The Dare

Chapter 6

Leaves and old papers scatter around our feet, blowing out the door upon its opening. This odd smell fills the air, I pinpoint it as a musty basement. The inside is dark, but not to the point where we can't see anything. Moonlight struggles to break through the grimed windows but comes through enough so we can make out the room.

It is a very large room, the main lobby, so some chairs that were probably once fancy but now torn are scattered everywhere. Some are completely upside down, some are broken, I wonder what caused this.

"Okay," I sigh, flexing my fingers as if it would push the fear out of me. "Let's get in there." The group of people around me nod and we all make a few steps in the building, a musty scent surrounding us the deeper we enter.

From behind us some intoxicated onlookers clap and holler, and I can hear the large door creaking shut.

"Good luck", my sister sings out to us before she shuts the door completely and we are all left alone in the darkness. My heart jumps into my throat and pounds with the slam of the door.

"There's no turning back now, I guess," Mason mumbles and Avery lets out a nervous laugh, I can tell from her face that she is trying to make the situation lighter than it is.

Everyone's face looks ghostly pale in the dull lighting, their eyes all wide in fear but they give small smiles to hide the fact. Grayson claps his hands and starts peering around, bouncing on his toes to get the anxiety out.

"Okay! Where should we look first?" Everyone looks at Grayson like he is crazy, but if anything I'm glad that someone is suggesting something rather than having us just stand around looking nervous.

"We can start with that hallway, I guess," Avery says pointing to a hall that wasn't as dark as the others. I sigh, happy that we could start with something easier. "If we are stuck here all night we could at least just wander around." We all nod, except Hazel who looks so afraid that she looks like she is choking.

I see Teagan place a hand on the small of her back for a moment before pulling it away and scanning the room to make sure nobody noticed the affection, when her eyes meet mine she glares and I look away. Mason and Avery start down the hall first with Grayson and I following, and Teagan holding Hazel's hand close behind us.

The hall is long and narrow, we have to step over various objects, like shoes or chairs or even some cabinets. I'm starting to feel claustrophobic when we finally leave the hall and enter a room that looks like an old patient room, the room is lit by the moon so we can barely make out the contents.

Upon entry I'm hit with the feeling of drowning, I grit my teeth and squeeze my fists to make myself feel something over the crashing waves. Mason whistles as we look at the mess around us, papers and old hospital gowns have strewn all over the floor.

"It's so sad if you think about it," Avery says a little quiet, but it sounds loud in the deadly silent room. We look at her and she's sitting on a filing cabinet, holding what looks to be an old file. It looks thin in her hands like it's about to fall apart, so she holds it lightly.

"This file is a girl who was staying here for 'severe anxiety', but she was probably shoved into a room with a bunch of other people who varied in symptoms from lethal killers to women who probably just told their husband no. They didn't get help here, they were treated so poorly here and now people use their resting place as a fun dare. This place closed because of all the women and kids who were killed here, it's so sad that it's made to be a joke." She sighs and extends the file to me and I grab it, it's hard to read but I can see a photo of a young woman who looks gaunt and exhausted. I feel bad too, wondering what happened to all the people who stayed here. At the bottom of this page, it was written in bold, 'cause of death: miscarriage.'