Alone.

Those were some of the happiest days of my life. My friends were perfect, the drugs were amazing, the parties were even better. Life was good. Really good.

School was useless. I hardly ever attended much anymore. The only reasons I went was to hang out with my friends. That sounded so amazing rolling off of my tongue. My friends. I finally had friends. I was finally happy. People around us in the cafeteria still gave us those 'what are you doing with your life' looks, but we didn't care. Life was too good for me to care about what other people thought about me.

Me and Dylan were on speaking terms and were really good friends still. Kile still stuck to the shadows, Dani still talked a lot, Michelle stopped giving me her death glares, Eric is still that goofy guy that everybody loves, and I am the happiest girl in the world. Everything is going smoothly. There is no bullshit, and I love it. It was all working out, until we all went to that abandoned house.

“So,” Dani says, taking her normal seat at our table in the cafeteria. “We’re going out tonight.”

“Where to?” Eric smirks.

“Three words. Abandoned, haunted house.”

It was nearing the end of November, now, and the whether outside was cold, to say the least. It had already snowed five or six times, but it hasn’t been cold enough to keep it on the ground. Still, it was freaking cold out.
Why were we going to an abandoned house that probably didn't have power or heat anymore?

“Huh?” I say, confused. “What’s in the house?”

“Dead people,” Eric smirks across the table. I cock my head to the side, sticking my tongue out at him.

“Obviously. Other than dead people?”

“Oh come on,” Dani looks at me like she couldn’t believe what I was saying. “You seriously haven’t slept over at haunted houses before?”

My mouth pops open in disbelief. “You guys sleep at haunted houses?!”

“No,” Eric says calmly. “We do riots, party, and sleep at haunted houses.”

They nod, slowly. “Are you insane?!” I exclaim.

Michelle smirks. Eric and Kile chuckle. Nikki just smiles. “Tonight is going to be fun.”

The thought horrified me. Sleeping? In other peoples' houses? It was so disrespectful. So wrong. So horrible. When school ended that day, I met up with the group outside Dani’s locker. This was the meeting place. We always met here together before we did anything together.

“So,” Dani says. “I invited Jason to come with us tonight, and he said he’d bring some friends. So there’s going to be more than just us there tonight.”

“The more the merrier,” Eric chuckles. “What do we do ‘till then? Because if you haven’t noticed yet, the sun is still up. And it’s much more fun in the dark.”

Great. A bunch of teenagers, in a spooky house, in the dark, alone. How much more ‘horror story’ could it have gotten?

“My place, I guess,” Dani says, reaching into her pocket and taking out her cell phone, punching something in. After a moment she looks back up at us and smiles. “Jason has some friends over right now. They’re over there blazing. He says we’re more than welcome to join.”

“And there we have it,” Eric smirks, starting down the hallway towards the doors, “something to do until it gets dark.”

“Relax,” Jason chuckles, climbing into the driver’s seat of his car and turning the key in the ignition. “I’m not even high anymore. I can drive fine,”

The red rings around his eyes told me different, but I didn’t care enough to object.
The car immediately roars to life, and soon, we’re backing out of the driveway and speeding down the road. Eric, Dani and I were in Jason's car, along with one of Jason’s friends. Michelle, Kile and the rest of Jason’s friends were in another car, following closely behind us. I sat in the backseat, in between Eric and Dani, who were both complaining because they were hungry and that if we were going to be out for the next four hours, they needed food. now

“Can we stop at McDonalds or something?” Dani whines. “I’m starving.”

“Yeah,” Eric says. “There’s like, five on the way there.”

“Please? I’m going to die!” Dani whines.

Jason just chuckles, nodding. I had to admit, I was hungry myself. But I don’t think it was from the weed we smoked just hours ago. I was hungry because I was always hungry.
So, with a quick stop at a McDonalds and five large fries, we were off to the haunted house, where we would party, play games, and sleep at.

We walked through the tall iron gates of the haunted mansion (not even close to a house, apparently), following the long paved walkway. There were no lights in here, but we could faintly see our shadows because full moon shining above us.

Somebody from behind me howled loudly. We all turned to see James―Jason's friend, the one who rode in the car with us on the way here― shouting loudly. “Werewolves are coming out tonight!”

We all laughed quietly, continuing down the walkway. I hugged my arms over the thought that we were actually going to do this. A creepy house? Really? But why am I complaining, it's better than the ground...than the park. No! Nothing was better than the park― my haven.

“You okay?” Kile says quietly in my ear. The rest of the group was chatting around us. Kile slowed his pace to meet mine. “You seem tense.”

I shake my head, shrugging. “Y-yeah,” I gulp. “I-I’m fine. Just… tense, like you said.”

Kile chuckles, lightly bumping into my side, “Don’t worry. I’ll save you from the big bad werewolves.”

We all settled in one room together because we thought it'll be safer. Some of Jason's friends wandered off to find a room for themselves because they weren't afraid and didn't want to play it safe. Who would blame them, they were all older than us. I don't even know how Dani knows them, they're in college but that isn't my business. A few candles were lit around the grand room we picked out for us to play games in. Someone chipped in that they wanted to play spin the bottle, almost everyone refused to play that 'kid' game. People threw in names of games that we could play: Hide n' seek, truth or dare, would you rather, and so many more. We all finally agreed on manhunt. Manhunt is where one person is picked to be 'it' and everyone has to scatter and make sure they don't get caught. Once you're caught, you help the person who is 'it' and catch the remaining people. Dani's college friends didn't think this was a childish game, and with this big house, we had the room.

“Eenie-Meenie-Miney-Mo,” Dani says, pointing to each and every one of us in the group. “Catch a tiger by its toe.”

There were ten of us in total. Eric, Dani, Michelle, Kile, Jason, James, Ashley, Effy, Chris and I. James, Ashely, Effy, and Chris were Jason’s friends. They were actually pretty cool. They had brought over some marijuana for themselves and Jason earlier that day, and when they heard we were all coming over, they invited us to join them. It was fun, but for me it was always fun getting high. It was like getting drunk. I could let loose, forget about everything for a little while and just have fun with my friends.

“If he hollers let him go,” she continues, going around the circle we stood in. “Eenie-Meenie,” she passed over me, over Kile, over herself. “Miney-Mo,” she giggles, pointing out her finger to Eric. “You’re It, Eric.”

“Damn,” he groans, looking around.

“Ground rules?” Effy asks.

“Stay in the house,” Jason says. “Obviously.”

“No flashlights,” Ashley adds.

“I don’t even think we brought any,” says Chris, looking around at us. Nobody had even thought to bring one.

“If you get tagged, you’re It as well, but you have to stay with Eric and the other people who are It,” Dani says. We all nod in agreement.

“Banana,” Eric adds. We all look at him, confused. He grins. “When we’re done, or if there’s an emergency or something, shout ‘Banana,’” We all giggle, nodding.

“Is that it?” Effy asks, looking around the circle.

I hold my hand up. “No jumping out and scaring each other…?” I ask, hopeful. I look around at the grinning faces.

“Are you kidding?” James pokes my side lightly and winks. “That’s the fun part.”

“This is going to be fun,” Dani giggles, looking at Eric. “Count to one hundred, eyes closed. If you’re caught cheating, we’ll tape you to the staircase and leave you here in your underwear,” she grins.

Eric glares at her before turning to the rest of the group. “Ready?”

And then we were off, running in separate directions, looking for places to hide from Eric.
The mansion was filled with furniture covered in white cloths and dust. Everywhere I looked there was dust, and cob-webs. My legs kept moving, faster and faster, taking me away from Eric. My feet stomped on the old wood floor, making loud stomping noises in the quiet space around me.

I had to be quiet if I didn’t want to get caught. I slowed after a few minutes of non-stop running, finding a white door. I was drawn to it because it was the only white door in the whole place, all the other doors were wood like the floor. I creep up to it, and crack open the beautiful door. I'm blasted with even more darkness that was darker than the hallway I came out of. I searched in my pocket for a lighter and flicked it. The whole room was suddenly engulfed with dim lighting. I used it as my saviour, moving everywhere around me to look at the most beautiful place I've ever seen.

This room must have belonged to a teenager before it was abandoned, because it was for one thing a mess but it had a cool, comfy looking bed, a couch, T.V, and a desk. I walk over to the desk to see that there was once a computer there. The dust is evidence of that. I open the drawer of the desk and I come across pictures of the girl that this room belonged to. She looked happy. I mean, obviously, look at the life she had. Big birthdays, lots of people caring for her, and a house to live in.

I’m going insane.
Those were the words that ran through my head as I continued to look at the photos, and notes that this girl left. I felt as though my head was going to explode. Like my body was going to fall apart into a million pieces. From anger, frustration, hate. I just shrugged everything off. Faked a smile and went on in life. I acted as though everything was alright when absolutely nothing was. But when I was alone, the smile disappeared and the tears fell.

How long had it been since we started this stupid game? I didn’t have a phone, or a watch, so I had no way of knowing. But I hadn’t seen a single person around yet. Nobody was hiding, nobody was chasing after me or any of the other players. Absolutely nobody. A pang of fear ran through me, but I forced it down into the bottom of my stomach. I told myself not to let it get to me. It was just a house… a dark, scary house.

I messed up my life. I could have had love and family but I threw it away. All I felt was regret. I regretted leaving. I regretted turning everyone away from me. I regretted everything stupid I had done in my life. I regretted who I was.