The Dare

Chapter 17

Upstairs I search for the body of the creature, half expecting it to be dead on the floor. It's not, and I wonder who won in the fight between my sister and the pale creature.

The thought of my sister laying by herself on the floor of that basement makes my stomach sick, and my eyes water. I'm a horrible sister for leaving her there, but I need to get the others out safely.

When we came into this building there were six of us, and then my sister brought in three more. Nine in total, and walking down the hall to the main door I only count four heads in front of me. The building truly picked us off, until there were only five left.

"Ya know what if it was all symbolic or something," Conner says, calling back to us from the front of the line. Symbolic?

"What do you mean, 'symbolic'?" Avery asks, there's skepticism in her tone and I know she's thinking what I'm thinking. Symbolism or not, this is a shitty situation and it makes no sense.

"The notebook said the house takes the suffering people. And when that girl possessed Ha-Teagan.." He catches himself and my gaze jerks to Hazel, who doesn't seem to notice. Good, I would hate it if Teagan's last actions were for not.

"When that girl possessed Teagan," he starts again, "she said she was in our heads and knew what we were thinking." I'm reminded of Hazel's possessed ominous voice, telling me she knew I had caused my mother's death.

"Yeah? So?" Avery prods, pushing him to finish his thought.

"What if it was, like, symbolic or something and she's killing everyone with secrets or something?" I shrug, I get his idea but honestly, there are too many holes for it to make sense.

The hall is coming to an end, and we all walk carefully through the dark hall. The lighting has slowly changed to a light blue, signaling to us that morning is upon us.

"I think you're looking for answers that aren't there Conner," Hazel says bluntly, and that's the end of that conversation. Truly there are no answers for what's happening, and I think frantically searching for one will just mentally break us.

Some things are just unexplainable. Good people die, relationships fall apart, and taking things for granted is a sin. Suddenly we stop the people in front of me coming to a full halt.

"What now?" I ask, and then I realize. Hazel is choking on her sobs, and Avery is grabbing her tightly in comfort. We never covered Teagan's body, we had just left her there. I had demanded we keep going, I am a horrible person.

Avery gently pulls her away, consoling her with soft words. Her sobs turn to silent tears and we continue our walk to the front door. Now that dawn is upon us we are teased with the idea of getting out of here, and every minute seems to draw on for hours.

"No, seriously. She said we're all hungry and she said that the house is hungry for revenge." Conner blurts out, apparently unable to hold in his hypothesis. Grayson rolls his eyes and grabs a hold of my hand, the simple action brings a blush to my cheeks.

"Conner stop, you're gonna hurt yourself looking for any reason here. There's no science here, there's no cause." I snap, my words sounding a little harsher than intended.

"No! Don't tell me to stop, there has to be a reason! The people here are probably pissed they didn't get to live their life so now they kill anyone who's not living their best life! Right? That makes sense?" It kinda does, I guess. My sister was living with hate in her heart, and she passed. Mason was living without pursuing Avery, even though they both wanted it, and the girl directly killed him. Teagan was taking the blame for something she didn't do, meaning she'd be living with that burden.