Chapter 1: Thursday, September 5

As the bell rings on an early autumn morn (what the heck is this?! Is this the 19th century?! We're living in the 21st century, not 200 years ago! Holy Hell...) The school bell rang at 7:30 on a Thursday in September. A young boy, about 16 years old, rushes into the school. He runs up three flights of stairs, the bell rings again. "Crap, I'm late!" the boy says. He runs down the long, vacant hallway and bursts into the classroom, all out of breath. "Mr. Beck, you are late... again."

"Sorry, Mr. Wilburn! It won't happen again!"

"That's what you said last time, Mr. Beck. And the time before that, and the time before that! Mr. Beck, this is the 4th time that you are late this week! School just started and you are already slacking off! Saturday detention for you! And you'll be helping the janitor clean the school! Got that?!"

"Yes, Mr. Wilburn..."

This boy that just got Saturday detention is Zachary Beck. As you can see, he's not the best student, but he's a good kid... in terms of what your definition of 'good' is. He's always getting into fights, but it's always against bullies, and he's just trying to defend whichever kid they pick on. He's been this way ever since middle school, and it's just miraculous that he hasn't been expelled from school yet. I mean, he's gotten detention, been sent to the principles office, and been suspended, but never got expelled. And yet, through all of this, he still gets moderately good grades. How does he do this when he's suspended? Easy, he gets his friend, Mark Hommel, to get an extra copy of the homework and brings it to his house. Tests while on suspension? No problem for Zachary! He has extra time to study from the class's book, and he has a temporary few days back to take said tests. He tries to be good, but only in his academics. Not so much in being a model student.

When class was over, a very familiar face was waiting just outside. "Hey, Mark!" says Zachary, "Hey! What's up, Zach?"

"Eh, not much. Why weren't you in class?"

"Dude, it's just History. You can literally find whatever Teach said in class in the library..."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But, we still have to go to class."

"Who cares! Did he teach anything that we didn't already learn in previous History classes?"

"A lot of it, yes... but he also taught about the Shang Dynasty!"

"Ooh, 'The Shang Dynasty'! Dude, you can just read about that, or, how about this? You can just look it up!"

"Whatever. Come on, we have to go to Professor Bloom's class now or we will be late!"

Remember the friend 'Mark Hommel' that I talked about earlier? Yeah, that was him. As you can see, not such a good kid. But hey, he's just another person in a story. Anyways, let's skip ahead to the end of school. Everyone is returning home, but it seems that Mark has some other plans...

"Zach, on my way to school I found this! Do you want to go?" Mark was holding a flier that was red and black. Zach grabbed the flier and read, "'House of Nightmares' haunted house open September 13th through October 31st. Come watch the story unfold." Zach looked at Mark with a question on his face. Mark returns the look with a big grin. "Wanna go? It starts Friday after next!"

"Mark, you know that Friday the 13th means--"

"Bad luck? Come on! Stop being a superstitious prick! Are you gonna go or what?!"

"... Alright, fine, I'll go. Sounds like fun."

"Alright! See you at school tomorrow!" Mark said as he ran off, got on his bike, and started his journey home. Zachary looked at the flier once more with a feeling of unease in his stomach. He had a bad feeling about this 'House of Nightmares'. He closed his eyes and shook his head. Maybe Mark was right. Maybe he really was just being superstitious. He readjusted his backpack and walked to the bus stop. He got on the bus, and for the entire ride, he kept having this feeling that someone was watching him. But, whenever he looked around, he could never find anyone that was watching him. The entire way home he felt that someone was watching, even when he was alone. This feeling did not leave until he entered his home. He greeted his father, who was on the couch watching football and drinking beer. He grunted back to acknowledge Zachary's greeting.