Ghost Game ( Halloween)
Chapter 13 - Maya's Secret
Lina froze at the sound of that name.
Maya.
It had been years since she last heard it aloud since she buried the truth under silence and guilt.
Kai noticed her expression shift.
"Lina, what does it mean? Who's Maya?"
She shook her head quickly, avoiding his eyes.
"No one. It's just… it's trying to mess with us."
But the whispering walls didn't stop. The voices grew more distinct now, like dozens of people speaking through the plaster.
Each voice hissed the same thing, over and over again.
"Maya. Maya. Maya."
The air turned cold. Frost began to form on the mirror in the corner, fogging up until a message appeared across it written from the inside.
"Tell the truth, Lina."
Rina backed away, trembling.
"The mirror knows your name, Lina. Why is it talking to you?"
Lina clenched her fists. Her heart raced so violently she thought she might faint.
"Because I was part of the first game."
Silence fell.
Kai blinked. "What… what do you mean first game?"
She swallowed hard.
"Three years ago. Me, Maya, and two others. We found the same app online'Ghost Game. Confess to Continue.' We thought it was some creepy ARG. But on the second night… Maya started seeing things. Hearing things. She thought it was a prank."
Her voice broke.
"She jumped from the roof two days later."
Rina gasped softly. The lights flickered, and the walls seemed to sigh a low, guttural sound that shook the floor.
Kai stared at her, speechless.
"And you… survived?"
"I deleted the app," Lina said in a whisper.
"I tried to move on. But the game didn't end. It just waited."
Then the mirror shimmered again. Maya's reflection appeared faintly eyes black, smile wide.
"You shouldn't have lied, Lina. You made me stay."
Lina stumbled backward, screaming. The mirror cracked down the center, a deep fissure splitting Maya's face in two.
Blood trickled from the crack like tears.
Kai grabbed Lina's arm.
"We need to destroy that thing!"
But before they could act, the lights flickered violently and the mirror spoke again, louder than before:
"The past cannot be erased. Only confessed."
A sudden force hurled Kai across the room. He hit the wall hard and collapsed, gasping for air.
Lina ran to him, crying.
"Please, stop this! What do you want from me?"
From the broken glass, Maya's distorted voice whispered one last time cold, almost gentle:
"I want you to finish what we started."
And then the mirror went dark.
The Room of Sins
The night had no end. Every clock in the house stopped at 3:33 AM, frozen in the same minute the cursed hour of the Ghost Game.
Lina sat near Kai, who was still unconscious after being thrown by the unseen force. Rina tended to his head with trembling hands, trying to steady her breath.
"Lina," Rina whispered. "What did Maya mean by 'finish what we started'?"
Lina's gaze drifted toward the cracked mirror on the floor. The blood had dried, leaving behind strange runes scrawled along the glass. "We never finished the tenth challenge," she said quietly.
Rina frowned. "Challenge?"
Lina nodded. "The Ghost Game had ten levels. Each one forced players to confess a secret. A personal sin. Maya refused the last one. She said it wasn't her fault… that the game was lying."
Rina's voice shook. "And what happened to her after she refused?"
Lina hesitated. The room felt colder now, the air thick with whispers crawling under her skin.
"She died that night," Lina said softly.
"She jumped before dawn. But now…" she looked around the dark room, "it feels like she never left."
A faint click echoed through the house. The door they'd sealed earlier creaked open by itself. Beyond it was a long, narrow hallway illuminated by flickering red lights.
On the wall, words appeared one by one, painted in something dark.
"LEVEL 10 - ROOM OF SINS."
Rina swallowed hard. "It's… continuing the game."
Lina stood, trembling.
"It wants all of us to play now."
The two exchanged fearful glances before stepping through the doorway. The hallway seemed to stretch infinitely, the floorboards creaking underfoot.
Whispered voices followed them, overlapping like a thousand memories.
Then they reached a door at the end. Carved into the wood were their names: Lina. Kai. Rina.
Beneath them, three empty spaces.
Rina brushed her fingers over the carvings.
"It's expecting more players."
Before Lina could respond, Kai groaned awake.
"What… happened?"
"You're okay," Rina said quickly.
"But we need to move. The game"
A deep rumble cut her off. The door ahead began to open slowly, releasing a rush of cold, metallic air.
Inside was a dimly lit room lined with mirrors each reflecting a different version of themselves. Some were smiling. Some were crying. And some… were bleeding.
Lina whispered, "This is it. The Room of Sins."
A voice echoed from every reflection in unison.
"Confess your darkest truth, or be replaced."
The mirrors began to vibrate violently, the reflections laughing, crying, begging to be freed.
Kai grabbed Lina's wrist.
"Don't say anything. It wants to feed on guilt."
But the mark on Lina's arm began to glow again, pulsing like a heartbeat. The reflections of her friends stepped out of the glass grinning.
"You can't hide your sins forever."
The Confession Game
The air inside the Room of Sins was heavy with whispers, like invisible hands pressing against their ears. Every mirror trembled, distorting the reflections until the faces no longer looked human.
Lina, Kai, and Rina stood in the center, surrounded by endless versions of themselves each reflection smiling with lifeless eyes.
"Confess your darkest truth, or be replaced."
The words echoed again, this time louder.
Kai clenched his fists.
"We don't have to play. It's trying to trick us."
But the mirrors responded instantly. Kai's reflection stepped forward, crawling out of the glass like liquid shadow. Its voice was his but full of venom.
"You talk big, but you're the one who left your sister to die."
Kai froze. His blood ran cold.
"No no, that's not"
The reflection smirked.
"She called you for help. You ignored it. You said you'd call her back, but you never did."
Rina gasped. "Kai?"
He shook his head violently.
"It's lying! I couldn't reach her in time!"
The reflection grabbed him by the throat, whispering in his ear.
"You never even tried."
Lina ran forward, swinging a chair at the reflection. It shattered into smoke, disappearing back into the mirror. But when she turned to Kai, he was already on his knees crying, trembling, muttering his sister's name.
The mirror behind him glowed faintly.
"CONFESSION ACCEPTED. ONE SOUL SPARED."
Rina backed away, terrified
"It… it's making us confess to survive."
Before Lina could answer, her own reflection began to move. It pressed a hand against the inside of the mirror and smiled.
"Your turn, Lina. Tell them what you did to Maya."
Lina's breath caught. "No."
"You promised you'd protect her," the reflection hissed.
"But when the game demanded her confession, you told her to keep playing. You told her not to stop."
Lina shook her head, tears spilling.
"I didn't mean for her to die! I thought it was just a game!"
The mirrors flickered. The reflection leaned closer, whispering through the glass:
"You didn't just lose her, Lina. You killed her."
The sound of glass shattering filled the air. Lina screamed, falling backward as her reflection crawled out eyes black, mouth stretching unnaturally wide.
Kai, still weak, tried to stand. "Lina! Fight it!"
But the reflection grabbed Lina's wrist, pressing its cold fingers against the glowing mark. The pain was searing like fire beneath her skin.
"Confess…" it whispered.
"Or I'll take your place."
Lina sobbed, shaking uncontrollably.
"I let her die! I was scared! I wanted to win!"
The reflection stopped moving. Slowly, it smiled and then disintegrated into ash.
The mirror glowed once more:
"CONFESSION ACCEPTED."
The room went silent.
Only Rina remained untouched, staring at her own reflection which was now smiling back at her, even though she wasn't.
"Your turn," it whispered softly. "But your sin isn't about death… is it?"
The door behind them slammed shut.
And the lights flickered red.
Rina's Reflection
The mirrors hummed with a low, almost human vibration. It was the sound of something alive, something waiting.
Rina stood frozen as her reflection smiled back at her calm, eerie, too real.
The other mirrors had gone still, as if they too were watching her.
Kai sat slumped against the wall, pale and exhausted. Lina was beside him, trembling, her eyes red from tears. The air was dense with the smell of iron and smoke.
"Rina," Lina whispered hoarsely.
"Don't listen to it. Whatever it says "
Her reflection interrupted.
"She has to. Everyone hides behind kindness until the truth rots through."
Rina swallowed hard. "What truth?"
The reflection tilted its head, mocking her confusion.
"The one you buried beneath guilt."
The lights dimmed, leaving only the mirrors glowing faintly. And then, images began to ripple across the glass memories.
Rina saw herself standing in a hospital hallway, holding a tray of medication. A woman lay on a bed, frail, motionless. Machines beeped around her.
Lina frowned. "Who is that?"
Rina's voice broke.
"My mother."
The reflection stepped closer, pressing its hand to the glass. "You told everyone she died peacefully. But you were the one who turned off the machine."
Kai's breath caught. "Rina…?"
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"She begged me to. She was suffering, she"
"You wanted to be free," the reflection hissed.
"Free from her voice, from her pain, from your guilt."
Rina screamed, throwing her hands against the glass. The mirror cracked, splintering across her reflection's face. But the other mirrors began to laugh high pitched, echoing, endless.
"Confess, Rina. Or join her."
The temperature dropped sharply. Frost spread across the floor.
The mirrors pulsed like beating hearts, their laughter twisting into a chorus of cries.
Rina fell to her knees, clutching her head.
"I didn't mean to! I just wanted her pain to stop!"
The reflection's tone softened suddenly.
"Then say it."
Rina lifted her tear streaked face and whispered, "I turned it off. I ended it."
A long silence followed. Then the reflection smiled gently and placed its hand against the glass.
"Confession accepted."
The mirror shattered, sending shards cascading to the floor like falling stars. The glow faded.
Kai exhaled shakily.
"It's over… right?"
But the voice that had been silent since the beginning of the game the Game itself spoke for the first time, echoing from every wall, every broken mirror, every dark corner:
"All sins confessed."
"Final round begins."
Lina's mark flared, burning through her sleeve. The ground began to tremble.
Kai shouted, "What's happening?!"
From the center of the room, the shattered glass began to rise, swirling into a vortex of blood and light.
And through it… a figure stepped out.
Not a reflection...Not Maya.
Something older. Something that had been waiting for all of them.
"You finished the game," it said in a voice that wasn't human.
"Now pay the price."
The Master of the Game
The room shook violently as the swirling shards of glass and light formed into a towering figure.
Its body was a shifting mass of reflections, some human, some monstrous, all screaming silently in a chorus of guilt and fear.
Lina, Kai, and Rina stumbled backward, their hearts pounding. The mark on Lina's wrist burned like molten fire, leaving trails of red on her skin.
"You finished the game," the figure intoned, its voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere.
"All truths confessed. All sins revealed."
Rina's teeth chattered. "Who… what are you?"
The figure's head shifted, tilting unnaturally.
"I am the Master. The architect of the Ghost Game. The one who binds souls, one after another, until the final player is broken."
Kai took a step forward, trembling but defiant.
"You can't… you can't do this to us! We confessed! We"
The Master raised a hand. Shadows shot from it, stretching across the floor, locking Kai and Rina in place.
"Confession alone is not enough. The game feeds on guilt, yes but it hungers for fear, for despair, for the realization that nothing is safe."
Lina gritted her teeth.
"Then what do you want from us?"
The Master's reflections shifted, showing the three of them in every possible failure. screaming as they were dragged into mirrors, seeing loved ones vanish, being trapped forever.
"Your confessions have awakened the final round," it said. "Now, the choice: surrender your soul, or become the next host and continue the curse."
Lina's stomach dropped. "Next host? But… we already confessed. Isn't that enough?"
The Master laughed, a sound like breaking glass and shattering bones.
"Enough? There is no enough in the Ghost Game. It cannot end until the chain is unbroken. Until the host passes the burden willingly or unwillingly."
Rina trembled. "Then… what do we do?"
"Survive," the Master said simply. "Or die."
Suddenly, all the mirrors exploded outward, shattering the walls and ceiling into fragments of light. The room expanded impossibly, becoming an endless void of reflections. Their own faces appeared everywhere, twisted and screaming, distorted beyond recognition.
The three friends held onto each other, but the Master loomed above, a nightmare made real.
"The final test begins," it whispered.
"Face the truth, or be consumed."
And somewhere, deep within the void, Lina heard a familiar voicebthe one that had haunted her since Maya's death:
"It's time to pay, Lina… it's all your fault."
Her mark flared brighter than ever, burning into her flesh.
The game wasn't over. It had only just begun.