Boo! Stop me if you heard this..

So, one day, long ago, ( and we're talking long here..seeing as I've already reached the
half century mark..), there was this nice old lady that used to make dresses. Well she up and died. Yeah, shame, I know. Not the point, thing is, me and my "ever-always up to anything that could get us into the most trouble" friends, had gotten it into our minds that being she had died in the home, it had to be most certainly haunted! Hey, what'd you expect, logic? We were nine.
Any who, it wasn't so much that she had passed away..wasn't so much that she had chosen our neighborhood to live out her last days...WE HAD A HAUNTED HOUSE!
Yeah buddy, we were going to be cool! Talk of the school yard.
There was only one thing..We had to get PROOF!
Say What?!
Yup..Proof was needed..Can't be cool on your say so alone, ya know. needed something from the Ghost House (as it was now known). 
Damn!
That meant one, if not all of us would have to go into that house and bring out something, to show we'd been there. Something from her room!
WHAT!?
Hey, nobody said nothing about going into the old bats dead room!
Well, nobody, but Raymond. And he was on our side! The big dumb ass.
Now all the kids wanted us to go into the house and come out with something.
See, the house still had things in it..left behind things..and it had to be done at night
WHAT!
Shit, this was getting worse all the time. Well, not wanting to be called chicken, or worse, Liars. Ruben, Alex, Gabriel, Raymond(dumb ass, this was his fault..) and Gary and Kevin., and we were going for PROOF!
and it was going to be during the day..
Hey, we were nine, ya know.
So, we find a way in..and we were scared..hell, it was dark in there, and it didn't help
with Raymond making "Oooooo" sounds..(did I mention he was a dumb ass?).
The six of us made our way through the house, to the stairs and up to the second story. Now, it was September, which in California, is still pretty damn warm. So why was it so freaking cold in that house? And it was daylight. How come it was so dark in here? And why was that dumb ass still making those damn "Oooooo" noise, dammit!
Then the wind picked up! What the hell, NOW?! Really?
So up the creaky steps we go..yeah they were creaky, finally reaching the landing, and wouldn't you know it, her room was the only one with the closed door. How did we know this, you ask?
IT HAD A BLACK WREATH ON THE DOOR!
Could ya get anymore creepier!
Don't people ever clean up after the dead, jeez!
Well there we were, standing outside the door, of the haunted room..A myriad of Spirits, Ghouls, Demons and the like were sure to be on waiting for us on the other side.
There was only one sure way to proceed....
Raymond was going first.
After all, it was his big mouth that got us here in the first place. He kept up with the "Ooooo" sounds..and there were five of us that were in agreement to his one.
Numbers..they count for something.
Pushing Raymond from the middle of the pack to the front, we egged him on to open the door..that and the stern promise that we would tell every girl we knew that he had wet his pants and never went up the stairs..and being the ladies man that he thought himself to be, he could not stand to let that happen. So he did it.
HE OPENED THE FREAKING DOOR!
The room was a mess. There were still clothes strewn about, papers, a shoe...and dumb ass was opening the door for dramatic effect. Like he would now what the hell that was..SHEESH!
So we're peering into this room, dusky light is streaming in thru the milky white curtains, when Raymond opens the door fully. Only to reveal a figure, draped in white, standing in the corner! REACHING OUT TO US!
HOLY SHIT THE FREAKING JOINT WAS HAUNTED!
It was Her, and she was coming to get us and take us back to the grave! Or so that's what Raymond was screaming, as he just about knocked the shit out of the rest of us on his way out of the room and down the stairs. The rest of us not too far behind.
As we cleared the unboarded window, we had used to get in, we scattered in different directions, mostly in part because we were scarred half out of our wits, but also because the housing authority had shown up, and none of us wanted to get caught.
Meeting up later at Alex's house, all the tales of false bravado spilling about like so much OJ. Kevin had realized that in all our excitement and rush to get the hell out of there, we forgot to grab a keepsake to prove our "bravery".
Well HELL.
Until someone says, "Guys?..I got this"...
and we turn to see Alex standing there with one single red ladies high heel shoe.
In the mad rush to get out, Alex was the last one out, but thought quick enough to grab the one thing he had fallen one.
In passing, years later, I remember my mother saying the woman was a seamstress, and being such, had dressmaker's dummies. Looking back, I could just make out that free standing dummy, wrapped in the white shift curtains, as they blew with the wind from the broken window.
But in this nine year old's imagination, it was a ghost, in a haunted house..and the six of us braved the unknown that day in September for that red trophy.
Yeah, we were heroes...just for one day.