CW by Jing Jie (unedited)

“Hey! There is something I need to tell you about.” My closest friend Jay whispered to me as he sat beside me in the canteen.
“What?” I asked.
Jay said, “You know about the abandoned house beside our school, right? Well… today, my classmate Jackson said he saw a shadowy figure looking at him from an open window in that house.”
I nearly choked on the minced meat noodles I was eating.
“Please do not tell me your crazy idea is to….go into that house?” I stammered, pushing away my half eaten bowl of noodles.
“Well, I was going to try…but now that you know, how about this? You come along with me into the house!” He exclaimed, a foolish grin on his face. I was dumbfounded, normally kids our age would be horrified the moment they heard about the abandoned house, but Jay was as cool as a cucumber.
“Come on, it will be fun!” He coaxed. In the end, I agreed to come along with him, not wanting to be called a coward.
The wind howled and the dead leaves rustled as we walked to the abandoned house after school. Standing at the gates towering over us, I smiled weakly “ Are you sure you want to enter, no second thoughts?”
Jay scoffed, slowly pushing the gates open. Creaking, the gates shifted, groaning with each inch it moved. The terrible sound sent shivers down my spine. Stealthily, we made our way to the front gates.
Jay took a deep breath and flung the doors open, expecting to see someone, or something, only to find an empty corridor, with piles of dust everywhere. “Hello? Is…is someone there?” Jay stammered.
There was no reply, all we heard was the soft howling of the wind in the absolute silence of the house.
After exploring the first floor, we groped our way to the second floor, fascination and fear filled our hearts. We then split up to search the rooms for any sign of the figure Jackson saw.
Slowly, I made my way to the room at the very end. To my surprise, the room was spotless, with not a speck of dust present. “Strange…it should have been as dusty as others?” I muttered.
Then, a small gleam near the window caught my attention. Walking over, I saw a small stone, one that looked like the gleaming stones on Jay’s watch.
I spun around, to see Jay, grinning at me, my eyes transfixed on Jay’s watch in horror.
One of the stones was missing. Then it hit me. I stated at him and stuttered, “you…you are not…not J…. Jay.”
Jay’s grin turned into a silent smile. His smile was the only thing I saw, and the last. As I lost consciousness, and as darkness claimed me, I could swear I thought Jay was changing his form.