Mansion in the Forest

Headless guy

The table filled with loud chatters, laughter and everyone enjoying the night, as if they've known each other for so long. No one feels so left behind, they are just talking about their life outside the mansion and in the city.

The boys found out the Jazen and Lexi are in a relationship, making Blake to feel uncomfortable.

Let's say, he's a loud homophobic, he hates Jazen and Lexi's kind, people who belongs in l***q+ community. He didn't even tried to hide it by looking at the two disgustingly, but Jazen ignores it, while Lexi feels uncomfortable as much as Blake.

"You should watch out about that guy." Jisu whispered next to Lexi, without looking at the latter to avoid suspicion that she knew the two.

"I know, but aren't he's too much of an asshole to hate on us? Like, we didn't even do anything to him." Lexi said as low as possible.

"He's just a simple homophobic, you should used by that, outside of this mansion, they are lot of homophobics out there."

"Psh." Lexi scoffed and rolled her eyes, her gaze landed at the guy who kept glaring at her for the past half hour since they started the feast. "He looks like he's gonna eat me alive."

"Well, we still don't know what's about to happen here, so for now, you should avoid him as much as possible."

"Yeah, I would do that." Lexi said dismissively and they continue to eat.

As the time passed by, it's almost midnight when the alarm goes off and everyone looked outside when the LED screen create a sounds. Lexi was the first one to stand, followed by Jazen then Jisu.

"Everyone should take a rest, but watch out."

That's the only thing they've read on the screen before it went black then the CCTV monitor was on again.

"Watch out, for what?" Siena asked, looking at everyone.

"Watch out for backstabber, I guess?" Iris said, then everyone went into full silent. Meanwhile, Lexi and Jisu looked at Blake immediately, they saw how the guy's lips formed a dangerous smirk while looking on his fists.

"f**k, this will be a tiring night for me, I guess?" Lexi exhales exasperatedly, slumping down her shoulders.

"Why don't we share a room altogether?" Chantelle suggest.

"Why tho?" Blake asked while his eyes bore at Lexi.

"Just so you know, we can feel that you hate..." Chantelle paused as she looked back behind her. "...her." She continued and scan Lexi from head to toe, which made Jazen to tighten her grip on Lexi's hand. "So just in case she die, we know who's the culprit."

"And what you gonna do about it?" Blake asked again, this time, he's smirking venomously.

"We'll kill you too, just to be safe." Denver said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking their side, but if you killed her then we have to terminate you as well just to be safe, that no one's gonna die again."

"Psh." Blake made a hissing sound and turned his heels. "Don't worry, no one's gonna die tonight." He said before he walks away.

When Blake was far away from their earshot. They all looked at Lexi, who's staring on her feet and playing with her fingers.

"Don't worry about him, he won't hurt you." Jazen said as she rub Lexi's back.

"Wow, what can a 5’2 do to defend a 5’7?" Denver asked and everyone laugh, except from Jazen, who glare at the guy venomously. She was was about to pull put her gun but a loud bang coming from the roof can be heard.

"What was that?" Siena asked, fear in her eyes are visible while holding Iris's arm tightly.

"Probably a branch, this mansion are surrounded by trees, remember?" Iris said to assure the woman that there's nothing to scared of.

"We should go and take a rest." Lei yawns loudly while stretching his arms above his head, his torso revealed and there are dagger attached on his belt. He seems notice that everyone are looking at his daggers and he quickly pulled down his shirt. "Just to be safe." He reasoned.

"Well, there's nothing wrong to have those, after all. We still don't know what's about to happen." Chantelle said and everyone agreed to her.

They decided to occupy the biggest room upstairs, the boys removed the bed and throw it out so they could have more spaces. Then they sat in every corner of the room, watching each other, except from Blake and Francis who decided to occupy another room that they didn't know where.

"I need to use the bathroom." Siena whispered to Iris, but since there was a defeaning sound, everyone could hear her.

"Then go." Iris said blatantly, oblivious to the fact that Siena wants her to go with her.

"I'm scared."

"Tsk. You shouldn't have joined here if you're scared." Lei hissed but he still stood up. "I'll accompany you." He said and he jolt his head towards the door. "Let's go."

"Why would I go with you?"

"You said you wanna—."

"I am, but I'm not going with you. I don't trust you." Siena said, looking at Lei accusingly.

Lei scoffed loudly and laugh mockingly after, then his face went blank. "I don't trust you either, I just want to accompany you because you're scared. Do you think that I would stab you in the back while you're doing your business? Oh please.."

"Well it's not like I can't kill you on my own, just so you know, I'm a black belter and a Jujitsu trainer, so I'm sorry if you think that you could take advantage of my fear."

"Then why are you scared of going to the bathroom alone?" Denver chimes in.

"I'm afraid of ghost, not with human."

"You should be more afraid of human than ghost." Lexi said.

"Nah, I can kill human, but I cannot kill humans who's already dead." Siena flicked her tongue as she stood up. "I'll go on my own."

"I'll go with you." Jisu suddenly stood up and ran towards Siena. The latter looked at her then smile widely, stealing a quick glance to Iris who seems not interested on their conversation as she's too focus to the window, as if she's staring into someone.

The two left the room to find bathroom, while the others left inside and they once again, fell in silent. No one wanted to start any conversation, far from how they talked at the diner earlier, this time, they are more careful, escalating the situation and more aware that they couldn't trust each other.

Iris, who stays watching the window, suddenly flinched and looked away. Lexi noticed it, she looked at the window and her eyes widened when she saw shadows outside the window. Chantelle is sitting on the corner, above her head is the window, where Iris and Lexi, both saw the shadow that passed by. They are on the second floor, which means, there are no chance for whoever that is, can walk like that in front of the window.

Unless, it is not a person.

"Maybe it's a ghost." Han said, he was also staring at the window since the moment they entered the room. "They've been there all this time."

"Who?" Denver asked curiously.

"Them." Han said, pointing at the window. Some of them look at Chantelle, while the others looked at the window.

"She's alone?" Denver said more of statement than a question while pointing at the girl.

"Window." Lexi said and they looked up to it. That's when they suddenly crawled into each others and they gathered on the corner next to Lexi and Jazen. "What a bunch of cowards." She scoffed.

"That's ghost! Who wouldn't get scared?!" Lei said as he squeezed himself to Denver.

"Aren't you the one who volunteered to accompany Siena?" Jazen asked mockingly, but she as well, invading Lexi's privacy as she tried to wrap Lexi's arm around her and she's burying her face onto the latter's chest.

"I thought that there are no ghost here!"

"She's tough." Han said, refering to Chantelle, who stayed on her spot even if she knew that there were possible ghost above her. "I wonder if she's aware."

"I am, but I'm not scared of ghost." Chantelle said monotonously while watching her newly pedicured nails. "Ghosts can't hurt a living person, but a living person can make you a ghost."

"Yeah, that's what Siena is saying earlier." Lei said.

"So.. after all, we've summoned here to bust some ghost?" Jazen asked, looking up to Lexi, as if the latter knew the answer.

Well she is, but she's not totally sure if they are really looking for ghost, because if that's the case, then the Queen should've called exorcist, not a bunch of teenagers.

Chantelle stood up and turn her back against everyone to open the window, but just before she could do it, a loud thud coming from the door made her paused. They all looked at it and wait if who will enter the room, but it's been 10 seconds, the door still close.

"Jisu?" Lexi called, but no one respond from the other side of the door.

"Siena." Iris called as well, but still no response.

Then suddenly, they heard several much louder thud, as if there is someone walking down the stairs with heavy footsteps.

"Fuck." Lexi hissed and she removed Jazen's arm from her to get the door but Jazen prevent her from doing so. "I need to look for Jisu!"

"Wait, we didn't know who's making that sound—."

"I don't f*****g care." Lexi scowled and she forcefully remove Jazen's arm on hers.

"Lexi!" Jazen still tried to stop her girlfriend, but Lexi already ran out of the room.

"Let her, if she wants to die." Lei said, walking back to his spot earlier and sat down on the floor.

"What a dumb." Jazen hissed before running after Lexi.

While Lexi running down from the stairs, she looked around but see no one, she stopped in the middle when she heard another bang from the dark corner of the house, lights were dim on that spot and she has a poor eyesight on right eye, so she had to squint her them to have a better look.

There's a moving shadow at the corner, a very huge guy if Lexi will compare it to a human. The shadow's head turned and Lexi absolutely sure that it is looking at her, she feels a sudden chill while staring at it. But what makes Lexi shudder is when she finally had a sight on its eyes.

They were blue, like a hues of clear sky in the middle of the perfect spring. They are in fire if you could imagine something like that. The shadow moved a bit, as if they put whatever things they were holding on the floor and stood up slowly, it is far from huge body of a human, its head almost touches the ceiling of the second floor, then the sharp teeth exposed when a light dazzle behind Lexi.

Lexi's eyes widened upon seeing the unimaginable creature, with sharp teeth, pointed claws, furry body, it is almost like a werewolf but it's not because it is standing with its two feet.

"Lexi!" Jazen called her name, which made Lexi to shift her gaze behind her and saw Jazen running towards her, she looked back when she remember the creature, but it's no longer on its spot. The followed with loud scream coming from the room downstairs.

It's Siena's voice.

"Move!" Iris yelled and she almost skip the rest of the stairs just to get to Siena. She kicked the door where the screams coming from and Siena immediately throw herself to Iris, who caught the girl between her arms at that instant. "What happen?"

"I-I saw someone." Siena said frighteningly while pointing inside the room. Lexi and Jazen ran towards it and saw Jisu instead, half of her body was on the window.

"Hey!" Lexi panicked and pulled Jisu from the window. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I was just checking the shadow earlier." Jisu said calmly, unlike Siena who's too scared to even retract herself from Iris.

"Damn, I thought something happened to you." Lexi sigh in relief, but then she remembered the shadow from the room and the unexplained creature downstairs. She looked back to the window and quickly move to close it. "Don't open the windows, we still don't know what's in here."

"Right, we saw shadows upstairs, maybe that's what you saw in here." Iris said while rubbing Siena's back to calm her as she's still trembling in fear.

"This mansion is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees, abandoned for I don't know how hundreds of years, of course, it'll be haunted." Jisu commented, she seems didn't mind the ghost as well, she's too smart to be afraid of ghost than a living person.

"We should go back upstairs." Lexi said and they all agreed. When they reached the second floor, they got confused as to why the hallway suddenly become narrowed, it changed to be specific, the several rooms were no longer on sight. "What the hell." Lexi whispered.

"Am I the only one who could notice that it seems we're in a different place?" Siena said, eyes still focus ahead of them.

"There is really something weird that's going on in this mansion." Jisu said amusedly, and everyone finds it creepy but they chose not to say anything as they are confused to what's going on.

"I think it's better to stay on the living room." Lexi suggested.

"Right, we can look for the others through the CCTV." Jazen said and she grabbed Lexi's hand and tug the girl with her.

When they got to the living room, the set up when they left it has never changed, unlike upstairs, they tried to find the other teenagers but they can't find them in the room where they've been before the unexplained circumstances happened to Lexi and to other girls.

"Look. They're here." Siena said while pointing at the screen where the other teenagers were walking on the hallway, they seems lost, just like Lexi's gang, they are confused as well as to why the second floor suddenly replaced with a new place, different from what Lexi and the others got witnessed.

"I think they are in the third floor." Iris said. And there they saw another stairs where it leads to another floor, then another again, the mansion were filled with stairs that they just noticed now. But they were sure that they came from the second floor only and those stairs were not there earlier.

"What time is it?" Lexi asked.

"It says 20 after 12." Jisu answered.

"So probably, this mansion will get different at 12 AM."

"That's kinda scary, but cool at the same time." Iris said and only Jisu agreed to her.

"Well, it's not even 24 hours and yet we can already experience something like this." Jazen commented while her eyes wandering around them but her hand gripping the gun that she's hiding behind her.

"Let's go and meet the others upstairs, I don't want to stay here, I can feel that there's something going to happen." Siena still terrified of what she saw earlier, making Iris to feel worried about her friend.

Iris take her hand and rubbed the back of her palm to soothe her friend. Although, Siena is still afraid, she somehow feel safe as long as she's with Iris.

The girls went upstairs to meet the others, but when they are in the middle of the stairs leading to the third floor, they heard another scream coming from a man. They look at each other and decided to run quickly to where the screams coming from. They saw Francis crawling towards them, his face are filled with fear and his clothes are cover with blood. He also has a deep wound on his shoulder with the blade still pierced on it, as if someone stabbed him while he's trying to escape from whoever tried to kill him.

"H-Help." He extend his arm, trying to reach for someone.

Lexi was the first one to react and she ran to help Francis, she picked him up, wrap his arm around her shoulder and lifted the guy with all her strength. Jisu and Siena helped her and they brought Francis back in the living room, they lay him down on the couch while Iris and Jazen tried to look for first aid kit from the kitchen, but they see nothing.

"Let me." Jisu said, then asked Iris to get her a bottle of whiskey from the mini bar counter. "It's a bit painful but bear with it." She said to Francis before pulling the blade out of his shoulder.

Francis screamed in agony but he felt relieved after Jisu successfully removed the blade and she tore Francis's shirt, she pressed it onto the wound to stop the bleeding.

"I knew he's not trustworthy." Jazen hissed, refering to guy who's with Francis.

"Who did it to you?" Lexi asked just to make sure if Blake really betrayed his friend.

"I d-don't know, I was sleeping and got awoken by a loud screams, then I saw someone standing in front of me. When I looked for Blake, he was no longer beside me."

"Don't you think the one standing in front of you is Blake?" Jisu asked, but Francis shook his head.

"He's much taller than Blake, and much more bigger than anyone else in this f*****g mansion."

"Then who the f**k was that?" Jazen asked frustratingly.

"I didn't saw his face, but.." Francis trails off his word, as if he's trying to remember what he saw earlier. "He has blue eyes."

Lexi froze on her spot, she knew what Francis is talking about, because she encountered one earlier, before Jazen arrived then the scary creature vanished into the dark.

"If that's not Blake, then where is he?" Siena asked.

"Who cares? He might be that guy, just standing into something to make him look like he's tall." Jazen scoffed.

"I'm n-not sure." Francis said, there's a hesitation in his eyes because he's not really sure if it's not Blake or his friend really tried to kill him, but for what reason? They already agreed that they will half the prize if it happen that they win, and then suddenly, Blake will try to kill him.

Everyone began to silent, the mansion fell in defeaning sound, only the sounds of gushing trees outside could be hear. They stayed like that for about ten minutes when suddenly, the surroundings became dark, even the LED screen went black and they couldn't see anything.

Lexi blinked her eyes rapidly, adjusting to the dark, thankfully, the wan moon gave them a bit of light to see each other, not clearly, but at least they can see a bit. She looked around, and regretted it immediately when she saw the shadow again, but this time, there are more than one, eyes are glowing in the dark.

"Jazen." She whispered without tearing her gaze away from those blue eyes of the creatures.

"I'm here, Lexi." Jazen respond.

"Just stay next to me—." Lexi's words were interrupted when the lights turned on, and those eyes she could see from the dark were gone like lightning.

"Oh my God!" Siena shrieked and she fell on the floor, her eyes were wide open while looking at Francis.

His head was gone and his blood gushing on the floor nonstop.

_____