I felt like a miserable bird trapped inside a pitch-black cage.
With short quick breaths, I crossed the corridor, stepping into the heart of the cottage. As I reached the end of the corridor, the air grew thick with the scent of dust and dampness as if no one had stepped inside for decades and decades.
Everything was eerily quiet and sombre, except for a single, flickering beam of silver moonlight piercing the gloom from a small smashed window in one of the corners.
The silence was deafening, broken only by the creak of the parquet beneath my feet, a sound that echoed through the empty rooms like a ghostly whisper.
What happened here? What had made life disappear from every corner of the cottage, leaving only echoes and shadows?
Hesitantly, I took a step forward, my hand reaching out to touch the cold, rough stone of the wall.
As I was walking carefully, I heard a faint sound coming from the depths of the cottage. It was a strange whisper which sent a shiver down my spine. I felt my heart beating rapidly. I tried calming myself down but that made my whole body go pale.
Suddenly, a second door slammed shut behind me with a resounding boom. A great panic clawed at my throat, and the voices in my head grew worried. I stumbled back, my icy fingers shivering, trying to reach for the doorknob. It was locked.
Helplessly, I fumbled for the light switch, my fingers searching over the cold, harsh walls. But, alas, all around me remained dark and silent.
All of a sudden, I started hearing countless unknown voices emerging from everywhere. As I continued walking, they grew louder, their words hit my face like a sharp icy dagger. They were all around me, in the shadows, in the cobwebbed corners of the room and everywhere. Their whispers were so tangible and terrifying.
“Please help me,” one voice pleaded, a child’s voice, filled with terror.
“I can hear your heart pounding,” another whisper hissed around my head with a gravely malicious voice. “ You will never escape from here.”
I backed away, my legs trembling and my eyes, wide with terror, darting around the room, searching for any sign of escape. But there was nothing. Just, the whispers, the suffocating darkness and the locked door. Everything screamed of danger.
This wasn’t just a house. This was a prison.
Beneath the faded moonlight, I spotted heavyweight ripped, bloody curtains covering an enormous door in a deep corner while several tarnished terrifying frames were hung up on the faded wallpapers adding more horror and chilling feelings inside my trembling heart.
All of a sudden, a shadowy figure emerged behind the curtains with its icy eyes burning through the fabric.
Was it a predator? A ghost? Any creature waiting to pounce on me? I could not recognise anyone or anything. I had no answers to my racing, unspoken questions. However, the only fact I could realise was that I was trapped like helpless prey in the jaws of a nightmare.
“You shouldn’t be here…” whispered the figure with a chilling voice as it moved slowly towards me.
Standing still, I tried to talk, I tried to shout, but my voice was caught in my throat, and my words died before they could escape my lips. I felt suffocated. I started struggling to breathe as my body froze like a statue.
Unexpectedly, the shadow stopped. I could feel the heat of its breaths on my skin like a razor scratching my quivering body. Its red eyes stared fiercely at me, piercing through my chest.
“Who… are… you?” I muttered under my racing, trembling breaths.
“Who am I?” He chuckled. ” I am the master of this house. I should ask you this question as you break into my house. Who are you, huh? Why are you here?”
“I am sorry… I was lost and I saw the door open…”, I stammered, my voice barely a whisper.
“ Sorry? Really? Let’s say you were guided to me by your fate, little girl. To be honest, I have been waiting for you, waiting for any visitor to come and play my game.”
He took a step closer, waving a sharp syringe, its needle glinting under the moonlight. “You think you’re so clever, heh? Hiding in the shadows, thinking you can escape your fate?”
He added, his hot and ill-smelling breath filling my nostrils. “But I know you like playing my game, daughter. And now, it’s time to start.”
“Who told you I want to play?” I asked, my voice tight.
He laughed with a harsh, grating sound. “No one told me, little girl. I just know,” his grin widened. “And now, it’s time for my exciting game.”
A great panic seized me. “What game?” I asked, my body trembling uncontrollably.
He stepped back, his eyes gleaming with a strange light. “A game to survive, daughter. A game where only one of us can win.” He shook the syringe whilst squirting out some drops of a thick, yellowish liquid. “Now, are you ready to play?”
“A…A game to survive ?” I asked, horrified.
“Yeah. That’s my favourite game. A game where I count to 30 and you hide where you want.” He added as he chortled arrogantly, turning around me, “ You must pray for plenty of luck, so plenty of luck, girl, because if I find you, then you are DEAD! BAM! Instantly dead. I will take your breaths in a flash with this poisoned syringe then, I will hang up your miserable body in the forest. Haha. I will offer you a cinematic ending, my daughter. Don’t you like it, eh?”
“AND NOW, LET THE GAME BEGIN!!” he shouted madly, “ 30,29,28,27…”
