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It was a miracle that the ground wasn't covered in at least a foot of snow by now in the quiet town of Alta Vista. Instead, a slight fog paired with a sprinkling of rain came down on the frozen ground, leaving everything around a very dull and dead grey color. For all students, it was the beginning of winter vacation, a week off for the holidays to be spent with friends and family. For these five friends the day had started even earlier. Around 7:00 am they all decided, (somewhat reluctantly) to all wake up on the first day of the break and spend all day with one another. Having breakfast at the diner, they ate happily and started their day off on a bright and cheerful note, for the most part.

Gaining a bit more energy and after the heavy rain halted, the group decided to go exploring in the forest that surrounded the outskirts of the town. Before they knew it they had reached a small clearing, and in that clearing appeared a faded yellow home. The windows were boarded up, and if they were not boarded, broken. The siding decrepit and crumbling. The friends looked at one another, varying faces of excitement, curiosity, and worry spread across their face. They had never seen this place before, and they had sworn they had stomped over every inch of that town- twice.

Georgina adjusted the white beanie on her head as she looked to her friends, "You guys wanna take a look?" she asked innocently, as she hopped up the very weak and wobbly steps, almost going right through when she stepped on the termite infested wood. Wiggling the door handle, she pouted. She half expected it to open for her, but of course it was bolted lock.

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December 19th, 2016. 7:10 am

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This morning, it started off with the usual of Titus' grandmother heading to his room to bang on the door from the blast of his Alarm that he seems to never hear the first 3 times around. It was very irritating doing this day by day because her grandson seems to love to stay up super late. By the time it was almost 7:15, his grandma came in and sprayed him with his old super soaker, waking him up. Grandma, what the fuck!? he said as she looked at him "Do I need to stick soap in your mouth again, stop using that language. You always stay up super late and you can't wake up in the morning. Didn't you say you were all getting together today? I'm waking you up to see your friends." she said as he started moaning with aggravation.

After getting up and getting ready, he headed to the diner to meet up and eat with the others, pretty much being one of the last ones to get there and orders his breakfast where he ate slowly and lazily until they headed out to explore what they've already explored in this tiny town. Titus had on his black jeans, black and red Nike shoes, gray shirt and black hoodie walking along side Gina. For the most part of the morning, his attention was more on Gina and Lauryn as he didn't really get along well with Sebast and chose not to pay him no mind and simply gave a greeting to Zane when they first met up but that was the only time her interacted with the guys.

When they came upon something, a home, a place he could've sworn he's never seen before despite being all around Alta Vista, he scratched his head. Either this place just appeared from nowhere or the weed he was smoking caused him to miss it. When Gina asked if they wanted to take a look, Titus was down. For him to never see this place, he didn't mind some creepy excitement and stepped forward Shit, you know I'm down. He said trying to volunteer But you gotta be careful though...look like we gonna have to kick the door in then. he said.

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For Zane, his start of the morning was greeted with a nice, lovely, blaring alarm clock to the ear, jolting him awake as he quickly raised his left hand and pressed down on the IPhone's home button to shut it up. He always made sure to have it up to near full blast so that the shock of waking up to it would really hit him hard, and placed it on the side of his bed so that it was close. While it wasn't the most sane decision to some, it did do it's job in making sure he'd get up. And if he did decide to go back to sleep or the snooze, he had made several alarms set on his phone to go off each minute afterward. But today, he made sure to get up on the first alarm, hastily turning off the others as he stretched his bones. A bit earlier than planned, he thought, but it was worth waking up a little earlier to hang out with the others, even if he knew they'd most likely ask him several questions. Or, well, one in particular.

After a nice, hot shower, he decided to wear a grey and black hoodie under a leather jacket, making sure to pull the hood out and over the jacket's collar, fleece lined blue jeans, black boots, and his iconic watch. Going down the stairs, the house was still silent as his parents were either sleeping or at work. Well, at least his father that is, he knew his mom was probably still in bed. He stopped and considered making them breakfast, but felt he didn't have time if he was going to meet up with the others at the diner. Besides, they knew he was going to hang out with them today, so he supposed it would be fine. He'd make it up to them by cooking dinner, yeah, that would work. With a nod to himself and a lot of reassurance going on in his head, Zane left to meet up at the diner.

He was glad he was among one of the first ones there, and when everyone arrived, he ordered some french toast with sunny side up eggs and, like usual, an iced coffee. While it was cold out, he always did prefer his coffee cold than hot, and was already dressed up for the cold anyway. He did his best to eat fast so that he wouldn't hold them behind, and was glad that they set off to explore, despite having explored every inch of this place on several occasions. Or so he thought.

When they found the home,Zane was actually surprised, having thought they couldn't miss a place like this, and yet they had. But at the same time, he was kinda excited to see what was in the damaged place. It was like a horror movie, except this was real life and not like the things he studied on screen or on stage. It seemed Toc had a similar interest in exploring, and while he didn't feel that confident in going in first, the groups presence gave him a feeling that he could very easily do so. Seeing as the door was locked, he began to think of other ways to get in. We could probably get in through one of the busted windows, or if you want, I'll try that and see if I can unlock it from the inside. He suggested, a confident smile on his face.

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The coolness of the morning permeated Sebastian's room as his alarm went on by his head, coaxing him awake with gentle tunes and simple melodies. The drowsy boy uttered a guttural noise from his throat and rolled over, throwing his hand in the general direction of his phone. After a few failed attempts at grabbing the ringing device, he cracked open an eye, grabbing the phone and shutting off the alarm. He settling back into his covers, enjoying their warmth, slowly... dozing... off-

The sharp ring of a second alarm jolted him from his drowsy state, forcing him into consciousness. He muttered a few unintelligible squabbles before accepting that regardless of how tired he was, he still had to get up.

Sebastian rolled over and threw off his sheets, letting the cold air cover his entire body. The crispness of the surrounding air brought his exposed skin to life, causing a small shiver to run down his spine and fully awaken him. He crossed his arms over his bare chest and sat up, quickly grabbing a towel before making his way into the bathroom. Ten minutes later, he had showered and dressed himself for the day, wearing a pair of deep blue pants, thick black shoes, an off-white long sleeve shirt, and a grey coat and scarf. He ran his hands through his hair to put it into shape, leaving it in a messy pattern that he took more time than he wanted to admit working on.

After grabbing his phone, wallet, and a pair of earphones, he quietly exited the house, making his way down the street while he blocked out all noise with his music. After a short walk, he arrived at the diner as the second to last one, with only Titus still missing.

After the group ate, they headed out to trek through the woods, more to see the nature than to explore; they had practically explored every inch of the town.

After a short walk, the group eventually came upon an abandoned house none of the recognized. Confusion Sebastian's first reaction, however it was quickly overriden by curiosity. After they swapped a few ideas of how to get inside, Sebastian piped up.

"Looks like there's a fairly clear window over there." He commented, pointing over towards the right side of the house. "Or we can break down the door. Whatever floats your boat." Either way, he was anxious to explore the house, albeit slightly nervous. It concerned him that no one recognized it; it seems d vaguely reminiscent of a horror movie.

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December 19th, 2016. 6:48 AM

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As the phone alarm jostled her awake, silently, Lauryn groaned at the thought of leaving the comfort of her warm bed. She had never been a morning person. She often wished that she was. The grass is greener on the other side of the fence, she supposed.

Like most days, her very first thought was, “I wish I could sleep longer.” The comfort and safety of her bed screamed loudest in the mornings. Her vision was blurry, and she could not read the screen clearly, but there was no need. Her hand found the snooze button instinctively, as if it needed no help from her brain. She wasn't very sure what good her brain was that early, anyway. Lauryn dragged herself out of bed and stumbled towards the closet, wiping the sleep from her eyes and in an almost robotic fashion, pulling on a pair of ripped jeans and a T-Shirt—whichever is conveniently residing at the top of the "clean clothes" pile. After that, she quickly brushed her teeth and washed her face in the hallway bathroom. Then she threw on her black fur jacket before stopping by the bedroom window, using the reflection to fix her hair. The street light at the top of the driveway illuminated a steady stream of rain. She grabbed a scarf, a pair of socks and her rain boots before leaving the house.

Lauryn was the third of her friends to arrive at the diner, and it was then that she realized just how hungry she was. She ordered a stack of pancakes and, after drenching them in blueberry flavored syrup, scarfed them down until she was satisfied. She washed the meal down with an ice cold glass of apple juice. By the the gang was finished eating, the rain had stopped, so they decided to go exploring in the forest that surrounded the outskirts of the town. When they'd come across the unfamiliar home, Lauryn was very skeptical. Her skepticism, however, turned to concern as soon as Gina started up the weak and wobbly steps, almost falling right through when she stepped on the termite infested wood. Pushing her concern away, Lauryn scanned the ground as she listened to her friends converse. "Looks like there's a fairly clear window over there," She'd heard Sebastian say.

"It's funny," she said with a laugh as she continued to look around, "how we find a strange ass abandoned house in the middle of the forest, and our first instinct is to look around." As soon as she'd finished speaking, Lauryn found exactly what she was looking for. After retrieving the largest rock she could find in the area, she made her way to the right side of the house, wrapped her scarf around her hand, and, without warning, used the rock to break in the rest of the window. Lauryn grinned as the glass shattered and a few shards of splintered glass spilled onto the ground.

"Why bust down the door when we can climb through the window?" she said, dropping the rock back on the ground and unwrapping her hand. "Now," she said with a smirk, "who's up first?"

The group talked back and forth of their plans of what to do next when it came to the house. The crash of the rock through the window came suddenly and put an ear to ear grin on Gina's face. "You crazy bitch!" Gina said, chuckling to one of her good friends. She admitted she hadn't thought about breaking the window completely in. "I'll go, It was my idea first anyways." Gina moved over to the now broken window as she put a leg through, dipping down and sliding through. It was times like these where her short frame came in handy.

Inside the house the condition was not much better than the outside. A strong smell of mildew and dust filled her nose as she turned to the door. Unlocking the several locks from the inside she opened up the door for her friends outside. "Taah-daaah" she gestured to them coming inside. "It stinks in here though, disgusting." Gina claimed, waiting for all them to come in. She looked towards the ceiling noticing a gaping hole in it. It seemed to be destroyed by water damage, but the discoloration could prove to be any liquid.

Meanwhile..

Within the house five small creatures no smaller than a typical mouse spoke quietly to one another, to the outside ear it just sounded like a small squeak repeating the same sound: "mahlimae, mahlimae, mahlimae." but in their own language they had conversations. "There are people coming. Young people. New people. People coming." they whispered between themselves as they scurried across the dust covered floor, some unwrapping themselves from the layer of mold they were resting in. They climbed under the stairs, peeking through an open slit of broken wood so they could have their piercing eyes watching the front door.

Sebastian flinched at the sudden sound of shattering glass as Lauryn smashed in the window. After a moment, he let out a deep laugh and shook his head. Watching with eyebrows raised in amusement, Sebastian observed Gina climb into the window and disappear into the house. After a moment, what sounded like ten locks unlocking came from behind the door. Gina's face was soon revealing, smiled with a crinkled nose.

"Who's house was this?" Sebastian wondered aloud as he climbed the rotten steps, careful to avoid the severely damaged patches. He turned his body sideways and slid past Gina into the house, taking in his surroundings.

Above him, a gaping hole in the ceiling revealed the room above him. The wall paper in both rooms was the same; a faded, stained flowery paper that had seen decades worth of time. The carper his feet walked upon was a faded grey that could have been any color at one point, however now it was impossible to tell. Stained, broken baseboards surrounded the baseline where the walls met the floor.

Once he reached the center of the room, he turned in a full circle, unable to help the urge to look up into the room above him. The entire house reminded him of a feeling he couldn't quite name, a sense of nostalgia and longing for times long since passed. "This house creeps me out. Kinda reminds me of the house a demon would camp out in.

The piercing sound of shattering glass made Zane flinch and turn to where the sharp noise had come from, immediately taking notice that Lauryn had a rock in her hand and that a window met an untimely end. As the rock descended towards the ground, he took a deep breath to calm the small feeling of uneasiness the noise had caused before glancing at the others. Gina seemed eager to go first, and by all means Zane didn't mind it. He'd let everyone who wanted to go first go, and then he'd go in afterward. He watched as she gestured for them to come inside, mentioning how the place stunk. Zane assumed that was probably going to be the norm with this place, seeing as it didn’t look like it’d seen any sort of cleaning or attention in years, maybe decades. Thinking back to entering the house close to last, It would save him from having to answer Gina’s coming questions as well, at least for a little bit, and he could prepare saying his answers in his head in the meantime.

With several I'm not sure and I don't knows later playing in his head, he watched as Sebast was the next to climb into the house through the shattered window. Now that he thought about it, there was a high chance one of the other windows being broken with the state of this house… But it's not like it mattered now. The place was in rough shape, and he doubted adding another window to list of things that are messed up to it would really effect the place. It was unlikely anyone lived in this wreck, though it did raise the question of where this house came from in the first place. He hadn't questioned it at first, but he had thought the gang had explored every inch of this town, even the outskirts. So, why had they missed this? He'd definitely make note of it when he got home by sketching the place from memory, and he wondered if Lauryn would do the same. She’d probably give him a bit of hassle for it if she ever saw it, but he appreciated it nonetheless. After all, at least she was genuine in telling him how bad some of the things he did was.

Now, he simply waited for someone else to go, unless they didn’t want to take that first step. To signify this, he simply gave a thumbs up towards the rest.

Hearing the glass breaking along with the suggestion of going through the window and the fact that the door was now unlocked from the inside thanks to the efforts of Gina and Lauryn, Titus was not all to excited for the fact he couldn't bust in the door Tch....great...the town is already boring as it is but now I'm denied a chance to kick in a door for the first time... he said simply following in after the others went through the window, right through the same door he wanted to kick in.

Looking around in this fucked up house, he listened to what the others about how disgusting the place was. The smell itself was enough to make anyone who had sinus or allergy issues choke. Then hearing what Sebast said "This house creeps me out. Kinda reminds me of the house a demon would camp out in." Toc smirked while pulling out his spliff and placing it in between his lips before trying to fire it up. I really don't give a fuck about who's house it used to belong to. I'm just trippin' about how the fuck we've missed this house all these years as small as this town is. And if this is a house of paranormals....I say....bring the weird shit on. Never smoked weed with a demon before. You know how fuckin famous we'd be to claim this place and got the paranormals on our side? he said lighting up his spliff.

"You crazy bitch!"

Lauryn couldn't help but smile as she watched the small girl climb through the window. Knowing that there was no way in hell that she was going to be able to climb in through the window without cutting herself on broken glass, she opted to go in through the front door as soon as Gina had unlocked it. The instant she stepped foot into the old, musty house, however, she covered her nose and groaned in disgust. "What the fuck is that awful smell?" The pungent smell of mildew and mold filled her nose, and the dust made her eyes water. The girl couldn't help but shudder as she continued to walk around, carefully surveying the house. There was a gaping hole in the ceiling, and stained, faded floral prints covering each wall. The carpet, she noticed, was a faded gray color, damp in the spots nearest the broken windows. The place was a complete dump, as far as she could tell, but that didn't stop her from walking even deeper into the mysterious house.

"Whoever lived here has been gone for a long time." she said as she neared the staircase. "This place is disgusting. Cool, but disgusting." When she reached the stairs, she carefully placed her foot on the first step, testing it out before she would attempt to go upstairs. "I still don't see how we managed to miss a bright ass yellow house," she said, deciding against climbing the stairs and making her way back towards the group, "I mean, we've been around these parts countless times, and we know everyone that lives around here. This town ain't that big."

"This house creeps me out," Sebast said, "Kinda reminds me of the house a demon would camp out in." She opened her mouth to say something more, but froze before the words could come out.

Did she hear something?

The hairs on the back of her neck rose as she took another nervous glance around the room. It was bad enough that the house gave her the creeps, but all the talk about demons and such had her feeling paranoid. She closed her mouth and looked over her shoulder, her eyebrows furrowed. She had the strange feeling that she was being watched.

As the rest of the group entered the house, Sebastian wandered towards the stairs. He passed Lauryn and placed his first foot on the step, looking upward as he rested his weight on it. Without considering the stability, he started to climb the structure, only pausing when it gave a disconcerting creak in response to his presence. He froze and looked at the stairway, considering the best option for ascending it. The right side seemed particularly sturdy in comparison to the rest of the structure, and so he chose to hug the wall with his body as he shimmied up the stairs. The groups chattering became vaguely distant as he reached the top floor, looking around in a jumpy manner.

The upstairs was comprised of two perpendicular hallways, one of them running from left to right of the stairwell and the other continuing straight in the direction the stairs faced. He uncertainly tested his weight on the second level's floor before turning back around to face the group. "The upstairs looks like it's in pretty good shape," He commented, attempting to disguise his trepidation towards the house. "But it smells like a frickin' dumpster." Sebastian began breathing through his mouth to lower the chance of him smelling the moldy air as he glanced around the upstairs, scared to turn his back on what he hoped was the empty second floor.

The faded grey carper continued upstairs, covering most of the floor except where it had been torn up in a few places by God knows what. Portraits of unknown figures were hung on the walls, however over the years they had faded significantly, now appearing more like twisted monsters than decent humans. Candle holders hung on the walls, causing Sebastian to wonder exactly how old the house was. He could at the end of the hallway on the left a second set of stairs continued to ascend upwards, presumably to the attic.

"Any of you guys wanna join me up here?" Sebastian asked, turning to the rest of the group. "It's-" His words were cut short when a small scampering noise came from behind him, accompanied with what sounded like a faint voice. Sebast's head whipped around as he studied the hallway behind him with wide eyes. His heart rate skyrocketed as he held his breath, waiting for a second noise to occur. But it never came.

"Guys, there's something up here." Sebastian hissed, hoping the rest of the group could hear as he began to slowly move back towards the stairs. Unwilling to take his eyes off of the no longer vacant hallways, Sebastian continued back until his foot reached the top of the stairs. The hairs on his neck stood up as he slowly surveyed the second floor. He knew that it was probably a squirrel or a bird, however he couldn't help to shake the irrational trepidation he was experiencing.