 Do you have what it takes? The ad played on TV for over a month and appeared on signs all over town. Those six words, along with a date and address, were all it said. Underneath it was a picture of a house that looked like Dracula's dream home. The ads had simply appeared out of nowhere. No one had seen the signs go up and the ads would just show up on TV, sometimes right in the middle of programs. Extensibly, it was advertising a haunted house that, according to the date and address, was opening just outside of town that Halloween. The adults were unnerved and wanted nothing to do with it. So naturally, every kid, including me, wanted to go. I was 13 at the time and considered myself fearless so long as there wasn't a spider in my room. There wasn't a haunted house in the world that could scare me. My best friend Matt agreed with me. Matt had seen every scary movie known to man, or at least every scary movie his parents would let him watch, and considered himself an expert on the macabre. We were determined to go to this haunted house. We weren't alone. Matt's 12-year-old sister, Julie, wasn't going to let us go anywhere without her. While her brother preferred movies, she'd read every book on the paranormal, fictional or non-fictional, that she could get her hands on. Like Matt, she considered herself a paranormal expert. And she wanted in that haunted house as badly as we did. Our parents, unfortunately, didn't share our enthusiasm. Again, they didn't like how the ads for the haunted house appeared out of nowhere. And like the idea of us going there, even less. When we asked my mom to take us, she'd made a face like she'd sucked on a fresh lemon. First of all, why do you want to go there anyway? She'd been working on her computer while we talked to her, and kept typing as she talked to us. Being scared by people in costumes doesn't seem that fun to me. Please mom, I begged, even getting on my knees to show how much I wanted it. I just want to see what it's like. It opens this weekend, so I can stay out late. Plus, I'll pay for it with my own allowance. You don't even have to go in. You can just drop us off and pick us up. She looked up from her computer and sighed, I can tell how badly you want to go. All right, if you can find an adult to take you, you can go. Can't you take us? Matt asked. Sorry kids, but I have to work that night. Why don't you see if your father can take you? No can do. My dad called from the kitchen, where he'd been washing the dishes and listening to us talk. I've got a business dinner with my boss. Looks like we'll have to ask my mom, Julie told us. After asking practically every adult we knew, we finally got Matt's older cousin, Opal, who was visiting from college to agree to take us. That Halloween, I was pumped. Halloween had fallen on a Friday that year, so Matt, Julie, and I raced each other home from school. Opal was supposed to drive us there at six, but I was so excited that I put on my costume the second I got home from school. I was dressed as a vampire and kept doing fake spooky laughs in the mirror. I inhaled a PB&J and waited around for Opal. The first trickered treaters were making their way through the neighborhood. When I heard a car honk, I practically flew out the front door, barely remembering to lock it. I ran to Opal's blue sedan and jumped into the back seat. Matt was sitting next to me and dressed like a mad scientist. Julie was in the front seat and dressed like a zebra. Opal wasn't wearing a costume, but in my opinion, she was scary enough without it. According to Matt, she'd been told by her parents before she went to college not to get a tattoo, a piercing, dye her hair, or do drugs. So naturally, she had a fake diamond on the right side of her nose, turquoise hair, and wore a black tank top so she could show off the monarch butterfly etched onto her right bicep. She looked bored, as if driving three kids around on Halloween was the last thing she wanted to do. I didn't really know what to expect of the haunted house, but I was confident that we could handle anything it had to offer. Still, my confidence wavered when I actually saw the place. The ads hadn't done it justice. It was at least three stories tall and looked like it had once been nice, but had fallen to utter disrepair. Every window was broken or straight with grime. Termites had given the woodwork a makeover, and the house itself sat in the middle of a tangled mess of vegetation that might have once been a garden. A low crumbling brick wall surrounded the place with a tall black metal gate keeping us from entering. Opal was suddenly interested and parked the car. Matt, grinning from ear to ear, leapt from a seat. Julie and I, however, shared an anxious glance. I'd been to a lot of haunted houses, but this one felt different. I couldn't explain it, but something was telling me that we shouldn't go in there. Still, I found myself unbuckling my seatbelt and following Matt, we'd begged our parents to allow us to come here. I might as well see the place before I decided if it was bad news. The four of us walked up to the front gate. I looked around for a ticket booth and became unsettled when I didn't see one. Didn't most places like this charge admission? Hey, cool. I turned to see Matt pointing at a sign on the gate. It was a piece of paper someone had written on and had been carefully taped to the door. It read, free entry, tonight only. Do you have what it takes? The last part of the sign was in all caps as if the question was of dire importance. I felt my chest puff out. I was being ridiculous. I was the bravest kid I knew. I shouldn't be scared away by a little haunted house. I walked up to the gate and pushed it. It was lighter than I thought it would be and fell open with a clang. Let's go. I started to march ahead. My excitement reignited. Matt followed my lead and came to my side. Opal smiled and followed us, keeping a more leisurely pace. The only one who looked uneasy was Julie. She was holding the tail of her zebra costume with both hands and looking around anxiously. We walked up to the front door with a porch groaning underneath us. I knocked on the door and it fell open, just like the gate. I looked around. This was feeling weirder all the time. If this was a haunted house attraction, shouldn't there be ushers or something like that around? Shouldn't there be other kids coming to see it? I found out later that we were, in fact, the only kids who were brave or stupid enough to go to that haunted house. Most of them had gone trick-or-treating or stayed home and watched Halloween specials. I really wish we'd done the same. Matt was the first one to step into the house. Opal took a picture with the flash on. I groaned, she'd blinded me for a second. Sorry, she shrugged at me, but the picture won't come out if I turn it off. Julie wasn't saying anything. She looked at me and I moved in closer to her. We were both starting to feel like something was very wrong as a group. We started walking through the house. It was as bad as the outside. The wallpaper had peeled away. A family of spiders had obviously taken up residence and there was so much dust that we all sneezed at least twice. Still, despite my uneasiness, there wasn't anything actually scary in there. There wasn't even a cheesy jump scare. I was starting to think that things would turn out all right. When we saw the room, it looked like the door to a basement and had words scratched into the woodwork. Do you have what it takes? Find out. Neat, Matt said, grinning. Finally, something scary. Uh, I started trying to speak. My mouth had gone dry and my stomach was suddenly churning. I think, dude, don't go down there. What, Matt smiled at me sweetly. Is the widow vampire off wait? Matt, please, Julie whispered. Well, I'd started to relax a little. The more we'd walk through the house, she'd gotten tenser. At one point, she'd been squeezing my arm so tight that my fingertips had started tingling. But Matt either didn't see how badly she was scared or didn't care. I'm going down there. He declared, and anyone who's brave enough to join me is welcome. You two wait up here if you don't wanna go down. Opal told us, but I'm not missing this. She took her phone out of her pocket and started to take video. Matt opened the door to reveal a dark, ridiculously long staircase. He started to descend humming as he did. Opal followed him. I looked at Julie. She seemed utterly terrified and was reaching into the pocket of her costume. I was about to ask her what she had when I heard something that stopped my heart. There was a voice coming from the basement, a voice that wasn't Matt or Opal's, a voice that didn't sound human. The voice said, neither Opal nor Matt spoke, but I heard a gasp and a cracking sound as if Opal dropped her phone. So the horrific voice continued. Too long I wait for visitors. I send messages. No one comes. You see messages, you have what it takes. There was a sound like an enormous creature getting up after lying down for too long. Then the voice said something I'll never forget. You. Matt screamed, Opal screamed. Julie and I screamed. I tried to run for the front door, but Julie held me with both arms and had frozen in place. I tried to pry her arms off of me as I heard running feet on the staircase. Matt was still screaming, but the sound had changed. It didn't sound like he was screaming in fear anymore, but out of pain. Opal charged through the door, white as a sheet and screaming five words over and over again. It doesn't have a face. It doesn't have a face. Julie still wasn't moving. So I was forced to watch as a jet black appendage, like a hand, but very much not a hand, shot out of the basement reaching towards me. Everything froze. Then something white flew through the air, hitting the appendage. There was an unholy shriek and the appendage shot back down the stairs as fast as it had emerged. I looked at the floor and saw white powder scattered everywhere. Salt. I looked at Julie in time to see her stick and empty salt shaker back into her pocket. She then grabbed me and shoved me towards the door. Opal was sobbing now. And then the entire house started shaking. The thing in the basement started shouting and a series of thumping noises came from the staircase. I slammed into the front door and forced it open. Julie and I practically jumped off the front porch. I heard Opal still sobbing behind us and turned around in time to see the black appendage from before grab her around the waist. Her eyes went wide and she was yanked backwards. She grabbed the front door as she went and accidentally pulled it shut. She screamed even louder than Matt. Julie and I raced for the gate. My lungs and muscles were burning, but I didn't care. I wanted out of there. I nearly shoved Julie through the gate and followed after her. We didn't get into Opal's car. We just kept running down the road. I don't know how long we ran sobbing and trying to make sense of what we'd just seen. But somehow we ended up in front of Julie's house. We collapsed on the porch. The police went to investigate the house. They found Opal's car, Opal's broken phone and enormous blood stains on the floor of the basement. No trespassing signs were put up all around the property of the house. Even if our true story was a little hard to believe, it was clear that two people had been murdered in there. And that was enough to keep people away. For Julie and I, Halloween was ruined forever. I'd lost my best friend and she'd lost her brother and her cousin. We started spending every Halloween together in my basement watching the most un-Halloween movies we could find seven years later. We still do that. I haven't seen the ads again, but Julie and I keep a lookout because they never found the thing that killed Matt and Opal. And I need to make sure that no other kid feels like they need to prove that they have what it takes.