The Dare

Chapter 8

When you're a young child it's common to be afraid of the dark, afraid of your closet, and the monster under your bed. It's cute when you're a kid, the parents chuckle at your fear and then comfort you until you feel safe and warm and able to peacefully fall back asleep.

Those fears go away with age, the closet stops being scary and the dark stops holding monsters. You reach a point where you stop relying on your parents to soothe you to sleep, they no longer have to chase the monsters away for you to feel safe. What are you supposed to do when you're all grown when those monsters come back, and the darkness around you feels wildly unsafe?

I sit away from the others, who anxiously sit in a group. The cops are on their way, according to Mason, and we wait as patiently as we can for them to show up and break those doors down. I want my mom to make me feel safe. Everywhere around me feels like a threat, like the darkness is going to make me whole. I turn away from the group, leaning against a wall and letting myself slide to the floor.

My eyes water with fear, and my want for protection. I pull my phone out of my pocket and open up my mom's contact. Her face smiles at me, her eyes shining with happiness. Salem looks more like her, with golden hair and bright eyes, hopeful and happy. My thumb shakes when I hit call, and I hold my phone to my cheek, waiting. The dial tone lasts forever until I hear the voice of her voicemail.

"You've reached the voicemail of.." there's the pause, then my mom's voice. "Jane Miller..". Another pause, "is not available. Please leave a message at the tone." Another pause, and then the deafening beep. I breathe in, my lungs straining to allow enough air in. To keep me from drowning. Tears flow down my cheeks, dropping under my jaw then falling to my shirt.

"Mom? It's me, again. I messed up, again. I know, again. Why can't I stop finding myself in trouble mom? I wish you could come to clean this up for me because I don't know-how. I want you here mom, please call me back. I love you." I hang up and stare into the darkness, wanting my mom to come to chase the monsters away for me.

"You called her again, didn't you?" Salem sneers from behind me and I whirl around to look up at her, she looks as though she wiped a majority of the blood off, and with the blood gone her meanness came back. "Pathetic. Mom can't just take away all of your problems, get over yourself." She walks away and I'm left alone in the darkness again, it's unbearable. I find myself standing and walking slowly towards Avery and Mason, just not wanting to feel alone right now.

"How are you feeling?" Avery says as soon as I get close to her, her blue eyes wide with concern.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Please. How are you two doing?" Avery sighs and squeezes herself tight, her eyebrows are drawn down with fear.

"I'm scared, really scared. There are always stories about this place, this awful place. It closed down because of all the deaths, and ever since then it's been a tourist attraction for anyone brave enough. But just last year people came in here on a dare and four died. The year before that? Seven died." My breath catches, surely my sister didn't know this fact when she dared me to come in here.

"I never believed it really," Mason piped in. He came closer and rested a hand on Avery, whose cheeks turned a little pink. "When I saw on the news that people died in here, and the survivors said it was the building that did it? I never believed them and I always chalked it up to mental breakdowns or something. Now? I don't know what to think." Mason sighs, and it takes my hope away. This has happened before, with people coming in here and there being multiple casualties.

"Do you think we're gonna die in here, Sage?" Avery whispers, her voice catching with tears. I stare down at our feet, her shoes that are much cleaner than mine, and I shrug.