Hey guys! This is a story I had to write for my Language Arts class. We were writing horror stories and this is what I came up with. Enjoy~!

"Matt? Are you sure we're going the right way?" Dale asked me.

"I could've sworn I went this way last time!" I was currently trying a restaurant I had stumbled upon last week when I had gotten lost.

"But we've been driving for hours!"

"I know, I know. Hey, Jeff's been awfully quiet back there. What's he up to?"

"He's sleeping…On my shoulder…"

I glanced in the rear-view mirror. The sight of Jeff drooling on Dale's shoulder and Dale's pouty face was hard not to laugh at.

"Don't laugh. It's not funny," Dale said, his frown growing.

"Oh, come on," I said, secretly getting my phone out. "Smile!"

Dale rolled his eyes and made a goofy face. I quickly turned around and snapped a picture with my phone, making sure to take another of his puzzled face. I turned back around, laughing.

I took Dale a couple seconds to figure out what I'd done. "Hey! Not cool, man!"

"It was totally cool!" I smirked. "I'm gonna send these to everyone in my contact list!"

"You better not!"

"Man, this is great bribery material!"

He moaned. "I hate yoooooooou…"

I heard a yawn and looked in the mirror. Jeff was sitting up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His blonde hair was sticking in every direction. Dale and I must've woken him up in all the excitement. "Hey Jeff, nice of you to join the land of the living. Nice hair."

"Thanks," he said sleepily. He glanced out the window. "Are we almost there? I'm hungry."

"We're lost," Dale told him, glaring at me. "I told you we should've gone to McDonalds or something."

"Quiet, Dale. This place has the best food I've ever tasted! Better than-Hey! I remember that road! I think it's a short cut!" I turned onto the road.

"No," Dale said firmly. "We are not taking any 'short cuts'. Remember what happened last time?"

"Um…Not really…" Jeff said.

"We ended up in a lake! How could you forget that?!"

"Oh yeah…" Jeff giggled at the memory.

"It wasn't funny! We almost drowned!"

"But we knew how to swim…"

Dale rolled his eyes. "You're hopeless, Jeff."

"Lighten up, Dale! I think we should take the shortcut!"

"See, Jeff thinks it's a good idea! It's two against one. Sorry, buddy," I said.

"Yeah! If it'll get me food faster, I'm in!" Jeff grinned.

Dale crossed his arms, giving up. "I still think it's a bad idea…"

"Whatever." I kept driving. "Hey, where'd this fog come from? It was just perfectly clear a few minutes ago."

"Man," Jeff added. "This road sure is straight! And there's no other people!"

Dark and gloomy, the woods surrounded the road and each side. Dale stared into them, an uncertain look on his face. "Guys? I really think we should turn back. I feel like we shouldn't be here…"

"Relax, will ya'?" I told him. "We'll be fine."

Jeff shivered. "How come it's so cold all of a sudden? It was just warm a second ago!" He scooted closer to Dale for some warmth.

I brushed a strand of brown hair from my eyes. "This is weird…" Just then, the car started sputtering. "What the-!?" I quickly pulled it over to the side lane just as it completely stopped. I turned the key a couple of times, but the engine remained silent and still. I opened my door.

"What happened?" Jeff asked me before I got out.

"The engine stalled or something."

Jeff and Dale both opened their doors and got out as well, coming over to the front where I had the hood popped open. I glanced at each of them.

"Anyone know how to fix a car?"

Dale groaned. "You're telling me you don't know?"

I shrugged. "Nope. What about you, Jeff?"

Jeff shook his head. "Sorry…"

"It's cool, we'll just walk." I began to walk down the road, the way we were originally heading in the car. Jeff quickly followed, but Dale stayed put by the car.

"Are you kidding me?" he exclaimed. "You guys are seriously gonna walk? Just call a tow truck!"

Jeff and I both stopped in our tracks, slowly turning around to face our friend, sheepish grins plastered on our faces. "Oh yeah…Tow trucks…" I said, pulling out my phone. I looked out the screen, instantly noticing I had no service. I tried moving around a bit, hoping to find a spot, but had no such luck. "No service," I informed my friends, who were looking at me like I had gone crazy.

Jeff and Dale pulled out their phones, and each reported that they had no service as well. I shrugged. "Looks like we're walking." I started walking again, Jeff following. Dale ran a hand through his thick black hair and reluctantly followed us after another nervous glance into the dark woods.

I noticed it was getting dark. We'd been walking for only about thirty minutes, and I had gotten a headache that only last about a minute awhile back. Things were definitely getting weird around here…

"Hey! Look!" Jeff pointed ahead, breaking me out of my thoughts. "A house!"

I looked ahead and saw a darkened, worn down house. "It looks…abandoned, don't you think?"

"Who cares? It's still a house!" Jeff began to run, and for such a small bugger, he was fast. I gave a quick glance at Dale before running off after him, Dale following after me. We found Jeff on the porch, bouncing from foot to foot in excitement. Dale stepped forward and knocked on the door. I wasn't expecting an answer, and I don't think Dale was either. Jeff certainly looked like he was. We waited a few seconds. Nothing. Dale knocked again, harder this time, and on the last knock the door creaked open, almost seeming as if he had pushed it open. The only problem was that no one was inside the door. No one had opened it.

"Um, hello?" I called, poking my head through the door. "Is anyone here?" I was answered by silence. I quietly took a step inside.

"What are you doing?!" Dale hissed, grabbing my arm.

"Going inside, duh." I pulled my arm free and motioned for them to follow me. Jeff came, but Dale hesitated. He finally stepped in, closing the door behind him. "Let's go look for some candles or something." I lead them into another room. It looked like a kitchen. I began rummaging through some drawers. "Come over here and help," I told them.

Dale and Jeff walked over, each opening another drawer and looking inside. I barely noticed Jeff moving to another drawer behind me, to pre-occupied fiddling with a small flashlight I had found.

"Matt!" I turned around to see Dale, his face pale. No Jeff.

"Um…Where's Jeff?" I asked, already fearing the answer.

"I don't know…I turned around and he was gone…"

"Let's go look for him." I turned on the flashlight, thankful I had gotten it to work. We walked back out to the room we had entered in, looking around. There were three closed doors and a set of stairs that lead up. Knowing Jeff, he wouldn't have closed a door behind him. "Let's try up there." I shined the light on the stairs. They creaked under us as we slowly ascended them. "Jeff?" I tried, but received no answer. At the top, there was a long hallway with several closed doors and a T-shape at the end.

As I looked towards the T-shape, I swore I saw a shadowy figure run past. I glanced at Dale, and the look on his face told me he had seen it too. "Jeff?" I started walking towards the end. "Jeff, this isn't funny. Come out, we know you're over there. We saw you." I saw the figure again, running across the opposite way. That was too tall to be Jeff…

"Stop fooling around, Jeff." I felt confident. Maybe I misjudged the height. I reached the end and looked to my left. Nothing. Just a wall. I looked to my right and saw the same thing. "Jeff?" If there weren't any doors down here, why put the T-shape in? It didn't make sense. I began to walk back the other way, puzzled, but I thought I heard some shuffling behind a door as I passed it. I tried the knob, frowning when I found it was locked. "Hold the flashlight, Dale." I handed it to him, trying to open the door again. I knocked. "Jeff?"

I heard more shuffling. Now I was sure there was someone in there. "Jeff, open the door! We know it's you in there!" I pressed my ear to the door, hoping to hear Jeff giggling like he did when he was joking around. My eyes widened as I heard muffled voices instead. …Jeff? I listed hard, and I could identify one voice as Jeff. He sounded like he was…scared? But who was that other voice? It was much deeper, and it almost sounded demonic…

"Jeff?!" I jiggled the doorknob again. "Jeff!" I began banging on the door. "Jeff! Jeff!"

Dale was almost completely pale. He hadn't heard the voices, but he knew something was seriously wrong. "Jeff!" he yelled, joining me as we banged on the door together. "Jeff!"

Enough was enough. My best friend was in there was some stranger, wasn't opening the door and wasn't responding to us. I pushed Dale out of the way. "Look out, Dale."

I backed up, bulging my shoulder forward, and before Dale could stop me, rammed myself into the door. It didn't break, but I was pretty sure one more hit like that would do it. I backed up again and repeated what I had just done. Sure enough, the door came flying off its hinges. I quickly ran into the room, a bit woozy, with Dale following close behind. "Jeff?!"

Yes. It was Jeff. But there was the owner of the other voice as well. It was a tall, pitch black shadow. It had no face, and Its arms and legs were barely visible. It seemed to float about an inch above the floor. Jeff was pressed up against the wall, trying to flatten himself and get away from the…thing. The look on his face was one of pure terror, and tears were streaming down his face. "Guys!" he choked out with a sob.

"Jeff!" I looked for some way around the creature, but found none. It was blocking my path to Jeff. "Who are you?" I demanded. Dale was cowering behind me.

"Who, me?" It asked mockingly. Its voice was deep and scratchy, almost like a growl. It sent shivers down my spine.

"Yeah! You!"

"I'm the owner of this house…" It took a 'step' forward. I held my ground. "All was peaceful until you boys came and drove down my road, broke in, and stole my flashlight…" It motioned towards the light in Dale's hand. It took a 'step' back towards Jeff, and the three of us tensed up. It seemed to sense our fear, and kept slowly moving toward Jeff.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Leave him alone!"

It stopped, mere feet from Jeff, who had a fresh set of tears streaming down his face.

It seemed to grin, before it disappeared into thin air. We were silent for a moment, not breathing, not moving a muscle. When we realized he was truly gone from the room, Jeff ran towards us. "Guys!" He quickly buried his face into my shirt, wrapping his arms around me. I returned the hug, and Dale put a reassuring hand on Jeff shoulder. Dale wasn't the first guy you would go to if you wanted a hug.

After a minute, Jeff pulled away, wiping his eyes. I grabbed his arm, intent on not losing him again. He sniffled as I said, "Come on. We gotta get out of here."

I noticed that Jeff had grabbed Dale's freehand, the one without the flashlight, and a light blush settled over Dale's face. I would've laughed if we weren't in a situation like this. I knew that It could be around any corner, behind any door. Anywhere.

We quickly made our way down the creaky steps. I grabbed the doorknob and turned it. "No, no, no!" I frantically turned it again and again.

"Yes, yes yes…" I heard It, and the three of us turned around. It was there, standing at the bottom of the stairs. I felt Jeff trembling, and slowly pushed him behind me. He was still clutching onto Dale's hand, and grabbed my arm with his other hand. He quietly peeked around me.

"What do you want from us?!" I asked bravely.

"What do I want from you? The question is, 'what do you want from me?'"

"We don't want anything! We just wanted to fix our car and get to a restaurant!"

"You shouldn't have taken this road…"

We were silent.

"Don't you know?"

Jeff's grip on my arm tightened.

"Don't you know that this is my road?! You should've listened to your friend!" It lunged forward, and I somehow managed to dodge, pulling Jeff and Dale along with me.

"Just let us leave!" I pleaded. "We won't ever come back! We'll never disturb you again! And you can have your flashlight back!"

"It's too late for that…" It said. "Now you must pay…"

"Leave us alone!" I quickly ran into the room we had first gone in, the one where we had found the flashlight. I looked around for anything that would help us, but saw nothing. As I was rummaging through a cabinet, I heard Dale cry out and Jeff screaming bloody murder.

I turned around to see that It had Jeff. It had Jeff. "Let him go!" I yelled. Instead of letting him go, It turned and flew through another door, taking Jeff as well. Dale and I ran after them.

When we got into the room, we saw that It had Jeff pinned up against the wall, a smoky black substance around his neck.

It was choking him.

I could hear Jeff gasping for air. "Stop!" I yelled desperately.

It turned towards me. "And why should I?"

"Because it's my fault we're here!"

"Stop lying. I saw how excited he was when he saw the house. He was the first one up to the door, so he's the first one to go." I saw It tighten the grip It had on Jeff's neck.

"NO!"

Jeff fell to the ground, limp.

"JEFF!"

It laughed and disappeared. Dale and I ran to Jeff. "Jeff! Jeff!" We fell to our knees and Dale checked for a pulse. Tears started to fall on Jeff's lifeless face as Dale hung his head. "He's dead…" I heard him whisper.

No…No…This couldn't be happening. This had to be some sort of sick, demented dream, and I needed to wake up now. "J-Jeff…" My own tears began to slide down my cheeks. After a moment of silence, I quietly stood up, wiping my face. Dale looked up at me.

"Let's go," I said, my voice shaky but strong.

Dale stood up as well. "Where?"

"To give that thing some payback."

"Hey!" I yelled. "Come back here and show yourself!"

It appeared again, this time by the front door. "You called?" It asked in a sickly sweet voice.

"Yeah, I did! You killed my friend! You killed him!" I felt the hot tears again.

"So what if I did?"

I screamed and rushed towards It. It moved out of the way and I crashed into the wall. In the split second it had taken me to step a few feet from Dale, It had gotten him. "DALE!"

It gave an evil 'smirk' and threw Dale at the window. Dale crashed through the glass, falling onto the hard ground below. I heard the thud. I wanted to puke.

"What is wrong with you?!" I screamed at It. "You killed my friends!"
It turned to me. "Ah, that I did," It said calmly.

I noticed that the door was only a few feet from me. In a last-ditch effort to escape, I bolted towards the door.

It didn't follow.

I yanked on the doorknob, and to my surprise and relief, it swung open. Maybe I could still get out of this mess…

I commanded myself not to look in the direction of Dale's body. Seeing Jeff dead was bad enough. Tears prickled in my eyes as I thought about it, but I quickly wiped them away. They were messing up my vision.

I ran back towards the car. It seemed like an eternity before I saw the car parked on the side of the road, though it had probably taken me only 5 minutes to get there. I grabbed the handle of the driver's seat door and pulled. Locked. No, no! Not again! Why is everything locked?

I pressed my face against the window, my rapid breathe fogging up the cold glass. I spotted the keys in the cup holder. Why hadn't I taken them with me earlier?! Maybe I could break the glass…

I turned around to find a rock.

I stopped cold in my tracks.

It.

It was standing there, maybe 10 feet away.

10 feet.

It 'grinned' and It laughed.

"No…" I backed up slowly, my back hitting the cold metal of the car. "No…"

"Yes…" It moved forward. "Yes…"

"No!"

"Yes!"

It was the last thing I ever saw.

Good, no? I hope I get a good grade on this. I just handed it in this morning. I was seriously crying when I killed Jeff. He was cool. *Manly (More like womanly XD) Tear* I didn't care as much when Dale and Matt died. Oh well.

Thanks for reading! Check out my profile! I'm hoping to get some more stories up here soon! :) Please review!

~YeahBuddy