In a small town in Iowa, three friends named Luke, Anna and Ben walk home together every day. On their walk home, they pass the old abandoned house on the corner of Elm Street. It’s been there as long as anyone can remember. The only reason it hasn't been torn down is was the first real house in the town. There are, of course, the stories. Stories about people go in and never come out. An old witch lives there and puts a spell on anyone who enters. The house itself is alive and eats anyone who dares to cross the threshold. A crazy old woman lives in the house and captures anyone who comes in and feeds them only rolled oats until they die. All to be expected with an abandoned house.

One day, when Luke, Anna, and Ben are walking by, Luke dares Anna to go in and wave out the window of the top floor. This isn’t an uncommon thing for one of them to dare another to do, but they usually chicken out. This time, Anna decides to finally go for it. Anna walks the long way to the old oak front door, grabs the knob, and pushes. The door gives way with an alarmingly loud creak. Anna looks back at the boys, unsure of weather she’ll actually go in. Ben smiles and shouts at her to hurry up. Anna walks in and disappears into the gloom.

Twenty minutes pass, and the boys haven’t seen Anna waving from the window, or anything else from inside the house for that matter.

“She probably got lost or sidetracked. We should go and check on her,” suggests Luke.

“I suppose so,” Ben replied. The two boys walk to the still slightly ajar door and step into the front room. It’s very dim in the house, but the grimy yellow light reveals a sofa and chairs, still in almost perfect condition apart from the layer of dust. The pair move into the room to their left, a kitchen and dining room of sorts. There isn’t any defining line between the two. Once again, the table and chairs are perfectly arranged and everything looks new, with the exception of the dust and one chair. In the middle of the room, there is an old, red rocking chair. Something about it is unnerving, but neither boy could say what. They go back to the front room and head up the stairs. At the top, there is a long hallway with about half a dozen rooms sprouting at irregular intervals.

“Anna? Where are you?” Ben calls. The boys wait, but hear nothing. They start checking the rooms. They range in size from a closet that could fit a few people to a bedroom that could fit a few dozen, all empty. In the last room, the biggest one, they see a figure at a window. Approaching it, they can tell that it’s Anna. Luke taps her on the shoulder.

“Luke!” she exclaimed, surprised, her unmistakable bright green eyes snapping open while she pulled out the ear buds that neither of the boys had noticed until now. “Sorry, I guess I just lost track of time. Sorry if I worried you.”
“It’s fine. Let’s just get out of here. There’s something about this place that creeps me out,” Ben stated.
The three started walking towards the stairs, but when going down, Anna tripped and brought Luke and Ben down with her.

When Ben and Luke came too, having been knocked out by the fall, they noticed that Anna had disappeared.

“She must have wanted to get out as fast as possible. I can’t really blame her,” said Luke, standing up and stretching. Ben walked over and tried the door.

“Hey Luke! Come open the door! It’s stuck!” Ben declared. Luke walked over and pulled on it but was unable to get it open.

“It’s stuck. Maybe there’s another way out?” Luke said

“I suppose it’s possible. I don’t remember seeing one,” Ben said uncertainly.

“Let’s go check. I’m sure there’s one somewhere,” Luke reasoned. The boys went into the dining room and kitchen area. Ben, who was leading the way, stopped short.

“What the-” Ben shouted before realizing his mistake. There was an old woman in the old red rocking chair, and it was awake now, its unmistakably bright green eyes.

“Is that Anna?” asked Ben, who was starting to panic.

“It couldn’t be! There’s no way! We saw her just a minute ago!” Luke declared, his voice betraying just how terrified he was.

“How do we know? How long were we asleep? This house is crazy! You know the stories! What if they’re true?” Ben shouted, no longer trying to disguise his fear. “I think that she’s probably a little bit more than pissed if it is her and she’s been on her own for 50 years or longer! Who knows what she’ll do?”

The boys started to run away from the woman who was Anna, who had to be Anna because there was no other explanation, who couldn’t be Anna. Knowing the door was stuck, they ran upstairs and hid in one of the rooms, one with a sort of mail slot so they could see if Anna was following them. The stairs started to creak, fulfilling their worst fears. The footsteps stopped momentarily at the top of the stairs before starting again.
The boys held their breath as footsteps came closer. Suddenly, right in front of the door, they stopped. The pair a key turning in the lock and through the mail slot reached an old, wrinkled hand that dropped a handful of rolled oats onto the ground.