The old door gave little resistance as Biff pushed it open. The others followed him into the house with their sleeping gear, snacks and beverages (juice for Mitch, and alcohol for everyone else).
The front door opened into a small hallway, which in turn ran into the living room via a broad, open archway. The room still contained furniture, including a couple of sofas, a fire screen and several faded paintings on the wall. From the layers of dust and cobwebs everywhere, it looked as though nobody had been in the house in years.
After ensuring the door closed properly, Biff joined the others in the living room. Sarah had already laid their sleeping back along the sofa so as to not get dusty from sitting on it. Jon was piling up the drinks on a large table in the back of the room. Chloe put the snacks alongside them. Karyn placed several torches about the room to give some light.
"So, what's the plan?" asked Mitch. "Are you going to tell us ghost stories all night, Jon?"
"You're not going to tell me," Jon replied, "that we came this far only to sit on our asses? We should explore."
"Explore?" Karyn's eyed widened. "You've got to be kidding. I'm not going anywhere on my own in this house. Not even to the restroom."
"Wait a minute, is there a restroom?" Sarah wondered.
"That's something we can look for while we explore," laughed Biff. "I'm up for it, anyway."
"Me too," Mitch nodded. "Why don't we make a game of it?"
"Sure," Jon "The people who bring back the weirdest or creepiest thing they find gets a larger share of the booze."
"...And first choice of where they sleep tonight," Mitch added, since booze wasn't up his alley.
"Didn't I just say that I'm not wandering around this house alone?" Karyn scowled.
"We'll have teams of two then," Sarah suggested.
"Sounds like fun!" Chloe giggled. "Shall we go as couples, or draw lots?"
In the end, Chloe wrote each of their names on little scraps of paper and the other girls took turns in picking them at random, pairing the tickets up in the order they were drawn. Jon got on well with everyone present so he was happy to partner up with
