A Dare At The Graveyard

• Xara Storey, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2013

The sunlight shone upon the stone, making the scene look less terrifying than it would have in the darkness. The cobwebs were hung with great skill by black spiders that trapped their prey. Rocks lay carelessly upon the path, leaving an easy way to trip over.

It was a dare. I never wanted to do this, but it was either that or I was asking for death by humiliation. That was my friends for you. Sierra, the girl I had known since birth, was the queen of coming up with dares. And now she had finally gotten her chance to hand me one.

See, I had to go into our local cemetery and spray paint some of the head stones. I wasn’t very happy, but a dare was a dare. And anyway, the paint would come off in the next rainstorm. All I had to do was draw a couple of smiley faces and I would be done with it.

But now, walking in, I figured it wouldn’t really be as easy as I had imagined.

Darkness was starting to fall. I walked in through the rusted, iron gate, the metal groaning as I eased it open. A bat hooted from one of the trees above, and I jumped at the sound. I wasn’t too used to this yet.

The bitter air bit at my bare skin, and I pulled my sleeves down to cover my hands. My backpack that held the paints was shaking.

The sinister air that surrounding me was obvious to anyone who would look at me in that moment. Shivers ran down my body, and terror was prominent in my expression. Looking down at my hand, I saw that it was way paler than my normal skin tone. Judging that, my face would be as white as a ghost. Ha, ghost. I would fit right in at this graveyard, then.

I made my way over to the closest headstone, wanting to be over with this already. I pulled out the yellow can and quickly drew something. I wasn’t quite sure what, but when I looked back it was just a star. A horrible guilt flooded through my body. His was somebody’s grave. I had just drawn on the final resting place of a deceased person. Oh god, did that mean I was a criminal now? I didn’t want to go to jail! I was only sixteen!

I ran over to the headstone a few feet away and drew another star. Then again, when I looked back at it, it looked more like a deformed circle. I took out my terrible old phone which luckily had a camera and snapped a couple of photos as proof for Sierra

Then I ran flat out through the gates of that creepy place, vowing never to play another game of Truth or Dare with Sierra again. Or at least to always pick Truth.