Chapter 002: The Dare

***

When the movie ended, Emmy, Quinn and Sasha got ready to go—which just meant hopping into Sasha's car and driving to Reagan Woods, as apparently all of them had universally decided to wear what they were wearing to the bonfire before the movie hangout.

The half hour drive to Reagan Woods was spent talking about stuff like movies, the colleges they were going to and their plans for the future—Emmy with forensic science, Ben in physics, Sasha with a gap year travelling the world, and Quinn hoping to be either a doctor or writer ("Those are two very opposite ends." "At least I know what I'll be writing about with injuries and blood loss, Sash."), bickering about stupid stuff like which junk food was better, what was the better genre of movie (it was always a draw between horror and science fiction), which final girl was the best (Ripley, always), which actor was the hottest, who had been the biggest douchebag in school and the hottest classmate they had in school, and whether new or classic Coke better (classic, always) and laughing over an eclectic mix of Kate Bush, The Cure, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Dio, Fleetwood Mac and Blondie.

Just like any drive with her friends.

It helped pass the time of the drive, so it felt like it was mere seconds instead of over thirty minutes to get to the stretch of woods bordering Renvale. Above, the sky was bleeding as it transitioned into nighttime, and past the first few trees, Emmy could already see the orange glow of a bonfire—the party having already started.

Sasha parked and turned off her car and they all got out, heading into the woods where the crackle of fire and the shouting of drunken, celebratory teenagers could be mixed with the reverberating thump of music. Emmy's Converse shoes crunched on the leaf litter was muffled by the noise ahead that grew louder and louder until they walked through the woods and saw the graduation bonfire party in all its glory.

 A massive bonfire arced toward the sky, licking the canopy with orange tongues of flame, roaring like a great beast as teenagers shouted, drank and milled about it. A beer keg was near it, the alcohol swishing inside cheap red cups in the hands of teenagers already half-drunk and high, when they weren't holding cigarettes and joints. Music blared from the boombox next to the beer keg, Girls On Film playing from it, and in the shadows of trees, Emmy could see couples slinking away to make out.

Emmy rolled her eyes at seeing that, before she turned and shouted over the music and chatter, "Beer or weed?"

Quinn gravitated to the beer keg, filling up four cups and handing it to them as she said with a grin, "Ready to get high and wasted? Because I sure hell am!"

They cheered in response, skulling down the beer. It was sour and half-stale, but Emmy didn't care as she drank it again, Quinn heading to where Darell Lincoln was dealing weed to snag some joints for them, enjoying the heat of the bonfire against her back in the chill of the spring night air, rolling her eyes as Ben made a joke and Sasha grinned, before the voice of Georgia Liu shouted, "Sasha! Over here!"

They turned, seeing Georgia and three other girls on the squad wave to her, grinning.

"I better go. Be back soon!" Sasha promised as she left to head over to them. Neither Ben or Emmy cared—Sasha had been cheerleader captain, after all, beloved by her squad as much as she was by the general populace of Renvale High. Of course they wanted to chat with their captain.

Still, Emmy and Ben amused themselves by arguing who'd win in a fight—IT or Darth Vader.

That was where Quinn found them right as Ben threw up his hands and exclaimed, "You can't possibly think that creepy clown could murder Darth freaking Vader!"

"It could take control of Vader's fear and use it against him!" Emmy argued as she held out her hands in emphasis, beer threatening to slosh over the rim. "Plus, with all its crazy shapeshifting, it could take the form of whatever thing Vader fears the most before going in for the kill."

"Yeah, but the Force trumps shapeshifting. And Vader's, like, part cyborg. Would IT really go after a cyborg?" Ben countered.

"The point isn't if IT would eat Vader, the point is if IT would beat Vader! And the answer is yes!"

"No, actually, because Vader could just Force Choke IT or it in half with a lightsaber and—"

"I see I came in at the right time," Quinn quipped as Ben and Emmy turned to her, the redhead smirking. "Also, my money's on a Freddy Krueger and IT team up—Freddy kills Vader in his dreams while IT kills him physically. Boom."

"That's assuming IT and Freddy wouldn't kill each other," Emmy pointed out.

"True. But Freddy could probably score a deal with IT on giving it the bodies of the teens he dream-kills—scare them enough in his dreams while IT kills them physically," Quinn mused as she lit up a joint and handed it to Emmy. "Here ya go, Ems."

"Very good point," Emmy agreed as she accepted the joint. "Gracias, Quinn."

"No problem," Quinn said, grinning as she raised a joint to her mouth and took a drag, Emmy doing the same as she let the haze of weed fill her.

Ben shook his head. "You both have so little faith in Darth Vader."

"Just admit defeat, Benny boy," Quinn said, blowing out weed-laced smoke in Ben's face as she grinned deviously, Emmy smirking as she took in another drag, enjoying the pleasant buzz in her bloodstream.

Ben rolled his eyes at the nickname, but held up his hands in defeat. "Okay,  I know I'm beat. Hey Quinn, pass the joint?"

"Gladly," Quinn replied, handing a joint to Ben as he took it. He inhaled, before coughing, banging on his chest as Quinn cackled, Emmy half-smiling at it.

"God, you're hopeless at this," Quinn remarked as she inhaled and exhaled the smoke.

"Har har," Ben said, rolling his eyes again as he handed the joint back to Quinn. "Think I'll just stick with beer."

"Great. More weed to smoke with Ems and Sash," Quinn declared as she drank her beer, Emmy taking in another drag before washing it down with the beer. The weed made it taste even more sour, but Emmy didn't particularly care as Sasha returned. When she saw the joints, she smiled.

"Quinn, you are a legend," she said as she took one and inhaled a drag. Exhaling a cloud of smoke, she grinned. "I feel high already."

"Yeah, because your tolerance is shit!" Quinn yelled, and Emmy arched a brow and reminded, "Says the one who got pretty wasted after a couple shots of vodka."

Quinn fired her a glare. "Are you ever gonna give that up?"

"As the one who still holds the title for downing most shots, never," Emmy replied, a wicked smirk on her face.

Quinn flipped her the middle finger. Emmy returned it as she added, "Though, no one can take away your title of beer pong champion."

"And it will never be taken away—just like my high score at Defender shall never be beat!" Quinn declared, raising her cup in triumph before she downed it and said, "Come on, guys! Let's party!"

It didn't take much, the weed and beer creating an intoxicating mix in Emmy that the music didn't help as they whooped and laughed around the fire, mingling with classmates who'd hardly gave Emmy and Quinn a second look before they graduated, drinking more beer and finishing off the joints as the music kept playing and a boy Sasha had been flirting with before graduation engaged in quite frankly adorable flirting before Sasha led him into the woods, Emmy, Ben and Quinn grinning before they talked and joked, Ben's teammates coming to chat and pretending Quinn and Emmy didn't exist, as across the fire, Emmy saw a girl, curls haloing her head past her bandana and wearing a leather jacket and skirt ensemble. She looked nice and pretty, and the longer Emmy kept staring at her, she wondered what it would be like to hold her hand, to hear her laugh and be mesmerised by it, to maybe even kiss her. Quinn noticed, and she mouthed, 'Talk to her' after nudging her in the side.

Emmy shot Quinn a glare—she'd rather die than do that—as Quinn met her glare back as Sasha finally returned, a grin on her kiss-bruised lips as Quinn looked at her and asked, "So. Was he a good kisser or tried to eat your face like Fred Walsh tried to?"

Sasha delivered a sharp look and a smack on Quinn's arm as the redhead cackled. "Quinn!"

"No, but seriously—was it a good kiss?" Emmy inquired.

"It was. He... he was a really good kisser," Sasha admitted, twirling a lock of her hair as she smiled—a tell that it was more than a simple make-out.

Emmy and Quinn eyed each other before Quinn offered, "Well, if you go out and he breaks your heart, we'll be there with ice cream and Breakfast Club and Grease. And I'll happily key his car if he hurts you or cheats on you."

"I'll smash in a window, but we can just do ice cream and movies," Emmy said, giving a pointed look to Quinn as she shrugged. Sure, smashing in the window of the jerk who broke her friends' heart was cathartic, but Emmy much rather if they just did ice cream and movies if the people who broke their friends' hearts cheated on them or, in Quinn's and Ben's cases, rejected them in disgust and hate—especially since it was insane luck that they hadn't been caught and it hadn't gone on her permanent record and made her chances of attending MIT less and earn her the wrath of her parents and all her ancestors' ghosts that were still honoured upon the ofrenda down upon her. 

(It was still pretty cathartic, though)

"Thanks, guys, but I think I'll stick to ice cream and movies if it goes south," Sasha said, smiling at them.

It was then Ben and his teammates had heard them, Ben asking, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, just about the ways we're going to murder and hide the body of Sasha's future boyfriend if he breaks her heart," Quinn explained, Emmy nodding as she added on, "We narrowed it down to stabbing him and burying him in the woods, or shooting him and tossing him into Lake Sampson."

"Oh. I vote on the lake," Ben said as one of his teammates muttered, "Jesus Christ, your friends are fucking psychos, man."

Ben glared at them. "They're my friends, Alex, so don't call them that or I'll break your nose. Got it?"

"Okay, okay, I get it. Jeez," Alex said, holding his hands up in peace as Emmy rolled her eyes and Quinn flipped him off, Ben glowering at them as he looked back at them and asked, "Wanna head over somewhere else?"

"Yes please," Sasha said, but before they could, Dylan shouldered past and said, "Hey, wait. I wanna ask you guys something."

Turning, they looked back as Ben asked, "What is it, Dylan?"

Dylan grinned as he said, "You know the Morrow House, right?"

The four looked at each other and Emmy replied, "Yeah, we know it. Hard not to know it."

"Yeah. So, you know it's haunted and shit, right?" Dylan continued, and Emmy rolled her eyes up to the heavens and back down to Earth. Quinn did the same, visibly rolling her eyes and Sasha gave a disbelieving scoff as Ben said, "You know all that is bullshit, Dylan."

Dylan ignored them, just going on speaking. "Right. So, remember the dare?"

This time, Emmy didn't roll her eyes as she looked at her friends, as now everyone in hearing distance was staring at them. They knew the dare—they knew it had never been done, that it was the reason why those four girls were in the Morrow House twenty years ago before they were murdered. And they knew it had never been attempted again since then.

Ben looked back at Dylan as he asked, "What are you getting at, Dylan?"

Dylan grinned as he looked at them and declared, "I dare the four of you to spend the night in the Morrow House from now until dawn!"

Silence except for the bonfire and Kids In America, as Emmy, Quinn, Ben and Sasha stared at Dylan.

The dare.

The dare that hadn't been done since the murders in 1967, the dare that hadn't been succeeded even before the murders right after the Morrow murders and the house had stopped being a crime scene and left to the abandonments of time. The dare that Dylan had now just issued to them—to spend the night in Morrow House, from metaphorical dusk until literal dawn and not leave a minute before that time or at least try not to. To spend a full night in a house where two brutal murders had happened within it two decades apart. That was rumoured to be haunted.

Emmy twisted her mouth, looking at her friends. On one hand, they could not accept this dare, laugh it off and Dylan could try it with another group, and enjoy the rest of the bonfire before leaving, maybe watch another movie again at either Sasha's place, or Quinn's or Ben's or her place. And on the other...

It felt really tempting to say yes, to spend a night and prove just how insane the rumours of Morrow House being haunted were, that were definitely no such things as ghosts. That maybe it would be a fun kind of spooky instead of creepy to spend a night in the house with her friends—and hey, if Emmy wanted to be a forensic scientist, she needed to be comfortable with crime scenes. What better place to start than the most famous crime scene in Renvale?

And also, it felt like something was pushing her to accept, whispering in her brain, nudging her forward, coaxing her mouth to open and her tongue to form that singular word. It wasn't like whatever had happened earlier at the crossroads, but something similar. Something less frightening. Maybe the weed and beer inside Emmy encouraging her to accept. Maybe something everything but a small, dark part of her buried deep down since her childhood days and before her cynicism of the unexplainable and strange had settled in believed it was just that instead of something stranger—something darker.

And looking at her friends, Emmy could see their answer before she looked at Dylan and said words she didn't know would doom the four of them.

"Yes. We accept the dare."

***

Heheheheh >:)

I loved writing this so much!! Sadly, this was the last normal chapter, but it was still so much fun to write the graduation bonfire and Emmy, Quinn, Ben and Sasha being normal teens before Morrow House happens!

But yes, the dare has been issued—and it has been accepted >:)

Spanish translation:

Gracias: Thanks

Next chapter should be soon!

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!