1 Chapter 1

Hallway after hallway, turn after turn, running as fast as he could before "it" could catch up. The delicate ornate fixtures protruding from the walls made for handy rails. From the corner of his eye, his flashlight glinted at a metal coin on a table not too far away from him. He swept by the aisle and caught it within his grasp, quickly putting it in the pouch strapped on his waist, however doing so in such a rush made the table fall over.

"Hah… one more to go…"

Turning the corner, the elated expression on the man suddenly dimmed as he was faced with a crystalline mirror. The mirror somehow didn't reflect the light from the man's flashlight, a very peculiar scene indeed.

"Another illusion? This is getting tricky."

The man closed his eyes and felt around the walls in front of him, if one were to watch from a bystander's perspective then the hand that the man reached out should have collided with the mirror yet oddly enough it passed through.

Distant screams for help echoed from behind him, the man's expression stayed still yet his true feelings were exposed by his trembling fingers. A sudden urge to rush came to him but he suppressed it within himself. Time ticked by slowly, and a sound beating getting louder permeated this empty hallway, this sound came not from the ticking of a clock but the slowly increasing heartbeat of the man feeling his way around the unknown wall.

Tick, tock, tick, tock. Rushed footsteps right behind him, time was running out.

He exhaled a deep sigh as he brought his focus back onto the task. He had already found the doorknob he expected to touch yet he also found a weirdly shaped button if you could even call it that. This "button" had sharp protrusions, sharp enough to make his finger bleed. He kept inching his finger back and forth on this "button" injuring it even further, hesitating.

The echoes came closer, the table he vividly remembered knocking over when he snatched the coin just a few corners away screeched against the floor. Mixed sounds of laughter and cries created a cacophony of torture for which the likes of a certain cult would pay for.

In such a tense moment what was the man hesitating for? Why would he hold out in such a dangerous position and not immediately act knowing death was right around the corner?

Immediately right after hearing the footsteps right behind him, he gritted his teeth and pressed the button in an odd way, he pressed his index into the protrusion, with the protrusion entering between his nail and finger. Blood started to drip down as he pressed the button, the crimson droplet had an eerie dark aura in it, the source of which could've come from any source in this day and age.

The man fully pushed the button in one go, ripping away his flesh and nail. The odd button whirred as the previous delicate ornate fixtures behind him suddenly turn into blades that could slash through meat and bone like a hot knife through butter, chandeliers dropping down exposing the candle bulbs holding an icky-looking green substance that started to sizzle when it came into contact with anything other than glass, and the paintings on the side having pierced eyeholes showing ready darts coated with an unknown powder.

The man then turned the doorknob and entered through the door, his limbs flowed naturally as he entered through it, at this moment he finally opened his eyes and sighed in relief albeit a tinge of guilt showed in his expression.

The scene in front of him had the blades torn down, the acid-washed away, and the darts scattered around. His gamble paid off.

"Of course, it had to be something like that," the man muttered as he slid down with his back against the door.

He relaxed for a bit as he pondered on his next move.

This, however, made him forget what he did. In an instant, curses and cries echoed from right behind him. The previous illusion now dissipated like smoke revealing the true appearance of this hall. An entrance into one of the many side halls of the mansion.

"Someone activated a trap! Hey! Let us through!"

"That psychopath! I'm still here! Remember your promise!"

"Sir! Please let us throu-"

The sudden silence from that woman's screams made the man stand up and look through the door which now had a glass window imbedded into it. His gaze landed on the woman's corpse, completely lifeless. A person, a living person, that was alive mere moments ago is now nothing more than a cold corpse.

This scene was already shocking to the man but this pales in comparison to what was about to happen.

The creature of deformed mass had eight… maybe even nine hands wiggling hands furiously waving around itself trying to grab onto anything it could hold onto. This mass of flesh looked as if it was composed of five bodies ranging from young to old, having a young child be the centerpiece as if to mock the innocence this child once had.

Veins popped up in the child's eyes as it started to grin, looking down on the six remaining people in front of it.

"Fear! Meat! Fearing meat! Good!"

The creature used one of its humongous arms to snatch the woman's corpse and held it above its head. The child's mouth deformed as it opened wide, revealing sharp teeth, rows, and rows of it showing yellow bloodstained teeth, apparently not the first meal it's had and definitely not the last.

The man stared in horror as looked away trying to calm down yet couldn't. The unrest of new terrifying feelings coming all at once shook him.

The feeling of sacrificing yourself, being the cause of someone else's demise, and going all this way for nothing but a dream. He could only feel weakness.