A/N: Hello! Well I had to write this piece for my creative writing class. Its already been turned in and crap I just have to edit the story to make it better based on my teacher's notes and stuff. I really hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Its my baby lol. I actually based this story off of a dream that I had one night...hehe. Please review and tell me what you think.

Torturous screams pierced at my ears, my mind, and most of all my heart as I sat, huddled in the dark corner of what seemed like an old study. My conscience and the human part of me fought between whether I should stay safely in my shadowed corner pounding my head against the cold damp stone wall, or if I should help my foolish friends.

They should have listened. I tried to tell them, pleaded and pleaded with my heart on my sleeve, but they shunned me, dismissed my pleas as weak mindless superstitions with not enough back story to consider it truth.

And now, I know, I just know that they are wishing that they would have listened to me. I could only imagine the terrors that they were facing, limbs being ripped from their body, flesh torn and scratched up as if it was as thin as paper, but then again maybe not. Hopefully my imagination was a little too broad, but I could never be sure.

I didn’t even know what the creatures looked like. There were so many different stories, so many theories to consider that the creatures that may have started out as tall pale things with sharp claws, long tresses, and heighten senses were now reduced to the size of baby rabbits and marred with dark deformed features, jagged teeth, and bald heads. Oh but one thing was for certain, regardless of how they looked, the creatures were vicious and not to be toyed with.

It’s not like my friends didn’t already know the stories. Our entire neighborhood knew of them, but the older the stories became, the less and less people believed that they were true, and that was strictly the case when it came to the teenagers that I hung out with.

The only ones in our small community that took the myths seriously were now old and cripple, some senile, that including my grandfather who claimed that he had encountered the demons in the woods as a child. They barely believe him then, and they definitely didn’t believe him in this present day.

I believed him though. I knew that he was telling the truth. The fear in his eyes as he recounted the events of his past was always enough proof for me and that’s exactly why when my friends told me that they wanted to explore the ancient abandoned church hidden deep within the woods one night, I instantly replied that I wasn’t going with them.

Jace, Eddie, Jullian, Avery, Sierra, and Jenna all went on and on about how much fun it would be for us to go to the spooky church at night, but I never saw anything fun about it. It was dangerous and anything could go wrong with a group of naïve teenagers exploring an abandoned church in the middle of the woods at night. You’ve seen the movies. They pushed and pushed for me to join them and eventually I agreed, but if and only if we returned before midnight.

You see, even though there were plenty of different versions of the stories about the creatures, there were a couple of things that were always the same. First, the things were nocturnal, and only came out after midnight just for the purpose of finding food for themselves and their offspring. Second, the creatures were described as being very territorial and the woods were their territory, so anyone found on their grounds were automatically attacked. We were always told that if we were ever caught in the woods after midnight to be very quiet so they wouldn’t even know we were there.

Anyone could see the reason behind my resistance, but I trekked along anyway as they picked and teased about my fears. I probably would have picked on me too. I could feel my eyes bulging out of my sockets as if trying to escape my head the entire trip and I was paranoid to the point that when Jenna stepped on a large twig I nearly shitted myself.

When we got to the church it was 11:35. Just one glance at the building before me made the entire situation worse, effectively making everything in my stomach curl over in gassy nervousness. The church was made completely of stone, and stood high as if it was connected with the sky above. There was a gargoyle perched at the very top, staring down at us with a toothy grin, as if to mock us. My eyes lingered on him for a moment before I forced them to look in front of me.

Before we walked in, I made them promise that we would leave before it was too late, after all that was the original agreement. They yea, whatever-ed me and quickly walked into the church giving me no choice but to follow.

Once we were in the church we explored the different rooms together, marveling the size of it all, eventually making our way towards the sanctuary. I was time conscious the entire time, and the more time they wasted the closer it came to being midnight. I complained and argued that we needed to leave as soon as possible, but I was ignored.

While Eddie and Jace chose to stay in one of the rooms in the back, we wondered throughout the sanctuary. We kicked around debris, sat in broken chairs, pretended we were priests, all the while somewhat excited that we were in the church in the first place. That’s when Jullian chose to be an ass.

He noticed a family of spiders, all about the size of a nickel, that made their home in the corner of a window. I guess he thought it was necessary to terrorize one of the girls, so he picked up one of them and threw it at Jenna. She began screaming and cursing, immediately picking up the closet item and throwing it. That initiated a war between them, eventually pulling in everyone else in the room. They carried out their war, shouting and running around grabbing the innocent insects and flinging them at each other.

That’s when we heard a loud screeching, screeching so loud that it pierced our eardrums like small pinpoint needles, but just as soon as it began, it stopped.

Everyone was frozen solid, scared out of our minds as we exchanged glances of fear and uncertainty.

Something told me to just glance down at my watch and when I did my heart almost stopped. It was 12:15. I immediately knew the source of the chaos.

All I could do was freak out. “We should have stayed home.” I said. “I never should have listened to you guys.” I ranted. I could tell that they agreed, but somehow agreeing with me was like a sin to them. It was against the rules to do it.

They went on about how it was probably nothing, and that I should chill out, but I couldn’t. We were in danger. As they slowly began their games once again, I rambled on and on about how one, we shouldn’t be making noise, and two, we should be trying to get home. The more I pleaded with them, the more annoyed they became until they all gained up on me, whining about how much my stupid myths got on their nerves to the point that they wanted to strangle me.

When we heard the screeching again, I made up my mind that I wasn’t sticking around any longer, so I announced my decision to depart, and began walking away, Sierra being the only one to follow. My friends shrugged us off, but for a moment there was silence as if they were rethinking what they were about to do. Soon enough though, they began playing again, yelling and screaming as they threw things at each other. I shook my head at them as I walked, but as soon as a loud crashing sound echoed throughout the surrounding space, my simple strut turned into a run for my life and those playful screams they had once emitted from their throats turned into something completely different…something made up of sheer terror.

And now, as we sat quietly in our little place of refuge, I wished that I would have just stayed home in the first place and that I wouldn’t have to witness any of this. I wouldn’t have to try to shield their screams from my ears. I glanced over at Sierra, the only one smart enough to follow me to safety, observed how the poor child shook like a vibrating toothbrush, noticed how fear slid off of her like melted butter. She sat in fetal position, rocking back and forth, never once removing her eyes from me. I could hear everything she was saying without her ever opening her mouth.

What were we going to do? Were we next? Were we ever going to get home safely, and if so were our friends going to be there with us?

I couldn’t focus on her. I didn’t have the answers. Instead I curled up tighter and tried to tune out as much as possible. Eventually the noise stopped, and I was pretty sure that my friends were dead.

Despite being scared, Sierra suggested that we peek out of the door to see if the coast was clear and if we could make a run for it. There was no need for us to stay if there was a chance that we could escape.

So, realizing that she was right, I got up, pulling her to her feet as well.

My heart pounded so hard that I expected it to burst out of my chest at any second. Placing my hand on the door handle, I took a deep breath and took one last look at Sierra who in turn gave me a nod of encouragement.

I slowly pulled the door open and was instantly greeted with a loud “Surprise!”

Yes, that’s right. It was all a big joke. Everyone laugh and explained how they had planned it the day before and that Eddie and Jace had been outside making the screeching noises the entire time.

I had no choice but to smile and congratulate them on a job well done because I had truly been scared. Trying my best to cover the pee stain on the front of my jeans in order to prevent further torture, I followed them out of the church to meet Eddie and Jace so that we could leave.

When we were on the outside, Jullian called out to them, but there wasn’t anything but the light rustle of the tree leaves as the wind blew past. Once again their names were called, but there was still no answer.

Jenna confirmed that they should have been outside, but volunteered to go back into the church to see if they were inside. The rest of us walked around searching for them, calling out their names, though fully aware that this could be just another trick.

I chose to check around the back, but as I peeked around the side of the church, I noticed a sneaker lying on the ground beside a huge bush. It looked exactly like the shoe that Jace had been wearing earlier, but what would he be doing with just one shoe on?

As I bent down to pick the shoe up, something caught my attention out the side of my eye.

Beyond the bush, quite hidden actually, was a mangled body. The legs were missing, as well as the skin on its face and fresh blood soaked its familiar clothing as well as painted the wall above in light splatters. The sight of it was disgusting, disturbing even, yet I couldn’t take my eyes away. Jace was dead.

I opened my mouth to scream, make some type of noise, but the screeching noise behind me beat me to it.