I was always the quiet kid in my group of friends. I never really spoke up about anything and just normally went with the flow and did what everyone else did. I wouldn’t consider myself a “follower”. I was just quiet and introspective. Just a basic 16-year-old boy who was always curious for adventure, but never went on one. That would change very soon.

     I heard a knock at my door and rushed to go answer and of course it was my best friend, Jake, who was beside himself with excitement and had a wide smile on his face.

“Dak, you won’t believe what’s going to be happening this weekend,” he said excitedly.

I responded with, “What dude? Tell me what it is?”

“Get the crew together because we’re going on a little adventure. Somewhere special.”

     I had no idea what he was talking about, but the smile on his face said it all and I called up the crew immediately. The crew is what we called our circle of friends. It consisted of Me, Jake, my girlfriend Inessa, my brother Dane, and his girlfriend Ashley. When I called them they sounded just as confused and curious as I was, but I had no information to give them as this was all Jake’s idea. When they arrived at my house Jake had us gather in my living room for a meeting.

     “Ok guys, it’s about time we go above and beyond and broaden our horizons .”

“Ummm, what exactly do you mean by that,” asked Inessa in a confused tone.

     Jake continued, “I mean we’re boring and we don’t do anything fun and honestly what I have planned can be fun.”

     We all looked around at each other and shrugged our shoulders.

I said, “Ok Jake what’s your genius idea to make our crew have more fun?”

     With excitement he said, “Well on the other side of town there’s an abandoned house in the middle of the woods that’s rumored to be haunted and anyone who enters that house never comes out.”

     All at once we just laughed at him because that’s just crazy that a house could be haunted and that it could kill people. I mean the idiocrasy behind that whole statement was just too hysterical.

     Dane spoke, “Jake, we love you and everything, but there’s a reason it’s a rumor and that’s because it’s not true.”

“Well then if it’s not true and you all aren’t scared then let’s go stay the night there and prove me wrong,” Jake said with a snickering laugh.

     Ashley said, “Ok fine, we’ll go and stay the night there and call your bluff because there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

     So there we were packing up and gathering supplies for our adventure. We piled into the car and took off. On the way there Jake kept going on and on about the house and on how haunted it is.

“One other detail I forgot to leave out is that there were sacrifices that occurred there, so the spirits of those who died also haunt the woods adjacent to the house.”

     Inessa had enough of this dumb talk and finally said something about it.

“Stop Jake, stop. It’s all so ridiculous that a house can be haunted and that sacrifices happened there. Please stop living in a fantasy world.”

     It took us about 30 minutes to get there, but even when we got there we couldn’t exactly get to the house. We had to park on the side of the road and walk. I was kind of excited about all of this because I’ve always wanted a little adventure and now I was getting it. As we ventured from the car we were literally in the middle of the woods just surrounded by wilderness. The only one of us that showed the most excitement was Jake, who was so anxious to get inside of the house. Now the house was huge. A big two story house with boarded up windows and some wood missing from the roof and the house itself. It did look spooky!

     Jake said, “Well common you chickens, if you’re not scared let’s go inside.”

Slowly, but surely we all made our way inside the pitch dark house, but luckily Jake brought flashlights so that way we could see. I tried using my phone, but had no service. Go figure. It wasn’t just me neither. None of us had service, which was weird, but also scary because what if we needed help.

     Ashley said, “So Jake, what are we going to do now that we are here, I mean it doesn’t seem that haunted to me just really old.”

Dane added on, “Yeah man, why’d you bring us all the way out here?”

     “Simple.”

Jake reached into his backpack and pulled out what looked like a game board, but what turned out to be a Ouija board!

     I exclaimed, “Why do you have that, there’s no reason for us to be messing with that thing!”

He zoned all of us out for a solid 5 minutes as he lit candles around us in a circle and with both his hands motioned us to come into the circle and sit down. Nervously we all sat down and I could see the terror in everyone’s eyes as we joined hands. Then all of a sudden Jake started speaking an unknown language and the room started to get really hot and my whole body was sweating heavily. His voice became louder and louder. Then the candles around us started going out one by one and all of a sudden it went pitch dark and Inessa and Ashley screamed in fear. Out of nowhere the candles all lit back up every single one of them, but Jake’s head was down and we tried getting his attention.

     “Jake wake up this isn’t funny quit playing around and let’s go we need to get out of here,” I screamed in fear.

Then Jake’s head picked up and twisted all the way around and you could hear the crackling in his neck as if it was breaking. But the worse part was his eyes. They were blood shot red and it was like staring death in the eyes. I tried not to look, but it was hard not to. When Jake spoke it wasn’t Jake any longer.

     “You all have unleashed evil and I shall see it that all of you should perish while in my presence.”

Crying in the corner were Inessa and Ashley frozen in fear. I sat there for a moment not knowing what to do just trying to process on what was happening. Dane tried to approach Jake.

     “Jake, it’s me, Dane, your best friend please do us all a favor and wake up and come back to us.”

“Jake is gone forever, it’s time for the devil to take his next victims.”

Then Jake leaped on Dane and started tearing and biting his neck and blood started spurting everywhere. I couldn’t hesitate. I had to help him out. I tried pulling Jake off of Dane, but a simple swat of Jake’s hand sent me smashing into the wall.

      Jake spoke in his evil voice,” I’ll be back for the rest of you! And you all will experience a slow painful death.”

He sprinted off on all fours very quickly and as I sat there in fear and sadness I had to gather myself together because I knew I still had my girlfriend and Ashley to save.

     “Inessa and Ashley, please stick with me right now, we have to work together if we want to get out of here.”

Inessa said, “Maybe we should just get the car keys and get out of here.”

Ashley went searching around for them in panic mode.

     “I can’t take this anymore I want to go home already.” Ashley said with a quiver in her voice.

“Ashley, calm down we all want to go home, but you freaking out is not going to help the situation.”

   But then I remembered that Jake had the car keys with him in his pocket.

“Jake has the car keys with him which means….”

    Ashley interrupted me, “Which means we have to go find him. Jake here I come!!”

Inessa and I screamed at her as she went sprinting off into the hallways of the house, “ASHLEY NO!!!!!!”

     But it was too late. She had found what she was looking for. Jake had her by the neck and with no hesitation snapped her neck. Then he flung himself towards Inessa and I and scratched me on my stomach and as I went rolling to the floor in pain and at the same time he took Inessa away.

“Dak, help me!!”

  “Inessa I’m coming!”

My cuts were deep and I was barely able to stand up and walk, but my motivation to find Inessa and to get us out of here alive was still on my mind. I searched room by room and couldn’t find anything. I started to wonder if she was already dead and he was coming for me next and I just didn’t know it yet.

“DAK!!”

The scream of hope. There was a chance that she was still alive and I had to get to her.

“Inessa keep screaming so I can find you.” I shouted.

“Dak I want to go home. Please help me.” She said with a weakening voice.

The fear in her voice was over bearing and I couldn’t let her die. I found the room she was in, but there was only one problem. She was tied up to a chair with the pentagram symbol underneath her and lit candles all around.

“Please help me…..please!” She begged.

“I’m coming babe!”

But as soon as I took a couple steps inside the room the heat inside the room erupted and the symbol underneath Inessa burst into flames. She was shrieking in pain as she was being burned alive. It only took a few seconds, but it felt like minutes and all I could manage to do was to close the door behind me and weep for my dying girlfriend. In one night my girlfriend, brother, and his girlfriend were killed and one of them is the devil. And now I’m going to die next. My whole life was flashing in front of me as I slowly got up and walked downstairs. The only way out was the front door. That moment I heard a fearful voice coming from behind me.

“Dak, your next. I’m coming for you.” Jake said in a sinister way.

Even as I tried to limp faster the voice moved closer and closer coming from all directions. My head was in a whirlwind and I couldn’t think straight. I felt like passing out. I saw the door in my sights only a few feet away, but before I could reach for the doorknob I felt a sharp pain penetrate my stomach and blood started filling and spilling out of my mouth as I crumpled to the floor. Then a voice whispered in my ear.

“Darkness will rise again and evil will take over!!”