Special

Scary Stories

"How about some scary stories?" Allie suggested. A lot of people had already left the party and they had turned off the music as it had gotten quite late. The rest of them sat on the carpet in front of the couch chitchatting and laughing with each other while devouring the last of the Halloween themed snacks that Emily had prepared.

"That sounds like a good idea," Emily said and looked around in case someone disagreed but nobody voiced any objections.

"Who wants to start?" Daniel asked. He was excited about it. While he wasn't a big fan of horror films, he definitely enjoyed scary books and stories and was always looking for more.

"I know a story," Allie volunteered.

Emily turned off the lights and everyone got quiet as Allie started her story. Only the dimmed light of someone's phone remained.

"There is an old house in a suburb of London and it's said to be cursed. In the eighteen hundreds a family used to live there. Husband and wife and two children. They lived there for a few years and they were happy until one day," Allie stopped for a dramatic pause, "the youngest son wanted to get a glass of water in the middle of the night. He went to the kitchen but suddenly he heard whispers coming from the bottom of the stairs. His sister was still asleep and so were his parents so he didn't think much of it until he came back out of the kitchen. Right across from the kitchen door was blood dripping down the walls."

Daniel felt Matt shift closer to him. Or maybe he imagined it? He didn't really mind.

"The young boy screamed in terror," Allie continued and started using the light of the phone to give her words even more effect. Everybody sat in silence, listening to her story, equally wishing for her to stop but also wanting to know the end.

By the end of the story Daniel was very sure that Matt had scooted closer to him and he smiled to himself. In a way it was amusing and endearing to think that Matt, the jock, the badass, would get scared that much by unprofessionally told creepy pastas.

"Well, that was creepy," Emily mumbled and laughed. Allie smiled widely at her.

"How about you tell us a story, now?" she suggested but Emily shook her head.

"I don't know any."

"Oh, come on," Allie said and nudged Emily's shoulder, "you told me one the other day. That one was really creepy."

"It was not."

Allie simply raised an eyebrow and looked at her obviously questioning Emily's judgement. Finally Emily sighed and gave in. She took the phone from Allie to try and illuminate her face while she told her story. Daniel wondered if it was the one she had told him before as well because then he would expect Matt to scoot a whole lot closer to him.

"I woke up one night and my dog was licking my neck. I opened my eyes and saw my dog staring at me from the other side of the room."

Matt scooted closer. He was so close by now that his chest leaned slightly against Daniel's shoulder.

"Scary, huh?" Daniel whispered quietly and giggled.

"Hm? I was more worried that you would think it's scary," Matt defended himself.

"Thanks for looking out for me," Daniel said and leaned back against him while listening to the next stories. They passed the phone around and whoever held it had to tell a story. Some were very scary, other times Daniel found himself more caught up in judging the narrator's use of light effects. When it was his turn he chose to tell the story that his brother used to tell him. It was about a young woman who had been murdered by her husband in the graveyard and her restless ghost was now looking for revenge, luring traveling men into the church promising them a good meal and a warm place to stay for a couple of nights. They would go to sleep, happy about the place they had found but they would wake up in an already buried coffin. No matter how much they tried there was no escape, there never was. And it explained the row of grave stones in the very back of the town's graveyard that had been there for longer than the records lasted and that didn't carry any names.