Trouble in Paradise...

'✭.<Alora Ivory>.*•
Bad things happen to bad people

The house loomed in front of us. The invitation seemed more inviting, like it was waiting for us to come back—like it knew. The house seemed worst then before, it felt like it decayed in a short amount of time. I know that we have all the equipment and things but the house made it seem like we under-packed. "Is it me, or does the house looker bigger?" Lorenzo asked, his head titled squinting at the house. "Unfortunately, yeah." I muttered, the cold breeze I felt caused a shiver down the back of my neck. "Geez, it's like the house is breathing." Mattheo added, his eyes fixated at the rotting house. "It is not breathing!" I sounded like I was convincing myself of that. "It's breathing." He repeated, "just accept it, Ivory. This house is way more freakish than earlier." And it was true. "So who says we turn back now and say that we never got in contact with this freaky ass house again." Theodore suggested. No one said anything.

"I'm just saying—If I had to vote on someone to go first," Mattheo said, as he pointed to my direction "I think Alora here should go. She was the one who brought more practical things. medkit, flashlight. Rope." I shot him a glare. "Seriously! Why would the most paranoid one go in first?!" He shrugged. A colder breeze passed coming from the windows, stronger before—debris and dust, I felt myself tense up. Lorenzo took a couple of breaths before turning to face us, a big grin plastered across his face. "Okay...besides nightmare house...we are here now, unfortunately." His grin wasn't too reassuring, he was afraid as the rest of us. None of us said anything, we just stood there before it happened.

A shadow lurked from the darkness, loud footsteps came from the porch, we quickly turned pointing our wands towards the porch, startled. I felt my heart drop. From the shadows, there was Tristian. He wasn't freaked out like us, he willingly stood on the horror house porch. Tristian leaning against the broken railings, he wasn't so fazed to see us there or us pointing our wands towards him. "Geez, put your wands down. I'm no threat." The silence was loud but the tension was overwhelming. "You've got to be kidding me." Mattheo groaned, Lorenzo kept his wand high still facing Tristian, "Why are you here?" Theodore added, "The big question is how are you here?" Tristian shrugged—not bothered by their hostility. "You guys aren't exactly the quietest at being stealthy, sound carries in the dungeons."

"You followed us?" Alex hissed, voice hard and defensive. A short laugh followed, Tristian's voice was dry and in disbelief, "No, You aren't even my first priority." He said, eye flickered to me then at the bracelet around my wrist and everyone's else. "Cute ritual by the way, what a way to build friendships." Mattheo stepped forward his voice rising. "Are you really mocking us?" He hissed, "Because if you are here to be a mocking know-it-all-"..."I'm here because I know that none of you are prepared to enter this house." Tristian snapped. I glanced between both of them, "What? What do you mean we aren't ready?" Tristian's gaze turned back to me, and for a second instead of anger, or disgust it was hard to read actually. I couldn't tell if he was just concerned or if he was trying too hard not to care. "I mean, this house is tied to disappearances, from years ago till now. It's not just some school legend, this shit is real life stuff. Trust me I did the research." He explained, voice soft and more quiet. Mattheo wasn't too impressed of what Tristian had to say, he rolled his eyes, and scoffed. "Congratulations, Erdos. You read a couple ghost stories"

"I read accounts, and experiences. Old ones, Records in the forbidden section." Alex rubbed his hand over his face, annoyed. "Then leave. If you're just gonna bring down the mood and scare us, then go back to the castle. We don't need the extra baggage." Tristian eyes narrowed, "Baggage? Are you kidding me?" Mattheo scoffed, his once sly smirk on face was now replaced with irritation. "That's exactly what you are..You did follow us, didn't you?" Tristian frowned, his jaw clenched and even more irritated than Mattheo was, "you think I would waste my night on you morons?!" And it was true, if this was the case, I doubt Tristian would drag himself to come all the way out here without a reason. I didn't say anything, they already bombarded me with complaints when I brought up Tristian before. "You know you showing up here to play hero is honestly so pathetic. First you hate our guts and use violence to showcase it, and now you showing up here to 'save' us." Mattheo laughed, it was bitter and cold. Theodore added on, "You literally came here to scare when we all got the confidence to go in. What a way to ruin a vibe."

"You're all unbelievable!" Tristian snapped, his voice loud, hard. It felt like the whole forest shook. "I followed you guys because I knew that you were dumb enough to go through with this. Someone had to warn you to not come back to this haunted place, because clearly one wasn't enough! And what? Your bodies will be stuffed into this houses wall with no explanation to your families. Then what?" That shut them up for good. I was as taken aback as the rest. "You admitted it. Good job" Lorenzo said, deadpanned. "Yeah..I knew you guys wouldn't let this house rot out here. Every look. Every word. Back in detention. If I hadn't followed you here, the next big headline on The Prophet would be five idiots disappearing in the forbidden forest on a dare." A laugh escaped from Mattheo's mouth, humorless and sharp. "What are you our mom or something?" Tristian narrowed his eyes at Mattheo, basically stabbing daggers at him. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

The tension had the my bracelet pounding against my wrist, and this was only going to get worse eventually. "So, this is the real reason why you are here, right?" I asked, it wasn't like Tristian was suspicious but was this really the reason why he was here? To help us get away? His eyes flicked to me, and the way his face changed—something was complicated. Before Tristian had a chance to speak the house spoke first. The door creaked, a horrible, cracking sound—and swung open, wide. No longer that sliver. Air spilled out of it which hit all of us: Cold, metallic. The smell of rotting wood, and mold. We all froze. I wanted to run off right that second—instinctively I stumbled back my back crashing into Mattheo. He let out an exaggerated sigh, steadying me with his hand. "Well, if you wanted to throw yourself at me, you could've at least take me to dinner." He laughed, I shoved him away with a scowl, though my legs were shaky and felt like jello. "By all means, Ivory. Use me as a meat shield, sacrificing me to die. What a way to make a guy feel special."

The door groaned louder now, it rattling breathing—then stilled. "Did you do that?" Mattheo asked, his eyes flickering to Tristian. Who was clenching the railing tightly, "what? No!" Tristian snapped. So much for things going worse. "oh sure, how convenient that you've obviously been here longer than we have, you only had time to mess with the house." Alex muttered, his arms crossed together tightly—Lorenzo agreed, "you're just trying to scare us off so it makes you look clever while we are all shitting our pants running away, aren't you?" Tristian's jaw set, his shoulders squared and his eyes narrowed. "It wasn't me!" His voice rose louder, sharp with irritation. He gestured towards the house, "Just look at this place! This house doesn't need my help to scare the he ll out of you—it's going a great job doing it itself." The house gave another loud creek, like it was agreeing with Tristian. I feel my breath hitch, every time the house took its own breathes.

Theodore, who has been quietly staring at the haunted door—he muttered, "Are we just gonna stand here like idiots and give the house time to decide which one it wants to eat?" Mattheo glanced at him, his eyebrow raised. "Do you have any suggestions, Theo? Do you want us to rock-paper-scissors our fate?" Theodore rolled his eyes, "Don't tempt me with a good time. If anything I'll volunteer you first." Theodore shot back, his voice loud, annoyed. Every word they say I felt the bracelet ache. Like it was fading each word they said—instead Mattheo clapped his hands together and set his wand back into his cloak. "C'mon, it's just a stupid ass door. Probably the wind, or some type of ghost. But, it's nothing we cannot handle, right? This school has faced a lot worse." I couldn't tell if he was being serious or being very sarcastic but it oddly felt better than his yelling. Lorenzo nodded his head, returning a loud sigh, "Unfortunately, Mattheo is right. We didn't just come all the way out here just to stand in front of the house arguing. We promised to see what make this house so haunting." He added, I groaned. I thought maybe we would go back just maybe but of course. "I really hate how encouraged you guys are now."

And we did. We all made our way to the porch of the house, each step creaked making me feel more nervous every footstep. I stood frozen in front of the door, staring at the yawing doorway—the air felt colder, more sharper. It carried a horrid smell of rot and earthy smell, I was so afraid. I wasn't ready at all for what could be in there, and the fact that everyone is fine just makes me feel like I'm such a coward. I hadn't even know when Mattheo stepped beside me but his presence felt large, like I could recognize his presence anywhere. "Let's go, Ivory. What the worse that could happen? We get murdered? Or haunted? It's better than having more detention with Hagrid." He said, giving me his known crooked smirk. He made it sound like a joke, like our lives were some small joke. I returned him a glare. "Not helping. And I rather have detention." I didn't but it better than whatever we are doing. "Oh, im sorry." He gasped, he out hid hand on his chest like he was in so much worry, "let me rephrase this for you, You're gonna be totally safe from the big haunted house that has totally not make kids disappear to never be seen again," His grin widen as he gave me a laugh out of pity. "Is that better?"

"You're insufferable." He shrugged as he pushed forward ahead and into the door. Slowly I made myself there—Theodore trailed behind me muttering something about how annoyed he was or something, it was hard to hear but he stopped halfway between the rusty porch and pointed his wand lazily towards Tristian, how as still lazily leaning against the porch railings, "If something were to happen, You're bait. Just to make sure the rest of us get out of there in time." He warned, Tristian rolled his eyes before getting up to walk to the house, "Wouldn't expect less."

The floorboards creaked under our weight as we stepped into a once impressive entry hall. The house was massive. Dark paneling covered the walls where it met the a soaring ceiling painted in faded murals that were once beautiful, now there nothing but shadows and peeling paint. A wide staircase led straight up to darkness, the banister was cracked. The floor along with the stairs covering in moth-eating rug, that was once been red, once elegant but now rotting away slowly. Old, full of dust furniture lied against the wall. There was peeling wallpaper that fading, even curling. The faint red patterns eaten by mold and time. Every detail felt unnatural by the second. It was like this place is just calling to disappear in. Mattheo whistled low, and obviously unimpressed, "Eugh, this place is so...disgusting and badly designed. Geez, this is such a disappointment. I didn't for the house to be rotting so and, that it smell like piss." Theodore snorted loudly behind us. "Did you expect it to be fancy? And every piece to be neatly polished? How stupid are you?" Tristian muttered, Mattheo glanced towards him tempting himself not to say anything back. Then—SLAM.

The door that was once pulling in a cold shiver, slammed shut, rattling the walls and sending a cloud of dust from the ceiling. We all jumped, taking a step back and I swear I almost slipped on that red rug. "What the—?" Lorenzo quickly rushed towards the now closed door, yanking the handle as hard as he could. He twisted it to open but it didn't budge. Not one bit. "Let me try, Lorenzo. You're probably twisting it the wrong way or something." Theodore yelled pushing Lorenzo out of the way, trying to yank on it like he was. He cursed at the door, aggressively pushing it. "Lefty Loosey, Righty Patty, Theodore! Don't you know that rhyme" Lorenzo yelled as they took turns yanking the doorknob. "That's not how it goes.." Mattheo looked towards me, giving me the flat look. "Is this really the time, smart ass." I shook my head. It was just that it was wrong...just saying.  "Try using magic?" Alex barked, obviously annoyed with them. Lorenzo pulled his wand, shouting "Alohomora!" Nothing. The door just mockingly stared at us. Mattheo stepped closer to the door, taking his turn in yanking the door open—assuming that he would be able to. He lazily kicked the door, which equally did nothing as the spell they all took turns on. Alohomora—Bombarda. Nothing. Just small sparks that blew out from their wands.

"Welp. We are stuck in here." Lorenzo muttered, stepping away—pulling his fingers through his hair. Mattheo pushed his head towards the door, defeated. "Fucking great. Just great!" That's when all of them turned around in unison, their gaze immediately towards Tristian, who watched them pathetically try to open the door. "You locked it, didn't you?! You were the last one to enter." Alex accused, pointed his wand toward Tristian face. Mattheo leaned along the door, giving a cold humorous chuckle, "Of course. You did this just to try and prove your point, Erdos. By locking us in this shitty place, so that you could laugh while we are all afraid for our lives in here just for you to get your 'I told you so' moment," Tristian jaw clenched tightly, his eyes full of anger, "Screw you guys! You just have to blame me for every single shitty thing to happen here! You think I want to trap myself here, with you assholes? Don't try to pin this on me just because you were all too stubborn to listen to my warning," Tristian fist clenched, his knuckles were white and his calm demeanor changed. Like it did in the fight, of course, I was just waiting for the fight to happen, I could feel myself hold my breath awaiting for someone to take the first punch.

The air was cold, and silent. I hated it. Mattheo had broken the silence because he can't handle being in silence. It's always on and on with him. "There's got to be another way out of this place. This house is big enough to have more than one entrance." He sighed, his eyes flicked around to everyone, "And since we are here, we might as well see what's in this place, unless you all want to just stand here and cry until we get saved." None of us said anything. But Mattheo was right, we can't just wait until there is a probability that there is no way out of this massive place, or awaiting that someone will eventually know that we have been disappeared from school and come look for us. No, we should see what happened with this place and what makes it so...well creepy I guess. We had agreed, together. To stay as a team. No wondering off, and we began to explore the downstairs first. And into the creepy hallways.