Despite the illumination of the full moon hanging slightly behind the old, run-down house on the crest of the little hill, there was an unshakable eerie feeling all around. The wind shaking the leaves of the trees on either side of the dirt road didn't help much either; all it did was cause the shadowy shapes to dance about. After taking a deep breath to calm her nerves and remind herself that the shapes were only shadows, Aidyn looked at her friends around her, briefly wondering if they were upset with her at all. She had been the one to get them into this mess after all. The memory of the event that had led to the current moment was still fresh in her memory.

[i]“You guys think that you're soooo great, doncha?” Richard Slynn snapped, that sneer that seemed a permanent fixture of his face giving him a particularly nasty look. He wasn't pleased to have his “fun” interrupted as she and her group of friends came around the corner of the small candy shop, Carmel's. Of course, his “fun” involved bullying kids that were typically a grade or two younger than he and his cronies. The poor boy who had been unlucky enough to catch Richard's eye took advantage of the momentary distraction to wriggle from the larger boy's grasp and haul off down the street. “I betcha you wouldn't last twenty minutes in Old Man Ferwinkle's house on the hill. Me and my buds have done it tons of times.”

The usual response was to ignore Richard and move on, but he wasn't going to have any of that. “You're all just a bunch of chickens!” he laughed, blocking their path, imitating chicken noises and flapping his arms as if they didn't realize what he was saying. “Probably afraid of the dark and everything! Just like a bunch of babies!” That had been crossing the line for Aidyn, and before she knew it, she was telling him, and his cronies, that they would do better than stay for twenty minutes. They would spend the whole night in the creepy, decrepit house.[/i]

“Well? Are you chickens going to go in or are you going to forfeit right now?” Richard said, the sneer practically audible in his voice. As usual, his nasally voice was a pale orange color that felt like a splash of ice cold water, causing her to shiver involuntarily. Hearing all of those words sent cascade of flavor over her tongue as well, changing at every word. Hard, spicy grape to juicy, cold mashed potatoes to hot, rough bubblegum and more. A different taste for every word that came and went as he spoke, the same as what happens during any other conversation. Focusing on those flavors made it a lot easier to ignore Richard's laughter as she readied herself to do what they had come to do.

Looking up at the gate and fence made of black iron, and the dark silhouette of the house, it probably hadn't been her best idea to accept the bet, let alone make it worse. But, Aidyn wasn't one to dwell on the past. Taking another deep breath to steady her nerves, she walked up to a section of the fence near the gate that was loose and stepped through, an action that was really quite simple for her due to her small size. The others, who were all larger than her, would have a bit more trouble, but every one of them would still be able to wriggle through.

Once everyone was through, they went up to the door as a group. Another blast of wind made her jump as a milky brown filled her vision and the sensation of a solid shove centered on her shoulder. Of course, both sensations vanished immediately once the wind died down. She had just been too focused on the door in front of them, and that wind had come from nowhere. That didn't stop the slight blush from appearing on her face as Richard's laugh became audible. Afraid of what she would see, she didn't bother looking at her friends.

As calmly as she could manage, she reached forward with her friends and pushed the door open, the creak filling the night air. Surprisingly enough, the sound was a warm white, though it did send pin-pricks of cold down her back. Once inside the creepy building, Aidyn took her bag off her back and pulled out a battery-powered lantern for herself. She did have an extra in case it was needed, but she didn't wait to see, her curiosity leading her to enter what would have been the living room of the building. The most notable thing in the room was the wooden stand that held an ancient-looking television. Directly across from that were a large couch and recliner, which had several gouges in the cushion covers from animals using the material for nests. The boarded up windows did allow some moonlight into the room, but it was barely enough to see more than dark shapes. With the illumination of the lights, it was possible to see little animal tracks in the dust that covered everything, though only because the dust looked thinner in some places.

A flash of movement out of the corner of her eye made her jump before she realized that it was just the dusty television screen showing her reflection. Her black denim shortalls with white stars and numerous paint stains was rather hard to see in her reflection, which wasn't true of her neon green t-shirt. For once, she was rather glad that her feet were only big enough to fit into shoes designed for younger kids, as the multi-colored [url=http://c.shld.net/rpx/i/s/pi/mp/26509/5403291115?src=http%3A%2F%2Fi.shoeluv.com%2Fmedia%2F239jX2Hrys50OrRhdJuLu3GPDZ8a1gFR-14.jpg&d=29f3daf665f61caf444c407e17c11ba3adcdd14d]shoes[/url] she had on had the light-up feature. While not very useful for seeing around her, the pink flashing lights did have a tendency to loosen the atmosphere of the place.

After analyzing her reflection for a few more seconds, she moved towards the television stand to set her lantern on top, thereby illuminating a little more of the room. Curiosity momentarily abated, she turned to her friends in the room with her. “What do you guys want to do now?” she asked, still feeling a little bad about getting them roped into spending the night in the house. Hopefully they weren't too mad about it. She had brought some cards and the like to pass the time if they wanted, though she wouldn't mind exploring either.