“Please just go check it out. I’m scared,“ Lily whispered meekly in the dark. Nothing but her face was outlined in the moonlight seeping out from the blood-red curtains. 

A great thumping noise emanated throughout the halls of the old mansion. It seemed to come from somewhere downstairs, but Nia knew the source. The old basement. It was the one place in the world that made her skin crawl just thinking about it. 

“Please Nia, it’s probably just the cat. He used to play down there all the time.“

A lump grew in Nia’s throat. She wanted to tell her little sister the truth so badly, but she didn’t want to scare her any more than she already was. “Okay, I’m going. I’ll be right back, okay? Don’t leave this room and don’t make a sound just in case.“ Nia opened the bedroom door, walked out into the hallway, and closed the door behind her. 

The thumping was much louder than in the bedroom. It felt as if it was bouncing off the walls like a wrecking ball, hurling hazardous echoing shards at Nia’s head. She tried to tune it out and walked along, one hand covering her right ear and the other dancing along the wooden banister. 

As she took her first step down the long stairway to the foyer, a loud clawing noise joined the cacophony, dashing most of the hope Nia had summoned out the window. She hurried down the stairs, the noise growing louder with each and every step. 

Nia grunted from the painful symphony that flooded her eardrums. Taking a left down another hallway, she turned the corner and was met with the sight she feared the most. Amidst the darkness was the door. The basement door. It had already been a fear she always had in the back of her mind. A dread that never went away as long as she was here at her family’s mansion. She crept silently along the scarlet rugs until she came face-to-face with it. Something was amiss. 

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Great jagged claw marks scarred the front of the door. She looked down to see a gathering of wood splinters and metal pieces. The noise was unfathomable. A great deal of new noises joined the terrible choir. She peered down at the steel doorknob and slowly reached out to grab it. She turned it until she could no longer, and pushed it open, a sea of darkness to greet her. 

She murmured a small spell, and the stair light faintly flickered to life, offering very little comfort in the ocean of shadow. She tiptoed down the wooden staircase, the boards creaking quietly. Then, Nia stopped. She could hear the creaking. She could only hear the creaking. The noises had come to an eerie silence. 

Her eyes bounced up and down with each step. Ever so slightly, they peered around the corner and widened. 

A box. There was a metal box sitting in a mess of broken wine bottles, splintered wood, and torn art pieces. The box was closed with a lock, but the lock was broken. 

Nia wafted through the smoky darkness, her silhouette illuminated by the blinking light behind her. Her eyes glowed as she peered down at the mess. Opening the box, she was met with an unbearable stench and a small, lifeless corpse. 

“You found him.“ 

Nia whipped around and stumbled, her hands catching her fall backward but not before being cut by the glass on the cold stone floor. 

A small girl’s silhouette was illuminated by the blinking light. Her eyes widened to an unnatural degree and a wicked smile crept across her face. 

“Lily?“ 

“You found him,“ Lily whispered. “I told you. It was the cat all along. Look. He’s so cute.“ 

Nia stepped to the right and turned around, looking down at the box again. It was the cat. Their family’s cat. It meowed softly as it gazed up at Lily, and Lily laughed. 

The cat turned to Nia. Nia peered into the void where the cat’s eyes used to be. 

“He’s quite the troublemaker, scaring us like that, huh?“ Lily smirked. 

Nia didn’t hear her. She couldn’t hear anything anymore. Not the horrifying cacophony, not her sister’s rambling, not the cat’s meowing. All she could hear were chimes. Otherworldly chimes.