Chapter 156 - A Test Of Courage

William raised an eyebrow, "A test of courage?"

I nodded, "Yup! After sharing scary stories, You absolutely have to do a test of courage. What you do is walk around in the dark in pairs. Then, some people hide and try to scare you."

Mary gulped, "Oh... I don't know..."

I pulled out sticks, "You don't get a choice. I've already prepared everything. I also saw a dilapidated building not too far away. It's perfect. Alright, so everyone grab a stick. Whoever has the same number as you is your partner. Whoever has the X is a ghost."

Millie glanced up, "Ghost?"

I nodded, "Those are the people who scare everyone else. Now pick a stick."

I started handing out the sticks forcing everyone to take one. I nodded after everyone had chosen a stick, "Okay, now find your pair."

Lucius held up his stick, "I have the number 1."

Artie frowned in irritation and held up the stick, "I'm a 1 also."

I smiled, "Artie and Lucius are a pair. Who has the number 2?"

Mary spoke, "Oh! I have the number 2!"

Mathias raised his stick, "2..."

I nodded, "Alright, Mathias and Mary are the next pair. Now 3?"

William held up his stick, "I have the number 3."

Millie raised her stick and smiled at William, "Looks like I'm a pair with the Prince. How lovely."

William grimaced at this. I nodded, "Well, I guess that leaves me and Dante as the ghosts."

Dante glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. I ignored him and spoke, "Dante and I are going to go get ready. I'm going to flash this lantern as a sign for a group to come. Artie and Lucius will go first, then the next group can come when I signal. Any questions?"

William raised his hand, "Do we have to do this?"

"Yes." I responded curtly, "Alright, if there are no more questions, Dante and I will go and get ready."

I grabbed a lantern and ran off with Dante towards the broken down building. Dante followed me as I chuckled to myself. "This is going to be fun. Really fun."

Dante raised an eyebrow, "You seem excited."

I nodded, "I am! It's not every day that you get to scare the sh*t out of people." I glanced at him, "Do you know how to scare people?"

Dante thought for a moment and drew his sword. "People usually scream when I take out my sword."

I blinked at him, "Uhhh... Okay. Yeah, I guess that could work." I hesitated, "Just don't kill anyone."

Dante nodded and put back his sword. I went into the house and looked around. I noticed an old table cloth and picked it up. I draped it over Dante and nodded in satisfaction.

"There. Now you look like a phantom of death. It actually suits you quite well."

Dante tilted his head, "Thank you?"

"You're welcome."

I looked around the run down house and noticed that most things were still where they had been left back when someone had occupied the home. There were cobwebs and dust everywhere. It added to the creepy aura in the house. It was perfect.

"Okay, I'm going to scare everyone as they walk around. You're going to chase them out waving your sword around."

Dante nodded, "Alright."

I found random things around the house and turned them into something useful. I positioned Dante and found a place to hide. I used the lantern to flash a signal to the first group.

Artie looked at Lucius, "Well that was Seri's signal. We should go."

Lucius chuckled lightly, "Eh, but what if we don't? I think we should just stay by the fire and not entertain Seri."

Artie smirked, "Why don't you want to go? Are you too scared?"

Lucius blushed, "I-I am not afraid!!"

Artie chuckled, "You're definitely afraid. Why else would you try to weasel out of going? Who knew that the brave Lucius is actually a scaredy cat."

Lucius stomped his foot, "I'm not afraid! I will show you!"

Artie nodded, "Alright. Lead the way."

Lucius started walking and his brave looking face quickly dropped. He looked ahead fearfully and gulped. Artie quickly followed after him and was instantly freaked out. Artie was a whimp when it came to the dark and scary buildings.

Although, one couldn't really blame him. The building Seri chose to conduct the test of courage looked particularly terrifying. Even though no one had lived there for many years, all of the previous owner's belongings could be found inside.

What made this so terrifying was that it was untouched. How could an abandoned building not be ransacked after all these years? Unless... There was a reason why no one dared to enter...

As Artie and Lucius stepped up on the porch, they saw that above the door frame was the words "murder house" carved into the wood. They both froze in their tracks.

Lucius gulped, "Seri wrote that... Right?"

Artie shivered as he grabbed onto Lucius, "I-I don't know."

Lucius forced a smile, "It had to be her."

Artie shook his head, "B-But... Did you see her with any carving tools? Plus... Doesn't it look... Old?"

Sure enough, the carving on the house was so old, spider webs covered it adding to it's eerieness.

Lucius held onto Artie as he stared at the carving. He held him tighter, "Hah! That's not even scary."

Artie frowned, "Then why are you holding me so tight?"

Lucius held him closer, "I have no idea what you mean."

Reluctantly, the two crossed the threshold. They held each other shivering as their heads jolted around the room trying to discern out objects or people. It took them forever to just take one step.

I noticed the two come in and pulled on a rope I had connected to a chair. The chair moved across the floor as if it had been pulled by a ghost.

Lucius let out a shrill scream and ran out of the building before anyone could blink their eyes. Artie ran after him, "DON'T ABANDON ME YOU COWARD!!!"

I blinked as I watched them run away in disappointment, "Huh... Well that was quick..."

Dante poked his head out of his hiding place, "I didn't get to chase them."

I sighed, "I didn't think they would be such cowards... I didn't even get to use all of my traps."

Artie and Lucius continued to scream as they ran past the others outside waiting their turn. Millie watched them run by and chuckled, "Looks like Seri's having fun."

William looked at Millie in horror, "Why do you look so excited?!"

Mary gulped, "We're n-next... Aren't we?"

Mathias gave a single nod with a dark expression.

Dante and I moved back into position and I signaled for the next group to come. Mary and Mathias noticed the signal. They slowly walked towards the house.

Mary was too busy trying to see in the darkness that she didn't even notice the murder house carving. Mathias, however, noticed instantly. His face grew darker.

As they walked inside, I moved the chair. Mary screamed at the top of her lungs and jumped into Mathias's arms. Mathias only looked ahead with a dark expression. They kept walking and I activated my next trap.

A blanket fell from the ceiling covering them. Mary screamed and fought off the blanket. Mathias just stood there with a dark expression, not even moving.

I guess they are going to be a lot harder to scare out than Artie and Lucius. Guess I need to turn it up a bit.

I messed up my hair and stood in front of a window. I let out a deep gurgling sound and contorted my body.

Mary froze when she heard the noise, "What... What was that?"

Mathias didn't answered but continued to stare ahead with a frown. As they slowly walked toward the noise, they saw my contorted body. I started crab walking towards them and Mary screamed so loud she almost burst my eardrums.

She turned and ran out of the house, leaving Mathias behind. I stood up rubbing my ears, "God d*mn her scream is so high pitched. I think she made me go deaf!!"

I looked up at Mathias who had an abnormally dark expression on his face. I frowned, "You're a lot tougher than I gave you credit for. I thought you'd be easy to scare."

Suddenly, Dante jumped out of his hiding spot and drew his sword out. Mathias looked at Dante.

He blinked two times.

Then he turned around and collided into the wall behind him.

He fainted on the ground. Dante and I approached him. "Uhh... Is he dead?"

Dante kicked him with his foot, "No."

I shrugged, "Let's just leave him there then. Alright! Next group!"

William and Millie entered the house. Every trick I did made William flinch and jump, but for the most part he wasn't too terrified. Millie giggled at everything I tried.

Why isn't she screaming and jumping into William's arms?! I'm trying to do her a favor here!!! She could at least pretend!!!

Okay. Nothing else worked. But I have one last trick up my sleeve. I snuck upstairs ignoring how the steps sunk down from my weight.

Millie and William walked over and noticed Mathias passed out on the floor. Millie kicked Mathias with her foot, "Oh, so that explains why Mathias didn't run out with Mary."

William frowned, "Is he dead?"

"I don't think so... He's just unconscious."

Dante emerged from the darkness brandishing his sword. William and Millie just looked at Dante with bored expressions.

William sighed, "Dante, we can tell that's you."

"Oh." Dante put his sword back in it's sheath.

Millie shook her head, "Honestly, we've seen you brandishing your sword so much that it isn't even scary anymore."

William felt something crawling on his shoulder and went to go smack it off subconsciously. Then he felt something crawling on his shoulder once more. He turned to see a giant black spider perched on his shoulder.

"SPIDER!" He shrieked and took off running.

Millie giggled as she looked up to see me at the top of the stairs holding a stick with a spider attached to a string on it.

I frowned at Millie, "Stop giggling Millie! You should be running away screaming!!!"

Millie forced herself to stop laughing. She smiled at me, "I'm sorry Seri... But it was fun."

"You want fun?! I will show you fun!!" I charged down the stairs, "I'm coming for your blood!!!"

As I stepped on the middle step, I suddenly felt my body drop. The stair step underneath me gave out under my weight, plummeting me down beneath the floor. I landed on the cold hard ground with a thud. I groaned as I rolled around in pain.

Millie and Dante rushed over and looked down the hole. Millie shouted, "Seri!!! Are you alright?!"

The others heard the crash and rushed back inside. Artie spoke in a panic, "I heard a loud crash!! What happened?!"

Millie answered, "Seri fell through the floor."

I looked up and saw everyone gawking at me. I coughed, "Oi! Toss me down the lantern, will you?"

They nodded and used a rope to hand me the lantern. I grabbed it and paused once I saw what I had landed on.

Millie shouted down, "What is it Seri?"

I picked up a skeleton skull. Everyone saw the skull in my hand and glanced at each other. They ran out of the house without looking back. I didn't notice this and observed the piles of skeletons around me.

"Uhhhh... I seem to be surrounded by skeletons... They look like they were decapitated before death." I clicked my tongue, "Huh... Guess it really was a murder house..."

I looked up and noticed everyone missing. I shouted, "Oi! You bastards!!! Did you just run away and leave me behind!?"

I stepped up and shouted, "Oi! Get back here and help me!!" I heard something crack under my feet. I looked down and noticed I had stepped on and broke a skeleton's ribs.

"Eek! Sorry Miss skeleton. I didn't notice you down there... Wait... Are you a girl skeleton or a boy skeleton? I think you can tell by the pelvis bone... But I feel like a pervert if I tried checking."

I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and turned my lantern to it. I saw a dark figure in the corner step toward me. I let out a shrill shriek and started chucking bones at the figure.

"AAAAAAH!!! VAMPIRE!! GET BACK! DON'T HURT ME! GET BACK BEFORE I HURT YOU!!! AAAAH! I PROMISE MY BLOOD IS DISGUSTING! IT'LL MAKE YOU FAT!!! IT'S HIGH IN TOXICITY!!"

I continued to throw skeleton parts at the figure and quickly realized I had ran out of bones. I gulped in fear and started waving the lantern around, "GET BACK! I HAVE FIRE!"

The hooded figure pulled down his hood. Dante's expressionless face looked at me blankly. I stopped waving the lantern around, "Oh.. It's you." I smacked Dante on his chest, "Why didn't you say something sooner!? You freaked me out!!!"

"How could I speak when you were throwing bones at me?"

"Oh... I guess you're right." I looked at the now scattered bones and bowed to them, "Please forgive me for using your corpses as a weapon."

I stomped my foot in irritation, "But I can't believe those bastards just abandoned me down here. And even after I went through so much trouble to purposely set them up with their crushes!!!"

Dante glanced at me, "You purposely set them up?"

I slapped a hand over my mouth. Oh sh*t. I have such a big mouth.

I forced a smile, "Uhh... Maybe?"

"..."

I sighed, "Okay, I did. I couldn't help it. Artie and Lucius have waaay too much sexual tension. Mary and Mathias seem like a good couple. While Millie has a crush on William and needs all the help she could get."

Dante chuckled at this, "Millie and William?"

I frowned, "Don't make fun of their love. I know it's probably a one sided love, but friends help each other out. So I can't just stand by without helping Millie out."

Dante snickered as he shook his head. "What about me? Why was I paired up with you?"

"Because no one else can have you except me." I responded in a matter of fact tone.

Dante smirked, "Oh really?"

My mouth dropped at my own words.

I quickly changed the subject, "But why are you down here?"

"To help you up." He smirked, "Or should I leave you down here?"

I shook my head quickly, "No, no. Although it's not a bad pit of death, I don't really prefer to stay here much longer."

Dante hoisted me up and I climbed out. I reached my hand down and helped him climb up. I dusted myself off and we left the building dragging Mathias without turning back.

A dark figure slowly emerged from the shadows...

It watched as we walked away...