Jacob raised himself into an upright sitting position to better grasp where the hell he had ended up, noticing a chill in the air despite it being Summer.

Either this is a disturbingly elaborate prank, or I'm still dreaming" he mumbled as he swung his legs off the side of the foul-smelling bed.

It's was worth noting that one of Jacob's more peculiar habits was talking to himself. He often imagined it as the inner monologue or exposition to help a non-existent observer. It stemmed from his love of reading as he often liked to imagine himself as the protagonist of an admittedly boring story.

Well, usually it was boring.

As he began to observe his surroundings, he ran his finger over the dust-covered bedside table.

"Odd" he said to himself.

"I can clearly feel the texture of the dust and how freaking cold it is in here. Not to mention… Ugh, yep, this bed is mouldy as all hell, but something feels off?" Jacob pondered aloud.

Suddenly it clicked. Recently he had been playing a variety of horror games, and the feeling he had was similar to when he played. No matter how realistic the game's graphics were, there was still something 'fake' about it.

"I guess this is a lucid dream based on those horror games…" he continued.

After coming to this conclusion, he made the same decision any rational gamer would.

"Onward! To explore this creepy ass house filled with God knows what! Not like I have anything better to do, and this weird room isn't exactly enthralling." He stated proudly, standing up from the bed.

After deciding that exploring the place was the best use of his time, he quickly began not look at the room from a gamer's perspective.

"This place seems to have electric-powered lighting, but for some reason, everything is lit by candles. Based on the fact that all I can smell is the mould from the bed, I'm going to assume they're not scented" He reasoned.

After noting this down mentally, he continued to visually sweep the room. He noticed the windows were so heavily fogged that no amount of rubbing (no, not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter) would clear them. He also checked the door, but after confirming it was unlocked, he decided to leave it for the moment in search of more clues and potential loot.

Unfortunately, after flipping the bed, opening every drawer in the bedside table, and thoroughly raiding the empty closet, he only got information from the old grandfather clock in the corner of the room.

He noted the time was currently 1:13. However, he couldn't guess whether it was AM or PM, considering the condition of the only window in the room.

A fantastic sign considering the outlook on luck regarding the number thirteen.

While his only informational harvest was that of the current time of day, his physical harvest was much more significant.

He had managed to find a small oil-fueled lamp in the back area of the closet underneath some wantonly thrown clothing.

After some brief experimentation, he learned how to light and douse the small flame contained within it, and it even came with a handy belt strap to ensure he could carry it hands-free.

Sadly, after being lit the lamp only briefly flickered before running out of oil. What helped curb his disappointment was the discovery of a small diary.

To his immediate dismay, the diary was locked, and he had no luck finding the key. He contemplated forcing the lock but the book's condition was already fragile and he didn't want to risk making it illegible. This led to him stuffing it into his back pocket as he had no other use for it.

Disappointed, but having checked every part of the room he could think of, he decided that it was now or ever, he would explore the rest of the house he was in.

Despite his bravado and the dissociation from reality he was experiencing, he was still quite nervous as he prepared to open the door to the area outside of his room. He may have logically convinced himself that this was a lucid dream, but he had still woken up in an unfamiliar place with no context or even signs of recent human life. It wasn't exactly an experience he could comfortably adapt to.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Ok, the plan is simple, step one, open the door. Step two, look around the door for ghosts. Step three, if there is a ghost, run like a bitch in the opposite direction, probably while screaming profanity. Alright, that's enough messing around let's do this, LEEEEEEEEERRRRRROOOOOOYYYYYY!"

As he finished his preparatory hype-up speech with a shout, he slammed the door open at full force, hoping to startle any supernatural enemies with his sheer stupidity. Considering he was basically announcing the location of their next meal.

"JEEEEENNNNKIIINNNSSSSSS" He finished as he dashed out into the hall, avoiding the object placed against the wall directly opposite the door. He elected to press himself against the opposite wall of what he now realised was a hallway. He then quickly turned his head left and right, attempting to identify any jump scares coming his way.

After he confirmed a lack of spiritual or physical enemy, he decided to take a look around the corridor he now found himself in.

The corridor was in a similar style to the bedroom and allowed him to confirm that the 'house' he was in was in fact, a 20th-century mansion of sorts. Once again, there appeared to be infrastructure for overhead lighting, courtesy of a series of lightbulbs hung from the roof at regular intervals.

But the hallway was lit by candlelight, they were placed on dedicated small shelves mounted to the walls at regular intervals with a few being on the various furnishings along the edges of the hallway.

The wallpaper was of a moody green colour with a simple spiralling pattern. Unfortunately, that too had been victim to time as its edges were peeled and its colour worn to a grotesque shade of its former self.

That, combined with the way the candlelight caused shadows to play on the walls at the slightest movement, created a horrific memento of whatever cruel fate had befallen the mansion.

There were only two other things that Jacob found worth noting.

First, while many doors decorated the hallways' walls, only his had a doorknob while the rest were without.

Based purely on his experience as a gamer, he figured that these were areas that were not meant to be explored, which led him to the last object of interest in the old hallway.

it was a full-sized gold inlay mirror, roughly 2 meters in height with an oval shape, it was mounted to the wall opposite the room he woke up in.

"Hmm, an uncracked, completely out-of-place mirror right outside the 'spawn room,' yep, this isn't gonna end badly or anything." He grumbled with spite as he reluctantly edged his way to the mirror which was almost definitely a trap.

Resolving himself, he began to mess with it, touching it and feeling around the mirror.

However, try as he might, he couldn't get whatever was supposed to happen... to happen.

No hidden switches, jump scares, or clues behind the mirror.

Nothing.

Despite the lack of results, his gamer sense was telling him that this entirely out-of-place mirror had to have some purpose.

So he shouted into the ceiling in a bid to communicate with whoever was overseeing this weird game he was placed into (because that's where all omniscient beings live, the attic).

"Hey, can I get a hint? A ray of light, a creepy note, anything?" He begged his silent god.

Nothing happened.

"Come on, man, or woman, or whatever you are! I'm playing along with this weird ass escape room. The least you can do is help me out, right?" He yelled while turning and raising his arms in an effort to garner the great attic dweller's attention.

"huuuuuuu" he sighed.

"Fine, I guess I'll jus-"

Exasperation filled his voice as Jacob was getting ready to give up, he was turning around when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Looking back at the mirror, he realised what it was.

"ohhhhh fuck, that is literally never a good sign" He mumbled under his breath.

He looked at the mirror, which now showed a young girl in a white and red dress peeking out from the room he had woken up in.

This itself would have been creepy. However, the girl's dress appeared to have been a white sun dress. Emphasis on the past tense as the sizeable gaping slash across her throat had decorated the dress's front a distinctively different colour.

Luckily, the girl seemed content with staring at him.

For the time being at least.

However, panic is funny because it causes people to be very stupid from time to time.

Jacob was no exception.

He quickly turned away from the mirror to look at the door he came from, hoping to spot the bleeding child and…. Ask for directions to the lavatory!?

He hadn't really thought past confirming that she was actually behind him.

Luckily, he didn't need to.

Because after turning, he found the room to be as unpopulated as he had left it.

Sighing in relief, he turned back to the mirror as he attempted to calm himself. Unfortunately, his heart rate was destined to remain high, and his goosebumps remained on his arms and neck as the mirror was now fogged up like the window in his room.

That alone would have kept his bpm high, but of course, his troubles did not end there. The reason for Jacob's rising fear was the words becoming clear within the fog as if someone was using their finger to write on the glass.

After a few seconds, three words were formed within the fog.

The problem was that they were gibberish.

The best he could make out was a bunch of letters in the order "NUR ,SEMOC SSENKRAD."

After a few seconds, he realised the obvious trick. The words were backward like they were written from inside the mirror.

A few seconds later, he decoded the message to show "DARKNESS COMES, RUN."

After reading the cryptic message, he swiftly turned to look down both ends of the hallway.

At first, things seemed the same as his first look.

Until he looked harder.

3 seconds of detailed observation revealed that the darkness to his left was closer than he remembered.

The candles at the far end of the left hallway were quickly being extinguished, and a sinister darkness was now approaching.