By: Jayden Ho

I awoke with a gasp, lying on the cold, stone floor. My heart thumped in my chest, echoing the haunting rhythm of the whispers I had heard. My mind was filled with foggy memories, interlaced with the stark reality of my current situation. The nightmare had followed me into the waking world.

In an ancient castle, I found myself trapped. Perched on a rocky outcrop, isolated from civilization, the rotting stronghold seemed worlds away from my former California condo. The sleek, sun-kissed white walls of my past home were now a mere memory. Instead, I was surrounded by grime-streaked stone and the flickering of torchlight. These somber elements only magnified the deep-seated dread pervading the place.

This castle was far from a simple relic. Locals had dubbed it the Spiral’s Lair, a nod to its ominous tower spiraling into the turbulent and stormy sky. The modern apartment complex I once called home seemed like a dream, a different life entirely, replaced by a world steeped in shadows and whispers from the past.

Lying on the floor, I looked around. The castle, an echo of an enigmatic past, held no trace of the amenities I took for granted. I was surrounded by rustic stone slabs, straw, and crude wooden furnishings.

The hallway leading to my room held a different menace than my old apartment. Instead of a modern design, antiquated stone steps wound upwards while fragmented walls were covered with long-faded banners. The silence was deafening, with each gust of wind and creaking floorboard threatening to nibble away my fragile sanity.

My sleep was constantly disturbed by nightmarish visions. Faces, twisted with fear and despair, pleaded for help. Whispers of past tragedies echoed through the cold stone halls. Strange noises filled the night. I could hear doors creaking open, footsteps growing louder, and the sound of a distant wail that chilled my very soul. It was as if the spirits of this cursed castle were reaching out, desperately attempting to communicate their untold stories.

This, coupled with the chilling stories the villagers told of a bloodthirsty beast that had once inhabited this castle, set my already frayed nerves on edge. I tried to laugh off their tales of horror, but their grim faces and fearful glances were hard to ignore. The villagers were adamant about the presence of this beast – a grotesque creature that had been cursed by an ancient witch and was said to transform under the moonlight into a horrifying monstrosity.

One night, as the moon took its place in the dark sky, I found myself standing at the foot of the spiraling staircase, dread filling every inch of my being. I could hear the distant howls of the beast, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I was drawn towards the noise, each step up the staircase echoing in the silence. As I ascended, the sounds grew louder, the whispers more insistent. Fear coiled in my stomach, and a primal instinct urged me to flee. But something, some insidious curiosity, propelled me forward.

As I neared the top, my heart pounding against my ribcage, I came face to face with an unspeakable horror. The beast, in all its grotesque glory, lurked in the shadows. Its form was monstrous, a living nightmare that defied comprehension. It was as if every fear, every dark thought I ever had, had manifested in this creature. The sight of it drove me to the brink of madness and I collapsed, convulsing on the ground. I felt the remorseless abyss swallow me up, as I fainted on the cold, hard ground…

Chapter 2

I was taken away, deemed insane by the authorities. I was locked away in an asylum, my tales of the grotesque beast dismissed as mere hallucinations. My life turned into a series of monotonous days, the white walls of my cell starkly different from the grime-streaked walls of the castle or the modern sleekness of the California condo. My experiences were reduced to scribbles on a psychiatrist’s notepad, my reality deemed a product of a deluded mind.

But one day, while I was staring blankly at the sun setting from the tiny window of my cell, a peculiar sensation washed over me. I glanced down at my hands and let out a gasp of horror. The skin seemed to ripple and bulge, coarse hair sprouting out from my flesh. My bones creaked and groaned, changing their form as a wave of pain coursed through my body.

I found myself transforming, my reflection in the polished steel mirror twisting into something monstrous, something I had seen in the darkest corners of the Spiral’s Lair. The horrifying reality sunk in, and a scream of realization echoed through the stark white walls of the asylum.

I had become the living nightmare I had once feared, trapped in the horrifying spiral of my own mind…