I Dare You

1. The Dare

Chapter One

THE DARE

"No way!" A shriek of laughter erupts from the little group of girls huddled a few metres away. I sigh. Sometimes being the youngest really sucks. Like take today for example. Although apparently my friends are too disruptive for my older sisters' concentration, I'm perfectly fine with them shouting at the top of their voices and daring each other to do the stupidest things.

"What's up with her, Patty?" I hear a girl whisper to my sister, then break out into a nervous giggle.

"What - who?" asks my sister Patricia distractedly, swivelling around and searching the room for what her friend is talking about. I shrink back and wish to blend in with the couch cushions, which doesn't really work because they're bright orange and I'm wearing black. "Oh - her," Patty says finally with an air of dismissal in her voice, eyes settling on me with disapproval. She turned back to her friend.

"That's my little sister - Bethany. Don't worry about her." I can almost hear the words in her head. No one does.

"Hey - hey - listen to this!" shouts my oldest sister, Jasmine, averting Patty's friend's curious eyes from me. "Listen to this," Jasmine says again, her eyes sparkling with excitement and her cheeks flushed. "Gemma just had the best idea - for a dare - I dare one of you to do the most terrifying thing you'll ever do! I dare you to do something you won't forget! I dare you -"

I sigh and stand up. There's no real point, is there? The only reason I came to sit with them in the first place was because there was food. Not that I got any of it.

I sneak out of the room, hoping that they won't notice me. I don't really like being noticed. They were all enthralled by Jasmine's challenge so I thought it would be a fair assumption that they wouldn't look up. Fat chance.

"Bethany!" screechs a loud voice. I groaned inwardly and turned around to see that it had been Jasmine who had called out to me. "Come join us," she says, beckoning with her hand. "I want to know what you think of my dare." Annoyed, I trudge over and plop myself down next to Jasmine. Her friend look a little disgruntled; I pretend not to see.

"Patricia," my oldest sister turns her attention to the blond now she has full audience. Her eyes glint. She leans in. "I dare you to do the dare," she says softly, a smile playing around her lips.

"Oooooh, ominous," says Patricia sarcastically after a moment's tense silence. A couple of her friends giggle and it breaks the unacknowledged tension.

"Wait - what's the dare?" I blurt out, completely out of it.

"The dare," says Jasmine, turning her gleaming green eyes to me. I admit it's a bit scary. Jasmine would probably win a staring competition with a picture on the wall.

"Nice, Jas," mutters one of her friends.

"Ruin the moment, will you?" Jasmine shoots back before settling her unnervingly unblinking eyes back on me. I see the face of her friend who spoke over my sister's shoulder: she looks shocked. Then Jasmine grins. "The dare? Spend a night in old Ms Frentt's house."

I had to admit I was shocked. Old Ms Frentt's house, the house on the hill, the haunted house, hadn't been inhabited for years. Apparently it used to be the finest house in the suburb, back in the eighteenth century or something, but the original owners had wanted it to look so impressive that they used the cheapest possible materials that still look good. "Gild and veneer," Grandma had said when she told us the story. Anyway, it turned out the house was unstable and one day Hudson Frentt went into the master bedroom to find his beautiful young wife trapped under a roof beam that had fallen down - and as good as six feet under.