Bryan, Kyle, and Maria set up their sleeping bags on the second floor of the old Carmichael mansion. On the outskirts of town, the dilapidated structure had stood surrounded by a chain link fence for as long as any of them had been alive. Everyone, it seemed, had a story about why the old place remained sequestered behind the fence, rotting through year after year of wind and weather without so much as a caretaker attending to the place.

The old man Carmichael had killed his wife there and hid her body on the property somewhere.

No, it was his wife that killed him and buried his body on the property.

No, no, neither – there was an intruder, see…

But there were strange lights in the place at night – lit windows when the place had been without power for years. And noises when walking past the fence at night – creaking wood that couldn’t really be explained by the house settling.

Bryan knew it wasn’t some other kids exploring the place because, first, the fence was the only thing seemingly well kept-up about the place. Second, though, if someone had been investigating the Carmichael place, news would get out in their small town.

Kyle had the idea for the them to spend the night. They were all into ghosts and had all been intrigued about the place since they were kids and heard older brothers and sisters tell about the lights and noises.

Bryan had found a corner of the fence he could pry up while the others shimmied under, onto the property. In the end, Miguel backed out, Keisha said she had a bad feeling about it, and Isabella said she wasn’t going if Melissa wasn’t.

Maria was amazed at the layer of dust everywhere as they entered through the front door once they pried off the boards. Thick and undisturbed, they kicked up little dust clouds as they worked their way upstairs. 

They found a room that looked like it had once been a library, but all the books were gone and one of the heavy bookshelves had fallen over. Because of the copious floor space, they decided this was the place they were going to spend the night. They crawled into their sleeping bags, turned off their lights and lay quietly in the darkness.

At first they thought their night would pass uneventfully as all three fell into deep sleep. But then the footsteps started.

“Did you hear that?” Maria whispered.

“How could you miss it?” Bryan whispered back.

“I was worried I was just hearing things,” Kyle confirmed.

All three listened as footsteps sounded on the first floor. They walked the length of the great room, and then back. Then they started up the grand curving staircase and walked down the hallway past the library where they were camped and kept moving to the end of the hall. Then the footsteps came back and paused in the doorway of the library.

Maria could hear Kyle’s rapid breathing and wondered if she, too, were breathing crazy like that – she was petrified.

Then the steps retreated back down the stairs and resumed walking through every room downstairs. As the steps kept treading, Bryan whispered, “Did you look when the steps were at the door?”

“No!” Maria replied quietly.

“I did,” Kyle admitted. “The doorway was empty.”

“That’s what I saw, too,” Bryan confirmed.

And then the steps were coming back up the stairs again, and again they came to the library where they were huddled in their sleeping bags. Pause. Then back down the hallway…

This went on for what seemed like hours. None of the three thought to look at their watches to see how much time had actually passed while they listened to whatever it was perambulate around the mansion. At some point they managed to fall asleep again and only awoke when the sun shone in through the spider web-covered windows.

“Oh my god, I’m so glad that’s over!” Maria said.

“I know!” Kyle agreed. “Let’s get out of here,” he said as he started stowing his sleeping bag.

“Hey, do you guys know where my shoes are?” Bryan asked.

Maria looked around and said, “I don’t see mine either.”

“What the hell? My shoes are gone, too,” Kyle said.

They finished putting away their bags and padded back down the stairs in sock feet. At the foot of the stairs, all three pairs of shoes were carefully set neatly side by side each other in a precise line. In the dust just in front of the shoes something had been traced in the dust: “Thank you for keeping me company,” the message read.

The three looked at each other for a moment, then grabbed their shoes and ran for the door.