Roy's car was so old and worn down that I wasn't sure I would've been willing to ride in it if I wasn't so serious about winning.

The place was further than we thought it would be, and as the sun started to set, Daniel began to voice his discomfort with the whole situation. The two of us were sitting in the back, and I was busy wondering if the other two would notice if I clamped a hand over his mouth when Roy turned onto a dirt road.

"Oh, great, we're leaving civilized land now. This seems like a great idea," Daniel complained. I had to admit, it had been a while since we'd seen another car, and if something bad happened out here, it didn't seem like anyone would know. I checked my phone, noting that I thankfully still had service.

I could see Jade try to hide a smile at Daniel's words, and I was glad she found his ranting amusing rather than annoying. It took a lot of begging to convince him to do this with me, so I was restraining the urge to tell him to shut up-- the last thing I wanted was for him to back out. Without a group, I'd have no chance of winning. With this group... well, I wasn't exactly sure how high those chances were, either.

Our team was... interesting. Jade seemed nice, but I ultimately knew nothing about her. Roy was like a kid on Christmas, and I wasn't entirely convinced he was taking things seriously. Then there was Daniel, the polar opposite of that, who seemed to consider the whole thing an absurd waste of time.

Roy sped over a large bump in the road, jolting me in my seat. "You're sure this car can handle this?"

"No," Roy said, shaking his head. "But I'm hoping for the best."

"According to this, we're practically there." Jade gestured to her phone, a GPS system pulled up on the screen. "About two minutes left."

Roy beamed, fingers starting to drum lightly on the steering wheel-- I couldn't help thinking it would be a miracle if we didn't crash before then.

We soon made another turn and Roy slowed down, a shocked silence falling over the group as we stared at the dilapidated building at the end of the path. It was an old house-- a really old house. As we pulled up closer, I could see that the overgrown grass and ivy surrounding the house were also crawling up the beaten siding, all the way up to the roof, which was sagging so much that it looked like it might collapse in on itself at any moment. I felt my face pull back in disgust as Roy stopped the car.

"This is it?" I asked, hoping we somehow ended up in the wrong place.

Roy and Jade compared the coordinates from the message to our location. She nodded, gaze returning to the crumbling eyesore. "This is it."

"I think we should go," Daniel said, and I almost agreed with him-- this was a little weirder than I had been anticipating.

"I think we should go inside," Roy replied, already unbuckling his seat belt and opening his door. Daniel followed suit quickly, clearly wanting to convince him otherwise.

"This house should be condemned!" he argued as Jade and I stepped out of the car. "Even if we ignore the fact that it's probably crawling with wild animals and asbestos-- maybe even squatters-- The Seven could be in there waiting to ambush us!"

Roy shrugged, Daniel's words seeming to roll off his back before they even managed to reach his ears. "Okay, so I'll go in first."

"I... y'know what? Fine." Daniel threw his hands in the air in frustration. Roy started trekking through the grass towards the porch, and Jade threw us a cautious look before following suit.

I started to join them, but Daniel grabbed my hand. "I think we should stay here."

"We're supposed to be a team, Daniel," I reminded him. "It wouldn't be fair."

"At least until we know it's safe," he bargained. As logical as the idea was, it would also be letting Roy and Jade put themselves at risk for my own safety. It was the wrong thing to do, and I felt uncomfortable even standing there considering it as an option.

"Nothing is gonna happen," I assured him, dragging him towards the veranda where the other two were waiting for us. Jade was throwing skeptical looks at the porch roof above our heads, where I noticed a few spider webs in the corners. I didn't really want to know what kind of insects lived in a place like this, and I found myself wishing I was dressed better for the situation-- as in, I wished I was wearing a hazmat suit.

"Well," Roy started, leaning over and pulling the door open, "Ladies first!" Apparently he'd already abandoned his promise to go in before anyone else.

"Very funny," Jade remarked. But she accepted the offer anyway, peering into the house before walking inside. Roy followed, and I pulled Daniel in after them.

The inside of the house was just as bad as the outside. Almost all of the furniture had been stripped from the first floor, leaving the small building eerily empty-- it was hard to imagine anyone ever living here. The hardwood floors were covered in dust and scratches, and the white walls were tinged an ugly yellow. I felt like a layer of grime had settled on my skin just from being inside.

"Where should we start?" I asked, thinking back to the poem. "We're supposed to hear a squeak?"

"Maybe we should split up--"

"Are you stupid?" Daniel snapped, interrupting Roy. "What, have you never seen a horror movie before? That's exactly what we're not supposed to do!"

"Would you relax? I'm talking groups of two. You guys can search down here and Jade and I can take the upstairs," Roy explained.

"Sounds good to me," I agreed, wanting to find the code as fast as possible. The sooner we got out of there, the better.

The two of them headed to the next level while Daniel and I walked to the kitchen. I started opening cabinets-- one of the doors squeaked, but there wasn't anything inside. The layers of dust sitting undisturbed on the handles gave it away before I even opened them, but I wanted to be thorough, just in case.

We went over to what I assumed used to be the living area, but there was nothing except for a thick rug placed over the rotting floorboards. I looked out one of the broken windows, noticing that the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon. The thought of being there in the dark sent a shiver up my back, and as Daniel's words about wild animals and crazy people replayed in my head, all I wanted was to go home to the cleanliness of a hot shower and the safety of my bed.

"Here, help me lift this," I instructed him to move to the other side of the rug so we could raise it and look underneath. We lifted it, finding nothing but the floor.

"Damn," I muttered, letting go in frustration. Dust flew up from the floor and Daniel waved a hand in front of his face, grimacing.

There were footsteps from the stairs as Jade came down, heading over to us with an expression that told me they hadn't found anything.

"Where's Roy?" Daniel asked, voice filled with a worry that I was sure was more for his own safety than Roy's.

"He... needed to pee."

"This house has running water?"

"No, but it has a toilet, which was enough for me," Roy said, bounding down the stairs. Daniel mumbled something about disgust, but Roy either didn't notice or didn't care. "Find anything?"

I shook my head.

"Neither did we," Jade replied, wandering towards the kitchen.

"Wait!" I exclaimed, causing her to freeze. "Do that again."

"Do what?" she asked, her body stiff as she held the stride she'd been taking.

"Put your left heel down," I directed. Sure enough, a low squeak emitted from the floorboard beneath her as soon as she put her weight on it.

Jade raised her eyebrows, looking down towards her sneakers. "You think it's under the floor?"

"Worth a try," Roy said, kneeling down as she stepped away. He hesitated, looking around at us, obviously at a loss for what to do. "Uh... Any ideas?"

"Oh, here--" Jade reached into her back pocket, pulling out a small swiss army knife. "Something in here will probably work."

"Thanks," Roy said, smiling sheepishly as he opened it. The tool popped the piece of wood free easily, but there was nothing underneath except for subflooring.

"Well, that's definitely not the only squeaky piece of floor in this place," I said, trying to stay optimistic. But as we moved on to find the next one, I got the feeling that we were in for a long night.

♧