The Haunted House

Jack was present in front of a large house that was situated

at the opposite end of the street from where his school was.
The house was said to be abandoned a long time ago due to
paranormal activities. He did not believe in ghosts but he was
always creeped out by the house and always tried his best to
avoid it, but he was given a dare by his friends the previous
day to visit and sleep in the house. He did not want his
friends to believe that he was a coward, so he finally decided
to go inside but as he climbed the stairs that led to the
house, he thought that he heard something in the house. It
sounded like someone was crying. This sent chills down his
spine since the house was connected to a string of murders
and because of this, the house hadn’t been bought in nearly
a decade. Nonetheless, he took an apprehensive step
forward, and he heard the floorboard creaking underneath
his feet. He glanced at his surroundings, the house was worn
down, there was no furniture inside, only cardboards lying
around and about, sheets were used as curtains and the
paint on the wall had almost been completely wiped out due
to weathering. Aside from this there were a few used
syringes lying around but Jack was not surprised by this as
the house was also rumoured to be a breeding ground for
drug smugglers. But he was most intrigued by the large
painting that was hung above the staircase that led to the
upper floor. The painting showed an old man with a large
beard, he was the original owner of the mansion and his
spirit was said to haunt the master bedroom. So, in order to
complete the dare, he had to sleep in it. Without further ado,
he made his way to the upper floor, but as he was climbing
the staircase, he felt as though the eyes in the painting were
following him but he decided to ignore the feeling as he was
already tired of the school day and just wanted his dare to be
over. As he touched the handle of the door, he heard a faint
whisper in his ear “leave” it said. Jack quickly turned around
“Who’s there?!” He shouted /asked. ‘It must be my
imagination’ he thought to himself. He entered the room and
as he lied on the bed, he tried to fall asleep but he couldn’t.
‘That’s weird’ he thought, “I swear I was going to fall on the
ground if I didn’t go to sleep-THUD!, his train of thought was
cut by a sound coming from downstairs and he felt as though
his blood froze and breathing became difficult for him. He
thought to himself, ‘What was that sound?!’. He mustered up
some courage and quickly went down to investigate and
what he saw shocked him to the core. There laid the lifeless
bodies of the all the victims who were supposedly murdered
in the house. He heard the sound of a blade being sharpened
and as he looked in the direction of where he heard the
sound coming from, he saw the faint apparition of the same
man in the painting. “Well,” he spoke maniacally, “who’s
next?!”. Jack bolted towards the door as he heard the old
man laughing maniacally behind him but he paid no heed to
him and didn’t stop until he reached his house. When he
narrated his story to his friends and family, they all laughed it
off saying that it must be his mind playing tricks on him but
Jack knew that what he saw was definitely real and he vowed
to never step foot in the direction of the house again and the
next time anybody narrated a horror ghost story to him, he
would take them seriously no matter how ridiculous it may
sound.