my dare... I sigh and look straight at Maylo. 

"Fine." I look at Hallen. He looks pale...

"Kaiya, you can't go in there." He looks freaked out.

"I have to. It's a dare I have to do." I don't feel like explaining it to him. I reach into my pocket and grab my phone. I text my mom saying I'm staying at Lilia's house tonight. 

"Kaiya I'm going in with you." He looks at me with such intensity that I can't say no. 

"Okay. Let's go in." I start walking but Maylo stops us. He hands Hallen a bag.

"It has food and water in it. Just in case, you know?" Hallen nods and we both start walking to the door.

"Good luck you two! See you tomorrow!" I hear Everett yell behind us. 

I walk through the door, with Hallen following me. 

I never should've agreed to that dare. I didn't know this at first, but this night might very well be our last.