Cont……….

chapter 3: The First Sign

When they realized how serious their position was, panic broke out. Tom sprang for the door and gave it a violent tug, but it remained in place. It appeared as though someone or something was keeping it closed from the other side.

He yelled, “Help me!” and Mark came over to help him, yanking at the door with all of his might. However, it stayed securely shut.

“What’s happening?” Emily sobbed and moved back from the door.

With the exception of a slender, unsettling glow that appeared to come from the walls, the room was now completely dark. It was growing harder to breathe and the air felt heavy and stuffy. Lisa could feel her heart pounding and her head spinning from all the terrifying tales she had heard about the mansion.
Mark continued, “We need to stay calm,” even though dread was trembling in his voice. “There’s got to be another way out.”

A low whisper sounded across the room, as though in answer to his words. At first, it was hardly discernible, but as time went on, it became louder and louder until it was all they could hear. The cacophony of voices conversing in a language they didn’t comprehend made the words incomprehensible.

“Do you hear that?” Lisa questioned, trembling a little bit.

Tom said, his eyes wide with fear. “Yeah,” “But where’s it coming from?”

Their ears and minds were inundated with whispers that appeared to emanate from all directions simultaneously. A thousand voices talking at once, with none of them making sense. It was an unbearable cacophony.

“Shut up!” Covering her ears, Emily let out a scream.

The voices persisted, nevertheless. As though attempting to convey a message of great importance that the buddies were unable to comprehend, they became increasingly forceful and noisy.

Then the murmurs stopped abruptly as the room’s radiance grew stronger. Complete stillness, much more horrifying than the cacophony, was experienced for a brief moment. Before long, they noticed it: a person standing in the room’s corner, just discernible in the low light.

It used to be a woman, or it had been one. Her face was hidden by shadows, and her body was translucent and spectral. Her hair draped over her face in long, matted strands, and she wore a ragged frock. Her gaze What they could see of them resembled hollow, dark sockets that reflected back at them.

“Who are you?” Tom questioned, not sure why he was expecting a response.

The figure remained silent. It did nothing more than observe them, as though it was waiting for something.

Lisa muttered, “Please,” in a scarcely audible voice. “Let us go.”

The spectral woman cocked her head slightly, as though mulling about Lisa’s request. Then she lifted one hand and gestured at the distant wall without saying anything. The pals turned to see, and to their surprise, a secret passageway was revealed as the wall started to move, the bricks moving and sliding apart.

Mark said, “Let’s go,” taking Lisa by the hand and guiding her in the direction of the aperture.

However, when they approached the passageway, the figure disappeared, and the whispers came back, more insistent as before. Now the voices resounded through the room, a cacophony of wrath and misery.

“Run!” With a yell from Tom, the gang darted for the passage, not daring to turn around.

Chapter 4: The Descent

The corridor led them to a slender, winding staircase that descended into the house’s interior. The air smelled strongly of decay and soil, and the walls were wet and covered in mold. The sole source of light was the strange glow that threw long, warped shadows on the walls as if it were following them.

“Where does this lead?” Emily enquired, her voice resonating through the small room.

Mark replied, gasping for air. “I don’t know,” he said. “But we have to keep going.”

The stairs seemed to continue on forever, descending more and deeper into the ground while twisting and turning. The murmurs never ceased, and the colder it got the farther they traveled. They were constantly present, hovering just beyond their hearing range, tormenting and making them crazy.

They finally arrived at the bottom after what seemed like a lifetime. A vast, empty area with a ceiling lost in the shadows overhead was where the staircase came to a stop. There was a thick coating of dust on the floor and ancient, crumbling stone lining the walls. An old stone altar with a dark stain on its surface stood in the middle of the space desiccated blood.

“What is this place?” Lisa questioned, fear rippling through her voice.

Tom murmured as he moved toward the altar, “It looks like some kind of ritual chamber.” “But why is it here, under the house?”

The whispers became louder and filled the room with their cacophony before anybody could respond. The buddies could see their breath misting in the air as the temperature dropped even further.

With a step back from the altar, Emily murmured, “We need to leave.” “Now.”

However, the door at the top of the stairway slammed shut, keeping them inside as they turned to go. The room fell completely dark again, and the whispering became more forceful and louder.

“What’s happening?” Mark yelled, but the cacophony of sounds overpowered his words.

All of a sudden, the altar started to shine with a dark red light. Beneath the stone surface, there was a dark, unfathomable abyss that was torn open by cracks. A dark, menacing force rose up from the pit, engulfing the place in darkness.