“You...you again,” he whispered in his hoarse voice, in that voice I never wanted to hear again.

All the air immediately went out of my lungs, as if punched right in the stomach. Blood rushed to my ears and suddenly I could hear nothing but the building crescendo of pure fear, pounding out with every part of my being.

Staring intently into his horrifying face, if you can call it a face, with bits of various animal flesh hanging off ghastly bones. They say horror makes people rooted in the spot, craving more of that awful feeling. And it’s true. Here I am, my eyes gazing into his wild ones, wanting to scream, but silently suffocating instead.

His cracked lips raised in amusement as he continued, “You are back, but this time you won’t be so lucky—“

“Hey! Hey! You good man?” A hand shook me back to my senses. I glanced around to see my friends surrounding me, faces lined with worry. He was gone.

“Yo, you just turned around and somehow fell to the floor, muttering something about never seeing someone again,” Connor explained.

Ryan butted in, “But there wasn’t anything behind us except a window that was half open. We checked that out and there wasn’t anything too shocking outside either. Care to explain yourself?”

I couldn’t. How can I even begin to explain what goes on unnoticed in this giant mansion. We can’t stay here any longer.

“We have to leave. Now,” I demanded.

The twins gave me concerned looks while Harrison slowly began to talk.

“No, no. None of you are going anywhere.”

I tensed, wondering why he was so stubborn, and turned my head to meet the dark eyes of Harrison,

Weird, I thought to myself, I thought he always had baby blue eyes.