I Dare You

• Charlotte Ross, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2017

It was an ordinary day at school for Hannah. It was lunch time and while on the oval, Hannah and her friends were playing Truth or Dare.
When it got to Hannah’s turn, her friend Chelsea asked, “Truth or Dare?”
Hannah replied with, “Dare”. Chelsea whispered to the other girls then looked back at Hannah with a grin.
“I dare you to go into that old, creepy school at the end of your street and take a picture of the scariest thing you find and the picture has to be taken at 11:59pm.”
As the bell went for the end of the day, Hannah was regretting saying dare but she knew she had to prove to her friends that she wasn’t scared.
It was 11:30pm that night and Hannah was outside of the school preparing herself. As she entered the big double doors, she didn’t think they would be locked. As she entered the room, she imagined it as being an office. It had a big, old, wooden desk and a few filing cabinets. Hannah saw a report on the desk. As she read through it, she found that it was about a boy named Thomas who had hung himself in the attic of the school in 1837. Hannah decided to take a picture of the report then put it back on the desk.
She went through a door on the side of the office and found a massive hallway with lockers on the side walls. One locker was unlocked so she looked inside and found out who the locker belonged to. It was Thomas’. There was only a book in there and a few quills.
Hannah was walking down the hallway trying to see if there were any classrooms that were unlocked. There was only one classroom that was unlocked. As Hannah entered she noticed one desk had no dust on it, unlike the others. It had a book and a quill on it. The big book on the teachers desk at the front was not dusty either it looked like it had been moved recently.
Then she realised that on the big black board at the front of the room it said, “I’M WATCHING YOU.” Hannah took a picture of it then ran out of the room.
Hannah got to the end of the hallway and found a spiral staircase. She decided to go up and have a look, even though she had a feeling that it was leading up to the attic.
As she got to the top of the stairs she felt a cold gust of air go past her, which slammed the door behind her shut.
Hannah decided to ask, “Thomas are you here?”
There was no reply, just another gust of wind.
Moments later Hannah heard scratching on the black board at the back of the room, then written on it was, “Go away!”
So Hannah did, she didn’t want to mess with spirits and decided to leave Thomas in peace.