THE ABANDONED HOUSE

Episode 2

Danny’s Restlessness

The next morning, sunlight spilled through the cracked blinds of Andrew’s room, but he barely noticed. He lay on his bed staring at the ceiling, the memory of the house still crawling in his bones. Every sound from the night replayed in his head: the moan of the floorboards, the smell of mold, Danny’s laughter echoing in the darkness.

Danny.

He closed his eyes, but her face was there—bright, sharp, fearless. She hadn’t looked scared at all. Not once. He wished he could be like that, but fear seemed stitched into him.

His phone buzzed. A message from Jayson.

You think she’ll try it again?

Andrew didn’t reply. He already knew the answer. Danny wasn’t the type to let go of a dare once she’d had a taste.

By the afternoon, his suspicion was confirmed. He found her sitting on the hood of an old car near the school, eating an apple like she had all the time in the world. Her backpack was slung carelessly beside her.

“You didn’t sleep either,” she said, studying him with a sly grin.

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “How would you know that?”

“You look like a ghost.”

He sighed, leaning against the car. “I don’t get you, Danny. That place is dangerous. We shouldn’t have gone in.”

She shrugged, biting into the apple. “Everything’s dangerous if you think about it too much. You could die crossing the street. You could choke on lunch. You could fall asleep and never wake up. So why waste time being scared of some old house?”

Andrew shook his head. “There’s a difference between living and being reckless.”

Danny grinned. “You say reckless, I say alive.”

Jayson arrived just then, slamming his bag onto the car hood. His face was flushed, like he’d been running. “You two are crazy,” he blurted. “Do you know what people say about that place? My mom told me a kid went missing there years ago. No one ever found him.”

“Urban legend,” Danny said, tossing her apple core into the grass.

“Urban legends come from somewhere,” Jayson muttered. “And if we keep messing around, something’s gonna happen. I’m telling you, Danny, leave it alone.”

Her eyes flicked to Andrew, then back to Jayson. “You’re both scared. Admit it.”

Andrew opened his mouth to argue, but Danny slid down from the car, brushing off her jeans. Her voice softened, though there was a dangerous sparkle in her eyes.

“Fear’s boring. I don’t want to live boring.”

There it was again—that restless fire in her. She lived like every second was borrowed, like she had something to prove. Andrew sometimes wondered if it came from her family. He’d never asked directly, but everyone knew Danny’s home wasn’t exactly warm.

Her stepmother, Mrs. Olivia, was the kind of woman who smiled in public but looked at Danny like she was dirt when no one was watching. And Mr. Olivia… well, he was rich, distracted, more in love with his business than his daughter. Danny was left in the cracks, and maybe that’s why she burned so brightly, trying to light her own way.

“Promise me you won’t go back alone,” Andrew said quietly.

Danny smirked, walking backward a few steps. “Promise me you’ll stop worrying so much.”

And just like that, she turned and strolled off, as though she hadn’t just shattered his nerves all over again.

Jayson groaned. “She’s going to drag us back there. I can feel it.”

Andrew shoved his hands into his pockets. “I know.”

What he didn’t say was that he’d go with her, every time. No matter how much the house terrified him, no matter how much Jayson complained. Because when Danny looked at him with that fire in her eyes, he couldn’t say no.

Not then. Not ever.