Sshh, Be Quiet.

Nobody really managed to get a lot of sleep throughout the night. The nine of them sat and talked, trying to plan an escape. Here and there someone would doze off for a bit. Matt was trying to be the leader, as was Lisa, who were both sitting in the kitchen talking quietly.

“Okay, doors don’t break, and neither do the windows, so how the hell are we going to get out of here?” Lisa asked.

“I really don’t know. What we really need to do is look around and see if we can find something that’ll lead us out of here. Question is, where?”

Lisa thought a moment. “The basement!”

“What’s down there?”

“I don’t know, but we haven’t looked. There’s also the attic.”

“We really need to check them out, and I have an idea.”

“What?”

“Two of us are gonna check the basement, and two are going to check the attic. Stay here.”

“Wait, Matt.” Lisa followed him back to the living room.

“Okay, so we figured to check the basement and attic, I’ll go into the basement, I need a girl to come with me though, then two are gonna check the attic. Two of the guys need to stay here with the rest of the girls.”

“I’ll go with you, Matt,” Shelbi said.

“I’ll go,” Johnny said.

“I’ll go with you, Johnny,” Lisa said. “I’ve kinda been in the basement.”

“Okay, will the rest of you be alright?” Matt asked.

A collective nod came from everyone. Matt, Johnny, Shelbi, and Lisa went to the kitchen, sitting around the table. Once again, Matt tried to take charge.

“Okay when we do this, we need to be extremely careful, and more observant than ever,” he said before focusing on Lisa and Johnny. “You two, if anything, anything at all feels the slightest bit off, get out of there ASAP, got it?”

“No, we’re just gonna stay there and call you when the ghost comes to attack us,” Johnny said.

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Johnny, no sarcasm, especially at a time like this.”

“Sorry.”

“Here’s an idea,” Lisa said. “You two call each other and stay on the line, that way we can tell each other what’s going on and stuff.”

“Not a bad idea. I’ll call you when we get to the attic, Johnny. Let’s go now, so we can get this over with.”

“Be careful you guys,” Lisa said. “And we’ll do the same.”

Matt and Shelbi headed out of the room, leaving Lisa and Johnny to wait for the phone call. Lisa was standing at the basement door, looking into the darkened room. She flicked the switch, flooding the stairwell with light. A moment later she heard Johnny talking.

“Okay, they’re there, let’s go,” he said, coming up behind Lisa.

Lisa nodded and started down the stairs. She listened to Johnny talking, explaining every move they were making. Once at the bottom of the stairs, she felt around for another light switch using the stairwell light. Suddenly the basement was lit. Lisa turned and saw Johnny standing by a light switch.

“Okay, we’re down, and we have light. It looks like a normal basement almost,” Johnny said. “Umm, she’s just walking around looking. She won’t tell me what she’s doing.”

Lisa turned to Johnny. “I’ll tell you if I find something, got it?”

She continued to walk around the small room. Johnny was right, it was almost normal. A storage room of sorts, with a few boxes here and there, collecting dust. A spider ran across one of them, causing Lisa to jump as she was afraid of them. She walked the perimeter of the room, looking for anything that would hint of a way out. A few minutes later, she heard something. Something that sounded like a breeze.

“Johnny, I think I found something!”

As Johnny explained to Matt while he came over, Lisa kicked a box to make sure nothing would crawl out of there, then proceeded to move it. She could feel moving air from that area. Upon further inspection, she saw hinges and a handle.

“I found a door!” she said.

“Okay, we found a door it looks like. She’s grabbing the handle, but the damn thing won’t budge.”

“You do it, Johnny,” Lisa said. “Give me your phone, I’ll talk to him.”

The two switched places while Johnny went to work on the door.

“How are you two doing,” Lisa asked.

“Nothing but dusty boxes. So is it a door?”

“It might be. Like one of those doors that leads out the side of a house I think. It won’t budge though. Johnny’s gonna break his arm is he pulls on it any harder.”

“Hmm.” Matt paused on the other end, and began moving around. “Shelbi? Where’d you go?” Another pause. “Shelbi?”

“Matt? Is she up there?”

“She won’t answer.” He paused again, and Lisa listened. “What’d you say about dancing dead, Lisa?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I heard something on the phone that said something about dancing dead.”

“I swear I didn’t say anything. Matt, you should get the hell out of that attic right now.”

“Fuck. Shelbi! Where are you?” A pause, rustling noises. “Shelbi? Is that you?” A loud thud. “Holy fuck! Holy shit! Shelbi!” Footsteps, then silence.