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 *The Dare* ------------------------------------------- *BILLY'S STORY.*

   I don't know what it was really called, we knew it as `Harding's house',
it has always been empty, and was thought of as haunted, not that we really
believed in such things.

   My name is Billy, I'm part of Brad's gang, there are five of us, Brad,
Mike, Paul and Kate - she's okay for a girl, we tried to keep her out but
she been able to beat us up since she was nine, we've let her stay!

   But that was three years ago, and she's been cool about us, where the
other girls are into dresses and dolls, she stays in jeans and rides with
us, she's good at thinking of things to do, like The Dare.

   "You know what you guys should do." She came out with one day, when we
all looked at her she said, "You should prove that you don't believe in
ghosts." She said this with a smile on her face.

   Of course we weren't afraid of ghosts, and we all said so, she stood
there with the smile still on her face.

   "Okay then lets see you walk around `Harding House', prove you're not
scared." We just laughed at her, this made her slightly angry, "I dare
you," She said, and then added, "No I double dare you!"

   Well the gauntlet was down, and we didn't want her to think we were
scared, so we agreed and rode to the gates of the house, I don't know when
it was built, but it was overgrown with ivy on the walls, several of the
windows were boarded up, after some of the older kids had a stone throwing
contest.

   Brad was in the lead and as we rode up to the front he was already off
his bike and trying the front door, turning the handle and pushing against
it, we watched him as he did this, finally after some fruitless minutes he
gave up.

   "It's no good," he said, "The door's locked, we'll never get in!" And so
the three of us started to turn our bikes round with comments like, "Isn't
that too bad, yeah I wanted to look in the place as well!" When we were
stopped by Kate's voice.

   "I know where we can get in!" It was a smug voice in a sort of 'you're
not getting out of it that easily!' tone, and she started to walk to the
side of the house.  I suppose I'd better describe the place.

   It's been called a Victorian Mansion, which means it was built hundreds
of years ago, it's got four floors, there are turrets at each of the four
corners, making it look like a castle, you can't see the roof from the
ground, so I can't say what that's like.

   There are three doors to the place, the front door which was locked, a
side door, covered by panels of wood and padlocked, and the back door -
which was also covered and padlocked.  I mean kids have tried to get in
before, but as far as I heard without success.

   Anyhow we're following Kate as she goes to a low window, she pulls at it
and it swings forward, I suppose the catch broke somewhen, and nobody else
had noticed it.  She climbed into the hole and entered the house.

   A part of me thought 'good, let's leave her there and run off!' but was
stopped by another part which said 'and let her think I'm a coward?  NO
WAY!' I could see the others were having similar thoughts and so we
followed her into the house.

   We waited in the darkness for our eyes to adjust to the light, and then
Brad spoke up, "Well?  We're in here, see we're not chicken!"

   But Kate just giggled at us, "Oh no!" She said, "The dare was to walk in
here, not just stand around waiting to leave, come on." And she ran further
into the room, reaching into her backpack and bringing out a torch, which
she turned on.

   The beam hit an animal, teeth bared, crouched, waiting to spring, we all
jumped back, to be greeted by another giggle from Kate, "Don't worry," She
said in a sarcastic tone, "It's dead!" the word seemed to echo in the room
'dead, ead, ad, d.'

   She moved the beam to show the full beast, it was part of a display, a
lion about to pounce on a zebra.  "There's quiet a few like that around the
place." She said nonchalantly.

   "You've been in here before?" asked Mike,

   "Course I have," She said, "Lots of times, I don't spend all my time
with you guys do I." She added, with a slight scornful sound in her voice,
"Now come on there's more to see" again the echo sounded 'See, ee, ee'

   She opened  a door and entered a darkened corridor, we quickly followed
her, for some reason not wanting to be too far away from the beam of light,
not that we were scared of course, we just didn't want to trip over anyone
(thing!) in the dark.

   Kate's' voice came from ahead of us, "I think there's some candles in
the kitchen, just down here, we managed to keep up with her as she entered
the room, there was a slight smell of something?  Couldn't make out what it
was though, She waved the torch beam onto a large welsh dresser and on the
top were some candles, as the beam moved away from them it fell on an old
electricity meter with it's mains switch beside it, without thinking Paul
reached for it and pulled it down.

   There was a flash of lighting as the switch made a connection, and then
the light in the hallway came on, Brad went for the switch by the door of
the kitchen, turned it on and lit up the room.

   "Goody," Said Kate, "I suppose they forgot to turn off the electric.  At
least we'll have lights now," and she ran to the door, "Come on, lets
explore!" she said and we followed her down the hallway - we didn't notice
the light going out in the kitchen and the door closing, or the small wind
that blew down the hallway after us.

   We got to the stairs and looked up, Kate then spoke up again, "Let's
split up, we can find more stuff that way."

   I spoke up, "We're not taking anything are we?"

   Kate shook her head, "No way, that's stealing!  No we're looking only."
She said which was a relief; we didn't need to prove that we'd been here,
we all knew that anyway.

   Brad and Mike ran towards another door, Paul went up to the first floor,
I was going to follow him, but Kate held me back, "Lets go to the top first
and work our way down," She said, I just nodded.

   We ran up the stairs to start with but had to slow down when we neared
the top, I was starting to get a stitch in my side, but Kate didn't seem to
be slowing down, she ran to a door opened it and entered the room, the door
shut behind her, I went to open it, but the knob seemed to slide in my
hand, I banged on the door but could only get a muffled sound from it. 
Behind me a door creaked open.

   "Billy, I'm in here," came Kate's voice, I spun round - how could she
have gotten behind me, "I've found some cool stuff here." She said, - I
suppose I could have mistaken the door, so I turned around and went into
the room.

   "Kate?" I asked, as the room appeared to be empty, "Where are you?"

   "I'm over here," She replied, "behind the screen, quick come and see
this!" I went to the large screen, really a movable wooden affair which was
about 6 foot high and 8 foot across.  Kate being only 4ft.  8 inches was
hidden by this.

   I ran behind the screen, not noticing that the door to the room was
closing, when it did the room was completely dark.

   "Kate," I said, slightly high pitched, "Where about are you?"

   "Shush," She said softly, "I'm over here, keep quiet." I slowly felt my
way to her and touched her leg, just by the knee, the warmth of her flesh
on my hand surprised me at first, but I didn't say anything.

   "We're playing hide and seek," She said to me I tried to look in the
direction of her voice,

   "You mean we're hiding from Brad and the others?" I asked

   "Yes," she replied, "get down on the floor, that way they won't notice
us." I quickly laid down and found my head touching the dress she was
wearing, then I realised something.

   "Kate, how did you change your clothes?  What happened to your jeans?" I
felt her fingers on my lips.

   "Keep quiet; you don't want them to find you.  Do you?" she said, "I've
found these clothes here, some of them are still wearable, what's the
matter?  Doesn't it feel nice?" and I felt my hand being rubbed against the
material, the flesh within was soft.

   "It feels very nice, but you tummy is also nice as well." She laughed at
me

   "Silly, that's not my tummy," she said, I went to move my hand away when
she said, "No, don't, it's all right I like it." And she pulled my hand
closer to her, and then I could feel her undoing buttons on the dress, "Why
don't you touch here." She said and moved my unresisting hand inside, I
could feel her flesh and then a rising mound and she gave a smothered hiss
as I touched it.

   "Oh yes that feels so nice, I'm glad you were the one Billy, I think
you're going to be very good." She said,

   This puzzled me, I mean touching a girl's chest was something a 12 year
old boy dreams of, but this was Kate, she wasn't some girl, she was one of
us!  But I did like the way she felt.

   Then a scream sounded from outside the room, it was Kate's voice "BILLY
WHERE ARE YOU?" she shouted.  All of a sudden my hand was empty!  - I tried
to find Kate but she wasn't there, her voice sounded from the hallway
again, "BILLY!  WHERE ARE YOU?"

   I shouted back, "I'M IN HERE." And scrambled to my feet, I felt my way
to the door and opened it, Kate was outside, her hair was mussed up and she
looked slightly scared.

   "Where were you!" she said, "I've been locked inside that room for
hours, I banged and banged but you didn't answer." And she held onto me,
she must have been really scared, but then a thought struck me, I lowered
my hands and lightly felt her jeans.

   "Kate." I began, "Were you with me in that room?" she pulled back
slightly and shook her head.

   "Of course I wasn't, didn't you hear I've been stuck in that room," and
she pointed to the door I couldn't open, I was going to ask her why she'd
changed back into jeans, but stopped myself.  But I couldn't help but
wonder what she felt like under the tee-shirt she was wearing.

   ----------------------------------------------

   *KATES SIDE OF THE STORY.*

   Boys are so easy to manipulate, that's what mum says and she seems to
know, I'd found my way in to the Harding House a couple of days ago, I'm
not sure how I found the broken window, but I did.  Anyway I crept into the
house and started to feel around.

   I'd almost got to the door when I felt  a cold hard thing, covered with
fur, at first I thought it was a dead cat, but as my eyes began to get used
to the gloom, I made out that it was a stuffed animal, very large, but
quite harmless.

   I opened the door, although the house was dark I wasn't afraid, it was
as if something was stopping me from feeling fear!  I walked towards the
kitchen, how I knew it was the kitchen I couldn't say.  The door was
slightly ajar and I entered it.  In the gloom was a large welsh dresser
with candles on it and a box of matches, I took one candle and lit it with
a match, the room seemed to brighten up, but the next time I come here I'm
going to bring a torch.  I could see a fuse box and a switch which was off,
but I didn't want to try it, just in case.

   I left the kitchen and wandered around the ground floor, there was still
furniture in the rooms, covered by cloths, almost as if waiting for its
owners to return, for some reason I was feeling tired and so I went
upstairs, I found a bedroom with a bed and a mattress still on it, I
carefully put the candle down so that it wouldn't drop and cause a fire,
laid down on the bed and closed my eyes.

   I had a dream, in the dream a man was in the room, and I mean a real man
not a boy like Brad or Billy, but old, about 20 I would think, he didn't
say anything but smiled at me.  then he knelt down by the bed and started
to touch me, I could feel his hands on my body, which was strange since
I was wearing my clothes, but he didn't seen to have notice them, he was
rubbing my titties and causing them to harden - I wasn't really happy about
them, mum was saying things like I'd need a bra soon, I hate being a girl!

   Anyway this guy was rubbing away and making me feel so good, ohmygod
he's touching me - down there, I try to squirm away from his touch, but I'm
stuck I can raise my bottom but I can't move it from side to side, but then
he touches the 'fun button' which I found a couple of months ago, and then
I don't want to move, it feels even better than my titties, and then I
start to feel so good that I scream out.

   I wake up to find I'm still lying on the bed, the candle has blown out,
but there's enough light to see the door, as I move away from the bed I
find that my knickers are damp, I open the fly on my jeans and touch them,
I must have had a wet dream, 'cause I still feel so good.

   I made my way out of the house, somehow, and went back home, but it was
so cool, I've got to get the guys to go there, if only there was a way. . .

   I woke up during the night with the idea, of course, call them cowards
until they agree to go to the house, then they can't back out, I just can't
wait until tomorrow.

   Hee-hee.  It worked, mum was so right, call them names and they'll do
anything to prove you wrong, this time I packed a torch in my back pack,
but I'll show them where the candles are.

   Just to be nasty to them I let the beam of the torch shine on the
stuffed animal, hearing them gasp I smiled, , "Don't worry," I told them,
"It's dead!", I then showed them the rest of the display and added, . 
"There's quiet a few like that around the place."

   "You've been in here before?" Mike asked me,

   "'Of course I have," I said, "Lots of times, I don't spend all my time
with you guys do I." I was trying to sound unconcerned about the place and
wanted to show off, "Now come on there's more to see"

   I walked on into the kitchen, the guys followed - I don't think they
really liked being here, but it was such a turn on for me, I was beating
them again!  We entered the kitchen and I shone the light onto the candles,
but the boys had other ideas.

   Blimey, I didn't think the electric's would still work in this place,
but Paul turned them on, and Brad turned on the light in the kitchen, but
now they're on I'm not going to need this torch again, I want to look
around this house again.  But I don't want to go alone again.

   When we got to the stairs and I said, "Let's split up, we can find more
stuff that way."

   Billy said, "We're not taking anything are we?" - I was shocked why
would we want to take anything from here?  I shook my head.

   "No way, that's stealing!  No we're looking only." I said, and the guys
seemed to relax a bit, and they started to think about looking around.

   Brad and Mike went to look on the ground floor, Paul dashed pass me and
ran up the stairs to the first floor, I grabbed hold of Billy,  "Lets go to
the top floor first," I said, "we can work our way down to here." He just
nodded, and we ran up the stairs, racing each other, I managed to beat him
and started looking in some of the rooms; I opened a door into another
bedroom and waited for him to catch me up.

   I didn't remember shutting the door, but when I turned around it was
closed, and I was feeling tired again, I went open the door, but it was
locked!  I raised my hand to bang on the door, to let Billy know where I
was. . .

   I was dreaming again, the man was in the room with me, his breath on my
neck as he moved his mouth over me, his hands beneath my clothes, touching
me, kneading my forming breasts and raising the nips, then moving his hands
down my body, ignoring my clothes and my words, touching my . . .  oh yess,
his voice breathing in my ears,

   "Hello little fox, you're a bit young for me but I do enjoy such young
flesh, almost as good as my sister, how you like my touch on you, feeling
you, devouring you, and you're so tight," I could feel his fingers sliding
into my clef, pulling up as he moved them out again, rubbing my fun button,
my clitoris, I could feel myself rising on the crest of something
wonderful, I shuddered in the release, my world turning white.  I slumped
back into the arms of . . .  of, who?

   I felt his hand brushing over my head, his fingers moving through my
hair, I wasn't asleep, I was awake!  Who was this man?  Why was he doing
this to me?  I reached for the doorknob, it was still locked, I broke away
from the grip of this stranger, turned around . . .  and the room was
empty!  Could there be a . . .  NO!  Even if it was what would a, a, anyway
I had to get out, I pulled on the door again which opened as if there had
been nothing wrong.

   I stumbled out into the hall, no sign of Billy, had he left me alone up
here, was he back downstairs giggling with Brad and Paul?  I started to get
annoyed and shouted out.

   "BILLY WHERE ARE YOU?" I waited for a few moments and then shouted
again, "BILLY!  WHERE ARE YOU?"

   I heard Billy's voice coming from another room, "I'M IN HERE." I heard
the door opening, I started to panic, I must have looked a sight, but I
tried to tough it out.

   "Where were you?" I demanded, "I've been locked inside that room for
hours, I banged and banged but you didn't answer." But I couldn't help it I
clung onto him as if he was a lifebelt, I felt his hand move down my back
onto my jeans, a thought struck me, 'what if he was the secret lover and
not some. . .' I shuddered.

   Then Billy asked a strange question, "Kate, Were you with me in that
room?" I tried to look at him, he was serious, and I shook my head.

   "Of course I wasn't, didn't you hear I've been stuck in that room," I
said pointing to the room, but Billy had a strange look in his eyes, one
that I've never seen before.

   ----------------------------------------------------------

   We watched as the two children ran from the rooms, Cassandra laughed
quietly I had to smile, Cassandra turned to me,

   "Oh he was so delightful; I don't think he'd ever touched a woman's
breasts before." She said, "Darcy, darling, do you think we'll get them
again, I'd like to really taste him once."

   I smiled at her, "Of course my love, and that young filly, so young and
so full of pleasure yet untapped, I want to touch her deeply, I'll ensure
that they both return, but what about the two still downstairs?" I asked
her, "Don't you want to try them out?"

   Cassandra shook her head, "No, that young Billy is all I really want to
know!" and she licked her lips.  I decided to do something.

   I went down to where the boy Bradley was looking around, He found the
music room with its instruments, I thought I'd have fun, as he walked pass
the piano I 'tickled the ivories' and played a soft lament, he jumped out
of  his skin and ran to the door, which I had locked.

   I gave up the piano playing and moved to the violins, playing pizzicato
on the strings, plucking them in a merry tune, Bradley turned a wonderful
colour, Cassandra would have been so amused, and then it was time for a
little vocal serenade.

   "Brraadddllleeeyy" I whispered, "You shouldn't be here you know," I
alternated between his ears, "Why are you here little Bradley?  Why disturb
us?  Do you want us to disturb you?" his eyes were darting around the room;
I could feel his panic rising.  I dashed to the door opening it, and then
closing it as he almost reached it.

   I crept up behind him, and blew into his ear, he broke and ran to the
door, which I opened for him, but I made him turn a corner he didn't know
about and trapped him like a fly in amber, not knowing, not feeling.  A
lure for my two little fishes.  But to ensure that they didn't realise he
was missing I ventured outside and placed his strange transport into the
same storage, as far as they were concerned he wasn't here anymore.

   ---------------------------------------- *BILLY'S STORY*

   Somehow the four of us met up outside the house, Paul and Mike were
already outside, waiting for us, we looked around for Brad's bike but it
was missing Paul spoke up.

   "I suppose he got too scared in there," and laughed, "It's just a spooky
looking old house, that's all."

   Mike agreed with him, "Yeah, not even a sign of a ghost!  So Miss Dare
all, are you satisfied?"

   Kate nodded, I don't think she wanted to admit that she was scared in
the house, and I didn't want to say anything, I just could stop thinking
about that girl in the house, if she wasn't Kate then who was she?

   We looked at the time and quickly rode back home, somehow I don't think
Kate would dare us to enter the Harding House again.

   ------------------------------------

   KATE'S VERSION.

   Mike and Paul were outside looking smug, Brad's bike was gone so we
assumed he'd already left, Mike said something daft asking me if I was
satisfied now, all I could do was nod.  I was still thinking about the man
in the house, and if I could bring myself to return to the house.  A part
of me wanted to stay there but mum was expecting me to return home for
dinner, but then there's always tomorrow.

   --------------------------------------------

   It was later that night when Brad's parents started calling around to
find out if he was staying with one of his friends that the realisation
came to Kate that maybe there was someone in the Harding House keeping
Brad.

   She started to wonder what to do, and then she phoned Billy.

   "Billy, do you think Brad might still be at the house." She asked him.

   Billy almost laughed, "Brad?  Still there?  No way, anyway we would have
seen his bike wouldn't we?" He said.

   Kate paused and then made up her mind.  "Billy - you asked me if I was
in that room with you, have you thought who else it might have been, if we
were the only people in that house?"

   Billy tried not to think about that, he'd been excited about feeling
that woman, he'd even masturbated over the feeling (the fourth time he'd
done that so far in his life), and wanted to do it again.  Then Kate told
him that she'd been touched by someone in the house, and then she added.

   "I think they want us to go back, and they've kept Brad there to make
sure we do.  Oh Billy, what are we going to do?"
   --------------------------------------------------