By: Rhea Agrawal
Eliza glanced up at the gloomy estate certain to bring her doom. A nervous wreck, she trembled with apprehension at the thought of what was lurking inside. Step by step, she made her way down the rickety, old pathway until she was met with a daunting, tall door that was warning her to stay away. Yet she couldn’t. Eliza had earned a daredevil reputation and was determined to uphold it, but every bone in her body was imploring her to turn around and flee. She put her logical thoughts aside and focused on finding courage. With fear, the teenager pushed the door open and was immediately greeted by a plethora of cobwebs. Poor Eliza barely muffled a scream before she forced her limbs to comply and take her farther into the cursed mansion. The dare was to take pictures inside the house that no one had dared to venture into for the past 15 years. Gulping, she quietly retrieved her phone to provide light and started to snap pictures of the interior.
At first glance, the old mansion seemed to only be rotting, but the closer Eliza looked, the more strange things she noticed. The heads of dolls were scattered among the floor and every mirror was shattered. She noticed blood stains on the carpet and whenever she walked, large creaks followed. As she came to the main living room, her eyes immediately drifted to the large portraits hung on the wall. They all looked as if they had been scratched by a claw down the middle. Lifting her phone up to take another picture, she suddenly heard a deafening boom that shook the entire house. Just perfect, she thought to herself, it was going to pour. Eliza knew she needed to hurry up if she wanted to be out before it started raining. Her fear was slowly replaced by curiosity as she delved deeper into the mysteries of the eerie estate. She arrived upon the kitchen, which was filled with bloody knives, and realized the blood on some knives wasn’t dry. Someone must have been here recently. That was another red flag yet Eliza managed to disregard it and continued on her journey.
The whole house was illuminated by a flash of lightning for a split second and Eliza was able to spot some stairs close to her. She carefully ascended the creaking, dilapidated stairwell to arrive on the next floor. Her eyes bounced around the hallway wondering which room to inspect as she knew that she didn’t have time to go through all of them. Finally, her eyes settled on the door at the very end of the hallway because something inside her told her that it would be the most dangerous. The initial fear had vanished and in its place arrived the usual thrill that Eliza felt by completing these dares.
As she crept along the corridor, any regrets vanished. The teen slightly pushed open the door to see an enormous mirror in the corner. Transfixed by its luring appearance, Eliza approached the mirror although her mind was screaming not to. The pull of the mirror controlled her entire body and she had no choice but to succumb. She looked closer and noticed that it was different than most mirrors and had death written on it with blood. Suddenly, she looked up and saw a shadow approaching in the background. Instantly, she turned around and let out a terrible shriek, the last sound to ever be heard from her mouth.