June, 1996

I was dared by Dillan to go into the abandoned haunted house overnight. I told him I'd only go if he came with me. My plan was to leave about an hour in and lock the front door. To prepare I told my parents I was going to Dillan’s house for a sleepover; he told his parents he was going to my house. Instead we met at the haunted house at 10. He told me I could back down now and he wouldn't tell anyone. I told him he was just scared.

 We went into the house after debating about him being scared for a while, but when we stepped away from the door it slammed shut! We looked at each other skeptically, trying to figure out if the other had planned this. I walked up to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. I tried and tried to open the door but it was no use. Dillan told me we should move on, we were going to have to find another way out if we wanted to leave. We started searching the walls for a window or hatch, but the only things we saw were tacky halloween decorations. No wonder this place went out of business. Dillan found a closet door, but when he opened it a cardboard cutout of a zombie popped out. Clearly whoever abandoned this place didn't want the decorations. 

 However, the farther we went into the house, the scarier the decor became. It wasn't just cardboard cutouts and spooky paintings- we started hearing sounds, the eyes of the paintings started following us, and there were piles of fake human limbs and bowls of plastic eyes. At one point we found a skeleton that looked just a little too real. The rooms smelled mustier, the blood looked less fake by the room, and there was a smell of death in the halls. But finally, after an hour of searching, we found a window. When I tried to open it, it was unlocked. Halfway through climbing out the window we heard a primal screech from a couple rooms over. There was something there and it didn't like us trying to leave. Frantically, I scrambled the rest of the way through the open window, hitting some bushes when I hit the ground.

 When I looked back, the window had been shut, like it hadn't been opened in years. I saw Dillan banging on the window and then heard him scream. But that was the last time I saw him. I called my parents and they rushed over as fast as they could. At first they scolded me about why I was out at 12 o’clock at night, but after a while they realized I looked scared. They asked me what happened and I told them about how Dillan and I snuck out, how we went into the house, and how he didn't come back out. After I told them what happened they asked me why I would do it, and I told them It seemed like a good idea at the time.