One day, not too long ago, on Halloween, a group of friends were discussing their night together between classes.

“I hate school on Halloween. It’s always so boring and stupid. In some classes we have a party which isn’t so bad though it can get pretty boring, others we do stupid stuff like a word search or crossword and it’s always so easy. Then there’s the teachers that are absolutely clueless and make us do actual work on Halloween but we’re too jacked up to get anything done and then we get in trouble for it. It’s all so pointless,” complained Katie.

“Stop being so exaggerative. It’s not that bad. I know it can get kind of repetitive over the years but you should really stop complaining. It could be worse you know,” replied Emily.

“Like how?” snapped Katie and slammed her locker door in frustration as she turned to face Emily.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhh……”stalled Emily. Sarah walked in and replied for her, “We could not celebrate it in school at all.” To that Katie had no answer and as she reopened her locker and went to retrieve her books Emily mouthed, “Thank you,” to Sarah and received a short nod in reply.

Sarah added, “I can’t wait until tonight, can you? I mean it’s going to be so awesome now that I’m in middle school and my parents finally relented into letting me go it alone. I mean seriously how overprotective can you get.” she continued without a breath, “And my costume is so cool I can’t wait for you to see it. It’s perfect for a dark night and it’s just so awesome I can barely stop myself from telling you about it,” she finally paused.

“Well, let me guess,” Emily said, “a witch,” she and Katie said in synchronization.

“How did you know?” asked Sarah, truly curious.

“Well, you’ve only been a witch, uh, four years in a row,” Katie said in a patronizing tone, “I mean, how did you think we knew?”

“Well yeah, I guess,” Said Sarah, “But still. Anyway, what are you being Emily? I keep forgetting to ask.”

“I’m being a skeleton pirate, you know, like from Pirates of the Caribbean, and I think Katie is going as an Avatar,” Emily teased. Katie was absolutely obsessed with Avatar and had been talking about her homemade costume for months and months. She went into detail as to exactly how she was going to do every little thing, even what type of shoes she was going to wear (her navy blue all-star converse high tops) and whether or not she should paint the white parts so they look more realistic until her friends said enough was enough.

They started to walk to English, their next subject, when they ran into Dylan with Matt in tow as usual. They started to walk with the girls and Dylan said in a whisper, “Chris dared me and Matt to go in Old Ben Hanson’s place tonight, are you game?” His word sent a shiver down the girl’s spines. Everybody knew the legend of Old Ben Hanson. He used to be just a normal old guy living with his grandchildren in the mansion at the top of a hill. Then the kids disappeared mysteriously (of course) and Old Ben was devastated. Days later, the kids were found buried at the foot of a tree where they used to play on their tree swing. The authorities were bamboozled because there wasn’t any cause of death. The kids were in perfect health, besides the fact that they were dead. When Ben heard the news he shut himself up and was never seen again. It was said that their ghosts still haunt the mansion and whenever someone approaches it, they’re haunted by them until the day they die. Blah, blah, blah.

Most of it was probably just superstitious nonsense but two things are definitely true, to this day no one knows how the Hanson children died and no one has ever found Old Ben’s body, even though there has many searches over the 150 years since the children were found dead. Only the story survives.

Sarah recovered first, “Why in the world would Chris dare you guys to go there?” she asked worriedly.

“Well you know Chris; he always jumps at an opportunity to show that he’s superior when we chicken out. But not this time. This time we’re going to show him. He’d never go there in a million years. But…. we’d like the support if you came too.” Matt explained somewhat uncomfortably while Dylan nodded his agreement.

“So what you’re trying to say is please, please come with us cause we’re less likely chicken out if we’re in front of a bunch of girls. Please……..” Katie said while getting on her knees and pleading. They all laughed.

When the group recovered Dylan admitted rather uncomfortably, “Well yeah.”

“So will you do it?” questioned Matt, who had gotten over his wounded pride quicker than Dylan had.

The girls all exchanged a nervous look just as the bell rang.

Dylan added hurriedly, “We’ll talk to you during lunch. See you guys!” and they both ran down the hall, sprinting to make it to class on time.

“Saved by the bell,” Emily said as they walked into class.

The girls sat down together and as Mr. Gionelli, their English teacher, wrote their assignment down on the board and the whole class groaned except the three girls, they couldn‘t help but discuss the dare.

“They’re crazy.” said Sarah immediately after they sat.

“Well yeah, I guess, but I can see their point at wanting to show Chris, he can be so irritating ……and I have always been curious about that mansion….. I mean, there has to be something cool up there…….” said Emily hesitantly.

“I’m all for it,” said Katie excitedly, “I going whether you think I should or not,”

“Then you’re crazy too,” added Sarah.

“Well if you’re so sure……I don’t know……maybe,” Emily murmured

“Come on, please?” encouraged Katie, “Please?”

“Yeah, okay. Yeah I’ll go,” said Emily convincing herself. By this time Mr. Gionelli had noticed them and called out over the class, “Girls, in English class we’re going to do English, and I wouldn’t to have to give detention on Halloween, am I right?”

“Yes Mr. Gionelli,” the girls said in unison.

“Then get to work,” Mr. Gionelli said

“Yes Mr. Gionelli,” the girls repeated.

Lunch came much too quickly for the girls, who were nervous for their discussion with Dylan and Matt about the dare. When ELA ended, the girls were silent as they walked their lockers and got out their things for lunch. As if trying to escape the meeting, the girls automatically chose a table in the far corner of the cafeteria. But their attempt was fruitless, Dylan and Matt found them almost immediately anyway.

Emily, Sarah, and Katie braced themselves as the two boys sat down, but the expected explosion of questioning did not occur. Dylan and Matt just joined in the silence.

Katie was the first to speak and got right to the elephant in the room, “Well, me and Emily have agreed to go,” she said, “But I don’t know about Sarah,” Katie turned to face her, “Well Sarah, how ‘bout it? I can’t force you, though I really, really think you should come. I mean there can’t be anything wrong with the place, and all of those stupid urban myths are just superstitious nonsense.”

“Yeah, I know. But still, I mean Old Ben’s hill is absolutely forbidden to go near, let alone enter, and my parents would kill me if they found out and they only just gave me my freedom……” Sarah said, making excuses, “And the place is flat out creepy, even without the other reasons, I don’t think I would want to go.”

“But aren’t you curious about what is in there, the legends must’ve started somehow,” Dylan said excitedly, “and don’t say it was just because the place is creepy, something really must’ve scared the poor girls and old Ben. I just know that something cool happened there and I can’t wait to find out what.” continued Dylan.

“Yeah,” agreed Matt

“I just think it’ll be fun, when else will you be able to explore a real ‘haunted house?’” Katie said half nervous half excited.

“Well I guess I’ll feel left out if I don’t go, soon as I’m going trick-or-treating with you guys and since I’m not allowed to walk home in the dark alone and would look stupid waiting on the curb for you………I guess I’ll go.” Sarah said, regretting her words almost immediately.

Instead of the expected cheer at her agreement, there was only silence in anticipation of what they were going to do that night.

“Well now that’s decided, when and where are we going to meet?” said Emily, trying to be productive.

“Well……….” said Matt looking visibly uncomfortable, “Uhhhhhhhhh……….”

“As a part of the dare, Chris said that we had to go at midnight,” Dylan quickly answered for him.

“What?!!” shouted Sarah, “That’s ridiculous! There is absolutely no way that I’m going to be able to go out at midnight! What do you think my parents are, insane?!! Oh, I’ll just let my 13 year old daughter go out trick-or-treating at midnight la, la-la, la-la, la-la. I mean seriously,” Sarah was shouting by now.

“Shush! Do you want everyone in the cafeteria to hear you? Don’t answer that. Just be quiet,” said Matt quickly, “We’re sorry that we didn’t tell you earlier but now that can’t be helped. And since you already agreed, you have to do it now, right?” Matt said worriedly, glancing at the girls faces.

“Fine. I’ll have to sneak out though,” muttered Sarah, in a mood.

“The question still remains, when and where are we going to meet?” asked Katie before Sarah could interrupt.

“Well Matt and I were hoping to meet at the gate to old Ben’s mansion at around 11:45 so we could go in at exactly midnight. If you’re later than 11:55, we’ll assume that you’re chicken and Matt and I will go without you,” said Dylan mischievously.

“All right that seems fair,” said Katie, “Though do you have any ideas as to how to make it out of the house? ‘Cause my dad said I have to be home by eleven, and twelve is way past that.”

“I don’t know about you, but my room is on the first floor so I’m going to go to bed early, saying I’m tired and then sneak out the window,” said Dylan, “Hopefully the ruse will pass and I’ll get there on time.”

“I think I’m just going to tell the truth, or at least part of it. I’ll tell my parents that I really, really want to go to this party thing with just us girls where we go trick-or-treating at midnight or something and if you tell your parents the same thing they might all agree and let us go. But it has to be the same story. Otherwise we’ll just have to sneak out.” Katie suggested, getting more and more hyped up.

“That sounds great,” said Emily.

“Yeah, sure I guess. But I detest lying to my parents,” Sarah said, still moody.

“Guys, we have to go. It’s nearly 1:15 and we only have two minutes to get to class.” Matt said quickly while getting up to leave.

“Yeah, see you later,” the girls shouted back to them as they left for science.

Throughout the rest of the school day, all the girls could think about was their night. The boy’s afternoon was much more interesting. While the girls were going to science, the boys went to Gym with Chris.

Dylan and Matt went into the boy’s changing room and walked over to Chris who was putting on his uniform and Dylan said, “Well we did it, we managed to get Sarah, Emily and Katie to go to Old Ben’s at midnight tonight.”

“How’d you do it? I thought it would be impossible, I mean, they’re all such babies,” Chris said, honestly surprised.

“Oh, well it wasn’t that hard,” Matt answered, “I think you underestimated them. All we had to say was that you dared us to do it and that we needed them for support, which isn‘t exactly a lie. In fact, it was really easy. Can I have my 20 bucks please?”

“Not so fast, they could still not show,” said Chris hopefully.

“I really doubt it,” said Dylan.

“We’ll see,” said Chris doubtingly.

“Yes, you’ll see,” said Matt and they continued the rest of the day pondering what would occur at midnight.

The rest of the afternoon went without incident, all went to plan and they all met at the bottom of Old Ben’s hill just before midnight.

Because of the many legends about old Ben’s mansion, the place would never sell, so for years it’s just sat as property of the town, being left to rot. The mansion and its lawn were decrepit and uncared for. Dead leaves littered the ground and only a dirt path led from the rusty iron gate to the house. An old, twisting oak tree guarded the path and a wooden picket fence surrounded the property. The fence was stripped of all paint and was falling apart so badly that over a third of it was lying on the frosty earth being covered in the blanket of dead leaves. The mansion itself was uninviting and cold, let alone falling apart. The door kept swinging open and closed on creaking hinges in the breeze, making a loud scraping noise whenever it moved. Most of the roof tiles were missing and the windows were a mess of broken glass. In the low branches of the oak tree, a tattered rope swing twisted in the light wind.

Old Ben’s mansion gave off a creepy air, anyone could tell that much. They all shivered, but not because of the cold.

While they were waiting for 12 o’clock to arrive in silence, out of the corner of her eye, Emily though she saw two little girls playing on the swing and giggling in excitement, but she said to herself it was nothing, she was seeing things and hearing voices on the wind.

Dylan was the first to recover, “Its 11:56,” he said, “We’d better get going,”

Sluggishly, as if they couldn’t believe the moment was already here, they nudged the rusty gate and it gave a scream of protest but they shoved it open anyway and began the nervous trek sifting through the layers of leaves and making their way to the mansion. Even Katie’s excitement was subdued. They climbed the sagging wooden stairs and finally were in front of the door.

Dylan, the real coward, said, “Ladies first,” and rightly earned himself a look of disgust. But, not wanting to look chicken, Katie, Emily and Sarah stepped forward and entered the mansion.

It was barren and devoid of anything inside. A draft wafted through the broken windows and chilled the girls to their very bones. In front of them, a once grand staircase led upstairs and to their left and right laid the kitchen and dining area. There was nothing special, nothing secret.

The boys, who couldn’t help it, started to laugh. To their confused looks, Matt began to explain what the real dare was. But before the girls could feel anger, or even surprise, they disappeared into the night, never to be seen alive again.

Just like the story of the two Hanson children, the three friends were found buried at the foot of the great oak days later, in perfect health, besides the fact they were dead. Leaving the two boys with only the sound of their screams and the memory that it was their fault they were dead.

It is said that If you go up to Old Ben’s mansion just after midnight on Halloween, you can still hear them screaming.