Out of the Darkness

1

"Bro, can you stop?!" I heard my best friend, Corey Scherer, yell at one of my other best friends, Jake Webber. "What man? I'm not doing anything," Jake replied. The two of them started arguing, but I wasn't worried. Their arguments were never serious. I was sure that it would turn into some kind of stupid goofball thing in a minute. "What the fuck are guys doing?" That came from my very best friend, Sam Golbach. We had been friends since we were 14, so almost 10 years now. Wow, it didn't seem like that long. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. "Jealous Sammy boy? Come on and join us then," I heard Corey say. Now, even though I knew it was something dumb, I had to know what was going on. "Hell ya brother!" Sam yelled, just before I heard Jake's breath heave out of him. They were in the living room, while I was in the kitchen. When I walked into the living room, the sight that met my eyes made me grin from ear to ear. "Hi Cooolllbbyyyy," Sam said, waving to me. I laughed and waved back. "What's up man? What are you guys doing?" "Oh you know, just hanging out," he said, propping his chin on his hand. What was funny was that he was sitting on top of Jake, who was on top of Corey, on the couch. Arms and legs were tangled together, making it hard to decipher who was who. "Yeah, looks like it," I said, shaking my head. "Mphukkin alp meph." Words that I couldn't quiet figure out came from Corey somewhere underneath the others. "Um, what's that Corey? Did you say something?" Sam said, slapping Corey's leg. He shoved his head out from Jake's arm and sucked in a few deep breaths through puckered lips. "Can't breathe. Getter off me!" Sam laughed and jumped up, but Jake just stayed where he was, limbs splayed everywhere, totally relaxed, his head on Corey's calves. "Nah, I think I'll stay. It's comfortable," he said, grinning at us, as he stuck his arms behind his head. "Like hell you will," Corey said, then bucked his body so hard, Jake was shoved off into the floor. "Hey!" Jake replied, laughing, as he stood up. "I claimed that seat. That was my seat!" "Shut up Jake," Corey said. Once we all stopped laughing at their idiocy, Sam cleared his throat. "Oh hey Colby, let me run something past you." Colby. That's me. My full name is Cole Robert Brock but anyone who knows me, calls me Colby. "Ookay," I said hesitantly, as I sat down on the couch next to him. I could never be sure if they were about to pull some kind of prank on me or not. Living in the Trap House was amazing, but stressful at the same time. That's what we called our house. My friend Brennen had called it that one time in one of his YouTube videos and it just sort of stuck. He said that it stood for That Really Awesome Place. Anyway, you really had to be on your guard once a prank war was declared. Actually, you had to be on your guard if one wasn't declared because if any one of us saw an opportunity for a good prank, you could bet that we were going to take it. "Actually, I need to run it past all of you. If you guys don't want to come, that's fine, but I was thinking that since it's getting close to Halloween, it'd be good for the channel," Sam said, pulling Corey's laptop closer so that he could use it. Sam and I had a duo YouTube channel that we uploaded on a few times a month. It was actually getting pretty popular now. We had almost 4.5 million subscribers and that still blew my mind. We had our own personal channels as well, and Corey and Jake did too. So I guess we were a house full of YouTubers. It really worked out for us, because we could always work with each other, bounce ideas off of one another, and help each other out. We were usually in each other's videos too. Sam and I had bounced around with what we did on the Sam and Colby channel. We had went through trends, Q & As, exploring, ghost hunting, and now treasure hunting, which included exploring and sometimes a spooky ghost or two. "Alright, so I was doing some research to see where we could go next and I came across this place. Like I already said, it's getting closer to Halloween, so you know we have to add the spooky aspect into the video. This place seemed pretty interesting and it's supposedly haunted." He stopped typing and slid the laptop over to me. "Oh hell no!" Corey exclaimed, looking over my shoulder from his spot on the back of the couch. "What? It just looks like an old shack," Jake said, letting his recently opened Fruit Roll Up hang out of his mouth. "It is, basically," Sam replied. "But it's the story behind it that makes it so interesting. See, it's said that back in the late 1800's to as close as the 50's, there were Satanic rituals performed there. There are records of people entering the home but they're never seen leaving it. There have even been missing people associated with it. Last recorded incident was back in the 70's, I think. Yeah, says it right there." Sam pointed to the screen, showing us where that bit of information was. I felt a chill go up my spine, looking at the photograph of the old place that was on the website. "Is this legal though? Could we be arrested?" Sam shook his head. "We're past that. I'm not trying to go to jail again, and I know you're not either. I say we try to get a permit to go, maybe throw some money at someone. That usually helps, when they don't want to cooperate." "Okay, but is it safe?" I asked, unable to get rid of the nagging feeling that was in the pit of my stomach.