The Mansion

I went up the stairs.

Tears in my eyes.

I walked slowly to the chained door.

I opened padlock number four, letting the chain fall to the floor.

I felt the weight.

Only one chain was left.

I punched the door in anger.

“Let me out of here!” I shouted. “Why do I have to go through this?”

Silence.

“What kind of cruelty is this? Bringing a dead person back? Who is so vile as to do something like that?”

I hit the door even harder.

“What is the purpose of all this? ANSWER ME! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!” I shouted in anger.

The creak of a door behind me made me turn around immediately.

Another one had opened. This time, one on the left, very close to me.

“So this is the only way you know how to talk, isn’t it?”

I ran to it.

“If that’s how it’s going to be, then let’s go.”

Without thinking twice, I entered.

A large hall, with a black-and-white floor in a zigzag pattern.

On my right side and on my left side, there was a dark wooden door.

In front of me, two staircases went around a stone angel statue with a little moss on it. It looked like the statue from the corridor.

Behind it, there was a large clock that should have had a pendulum, but instead, it had a large hourglass inside it.

The statue had both hands together, but with the palms facing upward.

An envelope was in its hands.

I rolled my eyes.

I opened it and read the message.

The answer you seek is somewhere here.

Search.

A little game.

I crumpled the paper and threw it on the floor.

I decided to start my search through the hall.

Entering the room on the right, I found a kitchen full of old pans.

I opened cabinet after cabinet.

And I didn’t find anything relevant.

In the room on the left, there was a living room with sofas and several books.

I don’t want to get close to books unless I have to.

I went back to the hall.

The sand in the hourglass was halfway down.

What would happen if it reached the end?

I hurried and went up the stairs.

On the upper floor, there was a door in front of me and one on my right.

On my left side, there was a corridor with one door on the right and one on the left. At the end of the corridor, there was another door.

Entering the middle room, it was a room with a sofa and a large television.

I looked around and didn’t find anything different.

One of the rooms looked like an old office.

Scattered paper.

Dust.

A chair turned toward the wall, as if someone had left in the middle of something.

Also nothing different.

I went back to the corridor with the three doors.

First, I opened the door on the left.

A room completely made in pink. Cabinets, walls, curtain, the bed, and the rug. In the back, I found a bathroom, ordinary, with white colors.

On the other side, a room completely made in blue. In the same way as the pink room.

But it was furnished with posters of baseball players and other items related to the sport.

A baseball bat on a shelf caught my attention.

In the end, I entered the door at the end of the corridor.

A room with dark brown tones. A double bed and a large bathroom.

Nothing special.

When I went to leave the room.

A doll wearing a pink dress with white polka dots was standing on the bed.

It seemed to be made of porcelain.

Its eyes were too big.

Its strange eyes.

I stared.

The clock in the hall started ringing.

I blinked, and I was in the hall again.

A new envelope was in the angel’s hands.

I opened it.

The answer you seek is somewhere here.

Search.

The same message?

I entered the same rooms in the hall, and everything was the same.

Kitchen and living room with books.

I decided to go up the stairs.

While I looked at the clock, it seemed like I found a message written on the back.

Memento mori.

I went to the bedroom corridor, investigated each of them, and especially the couple’s bedroom.

When I left, the doll didn’t appear.

Then I went to investigate the other two bedrooms again, looking for the dolls.

And nothing.

When I went back to the hall and stood facing the corridor.

Two dolls were standing there, holding hands. One with a blue dress and the other with a pink dress.

It was as if someone had placed them there.

The clock rang.

I was back in the hall.

That was starting to annoy me.

I went toward the room where the books had been, and now it was the kitchen. The kitchen had become the book room.

The rooms were changing places.

This time, I decided not to waste time.

I started taking the books out of place and threw them all on the floor.

Three dolls appeared in the room.

But I ignored them.

If I found whatever the Room wanted, none of this would matter.

I searched the room from top to bottom.

The clock rang again.

I went back to the book room, which was now on the opposite side.

The room was completely organized again.

It was as if I had done nothing.

It’s a loop.

I left and went toward the kitchen.

I took out all the utensils and threw them on the floor.

I searched everything.

The clock rang again, and every time it rang, the number of dolls increased.

I kept ignoring them.

I searched the entire place for some clue, only to find nothing.

I had already searched the whole place from top to bottom. There wasn’t a corner left, and I didn’t find what it wanted me to find.

I was losing hope.

It doesn’t make sense.

The clock rang again, and I was in the hall.

When I opened the door to the book room, I got scared.

The whole room had transformed into a miniature version of the library I had visited before.

A series of dolls were reading black books.

I closed the door in fright.

I went up the stairs and headed toward the room with the large television.

Inside, it had become a movie theater. With several little dolls watching a film.

I closed it and opened another door to see that the old office had become something like a greenhouse.

The floor had become a lawn. There were miniature flowers.

In the middle, there was a small table with two dolls.

One clearly had my grandmother’s clothes, and the other was wearing mine.

It was a version of the garden.

“Is this a joke to you?”

No answer.

“Enough!”

I walked to the blue room and took the baseball bat.

Angry, I swung it at one of the dolls.

It let out a horrible scream and sprayed blood everywhere.

I smiled.

That gave me satisfaction.

“Serves you right!”

I went through the mansion.

Striking blow after blow.

Blood spread.

I couldn’t stop.

The clock rang.

I was back in the hall.

Everything was back in place.

But the blood had not disappeared.

I picked up the bat again.

I hit and hit. I broke one after another.

And the clock rang several times.

Restarting everything again.

I was enjoying that.

It was fun.

The floor was becoming full of blood.

My feet were sinking into the liquid.

But it wasn’t enough.

I started breaking the rooms.

The library. The kitchen. The TV room. The bedrooms, and everything I found in front of me.

The clock rang one more time.

That sound was irritating me.

So I took the bat and hit the clock hard.

The shards of the clock flew through the mansion.

With them, I felt the whole place split apart.

The walls cracked.

The floor shook.

I heard mixed voices.

Screams.

Laughter.

The sound of the clock continued even though it was destroyed.

I felt myself being pushed backward with force.

My body felt too light.

But when I looked ahead,

I saw my own body.

Trapped in the fragmented room.

I kept being pushed far away.

Very far from there.