I walked toward the fireplace and looked around. There was no reason the fire should've gone out, the logs were fine, there were no drafts, and the fire was strong just a second ago. I tried to look around but quickly realized I couldn't see further than a few feet in front of me. My fear of the dark triggered and I was about to just curl up in a ball and wait for someone to come to my rescue, but I pushed those feelings aside quickly. I needed to stop being a baby and think.
Quickly and blindly I ran for the couch and rummaged in my backpack until I found my cellphone. Turning on the flashlight I walked towards the basement, where all of my friends disappeared to earlier. as I walked past the dining room I froze, there was a light coming from the gap between the door and the floor. I knew for a fact that no one could be there and instantly turned off the flashlight and hid under one of the tables besides the door. I held my breath and counted to ten as the door slowly opened and two people came out, one much smaller than the other. It wasn't until one of them spoke and I recognized the voice that I let out a sigh of utter relief.
"Why's it so dark in here? Where the heck is everyone?" Chris asked no one in particular as he walked to the couch and dark fireplace. Ashley followed close behind and looked around.
"Maybe they all went to bed?" She questioned with uncertainty, looking around to see if anyone would jump out and scare her.
Slowly, I decided to get up from under the bed quietly and made my way to them . Chris turned and pointed the flashlight right at my face before I could make any noise to make my presence known, startling him. Ashley turned and sighed with relief, taking the flashlight from Chris and pointing somewhere else.
"Where were you? And where's Sam and Josh?" Ashley inquired, looking around to see if they weren't behind me sneaking around.
"Yeah, and what happened to the fire? It couldn't have just gone out by itself like that, I was pretty proud of its strength." Chris pouted, looking at the fireplace sadly.
"Well, Josh and Sam disappeared into the basement a bit after you guys because the boiler wasn't working. I was sitting there zoning out when the fire just went off by itself and I freaked out--you both know how scared I am of the dark--before I remembered I had a flashlight. I was going to look for you guys in the basement when the light of your flashlight terrified me further and I decided to hide under one of those tables. When I realized it was you guys I came out. By the way, how did you guys make it to the dining room if you were down in the basement?" I ended my babbling questioning them, trying to avoid the questions about the fireplace and why I freaked out.
"We were looking for the spirit board and found this weird secret passageway that led us all the way up to the kitchen through a secret door by the stove. We also found the spirit board, so we just have to wait for Josh to come back up I guess." Josh took out the spirit board from under his jacket and showed it to me triumphantly. we walked back to the couch and waited for Josh and Sam to come out. I kept glancing at the window, worried something might jump up at us from the darkness.
A few minutes later, Josh and Sam came up, laughing at some silly remark one of them did. they were surprised at how dark it had gotten and quickly noticed why. Sam continued walking up the stairs, mentioning something about a hot bath and disappeared into one of the rooms. Josh continued walking over to us and smiled widely when he noticed the spirit board in Chris' hands. he glanced at the dark fireplace and then at me apologetically before turning to Chris and Ashley.
"You found it, great! We should probably go to my room to use it, it's too dark and spoopy down here." Josh seemed off, he kept looking here and there when he spoke and seemed sort of distracted, but we discarded it and followed him upstairs to his room. Once there we all sat around his desk and turned on the candles. Ashley and Chris were smirking while I just felt unsure of doing something like this. Josh seemed oddly serious though, and it scared me a little.
