From outside the house looked old, but wonderful. It had been built with oak wood and had white pine wooden decorations. Tall, large windows added to the overall style of the house. The wooden fence looked as if it would fall, if a strong wind blew. The trees around gave an eery look to the house.

Airin pushed the fence gate open. There was a squeeky noise from it that echoed as the whole place was silent. The whole area seemed deserted and they hadn't found any living being after they entered the street. Each house in the area was situated on huge estates with most of them not visible from the street.

All of them stepped on to the premises. It was late afternoon. A slow breeze was flowing and few dry leaves were falling off. The ground was a blanket of dry leaves. The only noise they could hear was crushing of the leaves below their feet.

As they neared the house, their hearts were beating faster. None of them said anything. They stopped in front of the door.

Alby stepped forward and raised his hands towards the knob to open the door. But the door opened on its own like someone was waiting for their arrival. Gasps escaped from them. Alby turned back to the others. Jessy's face was white with fear. Fear was evident on others' face too. He tried to hide the odd feeling that he had.

Ryan was the first one to speak. "Let's go back." Jessy nodded. Airin was confused what to say. She had been trying to prove that she was brave.

"If you want, you can go back. I came here determined to find out what's causing this. I am going ahead." saying that Alby entered the house.

Although Ryan was frightened, he didn't want to leave his friend alone so he joined saying "I am coming with you. "

Jessy knew that Airin would follow him and didn't want to be felt left out like every time so she took Airin's hands and entered. Airin was surprised but she was happy. She loved Jessy for supporting her no matter what happened.

The house was dark inside. It took few moments for them to adjust to the darkness. They were in the living area. On the right side, one could see a small dining table. They could see doors to two rooms but the entrances were covered with cobwebs. The whole place was dusty and it made Alby sneeze.

Suddenly the main door to the house closed with a loud noise. They all jumped and turned. They all looked at each other.

"We are not staying here any longer." said Jessica and stormed towards the door. But she stopped abruptly.

The others joined her to see what's wrong. The door didn't have a knob or a handle.

"We are stuck now." Ryan uttered.

"God knows what's going to happen now."said Airin moving closer to him.

"Let's go and find the back door." suggested Alby.

They started moving cautiously. Airin held on to Ryan's arms. They walked towards the kitchen. The kitchen seemed like it was used recently. Unlike the whole house, there was no dust and the place appeared to be clean. There was a knife on the working station. Suddenly Jessy screamed and that brought everyone's attention to the the wall behind them.

There was a writing on it in blood.

They left the kitchen as soon as possible. Airin was clinging to Ryan. Alby looked at Jessy and felt sorry. She didn't want to come but he dragged them into this. He felt guilty and wanted to comfort her. He walked beside her.

They didn't find a back door. They decided to check the rooms. Ryan opened the door and immediately hundreds of bat flew out making all of them scream.

After few moments, Jessy realised that she was holding on to Alby and he didn't seem to have any kind of discomfort. She had thought Alby to be a distant person. He was seen with no one other than Ryan. He would rarely join them. She left her hold feeling embarrassed and looked at him. He didn't seem to have noticed it.

Alby spoke bringing her back from her thoughts. "Stay here. I will check if there's a way out from here."

The room seemed to have been untouched for ages. It looked like the master bedroom. He moved towards the windows and tried opening it but in vain. He looked around but couldn't find another way of exit. He joined the others outside the room.

"There's no door there and the windows are locked. There's no way out from there." Alby said. All of their faces fell.

"Let's try the other room." Ryan said.

They were about to move when then they heard a blood curdling scream. It was only when the screaming died down, they realised that they were screaming as well. Even when they stopped, Jessy continued screaming with her eyes closed. Airin immediately came to her side and tried calling her. Alby came in front of her and shook her to wake her up from the trance.

As soon as she opened her eyes and stopped screaming, tears started to fall from her eyes. Alby tried to tell her it was okay but that made her lean on to him and cry more. Airin rubbed her back helping her to calm.

Ryan was the first one to speak. "I don't want to stay here any longer. I am going to call dad and tell him to come here with help." With that he took his phone and dialed his dad.

When he couldn't hear a dialer tone, he looked at the screen and realised there was no network. "Oh no. My phone doesn't have network." he said

"Take my phone." Airin said handing over her phone to Ryan.

He was dialing the number when he realised there's no network in her phone too. He showed it up to others and said "No network in this too."

Alby and Jessy checked theirs and found that they also didn't have a network connection. It was getting darker.

"What do we do now?" asked Jessy with shivering lips.

Suddenly they heard some footsteps. They snuggled closer to each other looking around with extreme caution. They took few steps backwards till they hit the wall. Just then an ear piercing yell was heard. It stopped as soon as it started.

They sat down near the wall of the living area. No one had the courage to move from there and explore further for an escape. Their minds were blank and they were tired too.

It was becoming really dark. Alby turned on the flashlight on his phone. The light gave them some kind of relief. But none of them dared to speak for a while. When nothing happened for a while, they relaxed a bit.

Ryan's stomach rumbled loud enough for everyone to hear. That was when everyone realised how hungry they were.

Jessy spoke after what felt like a long time. "Let's eat something. We don't know how long we will have to stay like this or what might happen in the next moment." She opened her backpack, took out sandwiches and gave everyone. "Let's not finish everything now itself." she added when Airin was opening her backpack.

Nothing happened for a long time. Then they heard laughter coming from somewhere inside the house followed by more footsteps. Then it stopped.

After that no more noises disturbed them except for occasional noises from the wind outside. They tried to talk occasionally but would be stopped with some sound. When Alby's phone was dead, they took Ryan's but his went out soon. Then they used Airin's phone for light as they didn't want to stay in the dark. They lost track of time.

Airin fell asleep first followed by Ryan. Jessy was afraid if Alby would sleep too then she would be left alone. She looked at Alby and as on cue he looked at her.

"Are you feeling sleepy?" he asked.

"No, not at all. " she replied.

"Why don't we talk about something? I'm not feeling sleepy too." he said.

When Jessy didn't say anything, he continued, "Okay, let's talk about ourselves. I will begin. I never really had friends before Ryan. When I joined school, no one wanted to be friends with me. Everyone already had their own clique and didn't want to add me. When Ryan joined, we spontaneously became friends. Then when Airin and him became a pair, I felt a bit left out. I didn't want to interfere, so I tried to be busy with something whenever they met. But Airin always considered me and encouraged me to join them. Now I am glad I have you too."

Jessy understood why she rarely saw him. She had always misunderstood him. If not for Airin, wouldn't she also be in a similar situation like Alby's. She broke away from her thoughts  when Alby nudged her.

"I always wondered why you seemed so distant." she said trying not to be rude. "As for myself, I didn't have to go without friends for long. I was lucky because Airin joined school just days after I joined. I found her in a state of confusion and I decided to help her. And that led us into deep friendship."

It was a first time for both of them opening up to someone other than their best friends. The images they had in their minds about each other had shattered today. Now they were re-creating the image. They continued talking for God knows how long. Finally, both of them fell asleep almost at the same time.