I Dare You

3. Jonathan Benson

Chapter Three

JONATHAN BENSON

We approach the door slowly, cautiously, and as we get closer I wonder how we had managed to miss it. How could we be oblivious to those intricate carvings of ferns and trees and flowers and birds, touched in some places by a light green paint, which doesn't dull the carvings but rather makes them seem to shine more? How could the smells of damp earth and flowers and fresh air that seem to waft from the door escape our notice? How had our eyes have passed over this door; I'd thought before it blended in with the surrounding wall but now the more I looked at it the more it the more it seemed distinguished from the neighbouring grey - as if it were illuminated by a spotlight.

The door knob is ordinary, however, a circle of old wood, but it looks weathered as if dozens of hands had clasped it to open the door in generations gone past.

"Cool," comes Jasmine's voice from my right. "We'd better be careful though." I'm about to comment about how that's possibly the first time I've ever heard her say careful when she adds, "Remember that Jonathan Benson guy? He went missing here. Never came out of this house again."

"No he didn't," I argue, confused, "Davey McKenzie told me that the truth is he just left the town soon after - traumatized or something." As I say it, a shiver runs down my spine and I imagine I can hear the voice of Jonathan Benson screaming as some unknown horror confronts him.

"But how would Davey know?" Patricia says a little shakily. I know she's only asking the question to keep up pretences.

"Benson was his uncle," I reply nonetheless.

"That's still not what happened," Jasmine interrupts, "Davey has an older sister who's my age, Hannah, and she told me that's just the version her mum wants everyone to know. The family made it up," she explains in answer to our bewildered expressions, "According to Hannah her mum was completely distraught when her brother disappeared. She felt responsible somehow - I don't know how, but anyway, Hannah says that Jonathan actually did disappear into the house, only her mum - his sister - didn't want anyone to know that's what happened - again, I don't know why. So the family explained his disappearance away by telling everyone he'd left town to visit relatives or something like that. Her mum never talks about it now."

"How did Hannah find out then?" I ask, pondering over Jasmine's version of Jonathan's disappearance.

"Hannah was looking through old stuff in the attic one day and found her mum's old diary. She read through it and at the beginning there was a lot of crap about boys and stuff, but then it became more about Jonathan's disappearance." Jasmine looks at us impressively, it's evident she thinks she's won us over with her story.

"Maybe," I say, privately thinking it sounded like Hannah was just vying for attention. Jasmine pouts and I can see she's about to start arguing so I quickly say, "What about we go through here now?" I stride towards the wooden door but Jasmine, true to her competitive nature, runs past me to reach it first and be the one to open the door.

"Not scared, are you?" she asks cheekily, turning to face us with her hand on the door knob. Without waiting for an answer she twists the knob and pulls open the door.

***

A loud knocking comes from the front of the house. "Yes! They're finally here!" cries out a sandy-haired teenager, leaping up from a game of cards to answer the front door. The girl sitting at the table he vacated sighs and rolls her eyes, gathering together the cards and stacking them neatly - there was no chance of their game continuing now the visitors were here. A babble of excited voices and shouting comes from the front door as she stiffly stands up and sweeps her long dark hair out of her eyes.