The stairs groaned beneath their weight.
Dust drifted like ash in the suffocating dark, and each step they took toward the basement felt heavier than the last. Ethan held the flashlight now—his hands trembling so slightly only Aria noticed. She walked beside him, close enough that their shoulders touched. Ryan, bold as ever, led the way.
But there was something wrong.
The stairs seemed too long.
Far too long.
"What the hell…" Ryan muttered, pausing to look back. "Guys, I swear we've been going down forever."
He wasn't wrong. They'd taken at least thirty steps, but the basement door at the top had vanished behind them, swallowed by shadows.
Aria looked pale. "It's not possible. This—this isn't real."
Ethan's grip on the flashlight tightened. "It's the house. We should go back."
They turned. But there was nothing—no door, no stairs, only darkness. And then…
Click.
A sound ahead. A soft, rhythmic tapping.
Tap… tap… tap…
They turned slowly. At the bottom of the stairs, where there should have been a floor, was now a massive wooden door.
Bound in rusted iron. Covered in carvings—symbols that burned to look at. One large, bloody handprint smeared across its center.
It hadn't been there a second ago.
Ethan stepped forward, drawn to it despite everything screaming in his chest.
Aria grabbed his arm. "Don't. We don't open doors we didn't close."
Ryan, ever the brave one, reached out anyway. "It's just wood. Maybe it leads to another way out."
Before either of them could stop him, he pushed.
The door creaked open with a wheeze that sounded almost like breath.
Inside was a room.
No—a chamber.
Lined with mirrors from floor to ceiling. Dozens of them. None cracked. None dusty. Every surface pristine and gleaming.
But they didn't reflect Ethan, Ryan, or Aria.
Instead, each mirror showed something else.
Ethan saw Aria screaming in the dark, blood dripping from her mouth, clawing at a door that wouldn't open.
Aria saw Ryan chained to a wall, begging for someone—anyone—to save him.
Ryan saw Ethan standing over Aria's lifeless body… smiling.
They tore their eyes away.
"I want to leave," Aria whispered. "We need to leave."
Ethan reached for her hand, but she was already backing away.
Then the mirrors began to hum. Low. Vibrating. Like something inside them was waking up.
Ryan's voice shook. "We triggered something."
The door slammed shut behind them.
And this time… it locked.
The whispering returned—louder now. Closer.
From the mirrors.
From inside them.
And then one of the reflections moved on its own.
It turned its head.
And smiled.
To be continued...