Ok so it was a few years ago now, my group of friends had organised a sleepover. There we were chilling on the couch after watching a horror movie (I could never get through them but my friends loved them) and someone says, "why don't we play murder in the dark?"

This was sort of like a tradition, we played it every sleepover, once the three loudest in our group ended up soaking wet because they thought hiding in the bath together was a good idea. This particular sleepover was at the best house for murder in the dark, plenty of rooms, lots of nooks and crannies to hide in and space to move around. Plus, not many neighbours so it was always silent.

We had played two games and I was feeling pretty good about myself, I normally last about 5 minutes into a horror movie but I hadn't been caught first or freaked out in either of these games, so, I moved out of my comfort zone and hid in another room (I usually stick to the kitchen at the centre of the house, plenty of room to run and people to go to if I freak out). It was a good room for hiding spots too, it was a long narrow room, a fireplace in one wall, a single seater couch next to it in a corner, a low, glass coffee table just in front and two three seater couches, one facing the fireplace and one opposite the single seater. There was also a round table behind the couch facing the fireplace and a telescope next to it in the corner, the room had that nice thick carpet that makes a muffled thumping sound when you stamp on it and three of those huge floor to ceiling windows with curtains, in the wall behind the other three-seater.

This round there were three people hiding in that particular room, I had jammed myself into a tight corner between the single-seater couch and the corner of the room, one friend was squished under the coffee table (we had to move the coffee table after so she could get out) and the other friend was wrapped in one of the curtains, pressing herself into the 30-centimetre bit of wall between two of the huge windows. We were scuffling around trying to get comfortable without making too much noise when we heard a thud coming from the opposite side of the room we were on.

At first, we thought it was the person who was searching for us, but we could hear laughter and talking from the other end of the house, so it wasn't her (we later found out that the girl in the curtain was moving and had hit her head on the telescope while sliding behind it). Then suddenly it was her, we heard the wooden floor creaking as she walked in. She had found all the others, we were the only three left. She stumbled into the room (we played as late as possible so it would be fully dark, my worst nightmare). I could hear her moving her way along the couch avoiding all our sleeping bags and stuff, searching for us when suddenly there was a rustling sound and she called out, "hey I got you, come back", then we heard running footsteps.

It didn't make sense though, the rooms floor was carpet which changed suddenly to polished wood which always creaked at the door leading to the other side of the house, a person's running footsteps would have gotten louder as they stepped onto the wood, instead, they vanished. And the lights were flicked on, the seeker had flicked the switch to tell off the person who ran, the only one it could have been was the person hidden in the curtains, but when the lights came on, she was jammed behind the telescope, she had moved when the others were talking.

We called everyone back in and one by one said where we were. There were three people in a closet, one under the bed covers and one behind the door in the same room on the other side of the house, the seeker and us three. The parents were out at the shops getting some snacks for a movie marathon. So, who ran? We all agreed it sounded like a guy's heavy footsteps, maybe wearing boots, but there were only us 9 girls in the house, and where did the footsteps suddenly disappear to?

Now, a few years on and leaving high school, we still haven't figured it out and I still don't last more than 5 minutes into a horror movie, but we did name our mystery figure 'Steve' and we still joke about the ghost running around our friend's house. But we have never played another game of murder in the dark.