• My adventure started out with an old abandoned house, a friend with a scooter, and exceptional curiosity. Let’s start with the scooter part. This summer, my friend Elena’s stepdad went to Canada and came back with a couple scooters for the family. You know the kind of scooters that cops ride around on in Europe. It had amazing gas mileage so our favorite thing was to go cruising.
    On a perfectly sunny day, the cirrus clouds seemed to never move as we rode the scooter down a gravel road. Cottonwood trees lined both of the ditches on either side of the road and seemed to create an archway of leaves. It was not fun to ride this thing on gravel roads, but we had to in order to get to the house. We zoomed passed a purple alfalfa field and kicked up rocks as we drove.
    We slowed and made a left turn as soon as we passed the field. Now we were right next to the Milk River and even more trees loomed overhead and shaded us as we continued. The road curved to the right. Sunlight hit us after we passed a group of trees on the corner of the river bend. Soon after, a house emerged. A sudden burst of adrenaline rushed through my body as we approached the dilapidated, ominous old house.
    Elena drove her scooter into the tall grass in front of the house so no one would see. I ran through the knee high golden grass and took my first step onto the front “porch”. “Ah! I’m nervous Elena.” I glanced back at her. She was keeping her distance because apparently she felt the same way I did. “Come up here with me, I don’t want to do it alone.” I sounded clingy.
    “No,” she replied. “You’re the one who wanted to do this.” She forced a nervous/awkward smile.
    “Fine.” I said. I swung open the screen door and it creaked eerily, just like in the movies. Now the real challenge was the second door. It appeared to be locked I pulled on the corroded door knob that didn’t even twist. The door rattled back and forth but something was keeping it shut. I look at the lock mechanism, it was broken. Holding the screen door with my foot, I lifted the other door by the knob and it unlatched and opened just a crack so all you could see was darkness. Freaked out, I ran back to Elena. “Oh my god oh my god oh my god!” Elena was silent, but her facial expression spoke for her.
    “Go open it.” She told me.
    “I don’t want to!” I said, evidently still fearful of what was beyond the door.
    She wasn’t going to, so once again I approached the house and pushed the door open with one finger and once again, I ran back. The small foyer behind the door was cheery, quite frankly. It was pink, but junk was all over. I tried not to look at the spider webs as we both stepped in together. “That was lame.” I said in disappointment. We faced another problem. There was another door. “You open this one this time.” I commanded.
    Elena reached for the knob, but quickly reached back. “No, you do it!”
    “Fine.” I said. I pushed open this door with ease but I quickly stepped back. I half expected something to jump out and attack me or something. The blackness that lay ahead was just as scary. You could not see a thing! Rays of light saved us from a room directly to the right. We stepped into the blackness and the door closed behind us. Again, just like in the movies. We skipped the scary dark room because we had no flashlights.
    We stepped into the not-so-scary light room. It was a peachy color. It seemed safe and all. It had drawings made by a child hanging on the wall and a Jesus shrine. There wasn’t any furniture though. I walked to the far end of the room and something appeared to my right.
    Earlier I was glad I was finished with opening doors, but the sight before me was scarier than opening doors that lead to blackness. It was a staircase, one like what you might see in the movies. How can a staircase be scary, Jordan? You might ask. Well, they are menacing, because you want to find out what is upstairs, but you don’t want to be the one climbing the stairs.
    “Elena, come look at this.” I said looking up. Elena responded with silence, until later. “I really really really don’t want to do this.” I said. “But if I don’t see what’s up there we’re going to have to come back later and see because it would bother me.” I chose now.
    I took one step to see if it was sturdy, then I took another. I was looking up at all times because I was paranoid something bad was going to happen. Elena stayed at the bottom. As I got to the top of the stairs I saw a raggedy old bed with all sorts of mice droppings and holes chewed by moths. The bed possessed an antique iron bed frame. There was a closet that had a shower curtain for a door and it was closed, but nothing out of the ordinary so far, until I look at the wall behind me.
    What my eyes fell upon was a mural. It was a mural of children. You could say I was a bit disturbed. “Elena! Get up here!” I shouted down the stairs. That’s when the bad feeling started. I wanted to leave. She got to the top of the stairs and looked around.
    “Oh my god.” She said. You could tell she wanted to leave too. We were both more than weirded out by this place.
    That’s when we heard the scuffling from inside the closet. Something was moving in there. Startled, I started to scream. We rushed to the bottom of the stairs and quickly ran into the pitch black room, but the door closed behind us remember? “Where’s the door?!!?!” I frantically screamed. I was feeling the entire wall and tripping over anything and everything.
    “I don’t know!!” Elena screamed, sounding desperate.
    thump thump thump
    Something was coming down the stairs. Elena’s hand finally grasped the handle and she almost tore the door off its hinges as we high tailed it out of there like deer after a gunshot. Hearts racing, and running for our lives towards the scooter, the screen door slammed shut. Elena kicked up the kick stand as I hopped on and we were out of there.

    * * *

    As I sit here writing this story in Eagle, ID, that mysterious something inside that house is still there in Glasgow, MT waiting patiently for its next innocent and unexpectant victim(s).