The leaves crunched beneath the girls' Converses as they trudged along the narrow path, chatting happily. They were headed to an old abandoned house, deep into the quiet woods. Deeper and deeper they went, still chatting, happy to be going somewhere at all.

They went through a few puddles of mud and reached a dirt road. They instinctively followed the road to a fence. Here, they turned and followed it into even more woods. They had been here before, many times. They passed by here on horseback every summer, heading to the sand dunes not too far away. Today though, they were heading towards and old house they called Old Man 70's. It got its name from a previous excursion there. They looked in, but were too afraid to step up into the place, and saw magazines on the floor. They were dated as far back as the seventies and so, they named the house accordingly. Now that they were older and more courageous, they had decided to go back for a deeper investigation.

They got closer and closer to their destination and a sense of fear suddenly swept over them. What if something happens? What if someone is there? We have no way of leaving. We came on foot. They could easily catch us! But two of the girls talked their fears away, saying how they were four strong, horse-handling girls, old enough and definitely strong enough to stand up for themselves.

As they walked cautiously towards the almost collapsed building, silence fell over them. They hesitated to climb into the house; they were almost unable to. The floorboards of the front porch had fallen apart; they had to balance on the middle support beam to get inside safely.

As they steadied themselves, one by one, and climbed into the quiet house, the mood seemed to lighten. If someone was inside the house, they would have surely acted by now. The girls began to chat a little, looking around the first room.

Ceiling tiles littered the floor, accompanied by old, yellowed book pages and large shards of glass. In the far right corner of the room was a doorway, hidden by shadow. The girls looked around some, amazed at the junk and the exposed roof. They were too afraid to go behind the closed door in the corner, afraid of what might be lurking behind it. They got anxious and headed on towards a second room.

The hallway to the second room, if you could call it a hallway, had a layer of broken glass covering the hardwood floors. The floors could have been beautiful one day but right now, they were a moldy, dull color. One of the girls picked up a piece of glass and said to the other three, "If anything happens, I've got your back. If someone is in here, whether it be a crack head or creepy old man, they won't be able to hurt us." The three nodded and they rounded a corner, opening up to a small room that apparently served as the kitchen.

An old, rusty refrigerator was on their left and counters to their right. They looked around for a few minutes, peeking inside the fridge and trying to open the cabinets. They gave up on the cabinets and moved on.

As all four stepped through the doorway, an eerie feeling came over them all. The ceiling had collapsed in, mere inches above an old ragged couch. Yet another refrigerator was in this room, which made them wonder who was living here at once. Or even more important, who could be here now?

The strange feeling obviously became too powerful as the girl with the glass gave a sort of gasp. The strange doorway that was engulfed by shadow could be seen in this room as well and that is where all of them focused, afraid of the place now. Steadying themselves, they stood for a moment or two, wondering what could be behind the closed door. Sunshine beamed down on the couch beside them, and they could hear the sounds of their two fateful dogs bounding through the brush outside.

All four were completely creeped out now. All of the things seemed to just escalate in strangeness, and it seemed as if it was all just going to go crashing off of a cliff any moment. They looked at each other, fear shining in their eyes but only for a moment. They did not scream or shout or quiver or shake, they just calmly turned around and headed back out the way they came.

They headed back through the kitchen, stumbling now over the ceiling tiles. Then back through the hallway, treading lightly on the shattered glass. Then finally they reached the first room. The first room with the closed door.

They stepped through the doorway, one by one, being quiet now so as not to disturb whatever seemed to be here in this place.

As the four girls stepped onto the front porch one by one, they watched behind them, ever so aware of some presence in the house. The last girl jumped down onto the ground and they all seemed relieved to be out of there.

But their adventure wasn't over. Always looking for trouble, they headed behind the house to an old shed. They stepped in cautiously, watching where they stepped. The only light came from a single broken window so much of the back was shrouded by darkness. Light gleamed for a moment in the back and something moved.

The girls froze in fear.

But their minds were playing tricks on them. It was only a mirror, reflecting the movements of one of the girls. They looked around, only to find a mattress on top of a table and old, rusty parts of cars.

They turned and began to head back home but went a different way then they came, heading into a thin group of trees directly behind the house and shed. Their dogs bounded along beside them and the pine straw and leaves crunched as they went along.

The sun went behind some clouds and the house was suddenly covered by shadow. This all seemed like something straight out of a horror movie to them.

They quickened their pace.

As the woods began to get thinner and thinner and they could finally see the dirt road, the dogs ran ahead. "Well I knew that we were okay all along." One of the girls said.

"Yea me too. I just knew that if the dogs started barking, I was outta there!" Another replied.

"Yea they always know when something's going to happen you know. Like most animals, they have some sort of sixth sense." They chatted happily, feeling powerful for having the courage to even go inside.

All of a sudden, they could hear the dogs running through leaves not too far away, barking loudly.

"Holy crap!" They all said, almost simultaneously. But when they looked to where the barking was coming from, they just saw an old man, standing in his yard. He was apparently curious as to what these four girls were doing. But the dogs' barking made the girls feel threatened so they prepared to run.

Bounding down the dirt road then through the trees, they ran for their lives. The dogs followed, happy to be out, not realizing that they had alerted the girls of coming danger.

As they began to get tired, the girls slowed down a bit, but kept running. As soon as they could see the barn and the pastures, they knew they were safe. Emerging from the woods slightly muddy, they stopped and all started talking at once.

Later, they gave each other a big hug, and each one of them knew they had conquered fears and experienced something many people never would.