Fears

It's only a rumor. It's not really haunted.

The redheaded girl known as Sapphire Ivanova stared at the Shrieking Shack. The place rumored to be the most haunted building in all of Britain. She never actually believed that it was haunted, but everyone kept telling her that it was. When she told them that it was probably nothing, she was dared to go inside and spend the night there. As a Hufflepuff, most people believed that she would be too scared to actually go through with it, since Gryffindors were usually the stupid brave ones. But when she agreed without a moment's hesitation, everyone looked at her in disbelief.

Weak, little, pathetic Sapphire Ivanova was actually going to spend the night in the Shrieking Shack all alone. Hardly anyone believed her. But they all gathered at the Shrieking Shack to see if she actually showed up. The same Slytherins as usual tried to stop her, but this time she didn't seem scared when they confronted her and she was able to make it with little delay. Now she stood in front of the wire fence that seperated the Shrieking Shack's 'haunted land's from everything else. She gripped the fence hard and nearly had the wire cut into her skin as she stared off at the place.

"Hurry up and go in Sapphire! We don't have all day!" someone screamed from behind her and she turned around. "Shut up and wait!" she screamed back. "I'll go in she. I'm ready!" she added and she turned back to the fence. "I knew it. She's gonna chicken out. You wimp!" a second person called out and she got a little more irritated. "I'm going to do it! No one said you had to be here to watch me. So leave if you want!" she scoffed at them and ducked under the wires. She really hoped someone found her just before she actually went in and stopped her from spending the night there.

In the Three Broomsticks, Talon sat alone at the bar area enjoying a nice butterbeer in somewhat silence. It was summer vacation, so there weren't as many students causing much trouble at the (what Talon called) bar, so it wasn't as noisy as it usually was. Talon had been going over his book though as he sat in silence, about magical creatures and the dark arts and things of the sort. He wanted to get a head start on his education this year, seeing as how he was able to pull his life back together in the past couple of weeks.

In his book, he began to look at creatures called 'Dementors'. They sounded like a scary bunch. Dementors have a humanoid shape, approximately three metres, or 10 feet high, and are covered in dark hooded cloaks of long, ripped black cloth he read to himself Its body is greyed and decayed looking, and its breath sounds rattling, like it is trying to "suck more than air" out of a room. Its hands are "glistening, greyish, slimy-looking, and scabbed". They seem to exude cold.. If anything, they sounded like some sort of physical manifestation of a ghost...perhaps a demon. He hoped he'd never have to meet one of those things.

When Talon heard a commotion outside, he immediately jerked his head to look behind him. Seems like a large group of students were out in the area and they were all converging on something. Curiousity getting the better of him, Talon closed his book and left it on the bar counter as he approached the door. "Hey Talon!" the barkeeper George said "where are you going?" Talon looked behind him and said "I gotta check somethin' out. I'll be back in a minute, alright?" George nodded his head and said "Alright, but make sure you come back for this book." "Thanks George." And with that, Talon stepped outside.

Almost immediately, Talon regretted heading outside, seeing as how the humidity began to get the better of him. He hated summer if only for the obscene amounts of heat that poured out of seemingly nowhere. If they had a water park at Hogsmeade, he'd be in heaven at that point. A student bumped into him though, and said "Sorry about that!" Talon immediately grabbed onto the students shoulder and said "Wait, wait, wait, what's going on?" The student turned and quickly said "Someones gonna go into the Shrieking Shack and spend the night there!" Talon laughed and said "Is that such a big deal?" The student hadn't even replied and quickly rushed off to see his friends. Jerk, Talon thought to himself. Sighing, Talon walked with his hands in his pocket to see who got stuck with the poor dare.

When he reached the shack, he noticed a small group waiting near the shack, looking at the front door. "Come on guys, is this really-" he stopped mid sentence though as he noticed who was waiting near the front door, obviously distressed. It was Sapphire. Pushing some people aside, and receiving some nasty looks in the progress, Talon approached Sapphire and said "Sapphire, what are you doing here?" She was a nice girl, and spending the night in a supposedly haunted shack didn't seem to be her usual thing.

So many people were surrounding the Shrieking Shack now and that destroyed Sapphire's last hope of sneaking off before she entered the place. But now as she looked around and saw so many people, she cursed to herself because she'd attracted so much attention to herself with the stupid dare. She didn't get why so many people were interested in the Shrieking Shack. It probably wasn't even haunted and everyone would feel stupid for ever believing so.

That gave her an idea. If she spent the night there and came out the next day fine, then she would make the rest of them look like fools. That would be an amazing thing for her to accomplish. And she would be seen as a sort of hero for believing that the Shack was never haunted. But then again ... what if it was? What if it was haunted and something happened to her during the night? Great ... there goes her motivation. She really had to stop making herself scared over stupid things.

Sapphire heard some commotion, more than there already was, coming from the other side of the fence. Feeling curious, Sapphire turned around to find Talon coming toward her. She immediately stiffened and looked at him with a confused look. She opened her mouth to give him an answer but she immediately closed it. What was she supposed to say, oh I was stupid enough to be pulled into a dare that forces me to stay in there all night? She sighed and looked behind him at all the students who were waiting for her to go in. "I - I have to go in there." she began softly, dropping her gaze to the ground.

The girl looked up at Talon and gave another shaky sigh. "I ... was dared to spend the night here. And it's too late for me to back down now." she told him and she looked at the Shrieking Shack again. "I have to go in." she said in a sort of monotone voice that was unlike her usual tone. Sapphire turned around and began to extend her arm toward the door of the Shrieking Shack to open the old door.

Talon was a bit surprised by her response. She was dared to go in? Well, he knew how these sort of things worked, but he could obviously tell she was way too jolted to go any further with this. Talon nodded his head in acknowledgement and said "Then I'm going in with you." Sapphire was his friend, and if anything she was just going to freak herself out until she eventually put herself into a coma. Talon would probably do the same thing if he was in her situation.

Even though Talon hadn't planned on spending the night in a supposed haunted shack, he figured this place had to have some sort of trapdoor that led out the back when no one was looking. That or they could just wait until the onlookers got tired and decided to go home for the night, and when that happened, they could just walk right on out. He pushed the door to the Shrieking Shack in, and heard a loud squeak as the door wasn't lubricated on its hinge. He stepped inside, getting a feel for the place...and noticing a large amount of dust on everything. "Glad to see they keep this place under high matinence," he smiled as he began to walk around the interior.

The place seemed odd at first. No windows, or rather the only windows were completely boarded up from the inside. That seemed a little odd, why would they want to keep the windows boarded? Were they trying to keep something in? Turning around, Talon noticed something even more weird. The front door also had a large board from the inside, but it was seemingly broken off to allow entry. What the hell happened here?

Talon walked over to Sapphire and said under his breath so only she could hear "We'll stay here until these guys decide to leave. Then we get outta here and say we spent the night. Alright?" With that, he then began to look around the area some more, curious about what this place was used for.

When Talon said he was going in with her and walked in before her, she didn't k ow what to do or say. "But I was dared to be in here by myself." she said softly, looking at the floor. She didn't want to cause any trouble for him, because he decided to spend the night with her in the Shack. She didn't care that they would say things about her, but she didn't want him to get in trouble with the others.

"You should ... just leave. You don't have to be here." she said, her gaze still in the floor. She began to look around the Shack and when she saw the broken board on the door her eyes widened. There were what seemed to be claw marks on it and she realized what they were from. She made a noise and stumbled backwards toward Talon. They was a fight between those things in there. That's probably what made everything think that it was haunted. The fact that there were always noises there and that there was always some kind of damage done to the place without anyone what even happened.

"It's a bad idea for you to be there." she said automatically. Sapphire looked at him with a worried gaze and she took hold of his hand and gripped it tightly. "You should leave before it's too late. At least you can." She always heard that there was something that happened every night at the Shack, and even if she had to endure it, he didn't have too and she didn't want him too. "Please." she said softly to him.

"Please just leave." she continued. "I don't want you to get hurt." She cared too much a out those around her. But then again, she was a Hufflepuff and they were loyal and protective. She didn't want him to get hurt and she would do whatever she could to keep her friend safe. She had to find a way to get him to leave.

Talon was taken back when Sapphire grabbed his hand. He was startled that she really wanted him to go, and it showed on his face when she began to try and change his mind. When she was finished, all Talon did was smile and say "Sapphire, you're my friend. I know you would be really nervous to do this by yourself, so I want to stay here with you. I don't care about what happens." He grabbed her hand back and said "Everything will be alright. Besides, this place doesn't look that haunted anyway."

He let go of her hand and began to do further investigations of the place, attempting to leave no stone left unturned. The strange thing though was the weird scratch marks that were located all around the shack. It seems as if something had been trying to claw their way out, perhaps they were locked in here by a hunter? No, that would prove no purpose. A hunter would just want to bag his kill and take it home, not put it in some maze to try and make it figure its way out. No, no, this was meant for something more. He figured he would have plenty of time though, so he may as well make himself comfortable.

He began to check what appeared to be the living room area, a few sofa and recliners still intact in the area. Some of the furnishing was damaged though, torn by what appeared to be claw marks. Pieces of stuffing also laid scattered along the floor, furthering the mystery. "Maybe this thing was trying to find food," he said calmly, picking up a small piece of stuffing "and it caught in this place...no, no, that wouldn't make any sense. There are no other entries in this place, except for the door." He hadn't even realized he was talking to himself.

He sat down on the floor, his face twisted in a look of thought. Things seemed rather weird about this place. If this was a place meant to hold something in instead of out, that would mean something would have to been dangerous enough to keep in. But what would be so dangerous to lock it in a shack for a period of time? "Hey Sapphire," he said calmly, turning his head towards her "what do you think they kept locked in here?"

"But ..."

Sapphire didn't know what to do anymore. It was obvious that he was going to stay no matter what she told him, but she didn't want him to get hurt. She looked around cautiously. It was recently that some of these claw marks were made, and she knew that if it got out then it would come back. She didn't know when it would come back though, and that scared her. She watched Talon look around examining everything inside the Shack and she dropped to the floor.

The setting sun was almost gone and she knew that tonight was a full moon. She knew what was going to come and she was scared right now. Not for herself, for Talon. She swallowed hard at his question and tried to say what had been in there. "W ... we - " she tried to say, but her voice seemed to leave her. She looked at him helplessly as she watched the sun disappear over the horizon. Sapphire heard something from outside move and her eyes widened. "Werewolf." she breathed out in a tone that was almost inaudible to anyone but herself. "You have to go! Now!" she screamed suddenly. She knew something was coming.

Talon jumped up from his spot and went over towards Sapphire, his right hand placed on her left shoulder. "Sapphire, relax," he said in a calm voice "everything is fine. Whatever caused these marks and this destruction is long gone. There's so much dust here and the straches aren't fresh. We're safe here." Hopefully he was right about this one. Even though he kept a positive demeanor, he couldn't help but feel nervous about the shack. It sent chills down his spine as he thought about what could've lurked in here. "Alright, how about we find that trapdoor I talked about?" he said, removing his hand from her shoulder.

He began to search the area high and low, too nervous to set foot upstairs. He looked behind everything, for some stereotypical lever that would suddenly pull the bookcase away from the wall, revealing a basement that held an underground lab or something. But after a moments search, he came up with nothing on the ground floor. "Damn, I can't find anything," he said out loud, scratching his chin with his index finger and thumb. "If I were a trapdoor..." he said under his breath as he began to search the wood floors. All he ever did find was just an orchestra of squeaks.

"You don't know!" Sapphire said, tears forming in her eyes. "You don't know if it'll come back! I could be back any moment!" she said, as her body began to shake. She was scared. That was all there was too it, she was scared that something was going to happen that would scar them forever. She wouldn't know to react if something happened to Talon because of her. He was there because he knew she was scared and if something appeared, then he would try to protect her and then he might get hurt. And she wouldn't be able to forgive herself for it.

"There's nothing here." she said softly. She heard a howl come from outside the Shrieking Shack and she gave a small yelp. She ran toward Talon and grabbed onto his shirt, burying her face in his chest, just as she'd done when they met for the first time. Her body was still shaking and she just kept her face buried in his shirt. She heard a creaking sound from outside and she looked out the window at the darkened sky. "I was right." she said softly, too scare to even move anymore.

"I'm sure there's nothing out there," he said, walking over towards the window Sapphire was looking at. He heard the creaking sound as well, but Talon immediately dismissed it as part of the old shack falling apart. "Sapphire, you gotta calm down," he said, putting both of his hands on her shoulders "nothing is out there. Whatever was here has to be gone. This place is old and the scratches aren't fresh, chances are, the thing is already dead." He tried to keep his positive demeanor up, but he believed his sanity was being drained. Adding the darkness with the 'really-old-shack' appeal didn't exactly give him soothing thoughts.

Suddenly, another crash came from the upstairs area, Talon immediately turning tense. His heart began to beat rapidly, his arms suddenly turned solid. "What the hell was that..." he said, mostly to himself. His mind tried to dismiss it as the old shack falling apart, but his body was too scared to react that way. Mustering up some courage, he walked slowly to the bottom of the stairs, peering up at the top. Nothing stirred for several seconds, so he felt a little more relaxed. Another crash rung through the shack though, Talon jumping back. "Shit!" he said, looking around for something to defend him and Sapphire. There had to be something downstairs. "Come on!" he said under his breath, grabbing her hand and pulling her downstairs with him.

When they reached the bottom, Talon looked left and right, hoping to see something sharp or a blunt object. He noticed that next to him on the wall was a glass skyline painting, almost like something Van Gogh would've made. He quickly grabbed the portrait and ran into the room next to him. "In here, I have an idea!" he said to Sapphire, as he made his way towards one of the armchairs.