Chapter 1

It had happened once again. Once again, someone had decided to go to the house. Once again, someone was stupid enough to enter the room. Once again, another death was reported in their city. At least, that was what the news lady said. 17-year-old Quade Hardy was sitting at home, with a bowl of cereal in his lap, and full batteries in the TV remote. Quade lived in the city of San Jose, in the state of California. School had just let out a few weeks ago, and Quade was ready for two months of relaxation. Unfortunately, it looked like that idea went out the window.

When Quade moved to San Jose from Chicago with his family, he had heard many stories about the city. The school he went to was known as S.J.H(San Jose High), and noone in that school would ever stop talking about the mysterious house on Ross Ave. Quade and his best friend, Jackson Kinney, both lived on Fruitdale Ave. Quade had three other friends as well: Rayyan West, Gordon Freeman, and Lindsy Leblanc. They all lived pretty near each other: their houses were only a 15 minute drive away. Jackson had introduced himself to Quade on the second day of high school. 

“Hey there, my name’s Jackson, what’s yours?” he had said that day.

“My name’s Quade, but you can call me Quad” Quade had answered.

“So, Quad, you seem new here” Jackson said, “You just moved or something?”

“Yeah!” Quade answered. “I moved from Chicago 3 days ago.”

“Nice” Jackson replied, “Chicago’s a beautiful city, y’know? I moved here from Wolfville 2 weeks back. It was a small town. My dad got a job here, that’s why we moved. Compared to what I was used to in Wolfville, it was a nice change, y’know? It’s not too bad here, you’ll get used to it!”

Quade nodded his head, then said, “I wasn’t really into moving at first. My mom said it would be better for me, but I just wanted to stay put.”

“I know how you feel” Jackson said, “I wasn’t too excited about moving either, but don’t worry. You’ll blend in here soon enough.”

“Thanks, man” Quade said, slapping Jackson on the back.

“I got you man!” Jackson said, then checked his watch, “Dang, it’s already 8:45! We’re super late! What class are we supposed to be in again?”

Quade checked his schedule, then said, “Room 166 for Social Studies.”

“Of course, the most boring subject for the start to a boring day” Jackson groaned.

Jackson and Quade walked further down the hallway, and soon came across Room 166. They looked through the window: The teacher was writing on the board, and the students were taking notes. A few girls in the corner were whispering and giggling. Quade rapped on the door, and the teacher stopped writing to open the door for them.

And when she did… “WHAT DO YOU BOYS THINK YOU’RE DOING, ARRIVING 15 MINUTES LATE? DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I’VE BEEN?! YOU KNUCKLEHEADS WALKING AROUND THE SCHOOL LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE! GET TO YOUR SEAT AND SIT DOWN!”

Quade and Jackson slumped to their seats, and plopped down. The girls in the corner were pointing and giggling at the them. 

Quade turned to Jackson and whispered, “Great, a perfect start to a perfect day.”

Jackson smiled, then turned serious again, “I want to tell you something.”

Quade leaned in closer, “Yeah?”

“There’s this rumor that’s been going around even before I got here” Jackson started, “People are saying there’s this haunted house on Ross Avenue. I’ve never been, so I don’t know what it looks like. But people say there’s this room in the house that kills you if you sleep in it. There have been multiple reported deaths in the city, and I’m pretty sure that room is responsible for 95% of them. Sometimes people get burned to death, other times they’re frozen to death, and sometimes they’ll just disappear and leave a large blood stain behind. It’s scary, man!”

Quade scoffed, then replied, “That’s a bunch of bullshit. There’s no way that’s possible.”

“Dude, you just got here” Jackson said, “You don’t know yet.”

“There’s a lot of stuff I don’t know, Jackson” Quade said, “But I do know one thing: A murderous room doesn’t exist.”

“Mr. Hardy and Mr. Kinney” said the teacher from the front of the room, “A week’s worth of detention for both of you! Class dismissed!’

And they had both done their detention for the week. They were a laughing stock for the next three weeks. Anyway, now that there was another death proclaimed on the news, Quade knew he had to be careful. Since he got here, there were over 250 deaths reported in the city! Qaude did the math, and that meant about 238 deaths were because of the room. But that couldn’t be true. A room couldn’t really kill people……..could it?

Chapter 2

It was now 2:00 in the afternoon. Quade finished binge-watching the 2nd season of Good Girls, then got up off the floor and stretched. Quade went to get himself a can of Mug Root Beer. He popped it open and began sipping. While he was taking another giant gulp of the drink, his mom came downstairs. She was a good-looking woman, with perfectly peach skin and long, blond hair. Today, she was wearing a silver necklace around her neck. She had a nice, long red dress, and black high heels. She had a golden ring on her right ring finger, and was hurriedly inserting gold earrings on her ears. Quade watched her as she rushed into the bathroom. He could hear her commenting herself about how she looked.

“Girl, you got some serious style” she was saying, “I’m gorgeous. Nothing is going to ruin tonight.”

She rushed back out of the room, just as Quade’s dad came down the stairs. Mr. Hardy was extremely muscular. If he wasn’t wearing an undershirt, you would be able to see the outline of his six-pack. Today, he was dressed in a well-ironed tuxedo, complete with perfectly-polished shoes, and nice gelled hair. His wedding ring glinted on his left ring finger, and his mustache was well-oiled. 

“You ready, honey?” Mr. Hardy asked his wife.

“No time for questions!” Mrs. Hardy said, “We’re gonna be late if you keep flexing those big muscles. Come on, let’s go!”

Quade was staring at them from the corner of the kitchen. It was like they didn’t even notice he was there. Mrs. Hardy picked up her stylish black handbag and started towards the door. Mr. Hardy was still taking time to fix his bow tie. 

             “Hurry up!” Mrs. Hardy yelled at him, “We have to be there in time for the presentation!”

             “I’m coming, I’m coming” Mr. Hardy replied.

             He rushed towards the door, making sure his bow tie was nice and tight around his neck.

             On his way out, Mr. Hardy paused to talk to his son.

             “I ordered pizza, so you don’t have to worry about food” Mr. Hardy said, “You are allowed to watch television for as long as you want, but I want you in bed before 12:00. You are allowed to invite Jackson to stay over, no one else. We’ll be back by around 3:00 AM.”

             “Honey, hurry up!!” Mrs. Hardy shouted from outside.

             “I’m coming, I’m coming!” Mr. Hardy repeated, “Be good, Quade.”

             And with that, he slammed the door behind him. Quade still stood there, sipping from the root beer, as the car rumbled out of the driveway. After a few seconds, Quade wasn’t able to hear the car any more. He slurped down the rest of the root beer, then grabbed his cell phone and called Jackson.

             “Hey, man” Jackson said from the other end of the line, “How’s life?”

“Good!” Quade replied, “You wanna come over to my house; My dad said you’re allowed.”

“Sorry man, it’s not a good time” Jackson apologized, “I was thinking of going out with Rayyan, Gordon, and Lindsy.”

 “To do what?” Quade asked, kind of annoyed.

“We were gonna go check out the haunted house” Jackson answered.

“Could I come?” Quade asked, desperate not to be left out.

“But you said the rumor was a fake” Jackson said, “So, I just figured you wouldn’t want to come.”

“I still think you guys are in over your head” Quade replied, “But I do like adventures and mysteries. Come on, man. Please?”

There was a long pause. Quade held his ear to his phone, impatiently waiting to hear an answer. Finally, Jackson spoke, “Of course you can come. The more the merrier. Just make sure to pack a flashlight.”

“Awesome, thanks man!” Quade said, “Where are we meeting?”

“The Butcher Dog Park” Jackson replied, “Once the gang’s all there, we’ll head to the house.”

“Alright” Quade said, “See you there!”

Quade ended the call. He knew his friends were being totally foolish about this “lethal room” thing, but right now, he didn’t really care. He was just happy he had something to do. Quade rushed upstairs, grabbed his dad’s flashlight from his work kit and made sure it had full batteries. He would need all the light he could get. Afterwards, he zoomed back downstairs, put on his overcoat, slipped on his shoes, and left the house toward Butcher Dog Park. Little did he know what would be in store for him later on tonight.

*

Quade rode his bike down to Butcher Dog Park. The rest of the gang was already there. It was already 4:00, so they couldn’t waste any more time. They all grabbed their flashlights and walked the 4 minutes to Ross Ave. And there it was, it all its glory, the house. The grass in front of the house was extremely unkempt; it was almost 3 feet tall! There was a gate in front of them marked “Do Not Enter”. A path led from the gate towards the house. An ominous wind ruffled their hair and the brush around them.

Quade sneered at the house in the distance, then said, “This is what you guys are all so afraid of? You guys are so dumb.”

“You can turn right back around if you want to” Rayyan said, “But we’re going in.”

The 4 of them walked ahead, leaving Quade behind. Quade knew his friends were just being silly, but he didn’t want to be left alone in the dark. So, he rolled his eyes, switched on his flashlight, and followed close behind them. His friends had already climbed over the gate, so Quade jumped over as well. It was now that Quade realized the grass was a lot taller than he thought. From the other side of the street, they looked to be 3 feet tall. Now that he was directly beside them, he found out that they were taller than 5 feet! It was very strange to see grass grow to this height. Quade bent down to study the plants more. It was only when Jackson called him was he brought back to his senses, “Quad, hurry up. You might want to see this!”

Quade hurried down the path towards his friends. They were already at the front door. They were beckoning him to come forward, but Quade paused a few feet away from the door. Now that he was directly in front of the house, he could now see what his friends were talking about. The house was probably the scariest thing Quade had ever seen. There were cracks everywhere in the walls. The shingles on the roof were falling off. Quade could even see some of them on the sidewalk! All the windows had a red tint to them, and 3 had enormous cracks in them. The front door was on its last hinge, and the wood was peeling off in every spot. Quade wasn’t a hundred percent sure about this, but he thought that there was some sort of humanoid figure looking at him through the highest window. 

“Guys, I’m starting to have second thoughts about this” Quade said, trying to keep his voice as straight as possible, “I think we should go back.”

“Awwwww, don’t become scared now” Gordon mocked.

“I’m not scared!” Quade said firmly, “I’m just not so sure we should do this anymore.”

“Chicken!” Rayyan said, “Come on guys, let’s go.”

Rayyan cautiously opened the door. It swung dangerously on its last hinge. Once it was wide enough for them to squeeze through, the 4 of them walked inside the house. Quade gulped loudly, but gathered up his courage and walked up the front steps and into the house. 

It was even scarier inside than it was outside. There were a set of stairs in front of him leading to the next floor. When his eyes adjusted to the total darkness, Quade realized something was shining on the stairs. When he went closer, he saw that the shining stuff was actually blood! Blood running from the bottom of the stairs all the way to the top! It was a terrifying sight. When Quade stepped back from the stairs, he found out that the walls also had large blood stains on them! He stepped backwards to get a better look, and his foot touched something on the ground. Quade turned to see what it was, and found it to be even more blood! 

This was becoming too much for Quade, so he shouted, “Guys?! Where are you?”

The voice that answered came from upstairs, “I’m heeeere!” the voice moaned.

Quade swallowed the spit that had been forming in his mouth, and went towards the stairs.

“Jackson?” Quade asked, making his way up the stairs, “Rayyan? Gordon? Lindsy? Are any of you there?”

No one answered. Quade was starting to totally regret coming here. He wanted to run screaming from the house, but he knew he’d looked like an idiot if he did. So, he took a nice, deep breath and made his way up to the top of the stairs. It was even darker up here than it was on the lower floor, if that was even possible. Quade was now in some sort of long hallway.

“Guys, this isn’t funny” Quade said, “Where are you?”

Once again, a voice spoke up. It seemed to be coming from the right side of the hallway.

“I’m heeere!” it repeated, “Help ...help.”

“Hello? Anyone there?” Quade asked, completely scared out of his mind.

“Come, I need help” the voice moaned.

Quade headed in the direction of the voice. Lined up on the walls were various pictures and paintings. Most of the pictures were covered with large blood stains, but one that wasn’t held the picture of the family that once lived here. It was a calm looking man with his peachy-skinned wife. The woman was holding a baby that looked to be 3 months old. The man and woman were smiling, and the baby had his eyes tightly closed. Quade smiled at the sight of a happy family, and started imagining what could have possibly went wrong. 

While staring at the photo, the moaning voice spoke once more, “Help ...please ...upstairs.”

Quade brought his thoughts away from the picture and focused on finding the source of the voice. It now seemed to be coming from the third floor. Fortunately, there was another set of stairs directly beside Quade. He climbed up these, and came to a halt in front of another large hallway. This time, the voice called from the left, “Help...help…”

Quade walked towards this end of the hallway. The voice was still calling, but it seemed to be getting fainter and fainter. Quade kept walking however, confident that he’d find something. His thought eventually came true when he reached the end of the hallway. He could no longer hear the voice. It was just an empty space in front of him.

“I’m so stupid!” Quade thought, “Getting scared over nothing.”

Quade was about to turn around and leave when he saw a horrifying sight. His eyes had just caught something moving on the ground. Looking closer, he was stunned to see a man on the floor, struggling as if he was in serious pain. 

“Help...help” he moaned.

Quade was about to run and get help, when he realized something even more terrifying. The man wasn’t real. His eyes were white, and his skin’s color was fading. Quade noticed a white gas floating around him: mist. This man was dead; a ghost. Quade was paralyzed with fear. 

Once again, the man repeated, “Help...help me ...please”

Quade had no idea what he should do. He decided it would be rude to leave the man there in agony. So, he reached out his hand and tried to grab the man. When his hand touched the body of the man, the man screamed! It was an ear-piercing scream! Quade covered his ears and closed his eyes as tight as he could. When he opened them again, the man was gone! And even scarier, where there was once an empty wall, a door had appeared. 

“This can’t be real” Quade thought, “This is all fake.”

 Suddenly, Quade heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. He braced himself for some sort of monster attack, but it was his friends that appeared around the corner.

“Quade, are you okay?” Jackson asked, “We heard you scream.”

“It wasn’t me” Quade said, “It was….”

“Oh, look! He’s found the door!” Rayyan interrupted. 

Rayyan moved forward and pushed past Quade.

“Wait!” Quade said, “Don’t open the door. I have a very bad feeling.”

“Stop being such a chicken!” Rayyan teased.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Rayyan turned the knob of the door. The door swung open as they all held their breath, waiting to see what was inside. They were all surprised to see what was inside….

Chapter 3

It was a very big room. On one side, there was a queen-sized bed. On the right side of the bed, there was a drawer with a vase of flowers on top of it. On the other side of the room, there was a 50-inch plasma TV sitting on a long wooden drawer. There were paintings set up all over the wall, and they weren’t the spooky kind either. There was a taxidermy bear rug in the middle of the room. Also in the middle of the room was a beautiful chandelier. Everyone was confused for a moment.

“Is this supposed to be the creepy room?” Quade asked.

“I don’t know” Jackson replied, “It doesn’t look scary at all.”

“See, you guys were all scared for nothing” Rayyan said, “Those news people are mental, there’s nothing scary here.”

“Are you sure it is not different room?” Lindsy asked(her English wasn’t the best).

“No, I’m pretty sure this is the room” Jackson said.

“Hey, you guys want to do a dare?” Gordon asked, “Whoever can sleep overnight in this room, I swear to give them $50.”

“I’ll do it!” Rayyan said, “Besides, how bad can it be. I have a TV and a queen-sized bed all to myself.”

“Guys, I don’t think we should take such risks” Quade said, worried about his friend.

“Dude, you’re the one who thought this whole thing was fake” Rayyan replied, “I’m staying, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

“We’ll see you in the morning,” Gordon said.

 “See ya then!” Rayyan said back.

They all waved at Rayyan, then walked back down to first floor. They exited the house and made sure to close the door behind them.

“Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Rayyan behind?” Quade asked.

“It was his choice, Quad” Gordon said, “Plus, you thought this was all one big joke.”

Quade looked down at his feet. Gordon was right, and he was ashamed for thinking such things. 

“I know, it was stupid” Quade said, still staring at his feet, “But now I know better. We could be putting him in great danger.”

“You’re taking this too hard” Gordon said, “Relax a little, man.”

The friends jumped over the fence when they got to it. It was going to be a long way back home.

After a 30 minute bike ride, the friends made it back to their streets. Gordon and Lindsy waved goodbye to Quade and Jackson, and they walked the rest of the way back home.

“Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Rayyan in that place?” Quade asked Jackson.

“Honestly, no” Jackson answered.

“So, why’d you let him stay?” Quade asked, clearly surprised.

Jackson shrugged.

“What if something bad happened to him?” Quade asked, “We’ll be at fault.”

“He was the one who wanted to stay” Jackson said, “Even if you tell him a hundred different reasons why he shouldn’t stay, he’ll find some excuse to stay. That’s just the way Rayyan is.”

“I don’t feel good about this” Quade said.

“Dude, chillax!” Jackson said, “He’s only staying for one night anyway.”

“If anything bad happens to him, I’m not involved” Quade said.

“Fine” Jackson said, rolling his eyes.

By now, they had finally reached the front steps of Quade’s house.

“See you tomorrow, Quad!” Jackson said. 

“See ya” Quade said.

Quade entered his house. He took off his shoes and overcoat and put them back in their places. He returned his dad’s flashlight, and slumped down on the couch. He glanced at the clock: it was now 6:30. He tried to take his mind off of things by turning on the TV, but his mind kept going back to the house and Rayyan. He wasn’t able to relax at all. He was worried about the well-being of his friend. After a while, he couldn’t take it anymore. He shut off the TV, climbed up the stairs, and went into his room. He flopped down onto his bed, grabbed “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” from his bedside table, and opened to the 93rd page. 

Quade sighed, then said to himself, “Rayyan, please be careful.”

It was only after he reached the 232nd page was Quade finally able to fall asleep. In his dreams, Quade thought he saw Rayyan getting chased by some sort of hairy monster. It was a rough night for Quade………...and for Rayyan.

*

Quade woke up at 10:00 AM the next day. He stretched on his bed, then walked down the stairs to the kitchen. His mom was already there, making scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. His dad was watching the Liverpool game. 

“Good morning, Dad!” Quade said, “How was your outing last night?”

“It was good, it was good” Mr. Hardy said, not taking his eyes off the screen, “Awww, come on! How did you miss that?”

Quade rolled his eyes, then went upstairs to get ready for the day. He brushed his teeth, had his bath, and rubbed a good amount of gel on his hair. When he came back downstairs, the scrambled eggs and bacon was ready and his dad was red in the face because Liverpool wasn’t given a penalty.

“I honestly have no idea what the referee was thinking” he was mumbling, “It was an obvious foul. Stupid call.”

Quade grabbed his food and sat down at the table, where his mom were checking some of her texts. Quade scarfed down his food in under 2 minutes. His mom had been watching him from over the top of her phone, and she said, “Don’t eat too fast. You’re going to choke!”

Quade threw his plate in the sink, ran towards the front door, put on his overcoat and boots, and was about to head out when his mother called him back.

“Just where do you think you’re going?” she asked.

“I’m going out with my friends” Quade replied.

“I want you back home by 2:00, okay?” Mrs. Hardy said.

“Okay” Quade answered.

He opened the door and ran 2 houses to the right towards Jackson’s house. He climbed the front steps and pounded on the front door. Jackson came to the door, his hair in a mess and dried mucus running down his nose. His eyes were red and puffy, as if he had just been crying. Quade obviously noticed this, then asked, “Dude, are you good?”

“Naw, man” Jackson sniffed as he cleaned his nose, “Gordon just called from Ross Ave. He went earlier today to check on Rayyan, and…...and ...”

“It’s okay” Quade said, “We’ll go together to check on Rayyan.”

“No, dude, you don’t understand” Jackson said, “Let me just explain…”

“No time, man!” Quade said, “C’mon, get ready, we gotta go.”

Jackson didn’t even try fighting this time. He shut the door, then came out 2 minutes later with his sweater and sneakers. Then, they grabbed their bikes and rode off towards Ross Avenue. Little did they know they were in for a nasty surprise.

*

They arrived at the front door of the house in 24 minutes. The grass seemed to have grown taller today, but that probably a figure of Quade’s imagination. The smiling face in the tallest window was also probably a figure of his imagination. They quickly entered the house and ran up to the third floor where the mysterious door had appeared yesterday. On his way up, Quade noticed that the blood that had been on the stairs yesterday weren’t there today. The stairs even seemed to have changed positions, because it took them 10 minutes to find the second set of stairs. Once they finally reached the door(after an overall searching time of 14 minutes), they saw Gordon and waved to him. Gordon wasn’t his usual cheery self. His eyes were also red and puffy, and his skin was a whiter shade. Quade noticed this as well(of course) and asked, “Dude, are you okay?”

“No, I’m not!” Gordon said, on the verge of tears, “Remember how we made that dare yesterday with Rayyan? To see if he could survive an entire night here?”

“Yeah!” Quade and Jackson replied.

“Well, when I came here to bring him the $50 for winning the bet, I found this….”

Gordon swung open the door. Everything seemed normal. Nothing was destroyed, nothing was out of place; Quade couldn’t see what they were so upset about.

“Dude, there’s nothing here” Quade scoffed, “Why are you so worked up?”

“Did you look down?” Gordon asked.

It was at this time that Quade realized Jackson was crying. Quade looked down, and gasped in absolute shock. Lying on the taxidermy bear rug was Rayyan……...surrounded by a pool of glistening blood.