As I left the room I nearly fell to the floor again. I wondered what was wrong with me when all of a sudden a few drops of blood hit the floor. I was a fool to think I’d be ok after getting hit in the head with a knife. Luckily the thing wasn’t all that smart and it hit me with the blunt end of the knife but if I waited a second more I’m sure it would have plunged it into my chest sharp end first. I staggered to my feet and before I went up the stairs I checked every door in search of medical supplies to help my now pounding head. None of the doors opened even after I used the key on them all which left me with no choice, I had to go up the stairs. As I was walking up the seemingly never-ending stairs I kept thinking about the machine and what it was. It looked like an animal but I couldn’t tell because it was too dark to make it out. As I reached the top of the stairs I was met with another corridor but this time it turned to the left and to the right. There were no doors this time except for one at the very end of the corridor. I walked with cousion; I had my flashlight in my left hand and my knife in my right hand. I knew the knife would deliver a swift finishing blow to anything dangerous that I may encounter but it was hardly going to save my life in a fighting situation due to its size. It was only as big as my hand, maybe slightly more minus the handle but it was better than nothing. As I reached the end of the corridor I looked to my left to see a vase on a table with a candle next to it, there was also a couple of tinderboxes on the table which I instantly went to grab. I was more used to lighters to light candles but I had to make do with what I could get. I lit the candle and put the remaining three tinderboxes in my pocket, which was now getting really full. As I turned around to see what was down the other path I was shocked to find that the corridor lead to a bigger room. However as I was about to head off towards that room I heard what sounded like a chainsaw starting up. I was confused on where the sound was coming from as the corridors made sound echo and wrap around my head making me lose any sense of direction I had towards the sound. Suddenly the door burst into pieces and a man in a leather mask walked out holding the chainsaw. He looked right at me and I was paralysed in fear. I thought this thing was a human in a mask but as it lifted its chainsaw to slice me in half I saw no marks of this things face being a mask. I couldn’t focus on this for long however because I was about to be chopped up. I jumped to the left to dodge its swing and it cut the table in half, putting out the candle. I couldn’t sneak round him because he took up almost the entirety of the small corridor so all I could do was hide in the corner and watch as my death approached. It looked right at me and looked ready to swing but then it looked away and left me alone. It took me a minute to realise what happened but then, as I moved my hand back into some candle wax, I realised what had happened. The thing put the candle out and the leather around its face made it blind. It can’t see in the dark. To be safe and to regain my strength I waited longer then needed for the monster to leave. I got up and started to walk to the bigger room when I noticed a bottle in the room the monster came out of. As I entered the room I quickly surveyed my surroundings as to not make the same mistake I’ve made more than I should at this point. There was no danger but there was a cabinet with glass on the doors allowing me to see inside. I thought that before I investigated that id look at the bottle first. It was filled with a weird murky looking liquid and on the label there was a big red plus sign like the ones on medical kits. The fear had made me forget my throbbing headache but this bottle had made me remember and now it hurt ten times worse from my fall. Without hesitation I drank the drink in one. It tasted like crap at first but the after taste was strangely nice. I felt my headache vanish and out of instinct I touched my head, I was trying to feel my wound and see if it was still bleeding, but I couldn’t feel it. I flashed my flashlight on the glass cabinet to see if I could get a good reflection and I found that my wound had completely vanished. I didn’t question it as much as I probably should have at the time but I made a mental note to pick up anything with a big red cross on it from now on. When I was done looking at my reflection I opened the cabinet to see what was in there. There was a bag pack crammed into the small shelves. I took it out and looked to see what was inside. There were a pack of batteries and another one of those drinks. I kept the bag pack so I could store more things considering that my pockets were starting to stretch. I looked back in the cabinet to see if there was anything that I missed and as I was about to leave I spotted something on the bottom shelf. It looked like a clip of twelve handgun bullets. Without a seconds thought I put them in my bag to use if I find a gun. I left the monsters room and walked towards the bigger room at the end of the corridor. As I was walking down the corridor I noticed that the big room had now been closed off. The doors were shut and tied together by a metal chain. My first instinct was to try to cut it off with my knife when I remembered the mistakes I’ve made up to this point. I quickly turned around ready to strike with my knife only to find that there was nothing there. I returned my gaze to the now chained door and tried to get it off. It took me about ten minutes to realise that I hadn’t made a dent in the chain and I was about to try to break the door down when all of a sudden there was a horrible screeching noise like metal and wood being cut by a blunt saw. I turned around to find that the table with the candle on that had been cut into three pieces was nowhere to be seen and there was writing on the wall. I walked towards the writing but didn’t forget to check the monsters room and the other corridors. There was nothing different about them except the corridor seemed to be a bit damp. I took no notice of this and went back to the wall. The writing read “when all else fails try your heart.” I had no idea what that meant but I know it made me mad. I was being toyed with like a puppet and I was helpless to stop it. I stabbed the wall out of anger but to my surprise the knife cut through the wall like butter. I then knew what the sign meant when it said try my heart. It meant do what I felt like I needed to do. I wasn’t really sure if this is what it meant but it worked for now so I broke down the wall to reveal a door. I opened the door slowly and pushed my flashlight in first to scout for danger. It was really quiet and there was not a living thing to be seen, so I opened the door and entered the secret room. I was struck with both fear and joy when I saw another note on a table in the room but before I went to read it I felt it was smarter to inspect the room for items first. Under the table I found a small wire cutter like tool, or at least I think it was. I put it into my bag ready to use on the chained door. As I took a step forward to read the note a drop of water fell onto the tip of my nose. I shrugged it off thinking it was condensation or a leaky pipe which would explain why the corridor suddenly looked damp. I picked up the note and began reading aloud. It read “where the hell has he gone now? This mansion is nice and all but we need to gather herbs for school or ill fail my exam. This does seem like the type of place jack may enjoy, very classic and old but it feels new and well kept at the same time. I don’t know where he could have gone considering most of the doors in the house are locked tight. Speaking of locked doors, who owns this mansion. I would have thought I would have found them by now. While I’m on my own Iguess it couldn’t hurt to write what I find on notes and go exploring  a little bit myself. I just hope I find jack soon because this project isn’t going to finish itself.” I think I read the note three times in total wondering what Callum meant by this place looking classic and new at the same time. It looked like a freak show or a torture house. I began to wonder if we were even in the same building. I wanted to leave the room to open the chained doors as the doors to the room I’m in shut with a loud bang catching me off guard and sending my arms flailing in front of me followed by a loud screech. I did not know what was going on but my first reaction was to run to the door and open it but as I did this is I stopped halfway to the door. I was frozen in place as I felt a cold wave pass by my feet. As I looked down to my horror my feet were now submerged in ice cold water which seemed to be rising. I looked around in fear to look for the cause of this when I noticed three rusted pipes around the room. One on the ceiling, one in the left corner of the room and one directly under my feet. I ran to the door to try and open it but it was locked. Trying to seem somewhat calm, I tried to make a sound but it sounded more like a cat being hit by a car. I used everything in my bag to try and open that door but nothing even scratched it. It was as if the door was never there and was instead in an entirely different plain of existent all together or even a different world. I turned around and looked at the pipes again; they were poking out a bit from the walls. My mind was racing with ways to not drown as I felt the water pass my waist when I thought of a plan. I grabbed the wire cutters and ran to the pipe on the floor to try and squeeze the metal shut and stop the water flow. To do this I had to dive under the water many times but it worked. The only problem now is that the water was up to my neck and I still had two pipes to seal up. I swam to the pipe on the wall and tried to seal it up. When I was done with that pipe the water had nearly filled the room. I swam to the ceiling and hit my head on it thinking it was further away. At this moment I had about ten seconds of oxygen left. I made the most of it and used it to steady my breathing before I went onto the next pipe. As I took my last breath I moved on to the next and final pipe. As the pipe was slowly stopping the flow of water I got to confident and tried to seal the pipe with one last push resulting in me dropping my wire cutters. Fear hit me as I mere seconds away from passing out but I had to get those cutters to finish the job. I swam down to find them but I couldn’t see through the water so all I could do was feel around and hope I bumped into them before I drowned. By some miracle, my foot bumped into something sharp when I went to see what it was I felt a wave of adrenalin hit me when I saw the wire cutters, giving me hope of survival. After grabbing the wire cutters, I swam back up to the pipe and sealed it shut but I was stuck underwater with no sign of it draining. I thought it was the end so I clutched my throat and shut my eyes but as I was passing out I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen to Callum now that I’m gone. I failed him; I just hope he wasn’t in any danger. This was the last thing I thought of before I passed out for real.

I found myself sitting in class listening to my teacher drone on about tests and getting our questions right. He would constantly be interrupted by the class talking or trying to chuck stuff into the bin which missed 80 percent of the time. The teachers face was a bluer and his voice was mumbled and sounded very demonic. He leaned over to me and pointed to my book which was filled with the words “I am a killer, I killed my friend, I am unloved, I am a monster and I have failed him over and over again taking up the whole of the page. I stood up from my chair and ran out of the room down what seemed to be a never ending hallway. The more I ran the more those words filled my head until I stopped to see Callum stood at the end of the hallway with red eyes walking towards me. I dropped to my knees and begged for this nightmare to end but Callum stood over me and forced me to my feet by the neck of my school jumper. He looked into my eyes with what can only be described and pure hatred and said “you have killed me and now I must repay the favour.” Before I could even apologise for failing him I felt his hand pass through my chest and grab my heart. I felt it get tighter and tighter before it popped and then all of a sudden I flew upwards and coughed up about a pint of water. I was back in the room that had filled with water and my lungs felt unbelievably heavy but after coughing up most of the water I felt like I was ok to walk again. I was so happy that I survived but as I looked around I realised that the door was open and instead of water there was about an inch of blood on the floor of the room. I shot to my feet and ran out of that room as fast as I could. I ran to the door that was chained up and went to grab my wire cutters when I paused to think about that weird dream I had. It felt so real, like a flashback but it also was way too crazy to have actually happen so I shrugged it off as a guilt dream because I was thinking I was a failure when I passed out, but I never really could stop thinking about it. With some effort I got the chains of off the door and I could finally open it. When I opened the door I was met with a big room like the room I thought was the entrance room when I was being chased by that mechanical thing but without the stairs. It looked quite plain with doors on every side of the room. As I went in to check the doors I found that they were all locked except for the door to the far left which lead to a smaller room. I entered the room and shut the door behind me just in case and this room had a door to its left and to its right. I took a step forward before coming to a sudden halt as I heard a sudden bang in the room to my right. I grabbed my knife and got ready to defend myself when I heard “shit the doors locked, ahhhhh fuck I’m screwed! There’s nowhere left for me to go!” the voice sounded human, but soon all I could hear was a quiet sobbing sound. I walked up to the door with my knife still raised just in case this was a trick. “Yo! Anybody there?” I shouted through the door and immediately backed away. “What the...? A voice. Hay! Who’s there?” I felt like this couldn’t be a monster so I lowered my knife. “My names jack, I’m a human not one of... them!” I replied. “I’m Charlie, and I’m also stuck! Can you find a way to open this door? I’m at a dead end over here!” the door was a simple wooden door and thanks to my size of 6,3 feet and my decent weight I felt like I could ram my way through it with ease. “Stand back! I’m going to attempt to smash the door down!” I heard rustling from the other side of the door, but soon there was silence. “Here we go!” I shout as I run full speed at the door. It gives way slightly but it is still standing firm. “Fuck!” I shouted at a loud volume. “You ok there over there? I think the door is starting to bend slightly so I’m guessing your doing something good!” “I’m fine but my arm hurts! Running into doors hurts more than you may think!” it took another 3 tries to bust that door down but when I took my final run that did succeed in destroying the door my momentum didn’t stop and I went flying forwards along with the door. “Dame dude, you ok?” I looked up to see a short boy around the age of 14 standing over me with a hand out stretched ready to help me up. “I’ve been through worse, trust me, that was nothing.” I took his hand and we both entered the room that I had started in before I picked a fight with a door. There were two chairs in that room and a table, it looked like some sort of kitchen. I told Charlie to take a seat while I looked for some food or drink. I found four bottles of water and three cans of food. One was beans and the other two were canned fruit. I gave Charlie two bottles of water and the canned fruit. “Wow dude thanks.” He said in a delighted and thankful tone “but what about you?” “I’m fine.” I replied. “I don’t like fruit and you seemed thirsty so I thought this would be the best distribution of our resources.” Charlie simply nodded in response. I told him about my experiences and he looked at me in disbelief. “Monsters, healing drinks, nightmares? Man you’re insane. I haven’t seen anything like that.” “You’re lucky then.” I replied. “But what if we do run into any of the things that I saw? Do you have a weapon?” “Kind of, I found a pistol or a handgun of some sorts but it seems to be empty?” “Do you know how to use a gun Charlie?” I ask worryingly. “Not really but if what you say is true than I better learn.” “Not a chance.” I say before he gets any bright ideas. “Give it to me. I have ammo and I sort of know how to use it.” “Piss of man, you aren’t getting my only means of defence.” Charlie snaps at me. “Look your too small to do any real damage with my knife,” I place the knife on the table to show him that I have a clear advantage in size to use it properly for attacking the head, “and I know how to use the gun. Next weapon we find can be yours but for now id like it if we can both be safe for the time being.” Charlie looks at me for a while before nodding and sliding his gun over to me. I reach into my bag pack and pull out the ammo to put in the gun. I pull the top back and aim down the sight. It is not perfect but it can get the job done.

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Charlie quickly eats a can of fruit and gulps down his entire bottle of water. “Charlie” I say in a more normal tone “you can eat and drink all you want for now but we never know if we will ever find food or drink in this place again so from now on try to ration out your meals and drink, ok?” Charlie simply pouts and nods in response. As we, both got up to make our move we heard a banging sound behind us. “Charlie, stay behind me!” I ordered. I aimed the gun at the door and was ready to blast whatever opens it. It seemed like hours went by when all of a sudden we heard another voice. “Hello, is anyone there?” instantly I lowered the gun to open the door, still cautious, as I still do not know what monsters are in this place. It could have been mimicking a human to gain our trust. As the door opened, I realised that it was actually a man stood there just older than both Charlie and me. The man jumped back in terror. “What the hell man, are you trying to scare me to death!” “Sorry about that.” I said in response “didn’t think to call out first just in case you were a monster or something.” “Monster? You have seen them to?” the man said sounding surprised “ye, I have. However Charlie here hasn’t seen anything of the sort.” Charlie simply waves from behind me, his head barely making it to my solder. “You’re lucky Charlie. I’ve been running around here for ages trying to esca-“ “WATCH OUT!” Charlie shouted, interrupting the man. A zombie like creature appeared behind the man and grabbed him by the neck, dragging him into the big room. “Charlie, stay here and shout if you see anything.” “No way man let me help.” “There’s nothing you can do at this time, just keep an eye out ok” “fine” I ran into the room and aimed my gun at the creature, it had the man in a tight lock, chocking him “help…me” the man gurgles with what little air he had. I could not shoot it as I may hit this man. I put the gun in my pocket and pull out my knife. “Hang on man; I’ll help you out now.” I grab the creature who lets go of the man’s neck and grabs mine instead. I stab the underside of his arm and he lets go in pain before we lock eyes. I raise my knife in a boxers pose to try to intimidate the creature but it simply tries to rush me. I step to the side and stab the creature in the back. However, it seemed to not care and grabbed my chest, pushing me to the floor and causing me to drop my knife and send it sliding across the room. Before I could move, the creature claimed on top of me and grabbed my neck once more, this time pinning me down with no weapon. I gasped for air as I tried to punch and kick the monster off of me. However, I could not do a thing, the creature was not moving and I was losing my grip on reality and was starting to pass out. Just as I was about to give up I heard a loud scream, it sounded like Charlie. “AHHHHH! TAKE THIS YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Charlie had grabbed my knife from the ground and charged the monster, stabbing it in the neck. The monster did not drop dead from this but instead went to attack Charlie. With a gasp, Charlie jumped back out of fear as the monster then walked towards him. Gasping for air, I staggered to my feet. I look towards Charlie and I saw that the creature was arm’s length away from him. Charlie saw me get up behind the monster and looked right at me with fear in his eyes. I nodded at him and ran towards the monster. Just as it was about to grab Charlie I violently pulled the knife out of the monsters neck. “Pick on someone your own size.” I then plunged the knife into the back of the creatures head and finally, it stopped moving. The three of us just stood there looking at the thing that attacked the man. It looked like a zombie however; it looked a little less decayed and more wounded. “Thanks guys, you’re really saved my ass back there.” The man said in thanks “it’s alright dude.” Charlie replied lightning fast “no trouble at all.” “Speak for yourself.” I say rubbing my neck. “I took most of the damage. Why was he chasing you anyway?” “Not a clue.” The man says with a small smirk on his face. “And what’s your name anyway. You know Charlie and im Jack.” “My names Alex, I come from Serbia.” “Well Alex. You should stick with us, three heads are better than two.” “Thanks, didn’t really want to be on my own.” We all nod and I go to loot the monster we killed. “Um, what are you doing?” Charlie asked, “Waste not want not, that what I always say. And who knows, he may have some good loot on him.” Sure enough, I found another clip for my gun. However, this one only had six bullets in it. “Wow, nice find man.” Alex says happily. Before I could reply, I turned around and got a small look at the celling. “Charlie, get my flashlight.” “What, what?” “NOW!” I shout in response. Charlie yelps and throws me my flashlight, which I aim towards the ceiling. Both Alex and Charlie fell silent at what they seen and all I could do was muster the words “oh shit.” The celling was covered in body’s hanging buy their necks by chains. Their faces were all distorted and some of them where gurgling blood, seeming as if they were still alive. “OUT NOW!” I shout, making my way to the door. I shut the door behind me and throw a cabinet filled with plates in front of the door so nothing can enter or exit the room. “What the hell was that?” Alex said, still panting from the mad dash out of the room. “How the hell should I know?” I reply. “Hay you two, stop bickering and let’s just find a place to rest.” Both Alex and I nod. We left back into the big main room with locked doors along every wall. “I think this would make a good base of operations. What do you guys think?” they both look at me in confusion “why do we need a base?” Alex asked. “it can be a safe place to store things so we don’t have to carry stuff everywhere and if we find more people we can send them here to rest for a bit.” “Not a bad Idea jack.” “Thanks Charlie. Only problem now is that all of these doors are locked.” “Oh wait.” Alex said reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a key. “I picked this up while running around; I didn’t pass a door though so I kept it on me.” “Nice one Alex.” I reply giving him a fist bump. Alex simply smiles in response before handing me the key. “Let start by making this a more like a base and rest for a bit.” Alex and Charlie nod and we get to work.