I stood in the middle of the main hall, holding, with both of my hands, the notebook that might have had my last words written in it, awaiting my judgment. Amy and Dante were in the room with me and I didn’t know where Evelyn and Leon were. I wanted it to stay that way, Leon could ruin everything very quickly. Amy and Dante also got to read my essay, I felt more secure with them simply knowing what was written on the paper.

It felt like the walls, the pillars and even the doors were watching me, like they were alive. The stress was overwhelming as I waited for Lucia or Rose. I didn’t move for at least two minutes, until it was exactly noon, and then, Lucia slowly walked down the stairs, coming from the left wing of the second floor.

She was wearing a pretty fancy dress, much more extravagant than the outfit she had been wearing before. It made the whole ordeal look more formal, as well as more stressful.

“So, are you ready, my dearest Petra?”

“Yes,” I responded confidently.

“I see. That makes me happy.”

She grabbed the notebook from my hands and began reading my essay. Her red eyes went over each word with attention and with swiftness. She would also whisper to herself occasionally, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying, so I took a small step toward her and moved my hair away from my ears.

“Alright, yes, good,” she kept whispering, “this one’s a bit wrong, but she’s going the right way. Hmm, where from here?”

Eventually, she stopped reading and threw the notebook to the side. At that moment, her eyes were locked on to me. At one moment, I thought that my life was already over, but Lucia did not move, I did not feel any pain.

“So, what do you think?” I broke the silence.

“You made one mistake, it was repeated multiple times.”

“Oh,” I felt my heart sink.

“However, there was no way for you to know that, it isn’t visible with the clues alone. You actually did it, I’m astounded.”

Then suddenly, the image of Lucia faded, and on the bottom part of the staircase, there was a woman in a red shirt and brown pants sitting. She looked to be middle aged, but still very familiar looking. Rose!

With my next blink, it was confirmed. Mendivi appeared in place of her right eye, she broke the illusion in front of the three of us. It was exactly as the blueprints depicted it. One to one in size compared to a regular eye, a bright red glowing circle in the middle that stared into my soul.

Comparing her to her teenage self that I met long ago, they barely resembled each other. Though, her face didn’t change too much, the majority of the difference was in aging and a change of style, her hair was way longer and her skin was paler.

“So, are we free to leave?” Amy asked.

“Yup,” Rose replied, “the door isn’t locked. It never was. Though it’s still a fancy door even without the illusion.”

Amy and Dante ran up to me and hugged me, I could even see a tear or two coming from their eyes which made me shed some of my own. We did it! We’re free!

“I can’t believe it, I thought that she would’ve betrayed us, I thought that this situation was hopeless,” I quietly said.

“Come on, darling,” Rose overheard me and replied, “I’ve stated multiple times that I play fairly. Do not disrespect my words.”

I nodded and turned around.

Amy and I began walking towards the door without any regard for anything, but Dante went towards the right wing.

“Where are you going, God’s child?” Rose asked Dante when she noticed that he wasn’t leaving.

“My brother yearns for a proper burial. I will not leave him in such a vile location.”

“Alright, fine. You do that while the artist and the maniac find out that they’re free and come down.”

While we were around three steps away from the door, the lights went out. Fuck, fuck! It was a trick! How didn’t I guess that? How did I think she was going to let us go that easily?

“Who do you think you can call a maniac, huh?” I heard Leon’s voice in the distance.

This is even worse than I thought!

“Change of plans, I see!” Rose shouted, “Enough transgression. It seems you can’t accept my gift of freedom, so I’m taking it away from you.”

I was terrified, so I rushed to the door since I knew that it was in front of me, but just before I could reach it, Amy grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the dining room, quickly finding the door even in the complete darkness.

“Are you dense?” Amy aggressively whispered.

“What are you doing?”

“If you opened the door, light from outside would come in and Rose would be able to use mendivi. Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“Then what do we do?”

“We got two ways out. The backyard and the roof. None are really good, but there’s nothing else. Either we rush through the main hall with Rose inside it, or we jump off a three story building.”

“Or a third option,” I added.

“And that is?”

“We kill her before she turns the lights on.”

“Please don’t joke in these moments. Plus, I imagined your humor would be more lighthearted.”

“I’m not joking.”

“Sorry, but this really doesn’t sound like an idea of yours. If we fuck up, we’re dead, even after successfully pulling all of this off.”

“I know, but I can’t handle this anymore. I have to do something and I don’t have time to think everything through. I’m not myself right now.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I slowly began navigating my way through the darkness in hopes of getting into the storage room before Rose. I was hopeful since Leon was in Rose’s way. Maniac or not, he was undeniably a threat.

“Ow, Jesus Christ!” I heard Rose’s voice coming from the main hall, “you still have those rocks that you carry around? Wait, why the fuck are they wet?”

“Hahahahahaha!” Leon’s laughter was loud enough to reach me, “I knew these would come in handy!”

How did he even manage to hit her while the lights are off? Maybe he took the night vision goggles, that could’ve been the mistake I made in the essay, though I don’t remember repeating that statement.

I tried to forget what I had heard and hastily picked up my pace while paying less attention to objects around me, no hit was going to slow me down more than caution would. I soon reached the staircase at the far back of the left wing, one that was usually left neglected, and I got to the second floor. The straightness and emptiness of the hallway allowed me to hurry even more, the storage room door was up ahead. Unfortunately, just as I was about to reach it, I heard it open. No, no, no! Rose is here!

I heard her take three or four steps inside when loud explosions covered the sounds of her steps. The explosion sounded like it was caused by firecrackers, and since small traces of light left the storage room, that’s what I assumed caused the explosions. I didn’t have time to think more about it, every wasted second would make my chances of survival slimmer.

“Ha, bitch! Fell for my trap?” Leon shouted as his voice approached the second floor.

I stayed quiet and waited a second for the firecrackers to stop, then blindly rushed in with my hand reached out, waiting for it to touch Rose. When I got to her, I pulled my hand back and punched her as hard as I could. A part of my fist missed her, but the hit was still hard enough to make her fall.

“You bitch! So you’re going with him?” Rose was reasonably pissed off. I heard her quickly stand up and walk away from me, towards the lever. “This is over.”

“No, it’s far from over, “ I heard Evelyn from the other side of the room, “I shall not allow you past me.”

I followed Rose as best as I could, though she remembered the layout of the room way better than me. I could also hear Leon’s footsteps behind me, but it was easy to differentiate his and Rose’s because Leon’s sounded weirder in an unexplainable way.

“Out of my way!” Rose shouted as she pushed through Evelyn without a hint of struggle.

Nothing else was in her way, she just had to take a couple more steps and that would be the end. I had to react in some way and I had to do it without error. My only idea was to run forward and hide. The ball pit!

I navigated my way to the playroom and accidentally fell into the pit before I knew it.

I heard a grunt the second I fell in. I immediately knew that it was Evelyn.

“Evie?” I whispered.

“Quiet.”

The ball pit was just deep enough to cover both of us. I didn’t move and neither did Evelyn, our only option was to wait for a safe opportunity. The lights were back on and now, nobody could directly face Rose. Why did I not leave? Rose didn’t have the intention to kill me. I, myself, decided to risk my life. For what? Justice? Leon? I’m a dumbass!

“Trying to desert me now? How unkind.” Rose said, her voice coming from the storage room.

She didn’t even suspect our hiding spot, either because we were clever, or because she didn’t think we were that stupid. She undoubtedly started looking for everyone, but firstly went towards the main hall to create the illusion of the entrance being locked. I was terrified again, my anger slowly but surely returned to fear. I can’t hide here forever, I have to leave and I have to find a way to kill Rose, to defeat someone with the capability to create literal false realities. Is that even possible? Is anyone capable of defeating someone with such powers?

After a minute of silence, I slowly stood up and left the ball pit.

“What are you doing?” Evelyn asked me, her voice quiet and shaky.

“I don’t know.” I said before heading inside the storage room.

I searched through the room looking for something I could use as a weapon. Memories of when I met the second group got into my head and they reminded me how each of them got a weapon from the storage room, so that confirmed I was on the right track. For a short while, I couldn't see anything useful, but in the end, I noticed a revolver with only one bullet loaded. The gun was in one of the corners, surrounded by junk. I am really going through with this, I can’t believe myself.

After picking up the revolver, I looked up at the ceiling with no particular intention, but the ceiling reminded me of something terrifying.

The cameras!

I was frozen in place, unsure what to do. I knew that if Rose remembered to check the cameras, there would be no way no way for me to leave victorious. My slim chances of triumph were even slimmer than I had originally thought. There was not much to do with this new information. If I were to return to the ball pit, I’d either be found or killed the second I left. I could only move forward and hope that luck would be on my side until I got the opportunity to end everything. I couldn’t leave either, Rose would hunt me down with ease.

Hesitantly, I left the storage room and walked toward the main hall. The door leading into the main hall was already open, so I peeked in. Rose was there, walking around the room without a care in the world. Is that really her? It might be an illusion.

After losing myself in my thoughts, I was quickly brought back into reality by the sounds of footsteps coming from another part of the hallway. This might be the real Rose! Without thinking, I moved into the main hall, but also got down on the floor in a futile attempt to hide behind the railing. Whoever was walking through the hallway went past the door to the main hall, either towards the other end of the left wing or inside the storage room.

Rose did not seem to notice me, though she wasn’t even looking in my direction. It was like she had no interest in pursuing anyone or even thinking about the cameras that were littered across the entire mansion. I considered shooting her from my position, but I was too scared. There was a chance of missing and also an equally big chance of that being an illusion. What to do? What to do? Do I shoot? Do I try escaping? Rose is quiet, oblivious.

I was lying there for who knows how long, waiting for something to happen. I was determined to kill her, but I was unsure if I had an opening or not. Then, it paid off. The door leading to the small reading room below me opened, and Rose entered the room. The illusion faded soon after.

“One down,” she said to herself, “where now?”

Air felt like it was running out of my lungs faster than I wanted to run away from Rose. I had no excuse now, the danger was unbelievable and I knew that it was her. I just had to shoot her without missing. I had never handled a gun before, so I needed beginner's luck. This is it, my last stand!

I stood up, aimed the revolver at Rose’s body with my shaky hands and pulled the trigger with slight hesitation. The recoil was weak, but the sound and the pure shock of shooting knocked me back. I was breathing heavily and my whole body felt like it didn’t belong to me. I’m alive!

I ran down the stairs and looked at Rose. I hit her in the stomach and she was on the ground, but she was still moving, although barely and while weeping in pain. She looked up and stared at me with mendivi looking directly at me. I realized that I failed to kill her quickly enough.

“Petra!” I heard Dante shout from the other side of the room. “Waste no time!”

He threw a dagger in my direction, the same one he had tried slaughtering everyone with when Eden died. It fell right next to me. By the time I grabbed the dagger, I could’ve died a thousand times, but I listened to Dante’s advice and rushed toward Rose without thinking about any reasoning.

Rose used mendivi to trip me on nothing and I fell in her direction. We were both on the ground and close to each other. She moved her bloody hand from her wound and reached into her pocket and while still grunting, she pulled out a weird tool I hadn’t seen before. It was completely metal and had a circle on the top with a stick part connected to it. She grabbed it by the stick part and touched mendivi with the circle. Mendivi somehow stuck to it and she pulled the tool. Even with so little strength remaining, she managed to pull it out, leaving only some disgusting pus in the hole that mendivi was used to fill. I felt like I was going to puke, but I stayed silent out of fear.

She turned the backside of mendivi towards me. That side had a big spike in the middle and it looked sharp.

I aimed the dagger with my stiff body and as she surprised me by leaping toward me, I stabbed her in the neck, though a moment too late. She’d stabbed me too. She stabbed my eye with mendivi.

I screamed from the pain for a second, but then, without a warning, everything turned black.