At a mysterious location.

“Sure, that is if nobody’s gonna get hurt. At least if I’m not gonna get hurt.” Bryan quipped.

“Nah, I wouldn’t hurt you……at least not on a first date.” Karen replied with a giggle. Then holding tightly onto his hand, Karen pulled Bryan around on the sidewalk and led him to the rear of the dorm.

“We have to take my car, its about four or five miles from here. I found it a few days ago.” Karen said as she led him to the parking lot. Eventually she stopped in front of a rusty 1993 Ford Escort. Pulling the keys from her purse, she unlocked the driver’s side door, and then leaned over to open the passenger side. He slipped in beside her as the engine roared to life.

“So, where are we going?” He asked as he snapped the seat belt into place.

“A haunted house.” She glanced over at him her eyes sparkling mischievously. As the pulled to the street, she quickly glanced both ways before turning hard on the steering wheel and stomping down on the accelerator. The tires squealed, and Bryan was briefly pressed against the side of the car like a rag doll.

“ Really, a haunted house? You mean a real one, or some amusement park or something?” Bryan thought he saw Scott talking with two blonde coed as the car sped past them, and off campus.

“Its real, I guess. I haven’t been inside. I’m too chicken. I overheard a couple of girls in the dorm talking about it. They said there’d been several students killed there fifteen or twenty years ago, by some crazy farmer or somebody like that. Anyway, I asked them where it was, and I drove out here to find it. It’s abandon now, most of the windows are boarded up. But there’s one or two that haven’t been, or somebody pulled the board off. It looks like if somebody wanted to they could get in really easy. “

The building of the small town were replaced by field of corn flashing on either side of the car as they sped down the ribbon of asphalt.

“So how does this place help you blow off steam?” Bryan said as he rolled down a window. The wind blew across his face, and threw his hair.

“We’re almost there, I’ll just show you. K?” She glance from the road and over to Bryan, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Okay. It works for me.” Bryan answered as Karen turned the car off the road to the left, and down a heavily rutted and over grown dirt road. The car bounced and pitched as they traveled through the long grass, giving the shocks a work out. At the crest of a small hill the old farmhouse came into sight. It was grey and weather beaten. As Karen had said most of the windows were boarded over, but two on the side of the old house seemed to be uncovered, as were those on the second floor.

Old farm machinery and ancient car bodies littered the immediate area around the house. The barn leaned crazily to one side, and looked as though it might collapse in a strong gust of wind. Karen stopped the car, shut off the ignition, and pulled the parking brake. “Here we are, looks kinda like the house in Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something, doesn’t it? She pushed open her door, and walked around to the passenger side as Bryan got out of the car.

Taking her hand once more in hers she led him up the path to a small pile of round smooth stones by what was once the driveway to the old farm. Picking up one from the pile, she pitched it at one of the upper floor windows, and shattered one of the panes of glass.

“That’s one way to blow off some steam.” She said, moving slightly to the side, and sliding her hands into her back pockets.

“Your turn now. Promise to protect me if zombies come rushing out of the house?”

“Sure, although I really should have a machete, or a twelve gauge shotgun or something like that. I don’t know how well rocks work against zombies.” Bryan said reaching down, and taking a smooth granite stone in his hand. After picking out a target, he pulled his arm back, and pitched the round stone toward his intended target.