Author's Note: Based on a true event that took place when I was eight years old. Of course, over time I'm sure things became exagerated and skewed in my mind. But this is as I remember it.

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The house was red. I often thought it looked as though it had been painted in dried blood. It was small. It consisted of a parlor, a kitchen, a dining area, one bathroom, and one tiny bedroom with a bungalow above. I also thought the house was haunted. To my knowledge no one had ever lived in it. Also, in the field behind the house dandelions grew wild and plentiful, but never once did I see one of those yellow flowers sprout up in the yard of that house. In general, the place just gave me a bad feeling.

I was eight then, and my best friends were two girls named Regina and Tiffany who were both in one grade lower than myself. Tiffany's parents were extremely strict and Regina didn't like being at home so we usually spent our time at my house where we weren't constantly being monitored. Mainly we spent our time on the swing set in my backyard and fighting over who got the pink cup. The back of my yard wasn't fenced in, nor was the back of the yard of the red house and I could see the back sliding glass door from my swing.

Tiffany had an older brother named Josh, who was my age, and he had two friends named Keith and Andrew; Keith was in my class at school. I don't remember exactly what happened but Regina and Tiffany were talking between themselves when I noticed the three boys making their way from Autumn Harvest Drive through the field directly towards us. My friends noticed them and I could see they, too, were wondering what the boys were up to as they made their way to us.

I think it was Keith who suggested that they were going to break into the house to see if it was really haunted, but I can't tell you for sure. I had sworn to these people a hundred times up and down that the house was haunted, I could see the house from my bedroom window and I swear I saw a light in the bungalow window one night, which hadn't happened too long before this day. I suppose Tiffany probably told Josh about it. I never knew for sure.

They invited us to go with them, most likely because I was the one who insisted the house was haunted. Tiffany agreed right away, I suppose because Josh rarely wanted anything to do with his little sister, but Regina and I were more reluctant. Eventually we both gave in. After all, I was curious what was in that house.

Keith had a metal stick of some sort, but I don't believe it was a crow bar. He pried open the sliding glass door just enough to squeeze through and we all went in. I felt sick as soon as I stepped into that structure. I wanted nothing more than to get out, but I still wanted to know if there were really any ghosts in there, which is why I continued on I suppose. The house was completely barren. It felt as if nothing had ever lived there, nothing alive, anyway. The walls needed to be replastered and the house was actually rotting away in some places. It stank in that place.

Nothing seemed to be too out of the ordinary except for the feeling I got from the house, not until we got to the bungalow stairs. The was no railing to the top, but it wasn't really that high up and the stairs as well as the floor below were covered in rotting carpet, so we didn't think we were in any danger. The boys were in the kitchen at this time, so it was just Regina, Tiffany, and myself who were climbing up those stairs. I was first, with Regina cowering behind me and Tiffany behind her. They thought I was brave. I suppose I was, when there were other people around to see, but if I were by myself I never would have ventured within fifty feet of that horrid place.

Then, out of nowhere, I felt the weight on my shoulders lift. I turned around and saw Regina lying on the dirty beige carpet, saying something about being pushed. That was all Tiffany needed. She ran down the stairs and towards the back door. That was when I felt something from the bungalow. I never saw any ghosts in that house but I definitely was a believer now. I ran down those stairs after Tiffany, helped Regina to her feet quickly, and, hand in hand, we ran for our lives to that back bedroom and out that little door. We couldn't get out fast enough.

The three of us stood huddled together where the field met the yard waiting for the boys to return. We must've been standing out there ten minutes; long enough to arouse a neighbor's suspicions. We finally saw the boys through the door, but before they left we saw Andrew seem to fly across the room and crash into the closet door. Now, I'm pretty sure the boys were just playing with us and playing on my belief that it was haunted, but it certainly scared me then. We took off for my house, the three of us. The hell with Keith, Josh, and Andrew; we wanted to save ourselves.

After a few minutes we went back after listening to Tiffany whine about what her parents would do to her if Josh wasn't okay. We just agreed to look in the window to see if they were still alive. We got there about the same time as the cop did. He took a look at the metal rod lying next to the open door and glanced at we three little girls with an amused look. He didn't have to say anything, we all took off towards my house, but didn't go in because we didn't want the cop to think any of us lived there out of fear of him talking to my parents. We didn't say much. We waited about an hour on the corner of Christian Circle and Christian Court when Tiffany went home. Regina lived on the other side of Autumn Harvest and was afraid to walk through the field by herself so I walked her through my backyard and watched her go through the field. I felt like something was watching me as I watched Regina. I waited till she got to the other side of the road before I glanced up at the red house. I don't know what it was, but I felt something coming from the window of that house. And to tell you the truth, I never felt completely safe being alone in my yard again.