Hey, everyone! :) I'm back!

And, I'm really sorry about the delay! :(

As it turned out, I was way busier than I expected to be, and I never really had the chance to finish this chapter for you guys(which took forever! I wasn't sure about a lot of certain parts! ^-^').

So, yeah. I didn't really get the chance to update until now, so I'm sorry about that. I'm hoping to get in the swing of the schedule soon, but it's still new for me, so sometimes I might be a little off. Please be patient with me! :)

And I'm still SUPER sorry about the delay!!! :'C

With that said, I gotta new chappie for all of you! Thank you for waiting! I know it gets a little hard sometimes to wait... I know that feeling all too well(I HATE cliffhangers!).

(do, however, keep in mind that this chapter is practically 5,000 words. I worked hard on it, so when I update, I update. :P)

But, yeah...you don't have to keep reading this. I'm just piling excuses on you. Just...go to the actual story. Pretty sure that's what you're here for...right? Yeah? Okay.

Author out. *drops tablet*

(Okay, I'm sorry, that was stupid. XD I'll go sit in a corner.)

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Sam woke up, widening her eyes and squinting through the dim lighting of her dark room. She turned her head to glance at her alarm clock. The red glowing numbers seared through the dark and flashed in her mind, waking her further as she realized it was time. It was 2:00 a.m., the time the jocks had set for the dare. Sam groaned loudly as she stretched, glancing mournfully at the warm bed she would have to leave before shoving the covers away from her body.

Standing up, she stealthily walked to her closet to select some clothes.

After she had tugged them on and finished preparing, Sam grabbed her backpack. She had previously emptied it the night before and refilled it with useful items that might come in handy.
Stalking back over to her window, she opened it silently.

Just as she had before with the hair incident, Sam pulled out a rope of clothes from under her bed.

Of course, it wasn't the original.

That one had been confiscated by her parents after she had gotten a mouthful for hopping out her window just to escape curled hair.  Who could blame her? Curled hair was a crime in her mind. Although, she had also received a mouthful for her detention, but Sam reminding them both of her father's behavior in high school put an end to that. 

So, no. This rope certainly wasn't the original one, but it was one of her many, many extras. She had a surplus supply of them in case any of them were ever discovered by her parents. It certainly wasn't her fault her mother continuously bought her clothes she never used, and it definitely wasn't her fault that her mother didn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. Nor was it her fault that she had grown tired of all the useless articles lying around her room and decided to find other uses for them. Besides, she liked to think she was simply thinking outside the box and creatively finding solutions to her problems. 

Dragging the rope over to the window, she shoved it over the window sill and climbed out.

Hand over hand, she slowly made her way down the rope's length, hoping to be as quiet as possible. She continued until she could feel her feet meet the ground. Touching down, she let go of the rope and swiftly walked away, making sure not to produce any alerting noises. If her parents caught her, then she was dead.

Making it to the other side of the street, she silently cheered.

She was out past her curfew! It was the best feeling in the world! She felt invincible! Like she could do anything and everything!

Turning to face her destination, she felt all her adrenaline drain away as fear took hold. Apparently she couldn't do everything.

Gulping, Sam gathered her courage and walked up to where the Dead House was. As she timidly approached it, she felt her eyes glued to its dark and foreboding shadow. Once she was in front of it, intimidated by its size, she shivered. 

Every instinct in her body told her to run, but she stubbornly refused. She wasn't afraid of anything! This was just a dumb house. It couldn't do anything to her, and it certainly couldn't harm her. She had seen about a million things in horror movies that were ten times more frightening, and none of them had scared her. So why did this house make her feel so skittish? She would not let this stupid building control her emotions!

Ignoring her ridiculous instincts, Sam pulled off her backpack. Riffling through it, she finally found what she was looking for.

Tugging out the flashlight, she switched it on and slung her backpack back on her back before continuing her quest into the shadows.

She felt grateful for her flashlight. It helped her see through the darkness of her street and greatly comforted her with its light. Sure, there were street lamps around, but they were oddly spaced, and some sections were covered in shadows, like the one her destination was in. The shadows, however, only deepened the feeling of dread inside her. Why on earth were the lamp posts so oddly spaced?! If Sam ever met the person who designed this street, she was pretty sure she'd curse their name. Were there any sane people in this world?

As she continued on, she noticed a gathering group of shadows to her side. She assumed it was the boys, so she headed over to them. When they began to creepily move towards her, she knew it was definitely them. So, there weren't any sane people. Good to know.

"Stop. Just stop. Don't even try. You're not scary." Sam deadpanned, shining her flashlight on them.

All the boys froze slightly, almost like a deer would in headlights before some of them instantly tried to act casual.

"Aww, she's no fun!" one of the boys audibly whined in the back.

"Don't worry," Dash waved it off as he came towards the front of the group, "We'll have fun when she runs out of the house screaming her head off!"

All the jocks chuckled in anticipation. They couldn't wait to see the scaredy cat run for her life.

"Who says I'll run out?" Sam asked annoyed. "If anyone should be scared, it's you Dash."

Dash folded his arms with a grunt.

"Scared of what?" He asked cockily.

"Of losing." Sam answered, shoving the blonde aside as she brushed past him to the front steps of the Dead House.

She stared up at it and suddenly felt very, very small. Before the thoughts of what she was doing could actually reach her head and freak her out, she shook them away. Then she turned back around to face the jocks.

"Okay, so... How do I get in?"

At the question, one of the boys stepped forward. He wasn't anyone she really recognized, but she couldn't really make out many details in the dim lighting. All she really noticed about him was that he had red hair, freckles, and hazel eyes. 

"Yeah, so every entrance is locked because it's illegal to enter..." The boy explained, pointing to a sign posted on the front door.

Sam shone her light on it.

'NO TRESPASSING: Any and all violators shall be prosecuted by the full extent of the law. -By order of the G.i.W.'

Sam sighed.

Just great. How was she supposed to get in? And even if she did, she would be breaking the law! This dare was slowly spinning out of control and becoming a living breathing nightmare. Maybe she would wake up soon? But, based on how real everything felt, she knew that wasn't going to be a possibility.

"...But we found this hole at the side of the house. We're pretty sure it just drops through to the basement. What better time to test it then now? Oh, and don't worry. There aren't any surveillance cameras. This place has been undisturbed for years. In fact, I don't even think the government remembers this order." The boy continued talking, his voice calm as if they were talking about the weather.

Well, it was a slight relief. At least she didn't have to worry about dodging cameras. Though, she still would rather be in bed right now, and she was still breaking the law by doing this, but she couldn't back out now. Then she'd definitely be seen as a coward, and she wouldn't be able to deny it. Only a coward would back out of the dare they had agreed to, after all.

The red-haired jock turned from her and walked over to the side of the building, leading a reluctant Sam and the others to a particular spot before stopping.

Sam followed his indicated hand to the hole's location...and stared. She couldn't help it.

That was one deep hole.

It was easily large enough for her to fit and seemed to go on forever in the darkness. It appeared to be caused by weather damage and weak mortar, the bricks having given way after years of being untended and the building remaining unlived in. The ground around had also eroded away, leaving a perfect pit that sunk deep into the ground. From her vantage point, she could even see the concrete lip of the whole structure's foundations! Dang, this place seriously seemed like whole bunch of safety violations. Perhaps that was why it had been sectioned off...

Sam only hoped that the hole indeed led to the basement and wasn't too far of a drop.

Handing her flashlight to the red-headed boy who had led her to the hole, Sam took a deep breath. She approached the seemingly entrance to the abyss and carefully lowered herself into it, making sure not to slip on the soft, moving earth that part of the hole was formed from.

Before she went down, Dash stepped forward. "Remember, you have to stay inside for two whole hours. That was the bet."

Growling in annoyance, Sam answered back, "Yeah, I remember just fine."

She then dropped herself in.

The raven-haired teen yelped slightly as she fell fast, momentarily feeling weightless before hitting the ground with a jarring thud. Losing her balance from the fall, she fell backwards into a cardboard box full of electronic equipment, dust flying all around her. 

She was in. Not that she took much comfort in those few words.

Coughing loudly, she attempted to wave some of the dust away from her face. Not that it really made much of a difference. With one glance around herself, she couldn't make out much, but she could clearly see how much dust was caked on top of the box she found herself in, even after she had landed on it. Just her luck. If the rest of the room was in the same state as this box, she was in for a long night of sneezing and coughing. This discovery, however, simply soured her already pretty rotten mood. Could this night not end already?

Pushing herself up and out of the cardboard prison, which took a couple of minutes of struggling, the box nearly winning, Sam finally was ready to receive her flashlight. Plus, she was just generally tired of being stuck in the dark and wanted to finally see her surroundings and what exactly she had just landed herself in.

Calling up the large hole in the side of ceiling, she whisper-yelled, "Hey, you can throw my flashlight down. I'll catch it."

Thankfully, the response to her request was fairly quick, and soon she saw the light coming down to her. Moving forward swiftly, she caught the flashlight deftly in her hands, thankful she had been fast enough and the light source hadn't smashed on the floor beneath her feet. Though, now that she could see, she wasn't sure that it could have smashed against the floor. There had to be a layer of dust at least a couple inches thick coating everything around her. 

Wrinkling her nose in disgust at the discovery, she lifted the flashlight higher to get a glance at her surroundings. In the particular area she was, there seemed to be quite a bit of water damage, probably from the hole, and there were boxes of electronic equipment she didn't recognize all throughout the room. They looked almost exactly like the one she had landed in a few moments before, just with different kinds of equipment inside them. Though, she still didn't recognize any of it. Seriously, what were some of these? 

There were also tables up against the wall that held dusty vials, chemistry sets, labeled bottles and other things things one would normally see in a mad scientist movie. Which wonderfully set the mood. There were even old papers and blue prints of strange contraptions lying around on the floor or covering the walls. The other side of the room was bathed in shadows, but Sam had already seen enough to get an understanding of what was over there anyway. She could have just shone her flashlight over in that direction, but she decided against it. She just wanted to move along.

In short, Sam didn't like this room. All of the test tubes and vials... They just added more dread to the eerie feeling she already felt just being inside the Dead House. Quickly scanning over everything she could see in her half of what she had dubbed the "creepy basement lab," she discovered stairs to her left and quickly raced over to them, leaving footprints in the dust behind her. She raced up the steps, pausing slightly every time they creaked. She winced. If there was anything inside this house, she was giving them a pretty good heads up. Not that there was anything in here... How crazy would that be? Rubbing her arm anxiously, Sam continued up the steps.

Once at the top, she looked up at the door in front of her. Like practically everything else in the room, the door was metal and the handle was right in front of her. In the light of her flashlight, a golden glow shone out through the dust covering the knob's top, glancing against her eyes as it flashed through her vision, making Sam hesitate. Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath as she mentally prepared herself for whatever she was about to find, she lurched forward and yanked the door open. 

The instant she pulled it open, she wanted to jump right back down the stairs and hide inside one of the boxes. Not because she was afraid of what might be lurking behind the door, it was more like the horrible screeches the door emitted as it was pulled from its usual resting place had startled her. Shaking slightly, she tried to close her eyes and take a calm, cleansing breath, but it still didn't help much. The racket the dang piece of metal had made sounded like the screams of the undead, or something. Not a necessarily helpful thing for it to do when she was already a little jumpy before.

Despite the fact that she knew it had unnerved her, she still pretended to play it cool and scoffed at the door, rolling her eyes at it. In her head, she wasn't sure if she was trying to prove to the house that it couldn't scare her, or if she was just trying to reassure herself. Either option wasn't all too great, so she just decided to shove the thoughts away for the moment. She had a house to explore, and besides, she needed to find a suitable way to exit. She certainly wasn't going to be climbing back up that hole. Hopefully she could find and unlock one of the first floor windows. Yeah, that sounded like a safe bet.

Decidedly ignoring the stupid metal rectangle and its desperately-in-need-of-oil joints, she stepped out onto the first floor of the Dead House.

"Here we go." She muttered to herself as she stepped out onto the white tiled floor. It was time to prove that this house was nothing but a fake fraud. There was nothing scary in here, and it shouldn't have any hold over her and her emotions. Nothing was strange here, and nothing was wrong.

Apparently, however, her body didn't receive the memo. As she wandered around and ended up in a kitchen, her heart was beating a mile per second. It was going so fast, that Sam actually began to worry about getting a heart attack. All she knew was the sound of her heart beat thumping in her ears, the deafening sound distracting her and making her head spin. What on earth was making her feel like this? There wasn't anything here besides cooking utensils! There was nothing frightening about cooking utensils! Except how they sometimes resembled disfigured torture devices...

Gulping slightly, she made sure to avoid any of the drawers that might contain something remotely dangerous(who knew what they might contain; there was a science lab in the basement for Pete's sake!) and continued on into the front room. 

As she swung her light around and glanced at everything, she figured it was a living room. There was a couch and a lamp, along with a chair pushed in the corner. Turning around to view everything, she finally noticed the stairs in front of her, along with the front door placed neatly in front of them. So...she was finally back to the front of the building she had been outside of not too long ago. Well, it was a relief to know that she wasn't trapped forever in darkness, or something drastic like that. In fact, now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen anything really strange yet. All that was remotely odd was the lab beneath her feet, but that didn't really mean much of anything. The house could have been owned by a researcher, or something. That wasn't super uncommon.

Basically, so far, so good. The house wasn't scary. Sure, it sent her heart racing for some odd reason she didn't fully comprehend, but that's just how life is. It's incomprehensible. Besides, surely after this trip, she couldn't possibly still be afraid anymore(that is, if she actually ever was, which was never going to admit to)? After all, nothing was happening. She was quite certain she had been inside for a while, and still nothing had happened. 

It was probably just my mind messing with me this entire time... She thought to herself. Sure, her mind had never done anything nearly so elaborate before, but there's a first for everything. Perhaps her brain had merely convinced itself that the Dead House was a scary place? Now that she thought about it, she had pretty much given it plenty of fuel for such a thing. She did stay up late, read gothic books, and watch horror movies. In fact, her brain probably deserved serving out some revenge against her for her transgressions.

Sighing loudly, in both annoyance and relief, she flopped herself down on the couch she had found. She probably had a while more to wait until two hours passed, and she couldn't wait to get out of here. She also didn't really feel like getting up and looking around some more. The place still kinda sent shivers down her spine and the adrenaline she had felt beforehand had worn off and now she just felt tired. Though, she supposed she shouldn't sit for long. Falling asleep in an abandoned house that you weren't supposed to be in didn't really sound like the best of ideas.

Groaning under her breath and rubbing at her eyes, she blinked and fiddled with her flashlight to keep herself awake. That was when she noticed something with a jolt. She had practically jumped on the old cushions of the couch, and yet nothing had happened. But...something was supposed to happen. The basement had been full of dust, to the point where it clouded the air and made her sneeze if she so much as disturbed anything in the room. So...these cushions should have been the same. She should have launched a mini explosion of the dirt specks into the air, but in the light of her flashlight, she couldn't see anything more than the normal amount drifting around, frozen as if by the still and silent atmosphere.

Alarmed by the new discovery, she stiffened in her seat and inspected the room once more with her light, violet eyes scrutinizing every detail. Just as it was with the couch, nothing in the room was caked in dust motes. There were a couple of thin layers here or there on certain things farthest from her, but no where near how bad it had been down below.

What on earth?! Sam's mind definitely wasn't sleepy now. If anything, it was reeling.

How in the world was that possible? That boy had said the Dead House hadn't been touched in years, but if that was true, then who had been cleaning in here? Surely it should be just as dusty as the rest of the lab! This didn't make any sense! The red-haired kid had seemed quite sincere when he had explained things to her, so was it even a possibility that he had lied? Wait, if he had lied, then had he lied about the surveillance cameras, too? Had they set her up?

After she thought about it, the answer was a definite no. Dash and his gang of thugs were no where smart enough to come up with such a conniving plan, and landing her in the juvenile hall just for breaking his nose seemed a bit excessive. Tossing that idea away, it still left her question unanswered. Who had recently been in here?

Before Sam could ponder any further, she heard what sounded like a door slamming closed. Startled, she looked up towards the source of the noise. If she had heard correctly, the sudden sound had come from down a hall she hadn't noticed before. The particular hall sat beside the opening to the kitchen she had recently come from. Well, that was odd. Sam was the only one here, wasn't she? So who had made the noise?

Shivers ran up Sam's spine. What if...she wasn't alone?

Jerking herself from such thoughts, she jumped to her feet. She moved a few steps toward the hall, but then hesitated. Her instincts were screaming at her to turn tail and run, but her impulse stubbornly refused the notion and begged her to go and discover what had caused the ruckus. In short, she was torn in half, and unsure of which side to follow.

In the end, her impulse won. She was really curious about what it was, and besides, it was probably just a rat, or something equally dumb. So far, there wasn't much of anything weird going on, besides the dust, but she could worry about that later. Right now, she had something in need of investigating.

Her heart thumping quickly in her chest and her grip on the light in her hands tightening, Sam did the exact opposite of what one should do in a horror movie. She walked directly towards the source of the mysterious disturbance. 

Walking carefully through the hallway, she found nothing strange. Everything appeared fine, more than fine.

Stupid rats.

Shrugging her shoulders, she turned to the picture frames hanging on the wall. She had gotten up for nothing, so she might as well get something out of her trip, even if it was just the faces of the previous owners. Sadly, however, the pictures were all strangely faded. She couldn't make anything out of any of them. Greatly disappointed, she turned to continue down the hall when--

THUMP!

The goth teen ran into something and fell to the floor, momentum from the rebound tossing her back. Landing heavily against the harsh, unforgiving ground, she knew that was going to hurt later. Which was just great.

Moaning slightly, she sat up and retrieved her flashlight where she dropped it nearby. Rubbing her backside where she had tumbled, she complained under her breath and grumbled at her own clumsiness. Who on earth freaking accidentally ran into a wall, of all things?!

Glancing next to her, she felt an icy wave wash through her and her heart leap in her chest. The walls of either side of the passage were both opposite of her. She...hadn't run into either of them. But, wait! That didn't make any sense! She had run into something! How could she, though, if the hallway had been clear before she looked at the pictures? That is, unless...

Quickly getting up on her knees, she looked to where she had been standing moments before. As her eyes found what they had been searching for, they widened in surprise and shock. 

Before her eyes, sprawled out on the ground in front of her in a position similar to her own, was a boy. He looked around her own age and had shockingly white hair that almost seemed to glow. He was wearing a black hazmat suit with a white belt, collar, gloves, and boots. He was slightly curled into himself, eyes squeezed shut as if he was still in shock from the sudden collision that neither of them had apparently anticipated. As she watched, he curled in a little tighter and let out a soft moan.

Even though Sam was highly confused by his presence, she still felt guilty for running into him. She should have payed better attention to her surroundings! Her brain wasn't so interested in that, though. Instead, it dumped a bunch of questions on her that she didn't even have the answers to. Who was this boy? Why was he in here? Did he come here often? Or was he one of Dash's jocks and here to play a prank on her?

Shoving the questions away for the moment, while also getting rid of the latter one(she was pretty sure she'd remember seeing someone as oddly dressed as him in Dash's group), she crawled forward to the strange boy and spoke in a soft voice. She wasn't sure why, but she felt as if it would be wrong to break the long held silence. Plus, she also just didn't want to startle the teen in front of her.

"Hey, I'm so sorry I ran into you. Are you alright? What are you doing in here?" She asked.

Sadly, despite her obvious efforts, she still startled him. At the sound of her voice, he noticeably jumped, flinching back, and his eyes snapped open in fright. That was when she finally saw his eyes. They were a bright, neon green, so bright, that they were actually glowing in the dark. It seemed impossible to Sam for one to have such crazily shaded eyes, but she supposed they were probably contacts. So, instead of worrying over them, she worried more over the fear they held. 

Why was he so frightened? She wasn't going to do anything to him! She ran into him on accident. She had said she was sorry! Was that not enough?

"It's okay. Don't be afraid, I'm not gonna do anything. Are you alright?" She tried again.

Her only answer was the teen flinching back once more. Then, much to her surprise, he jolted to his feet and lunged to the side as if to get away from her.

"Wait! Don't go! What's your na-" Sam froze, cutting herself off as her mouth failed to finish the sentence.

He disappeared. Not just anywhere, either. He had disappeared through the wall.

Feeling completely numb, she stood up herself and backed away. Her brain couldn't fully process anything it had just seen. Everything felt like it was spinning, and her stomach was beginning to feel nauseous. 

As she finally backed out into the living room, she felt as if everything was too hot and the stale air was suffocating her. Everything was pressing down on her and she couldn't concentrate. She needed fresh air. Now.

Moving to the side of the room, stumbling around different objects, she found where a board was nailed to the wall and managed to pull down the weakened wood. Finally reaching the window underneath, Sam unlocked the latch and heaved it open. Once it was wide enough to fit through, she squeezed through it, one leg at a time.

Then, suddenly, she was outside again and the cool night air soothed her as it gently caressed her hair. Taking deep, gasping breaths to calm herself, she couldn't remember the last time the fresh air had smelled so wonderful.

Had she imagined what she saw? Was it all some cruel prank her mind had decided to play on her? She supposed it was a possibility... But it all had felt too real for that. He was too real for that, and she had run into him.

It all felt like too much. Everything was spinning and whirling inside her brain and she couldn't make it stop. Luckily, she didn't have to.

The violet-eyed teen jumped as her thoughts were broken by approaching footsteps, and it all came rushing back to her. The dare! Had she done it? She couldn't remember how long she had been in there... It would probably be best if she didn't try to remember. She needed to act natural.

Squaring her shoulders, she decided to meet them before they reached her. As she moved forward, however, she stumbled. After her experience in the Dead House, it was almost as if her entire body was in shock. Nothing worked as it should, but that only proved to annoy her.

Forcing the horrid sensation down, she coaxed herself forward and eventually found herself in front of the crowd of boys.

For a moment, neither side spoke. All that was exchanged were long, blank stares that withheld no emotion.

"I saw something in there." Sam whispered out of the blue.

The comment seemed to surprise the boys, and even surprised Sam herself. Why had she divulged that information?

Dash then stepped forward from the crowd, the mocking smirk Sam was starting to loathe smeared all over his face as he looked at her. "Was that why you came out?"

The jeering triumph in his tone almost made her sneer in disgust. "No."

Then, suddenly, Sam knew it was true. She hadn't left in fear of what she had seen. She had left shocked...and with a newly found burning curiosity. She had left in need to confide in someone, to prove that she had in fact seen something in there...or seen someone. And if she had really seen it, then she knew she wouldn't hesitate to go back in.

She wanted to know who that boy was. Why was he in there? Why hadn't he ever left the house? But, perhaps most of all, Sam wanted to know why he had had fear in his eyes. She wasn't going to hurt him, so why had he been afraid? What had happened to place such fear there?

All Sam felt was an undying want-- no --need to understand. Plus, she didn't generally like the idea of someone living alone in fear. She knew plenty what it was like to be lonely, and she didn't really wish it on anyone, not even whoever, or whatever, was inside that house. And, she supposed, she didn't even wish it on Dash.

Speaking of him, Sam returned to the present and grinned. "So, what was my time?"

This, however, proved to be a mistake, as Dash instantly put on such a large mask of smugness that Sam was fairly certain it was dripping off him and into the gutters. "An hour and a half."

Sam couldn't help the scowl that slowly sunk into her face.

She had lost the bet?! Dang it! She should have been paying more attention to the time! Then it dawned on her that she hadn't even brought a watch.

It took all the effort in her body to resist the urge to slam her hand into her face. It hadn't even crossed her mind that she would need one! Ugh! She hadn't even considered it! She had only taken what she thought would be necessary for a two o'clock in the morning excursion. Which was really only her flashlight.

Groaning loudly, her heart plummeting fast in her chest, the Goth teen turned her fierce, threatening glare on the blonde provoking her.

Surprisingly, it worked.

Almost instantaneously, Dash gulped and seemed to suddenly recall that he was messing with the girl that had broken his nose earlier in the day. He also seemed to realize that he was practically alone with that said girl. At night. With only his gang to assist him if there was trouble. And there were no teachers around to save him from her wrath. 

It sobered him quickly.

Of course, he wasn't scared of her. No, that would be silly. Scared of a girl? Him? Never. He was just...wary of how unpredictable she could be.

As his smug appearance all but melted away, he quickly rushed out, "Of course, you didn't run out screaming, and you did manage to stay in for most of the two hours, so we'll let you off easy. You've proven yourself, so we won't tease you of being a coward and anything we saw before yesterday never happened. However, we still get to pick on you sometimes."

Glancing between himself at his friends, who all nodded at him, he nodded once more in affirmation. It was decided.

Sam cocked an eyebrow at them, but sighed under her breath. It would have to do. At least they were mostly going to leave her alone. That was always nice.

She just would have rather had them leave her alone entirely, but not everything always worked in one's favor. At least they wouldn't be teasing her about being a coward anymore.

As her thoughts stewed in her mind, all of a sudden a small yawn escaped her lips. That snapped her back to reality as she realized it was late. She needed rest. She had school tomorrow... Shoot. She had school tomorrow.

Without giving the group in front of her so much as a glance, she turned and made her way back to her house down the street. Once she was a ways away, she heard the other kids behind her making their leave as well.

Shaking her head slightly, she shot one last glance over her shoulder as she came to a stop by her front lawn and her dangling rope. Then she froze, and stared. She couldn't help it. She stood outside, the morning breeze light in the air as she stared across from her, directly at the dark building that stood silent, the odd one out among all the other bright houses next to it.

Nothing was wrong. It had just startled and surprised her to discover that...well, it was gone.

A small, rare smile, one hundred percent genuine, crept up her face as she felt the stirrings in her heart.

The Dead House...didn't scare her anymore. Sure, she hadn't really been afraid of it in the first place, but that feeling that had permeated the air around it and had filled Sam with dread...it was gone. The nervous, skittering feeling that struck her heart, and the icy cold, jolting fear that clawed up her spine and gave her goose bumps...gone. She had felt those feelings since they had moved in practically a month ago and they were just...gone!

Laughter escaped her lips as she couldn't contain the grin that broke out across her face. She was free from it all. Her heart felt light and her insides like they had been turned to jello. Had it really only taken going inside that dang place to rid her of the fear? Perhaps something good had come of that stupid dare!

Glancing once more at the house, she pondered what she felt now. The terrifying dread and electric fear were nonexistent and instead were replaced with confusion and curiosity. She felt the urge to...go back. To return and figure out the truth. Had she really seen...someone? And, that fear...why was it there? She had so many questions, but not enough answers.

Making up her mind, she shot the old building one last smile before climbing up to her room. It was early and she wanted to return to bed for a few more hours while she still could.

Tomorrow, however, she was finding her answers.

She was going to go back inside the Dead House, and nothing was stopping her.

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Hot diggety dog! I had so much freaking fun writing this chapter! XD

Though, I might've slightly gotten carried away writing this, because it was seriously long. Sometimes when you really get into it, you write more then you should. That happened to me...which is also another reason why it took so long to update. ^-^'

Still super sorry about that, guys! But, hey, I hope it was worth the wait! :)

Have a wonderful day/night!

Thank you for reading!

~Doodleroo1234