Jennifer fidgeted with her sherpa mittens as she stepped into the entrance of the cave. “Are you sure it’s like, legal to be here?”

“Of course, it’s nature. It isn’t owned by anyone.” Reagan responded as she tested the loose rocks ahead of them with her foot, decided they were steady enough, and carried on.

“Is that how that works? Wouldn’t that make this government property?”

“Look, it’s Halloween. The police aren’t going to be waiting at the bottom to catch us, they have better things to do. Delinquents and witches run amok in the overworld tonight.”

“But don’t delinquent teens come here every year? I mean, especially with what happened to Lana last year…”

“What happened with Lana is why no one’s coming here anymore. Not to be insensitive, but this is the best chance we have of proving this place is haunted. You know, fresh ghost.”

Jen wasn’t sure there wouldn’t be police, she also wasn’t sure how fresh a ghost was had anything to do with anything, she wasn’t even sure she believed in ghosts, but two hours ago she’d decided this would be less pathetic than staying home to hand out candy, so she had to see it through.

They reached the back of the cave, which in all honesty didn’t look very haunted. It was covered in graffiti that mostly resembled male genitalia, and the bottom was littered with… well, litter. Energy drink cans, paper that had once been homework, there was even a moldy beanbag shoved against the wall.

“I heard if you draw a penis on the wall you get sucked straight to hell.” Regan said, sitting on the beanbag without a care in the world. Jen wouldn’t have wanted to sit on it anyway, but resentment at not being asked flared in her chest.

“I’m not sure hell has the occupancy.” Jen continued looking around at the walls, and noted that one particular cave goer had progressively drawn a piece of female genitalia. She wondered whether that qualified one for hell. A cold breeze tore through the cavern and she pulled her puffer jacket tight against herself.

“Okay, which of us should go first?”

“I told you I don’t want to tell any ghost stories. I said we can see if there are demons down here then go.” She appraised the room and shrugged in an exaggerated fashion. “No demons, come on.”

“Okay, I’ll start.” Reagan pulled out a sharpie and drew a penis on the wall, then tossed it onto the ground. Jen thought the gesture seemed pretty obnoxious, since Regan probably believed that was going to get them sent to hell. “Once, long ago, a girl named Lana-”

“Don’t use Lana for your ghost story.” Jen snapped.

‘ “Okay, okay, too soon, got it. There was a girl named Anna-”

“I will leave.”

“- a girl named Briar, and she came down to this very cavern, all alone. Well, all alone except for six bottles of Malibu. You see, Briar was planning on hanging out with her friends down here, and she was a sheltered girl who had no idea how much alcohol would be appropriate for a party of four.”

The wind howled as Reagan continued with her story. The sharpie rattled from its place on the floor.

“But no one else showed. So Briar was all alone with a shit ton of alcohol in the most haunted place the world had ever known!”

Jen didn’t necessarily believe in ghosts, but she wasn’t sure that this place could be considered any kind of haunted even to those who did.

“So Briar took to the bottle. To six bottles.” The wind blew so hard it knocked the top off of the sharpie.

“Maybe we should go, it’s so cold.” Jen shivered, punctuating her point. A bit exaggerated but she hoped it’d do the trick. It didn’t.

“Let me finish my story.” Reagan wiggled her fingers in front of herself. “ Whooooo. Briar got so plastered she started scribbling the most heinous shit about her friends all over the walls, using a sharpie just like that one.” Reagan picked the pen back up. “Their deepest secrets, the darkest rumors. She started writing how much she hated all of them, how she wished they’d all just die. But she heard voices coming from the tunnel behind her. They hadn’t ditched her, they were just very fashionably late. She was so afraid of them seeing what she’d written she killed herself before they got there.”

The wind in the cavern blew so strongly Jennifer stumbled from where she was standing. Reagan’s arm flung up and she stood up with her. She started writing on the wall even as she faced Jennier, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. On the wall was a single word.

Wrong

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god!” Jen shrieked and backed up. “We have to go.”

“No, wait.” Reagan shook her head. Was that Jen’s imagination or was Reagan’s voice echoing? “Wrong? What do you mean, wrong? Is that you Lana?”

“No lies” Reagan, Lana?, scribbled.

“No lies? So everything you wrote was true?”

Reagan’s hand trembled and wrote one more word before dropping the pen to the ground.

Murder.