From: bobandcarole@aol.com   
      
   Story: Harding house 1   
      
   by bobandcarole   
      
   The Dare *BILLY'S STORY.*   
      
       I don't know what it was really called, we knew it as `Harding's house',   
   it has always been empty, and was thought of as haunted, not that we really   
   believed in such things.   
      
       My name is Billy, I'm part of Brad's gang, there are five of us, Brad,   
   Mike, Paul and Kate - she's okay for a girl, we tried to keep her out but   
   she been able to beat us up since she was nine, we've let her stay!   
      
       But that was three years ago, and she's been cool about us, where the   
   other girls are into dresses and dolls, she stays in jeans and rides with   
   us, she's good at thinking of things to do, like The Dare.   
      
       "You know what you guys should do." She came out with one day, when we   
   all looked at her she said, "You should prove that you don't believe in   
   ghosts." She said this with a smile on her face.   
      
       Of course we weren't afraid of ghosts, and we all said so, she stood   
   there with the smile still on her face.   
      
       "Okay then lets see you walk around `Harding House', prove you're not   
   scared." We just laughed at her, this made her slightly angry, "I dare   
   you," She said, and then added, "No I double dare you!"   
      
       Well the gauntlet was down, and we didn't want her to think we were   
   scared, so we agreed and rode to the gates of the house, I don't know when   
   it was built, but it was overgrown with ivy on the walls, several of the   
   windows were boarded up, after some of the older kids had a stone throwing   
   contest.   
      
       Brad was in the lead and as we rode up to the front he was already off   
   his bike and trying the front door, turning the handle and pushing against   
   it, we watched him as he did this, finally after some fruitless minutes he   
   gave up.   
      
       "It's no good," he said, "The door's locked, we'll never get in!" And so   
   the three of us started to turn our bikes round with comments like, "Isn't   
   that too bad, yeah I wanted to look in the place as well!" When we were   
   stopped by Kate's voice.   
      
       "I know where we can get in!" It was a smug voice in a sort of 'you're   
   not getting out of it that easily!' tone, and she started to walk to the   
   side of the house.  I suppose I'd better describe the place.   
      
       It's been called a Victorian Mansion, which means it was built hundreds   
   of years ago, it's got four floors, there are turrets at each of the four   
   corners, making it look like a castle, you can't see the roof from the   
   ground, so I can't say what that's like.   
      
       There are three doors to the place, the front door which was locked, a   
   side door, covered by panels of wood and padlocked, and the back door -   
   which was also covered and padlocked.  I mean kids have tried to get in   
   before, but as far as I heard without success.   
      
       Anyhow we're following Kate as she goes to a low window, she pulls at it   
   and it swings forward, I suppose the catch broke somewhen, and nobody else   
   had noticed it.  She climbed into the hole and entered the house.   
      
       A part of me thought 'good, let's leave her there and run off!' but was   
   stopped by another part which said 'and let her think I'm a coward?  NO   
   WAY!' I could see the others were having similar thoughts and so we   
   followed her into the house.   
      
       We waited in the darkness for our eyes to adjust to the light, and then   
   Brad spoke up, "Well?  We're in here, see we're not chicken!"   
      
       But Kate just giggled at us, "Oh no!" She said, "The dare was to walk in   
   here, not just stand around waiting to leave, come on." And she ran further   
   into the room, reaching into her backpack and bringing out a torch, which   
   she turned on.   
      
       The beam hit an animal, teeth bared, crouched, waiting to spring, we all   
   jumped back, to be greeted by another giggle from Kate, "Don't worry," She   
   said in a sarcastic tone, "It's dead!" the word seemed to echo in the room   
   'dead, ead, ad, d.'   
      
       She moved the beam to show the full beast, it was part of a display, a   
   lion about to pounce on a zebra.  "There's quiet a few like that around the   
   place." She said nonchalantly.   
      
       "You've been in here before?" asked Mike,   
      
       "Course I have," She said, "Lots of times, I don't spend all my time   
   with you guys do I." She added, with a slight scornful sound in her voice,   
   "Now come on there's more to see" again the echo sounded 'See, ee, ee'   
      
       She opened  a door and entered a darkened corridor, we quickly followed   
   her, for some reason not wanting to be too far away from the beam of light,   
   not that we were scared of course, we just didn't want to trip over anyone   
   (thing!) in the dark.   
      
       Kate's' voice came from ahead of us, "I think there's some candles in   
   the kitchen, just down here, we managed to keep up with her as she entered   
   the room, there was a slight smell of something?  Couldn't make out what it   
   was though, She waved the torch beam onto a large welsh dresser and on the   
   top were some candles, as the beam moved away from them it fell on an old   
   electricity meter with it's mains switch beside it, without thinking Paul   
   reached for it and pulled it down.   
      
       There was a flash of lighting as the switch made a connection, and then   
   the light in the hallway came on, Brad went for the switch by the door of   
   the kitchen, turned it on and lit up the room.   
      
       "Goody," Said Kate, "I suppose they forgot to turn off the electric.  At   
   least we'll have lights now," and she ran to the door, "Come on, lets   
   explore!" she said and we followed her down the hallway - we didn't notice   
   the light going out in the kitchen and the door closing, or the small wind   
   that blew down the hallway after us.   
      
       We got to the stairs and looked up, Kate then spoke up again, "Let's   
   split up, we can find more stuff that way."   
      
       I spoke up, "We're not taking anything are we?"   
      
       Kate shook her head, "No way, that's stealing!  No we're looking only."   
   She said which was a relief; we didn't need to prove that we'd been here,   
   we all knew that anyway.   
      
       Brad and Mike ran towards another door, Paul went up to the first floor,   
   I was going to follow him, but Kate held me back, "Lets go to the top first   
   and work our way down," She said, I just nodded.   
      
       We ran up the stairs to start with but had to slow down when we neared   
   the top, I was starting to get a stitch in my side, but Kate didn't seem to   
   be slowing down, she ran to a door opened it and entered the room, the door   
   shut behind her, I went to open it, but the knob seemed to slide in my   
   hand, I banged on the door but could only get a muffled sound from it.   
   Behind me a door creaked open.   
      
       "Billy, I'm in here," came Kate's voice, I spun round - how could she   
   have gotten behind me, "I've found some cool stuff here." She said, - I   
   suppose I could have mistaken the door, so I turned around and went into   
   the room.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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