At 11:20 pm, I got up. I could still hear the sounds of the TV from the living room. I put my flashlight in my pocket and climbed out the window, scuttled across the garage roof, and dropped down to where my bicycle lay. I cycled over to Pete Green’s house, and together we cycled over to the school. Pete had been my friend since we were little kids. We liked the same things. We liked skateboards and comic books and Star Wars movies and arcade games. Haven’t had a friend like him since, and I doubt I’ll find one now.

When we got to the school, Benny and Tyler were already there, waiting for us, and so was Chrissy. I hadn’t expected Chrissy to be there, and neither had Pete. She was something else we both liked.

Pete braked and brought the rear wheel of his bike around in an impressive skid. If I tried that, I’d have ended up on my face, so I slowed and stopped normally. I looked at the guys, pretending not to notice Chrissy or else I’d start blushing.

“Ready for this?” Benny asked, his grin in place.

I gave him a shrug, doing my best to act cool.

“He’s peeing his pants,” Pete said, laughing, and I laughed along with them just to show what a joke it was. As much as we were friends, I’d found it best to laugh along with Pete. He had a sharp tongue that’d turn on you if you weren’t careful.

We rode up along Mulgarvey Street, got to the edge of town where the Streets started becoming Roads, and ended up on King Road. We turned off that before the junkyard, cycled on for another few minutes, and we came to the house at the very top of King Hill.

It stood on its own like a bad idea. It was dark and ramshackle, with some boarded-up windows and a boarded-up door. No graffiti, though. I didn’t know of any kid brave enough to tag the yellowing sides of this house.

We left our bikes on their kickstands, and I went to the gate. Going to the gate was the easy part. Looking brave doing it wasn’t much of an effort, either. It was the passing through the gate that was the problem. The house had a feeling about it. The closer you got, the more you felt it. It was a sick feeling, made you queasy and light-headed while your arms rippled with gooseflesh. It was a bad house. Everyone knew it.

But I guess I had a secret weapon. I had Chrissy Brennan watching me, and I knew there was no way, there was just no way, that I was going to chicken out in front of her. My hand went to the gate, pushed it open.

It creaked, just like in a horror movie.