I

The instant I saw the house I knew I shouldn’t of made that bet, it just sounded so easy at the time. Ressotami told us that if we stayed in Kingswood Manor for one night he would give each of us two hundred pounds each. Though he didn’t tell us that the house which was believed to be haunted by the former owners who were murdered there or that it was run down and abandoned. It sent a shiver down my spine every time I thought of spending the night in it. The windows were shattered, the roof had tiles missing all over the place and the building looked like it could collapse at any second.

"Go on in guys," said the sixth former Ressotami pointing to the entrance of the house then at me. He was a tall bloke with hair covering most of his face though there was an evil grin visible from behind it.

"In there," I stuttered thinking of giving up before it had begun. My best friends Marcus, Kairi and Jack stood next to me equally as baffled as I was, maybe even more so. Ressotami nodded and walked towards the door opening it with a simple kick to the hinge. You could tell he wasn’t afraid, the confidence shone off of him unlike me of course.

Jack normally the cockiest of my three best friends though he didn’t look so cocky today as I followed him into the place where we where staying the night. "Come on Marcus, come on Kairi," he said trying to be as hard as possible. They soon followed us through the rotting wooden door and into a dark and dingy bar room where we all sat waiting for a drink to be served our way.

"What you want," Ressotami asked us bending down and pulling out a couple of bottles of unlabelled booze. "Four whiskies."

"Nah, I’m fine," I replied not wanting to drink anything that had even been near this house. Suddenly taking me by surprise a stench wafted in from the nearly knocking me unconscious, it was one of the vilest things I had ever smelt. Whilst my friends were being given their high alcoholic drinks in dust-covered glasses, I wondered over to the kitchen unnoticed to investigate.

On entry I detected nothing suspicious for a haunted looking mansion situated in the middle of nowhere, there was mud wiped over the white tiled walls, a sink which was rusted to within an inch of its life and random cupboard doors missing. Until I fixed my eyes upon a blood coloured skid mark on the floor which seemed to lead into another.

"Where are you Stuart," came the high-pitched voice of Kairi from somewhere behind me. Though choosing to ignore the call I continued following the bloodstain until I reached a corpse which looked as if who ever it was had been dead for a number of months. The lifeless body was missing his index finger, a foot and the right side of his head, which looked like it had been removed with a incredibly large blade.

"I don’t believe you fell for it," chuckled Ressotami laughing at my friends and me. I could now see the flies hovering around this so-called fake body landing on blood before flying back into the air.

"How the heck is that fake," said Marcus standing next me in disbelieve.

"Yeah," agreed Kairi who was Marcus’s other half. She was already turning a bright green colour just waiting to through up on the closest thing near her which I hope isn’t me.

"Come on I am the smartest guy ever to attend Glyn Technology School," bloated Ressotami rubbing his fist up and down the front of his royal blue sweater. "I could make a fake corpse in my sleep." I had to agree he was the most talented teenager he had ever met. He had one the national chess championship at the age of six and had made his very own hi-tech computer just after his fourteenth birthday; there was no one who could beat him now a day so I just let him get on with his gloating.

"Okay stop making fun of us already," said Kairi with her eyebrows raised in boredom. She was easy to piss off as I had realized the moment I met her but if she was upset, pissed off or drunk, she is a nice person to be around.

"Fine, fine," agree Ressotami who was also beginning to get bored. "I’ll just show you to your rooms then shall I."

Ressotami then gave us the grand tour of the house telling us the stories behind every room. The room that Jack and me were staying in was believed to be where a mad murder killed two girls while they were sleeping, not making me to confident. But at least it wasn’t as bad as Kairi and Marcus’s room where a couple had their internal organs removed while they were still alive, nasty.

"Is this really worth two-hundred pounds," I said to Jack when we where left in our room to sleep. I had been thinking this as soon I saw the house but I thought if I said it in front of Kairi she would think of me as a bit of a woos.

"Dude, it’s just one night," replied Jack. "One night in a scary manor house and get two-hundred pounds or walk home in the pitch black and get mugged by a Chelsea fan losing all the money In your wallet." He had made a good point it was well worth the two hundred quid, with that much money he could finally pay his parents for the hole in the ceiling he had made while having a house party.

"Okay, let’s just get this night over with," and that was the last we said on the matter falling into a deep sleep as I always did. Dreams flashed across my mind like me being the world’s greatest football and me being a superhero but they were rudely interrupted by a scream, which wasn’t in my dreams. I shot up and looked beside me also looking bedazzled, then the scream sounded again coming from Kairi and Marcus’s bedroom.

"Shall we check it out," said Jack wondering whether to be a wimp and stay in bed or a brave hero who isn’t afraid of anything. I could tell that the wimp side of him was edging ahead though I was positive the hero would shine out of him if he needed it.

"Yeah," I said amazed at how brave I was being, normally I would just sit back and let someone else handle it but today I was ready for anything.

We both got out of bed quickly moved towards and out of the door scuttling down the narrow corridor trying to make as little sound as possible. The door to our friend’s room was slightly ajar so the two of us slid through it into the bedroom. As soon as I got in there I was wetting myself with fear and so was Jack, there was no way any of this could be happening to us. Kairi was shivering in her bed with blood splattered all over in her bed while Marcus was laying face down on his duvet, a Katana lodged firmly in his spine.

Kairi turned towards us tears streaming down her face washing away the blood that was on her face. "Help me," she muttered as if it took all her effort to say those two words. I surveyed the room checking that the room was clear and then sat down next to her.

"It’s okay now," I said without thinking, it wasn’t alright one of my best friends is dead and Kairi might have to go see one of those therapists everyday for next three years to get over it. I waited for her to reply but she didn’t, she just sat there eyes fixated on the door. "Kairi," I said wondering if she was feeling all right, well apart from her boyfriend being killed in front of her of course. But yet again she said nothing, so I swung my arm around her back in comfort thinking she was just in some state of shock. But I was wrong. With the amount of force I applied on her back she fell forward off the bed revealing a Wakizahi in the back of her neck.

I leaped of the bed and burst out of the room closely followed by Jack as I ran into Ressotami’s to check on his room. "He’s gone," I said seeing the bed empty with large bloodstains on the sheets.

"Let’s get out of here," blurted out Jack not wanting a minute more in this house of horrors.

"What about Kairi and Marcus’s bodies, we can’t just leave them here," I said feeling as if I was braver than superman.

"Screw them Stuart, their dead and they aren’t coming back." Said Jack in retaliation. "While we on the other hand are alive and I would like to keep it that way," and he left saying nothing more.

I left Ressotami’s room and went back to Kairi’s to get her and Marcus’s lifeless bodies and take them outside of this creepy house. But when I got into the room I instantly saw that something was missing.

"Where are the swords," I wondered aloud.

A cry of pain came from downstairs followed by a loud thud on the wooden floorboards.

Leaving the dead bodies I hurried to see if Jack was okay, his leg was sticking out of the doorway to left of the stairs. I slowly moved down making sure that whoever was doing these slaughters was not still around. I slowly got a better view of Jack first his legs then his torso and then…

I coughed up a small amount of vomit as I saw that his head was about a meter away from the rest of his body.

"Hello Stuart," came the familiar voice of Ressotami from behind me. "How would you like to die on your knee’s like a honorable man or begging for mercy like a coward?"