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“Don’t go into the house down by the river.” It was advice everyone had heard by now. Children said it was because the house was haunted by some evil spirit, or by a vampire, or an old woman who would eat you if she found you, and adults just knew the house was condemned and didn’t want their children getting hurt. And with the children too afraid to enter, and the adults possessing too much common sense to do so, that left only one group who would actually dare to explore there: idiotic teens with too much free time and no sense of self-preservation.
Mari Ohara and Kanan Mastuura fit this description to a T, and while Dia Kurosawa had voiced her objections loudly and repeatedly she found herself getting dragged along all the same. Perhaps it was because she felt some sense of responsibility, felt that if her friends were going to do something dangerous she should at least be there to keep an eye on them, or maybe it was just because she didn’t want to be seen as a coward. Either way, she had been roped into this adventure, and now the trio were making their way towards the tall mesh fence that surrounded the building, plastered with several “DO NOT ENTER” signs, along with the logo of whatever construction company was supposedly eventually going to be making renovations- or at least, had said they were going to for the past ten years by now. Personally Dia had always felt that having the site managed by a construction company really undercut the whole “spooky haunted house” atmosphere, and had said as much many times over. More so, she was just worried about Mari falling through a floorboard or Kanan cracking her head open on a busted stair.
“Spooooooky, isn’t it?” Mari hummed, one arm linked with Dia’s as she approached, the other linked with Kanan’s. Mari and Kanan were both holding flashlights, though they were off at the moment. The moonlight was bright enough to see where they were going, and they hadn’t wanted to attract too much attention when they weren’t even supposed to be here.
“Yes,” Dia replied, “building code violations are rather spooky. And they’ll be even more spooky when a rafter falls and kills us all.”
“This house has been standing empty for twenty years and it hasn’t collapsed yet,” Kanan cut in. “If it happens to finally kick it when we’re in there I think that’s a sign we deserve it.”
“Mhmm!” Mari agreed. “Cosmic punishment for our many sins, or something like that.”
“For your many sins,” Dia replied. “I’ve done nothing wrong in my entire life.”
“The fireworks festival our second year of middle school,” Mari said, and Dia bristled at the mention of that. “You think I’ve forgotten about that? About how much you made Ruby-chan cry?”
“That’s not-” Dia started to protest, but before she could get another word in Kanan was yanking them all forward, and Mari was following suit.
“C’mon, around this way,” she said. “I scoped this place out before and the fence is all jacked up in the back. We should be able to get in from there, no problem.”
“Fantastic,” Dia chided. “You did your research.”
“You’d rather go in blind?” Kanan asked, and Dia didn’t have a response, so she simply fell silent as they walked to the back of the house. It didn’t take long to find the gap in the fence Kanan had been talking about; it was so massive that Dia had to wonder how someone hadn’t done something about it by this point. They didn’t even really have to wiggle or squeeze their way through to get to the other side. They more or less just walked through, and then they were standing on the inside of the condemned lot, staring up at the decaying old manor towering in front of them.
“Alright,” Kanan said, finally breaking away from the other two and walking towards the building, twirling her flashlight as she went. “What do you say? Right in through the front door?”
“That’s really your plan?” Dia asked, scrambling to chase after Kanan, while Mari followed along behind.
“Yeah?” Kanan replied. “What, were you thinking we were gonna sneak in through the back? It’s not like someone’s gonna be in there waiting for us.”
“Nobody alive, anyway,” Mari added on, and Dia shot her a glare over her shoulder.
“Don’t say things like that.”
“Why not?” I asked. “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts, Dia.”
“I don’t!” Dia insisted. “But still. It’s just… Don’t tempt fate.”
“So you don’t believe in ghosts,” Kanan said. “But you’re worried we’re gonna will one into existence somehow by joking about them. Makes sense.”
“As if you don’t have your own unreasonable paranoias,” Dia muttered under her breath, while they finally came up to the front door of the house. Kanan stepped forward first, reaching out to grab the doorknob, and perhaps to her surprise it twisted right open, not locked or blocked at all. The door’s hinges were a little sticky, and they creaked as the door slowly swung open, but just a moment later the trio found themselves staring into the dark interior of the house.
“Alright,” Kanan said. “Flashlights on.”
“Flashlights on!” Mari repeated, and just as she said that she and Kanan both shone their flashlights into the house, two strong beams of light suddenly illuminating the previously black space. Even before stepping inside it was easy enough to tell that the inside of the house was in just as much of a state of disrepair as the outside. The floor looked like it was partly rotted away, the furniture inside the foyer was covered in a thick layer of dust, the chandelier that had once, presumably, been hanging over the entryway had already collapsed and was now sitting in several broken pieces just a few feet in front of them. Dia was quite thankful this particular accident-waiting-to-happen had already gotten itself out of the way.
“Be careful,” Kanan said as she took the first step forward, floorboards immediately creaking underfoot as she did so. Dia tensed at the sound, but she said nothing this time. Still, she seemed frozen in the doorway, and upon realizing she wasn’t going to be going anywhere Mari took another step forward, glancing over at her.
“You can wait outside if you want, Dia,” she teased. “I’m sure you won’t miss out any super fun adventures that make Kanan and I closer as friends.”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Dia huffed, following Mari into the house, though it was clear she was reluctant as she did so.
Kanan had only taken a few more steps inside before she stopped, looking around the space and shining her flashlight in every direction to take stock of her surroundings. There were a few doors leading off into other parts of the house, as well as a dilapidated staircase leading up towards the second floor. Dust and cobwebs seemed to cover every inch of every surface, and in addition to the decaying floorboards the walls didn’t seem to be doing much better, wallpaper peeling away in some spots, boards completely rotted away to expose the support beams and the wiring in others.
“Looks like shit in here,” Kanan grunted.
“Smells like shit too,” Mari added on, reaching up a hand to cover her nose and mouth as she stepped up alongside Kanan.
“You’re the ones that wanted so desperately to come here in the first place,” Dia reminded them, like the uptight pain the ass she always was. “We could just turn around and leave, right now.”
“Nope!” Mari said, reaching out to grab Dia’s arm before she had the chance to turn and book it out of there. “We’re in here now, so we’re in here for the long haul! Where to first, Kanan?” Kanan was still looking around as Mari asked that, but after a few seconds she pointed her flashlight towards the staircase sitting at the edge of the room.
“Let’s head up this way,” she said. “That’s probably where the bedrooms are, and I bet we’re gonna find some freaky, fucked up shit in there.”
“And that’s something you want to see?” Dia asked.
“Ooh, ooh, maybe somebody died in their bed and they just left the body there!” Mari suggested. “That would be cool, right?”
“It would not.” Despite any continued attempts at protest Kanan was already walking towards the stairs, with Mari following along, and after a few more seconds it seemed like Dia was giving into peer pressure and following them along as well. Kanan stopped at the bottom of the staircase, cautiously raising a foot and pushing it down against the first step, checking to make sure it was sturdy enough before she put any more of her weight onto it. Content that it wasn’t going to give out underneath her, however, she moved up a step, and then checked the next one, and the next one after that. Dia was thankful for that level of caution, at least, and it made her feel a little better- though only a little.
As Kanan reached the top of the staircase she looked down towards the doors that lined either side of the hallway, shining her flashlight down to get a better look at them. The air inside the house was so dusty that the beam of light could be seen cutting through the air clearly, and Dia found herself wondering if they should have brought masks to protect their lungs.
“This is looking an awful lot like bedrooms,” Mari commented, marching ahead of the rest of the group, towards the closest door, before she stopped next to it to gesture dramatically. “Wanna check it out?”
“What are we even looking for?” Dia asked, causing Kanan to shrug her shoulders.
“I dunno, spooky shit. Corpses or signs of a ghost or something. Or like, a giant pentagram painted on the floor. Anything other than dust and ugly furniture.”
“You mean something like this?” Mari gasped, swinging the door open and waving her flashlight into the room beyond. It would have been a very impressive reveal, had there actually been anything in there. Instead, they just found yet another ordinary room- a bedroom, by the looks of it, with an armoire standing in the corner, and a nondescript bed in the middle of the room with sheets that looked like they had been eaten through by moths and mice and whatever else over the years. Certainly not the dead body Mari had been hoping for. Still, Kanan seemed interested enough, walking inside the room and shining her flashlight into every corner, as if there might have been something spooky they just hadn’t noticed yet. Dia hesitated by the doorway, but after a second followed after Kanan, staying close to her side.
“You see?” Dia insisted. “There’s nothing interesting here. We’re just walking through a run down, shitty, abandoned house right now. There aren’t any ghosts or witches or whatever else you’ve made up in your mind, so we’re just wasting our time here.”
“Then you’re welcome to leave whenever you want, Dia,” Kanan chided, walking over towards the armoire and reaching out to grab the handle. She opened it, but rather than a monster jumping out, or a skeleton falling onto her, it was just row upon row of clothes hung up next to each other, all looking to be in just as bad a state as the sheets on the bed.
“I’m just saying,” Dia insisted, “there’s no reason for us to be here in the first place. This building is dangerous, and there’s nothing to show for it. I don’t get why you two were so adamant about this in the first place.”
“Because it’s fun,” Kanan replied. “You know that little thing, fun? You ever heard of it? It wouldn’t kill you to try to have some for once.”
“I’m perfectly capable of having fun,” Dia huffed, turning her nose up at the thought. “My idea of fun just doesn’t involve sneaking into decaying buildings to get a big old lungful of dust and mildew.”
“Yeah, of course not,” Kanan agreed. “It includes like, reading history books, or filing your taxes or something.”
“I’m seventeen. I don’t pay taxes.”
“You and Mari both, though I think it’s more of a family tradition in her case,” Kanan said, before pausing for a moment and looking back over her shoulder. “Mari?” She called the name out again, but there was no answer. And as Dia looked back over her shoulder she saw the same thing that Kanan was seeing- or rather, wasn’t seeing. Mari wasn’t there.
Dia shuddered when she saw that, and suddenly her heart was beating just a little bit faster. She looked back to Kanan, though Kanan’s expression still carried that same unfeeling coldness I’d always hated. “She’s probably just hiding somewhere to scare us,” she said.
“Y-Yeah, you’re right,” Dia replied, though she hardly seemed convinced. “Mari,” she called out, turning back to the door as she spoke. “If you’re about to jump out and shout at me, I don’t appreciate it.” Another pause, but still no response. Dia’s brows furrowed further, and it was hard to tell whether she was worried or angry. She started to take steps towards the door, slowly, while Kanan remained right at her side, following along with her. Dia’s heart was beating faster, and it should have been, it should have been.
“Mari!” she called out again. “I’m serious, this isn’t funny!” Still no response, though, and with each step closer to the doorway that gnawing sense of dread in the pit of Dia’s stomach was growing stronger and stronger. Her hands were shaking, she realized, and she was thankful that Kanan was holding the flashlight. “If you jump out at me I’m going to be very angry! Just come out and stop this!” But just like before, there was no response. Dia’s stomach was twisting itself in knots, until she felt like she was going to double over and puke right there, and by the time she reached the doorway her feet were growing heavy, like she didn’t want to take another step forward. Finally, though, she rounded the corner into the hallway where she had last seen Mari, and
“BOO!” Dia yelped as she heard that noise, staggering backwards as Mari came jumping out from around the corner, so dramatically that she went crashing into Kanan right behind her. Dia’s heart jumped out of her chest, adrenaline spiking through her entire body while her knees very nearly gave out from underneath her. Kanan halfway caught her, at least making sure Dia didn’t collapse completely, but she was already starting to laugh, and Mari was also bursting into laughter as well. It took Dia a moment to recompose herself after that, but when she did she was suddenly lurching forward, eyebrows creasing down, nostrils flared out.
“That’s not funny!” she snapped, raising her irritating voice up louder than any of them had raised their voices the entire time they had been there.
“I dunno,” Kanan snickered from behind her. “Your reaction was pretty good.”
“I told you not to do that!” Dia snapped. “I specifically told you I didn’t appreciate it, and you did it anyway!”
“Relax, Dia,” Mari said, waving her hand dismissively, before her grin stretched wider. “It’s joke!”
“It’s not a joke,” Dia seethed. “It was shitty. I’m leaving,” she abruptly decided, reaching out towards Mari to grab her flashlight. “Give me that.”
“No!” Mari replied, raising the flashlight up to hold it out of Dia’s reach. “I need it.”
“You have two! Just give me one of them!” Dia insisted, jumping forward to try to grab it.
“Nope!” Mari repeated.
“Give it to me!”
“Dia-” Kanan tried to interject, but Dia wasn’t paying attention to her by this point.
“Hand it over so I can leave!” she shouted, grabbing at Mari, trying to wrestle it away from her.
“Hey, hey! Stop pushing me!”
“Then give me the flashlight!”
“DIA!” Kanan shouted, but the warning she was about to give came just a moment too late. As Dia grabbed at Mari and pushed against her, still trying to pry the flashlight loose, Mari stumbled backward one step, and then another, until she was just at the edge of the balcony. And then, with another step, with another push from Dia, her footing was slipping, and the railing was creaking, and she and I was falling backward.
I saw the horror on their faces as the rotted banister split against my back and I felt my stomach dropping as I slipped from the second story, and then I was falling and falling and the ground didn’t stop me, it just splintered too when I hit it and I kept falling until I hit the stones in the basement and I felt myself crack. And I could see them, I could still see them standing there like I was staring through the hole in the ceiling above me before I realized it wasn’t a hole and my vision was going dark, and they stared, and they must have thought I was dead but I wasn’t dead, not yet. And they watched, and I tried to move and I tried to shout and I tried to scream but I couldn’t, I couldn’t, and it just kept getting darker, and the last thing I saw was that they ran, they fucking ran, and they didn't look back. And they ran all the way back to their homes, I'm sure, and they swore to never tell anyone, and they pretended to be clueless when people searched for me, and they cried at my funeral, and they tried to live their lives forgetting it had ever happened. And they made their promises, their shitty little promises to each other, that they would never go back to this house, and that they would take this secret to their grave, and one of those is a promise I'll let them keep.