Three houses later, Adam assumed that Jake had had enough. They were nearly caught by Pastor Jacobs, the owner of the fourth house on Jake's list. He knew that Jake was the one trying to cause trouble again. The pastor had been standing at his door, ready to go out to the late night store when he opened up the door, staring at a dumbstruck Peter standing on his porch.
"And what are you doing here?" he asked Peter.
Peter mumbled something that made no sense to the pastor at all. Jake could not contain himself and let out a small squeal as he laughed at Peter's misfortune.
"Who's there?" asked the pastor.
"Nobody, sir," said Jake in a strange tone of voice, sniggering.
"Who's that? Is this a prank again? Jake? Is that you? Jake, next time you go to church, I'll tell your father."
Jake quickly stopped his giggling. He shot up out from behind his hiding spot and started to run away down the street.
"Run!" he said to Peter.
Peter quickly turned and ran down the steps with Adam joining him from the street. They giggled as they ran away, happy that they had not been caught.
"These damn kids," the pastor said to himself, shaking his head as he watched them running down the street before they disappeared down the road.
Jake stopped at the end of the road to catch his breath. He sat down on the sidewalk and lay down on the cool pavement. His heavy breathing showed just how out of shape he was. Adam looked at Peter and they both giggled. They had nearly gotten into so much trouble.
"I got it all on camera," said Jake to them, giggling along.
They giggled some more as they caught their breath. After what seemed like half an hour, Adam looked at his watch and saw that it was way past his curfew. He had to get back home.
"Oh no," he said.
"What?" piped Jake.
"I'm going home now, guys. I'm going to get into so much trouble."
"No, it's too early," said Jake.
"Peter," said Adam, "Both our parents are going to ground us for staying out late and for lying to them."
"No, we can't go now. We've just got one more house to go to."
"What are you talking about, Jake?" asked Adam.
Jake looked up the road and said, "Look, we still have to cross off one more house on the list."
"What 'list', Jake? What is this? I thought we were just going to record us doing a few pranks on some houses. Not a list."
"Wait, check this out. There is one more house. I promise."
"What?"
"Adam," said Peter. "It's just one more house. We can do it."
Adam looked at Peter and said, "No, Pete. We're already in trouble. No more."
"Oh, don't be a chicken," said Jake.
Adam's blood started to boil. He was never one for violence, but he was not scared to take Jake on. He could see now why the other children at school considered him a bully.
Jake could see the look of anger in Adam's eyes. He knew he had to change his approach.
"Look," said Jake to Peter, "It's just one more house."
"Which one?" asked Peter.
"There," said Jake, pointing at the dark house situated right at the end of the road.
"No, no, no. Pete, you're not doing it," said Adam.
Peter gulped and tried to be brave.
"It's not that bad," he said.
"Are you stupid, Pete? That place is haunted. Everyone knows not to go there," said Adam.
"So what if it's haunted?" asked Jake.
"Are you crazy? Did you not hear what your brother, Chris, told you about that place?"
Jake dismissed Adam's remark with a flick of his wrist. "Chris is crazy. He's just trying to scare us. I know he goes there sometimes with his friends and they hang out there in that house. It's abandoned."
"How sure are you of that?"
"Because Chris goes there and drinks there with his friends. My dad would kill him if he caught him drinking in public. He just doesn't want us to know of his drinking spot."
"I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about the-"
"What? You're worried about the murder story he told us about?"
"Yes."
Jake laughed and said, "He's just trying to scare us."
"I heard about it too," said Peter, almost in a whisper.
"Just, just, wait, this is stupid. Just think about how cool it would be when we show the others in school that we went and knocked on the door of the abandoned, scary house," said Jake. "I'll have it on camera."
Adam knew it would be a big deal for all of them at school, but he did not like this idea.
"Ya, that would be cool," said Peter, still less brave than before.
"C'mon, Adam. Don't back out now. Are you scared?"
Adam gave Jake a stern look and said, "I'm not. I just don't think it's safe."
"Pff, you're scared."
"I'm not!"
"Then show it. Let's go and knock on that door."
Adam looked at Jake and then at Peter.
Jake turned to Peter before Adam tried to say something to him and said, "If you go and knock on that door, I'll give you one of my slabs of chocolate." He then proceeded to take out a slab of chocolate from his backpack and showed it to Peter. Peter's eyes glowed.
"You're sick, Jake," said Adam.
Jake scoffed at him and said, "What are we waiting for? Let's do this. C'mon, Peter."
Peter started to shuffle towards the scary house as Jake led the way.
Adam stood still in an act of disobedience to Jake's idea, but Peter kept looking back to make sure he came along. It softened his heart.
Adam sighed and said, "Wait up. My dad's going to kill me anyway."
Jake smirked as Adam joined them.