Ulysses paced back and forth in the living room as the others talked among themselves. Nothing they tried worked: No weapons, no magic on Illyana’s part, and nothing could break through anything in the house. They were trapped here. Joshua looked out of the window trying to signal people, But nobody saw them. Jacob sighed, crossed his arms, and went to lay his arm on Joshua’s shoulder.

“We’ll get out of this, big guy.”

“Yeah. I’m just worried, you know? Diana is out there and I can’t protect her.”

“The boys know what they’re doing. They’ll be fine.”

“I suppose so…”

Joshua sighed before slumping into his chair. Ulysses continues to pace back and forth, his boots echoing loudly on the hardwood floor.

“There has to be a way out of this house. There just has to be.”

Illyana tilted her head and decided to throw her hat into the ring.

“I could explore the house again.”

“You have magic, right? Can’t you… I don't know… sense if this house is magical?”

“I can, but it's strange. I thought it was just the house’s atmosphere, but this place… feels wrong. It's not like any magic I’ve ever felt. I’m not even sure if this is magic.”

“Then what do you think it is?”

“I don’t know.”

Illyana thought to herself, placing her thumb under her mask and onto her two front teeth, gently biting down as she thought for a moment.

Jacob went over to Ulysses, lowering his head in shame.

“Look. I want to apologize for my actions earlier. I was in such a hurry to get in this place, I got us locked in here. Might have even killed us.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Ulysses spoke firmly at him, yet also in a comforting way like a father telling his children not to worry. “Things look bad, but we can still get out of here. All we need is a plan.”

“What do you suggest then?”

While Ulysses and Jacob began to brainstorm ideas, Illyana heard that voice again.

“Illlllyyyyyaaaaannaaaaa…”

She looked away to where the sound came from. She looked at the rest of the group who were still talking about an escape. The voice spoke again, louder this time, yet the group didn't seem to hear it. She looked at them puzzled, but then the voice spoke once more. A growing pit in her stomach told her that she needed to find out where the voice was coming from. She had to see if it was truly him calling her name.

She stepped out of the room without anyone noticing and ventured further down the hallway. There the mysterious door was again, waiting for her just as it had done before. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. She crept closer to it, walking down the hallway little by little. All while the voice called out again.

“Illyanaaaa…”

Whispering her name from afar, calling to her like a lighthouse calling a ship would. Before she knew it, her hand was inches away from the handle. There was a moment's hesitation. Her eyes stared at the handle. That beautiful gold-colored handle. That jolly candy-like handle. That sparkling, dazzling doorknob. She stole a moment of courage for herself and held the doorknob, and twisted it, pushing the door inward.

Inside was a dimly lit room. The windows were covered with what looked like children's drawings. Being an elf, her eyes were well-equipped to deal with the darkness. It was as if someone stood beside her constantly with a torch. She could see every detail of the room. The walls were lined with drawings scattered about randomly, as a child who was proud of her work would be.

In fact, it would soon dawn on Illyana that the drawings she was looking at were far more than just a random child's drawings. These were her drawings. She remembered all of the little drawings she made so long ago in vivid detail: The little drawing of the tiny yellow ducky that she saw one spring so long ago, The crudely drawn imaginary horse friend with wings that she and her brother daydreamed of riding on. Yes, Her brother. Aithan. There too was a drawing on the wall that she made featuring her parents and her brother. The drawing seemed to silently call to her as she inspected it closely. Was this even real or had she simply gone mad? Her fingers inched towards the drawing until she could feel it.

The paper crumpled and shifted in her touch. This was no phantom illusion that she had simply imagined. This was real. She could feel the paper in her hands as she pulled it off of the wall. There could be no doubt. She inspected the drawing further and traced her fingers along its surface. This was indeed her drawing. She drew this exact drawing. She could smell the chalk used to carve the image out, there could be no other explanation. What was more alarming is that this small piece of paper or the other drawings on the wall, or even the entire bedroom as a whole should no longer exist. It simply couldn’t. She watched it burn with her own eyes. She witnessed the flames of her house dance high into the air and consume her home until every last wooden panel had been turned into a blackened ember. A stain on her conscience marked by her scar. The irreparable damage that branded her face was still felt. The gnawing pain had never left her since that day.

“Illyaaaannnaaaa”

The hairs of Illyana’s neck stood on their ends. There the voice was again, clear as day. Her breath quivered at the utterance of her name, and this time she felt the heated breath of the speaker behind her. Her skin tingled with fear. Nothing alerted her of the intruder; the door had not opened; there were no footsteps to be heard anywhere; and she would have felt breathing on her skin well before he spoke. She shut her eyes tightly as tears began to roll down her cheeks. She knew she had to look. That was the most terrifying thing. To look at what was behind her; to see the horror that was inches away from her. Slowly, filled with an all-consuming dread, she turned until she saw him.

The burned man that stood in front of her was a charred, ghoul of a creature; his skin was a melted blackened rot where the fire burned all the way to the bone. Melted lips sagged down and dragged the rest of his face with them; his eye melted out of his skull, lazily hanging to the side like a shriveled grape on the vine; an arm that was missing, consumed by the fire; what was left of his clothes fused with his body as his gnarled legs struggled to keep him up. Her scars paled in comparison to this walking burnt corpse of a man. She screamed and backed up to the far end of the wall, unable to keep her eyes off of the man. The man stumbled forth, lurching as if his body was being controlled by invisible strings. He bent down on the ground and coughed up black bile that bubbled like water on an open flame, sizzling loudly. He came closer and raised his arm to try to take hold of her.

He croaked out words that stung Illyana like a dagger.

“You left me to die…”

She stammered with her words as she hit the wall with her back, trying to find the door.

“I-It wa-was an accident, Aithan.”

“Accident?!”

The corpse roared at her with the red-hot fury of hell itself as he went closer and closer to her.

“You abandoned me! Your brother! You started it, and I paid for it!”

“No! Aithan! I-It wasn’t!”

“You should have been the one to die! You should have died! You should have died!!!”

Again and again, the corpse repeated as he went closer and closer to her. Tears continued to rain down her cheeks as she began to realize that her inevitable painful death was steadily approaching.

“A-Aithan! I-I didn’t mean t-to. It- it was an accident!”

Yet no amount of pleading or begging could deter the corpse as it continued to chant on and on.

“You should have died! You should have died! You should have died!”

Non Stop repeating like water dripping on a stone, slowly eroding her sanity. She shut her eyes and then prepared for the inevitable. Then, her hand latched onto the door handle. She turned the handle and fell out of the door and back into the hallway where she crawled away from the door. Her sobbing was suddenly heard clearly by the others who rushed to help her. Ulysses knelt to Illyana and picked her up off her feet.

“Ilyana! What happened?!”

She couldn’t speak. All she could do was babble and sob. She pointed to the end of the hallway where she believed the door was. Yet when they saw the hallway, there was no door. Illyana was in such a terrible state that she pressed her face into Ulysses’s chest and sobbed, holding him tight. Just someone or something to hold onto as her mind was transported back to that night. They rested in the living room; Ulysses, having wrapped his traveling cloak around her to keep her warm as she trembled like a frightened child. After a while of consoling her, the fear eased up.

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Ulysses pondered for a moment, pacing back and forth as he spoke to the rest of the group.

“Alright, there is something wrong with this house.”

“Oh, is there?” Interrupted Jacob with a sarcastic tone. “Whatever gave you that Idea?”

Joshua tilted his head. “You wanted to come in here in the first place. You couldn’t wait to get us locked inside.”

Jacob stammered. “W-Well, I-I was wrong. I can see that now. No reward is worth this madness.”

Ulysses crossed his arms and continued to pace, watching everyone in the room while being the most concerned with Illyana. “We don’t have any choice now. We have to find an exit here. Somewhere. This house has some time of black magic or some vile devilry going on. There has to be something here.”

Jacob stood up and raised an eyebrow at Ulysses. “Like what?”

“Ilylliana. You’re the one who deals with magic. Is there any way we can stop this?”

She simply continued to tremble. She stared into space for a moment before she was startled by Ulysses calling her name again, more firmly. She looked at him and took a moment to process the question.

“Well… if Hawthorn did this for whatever reason, then there could be something that keeps this thing going. Like fuel to a fire. If we can find out what this thing is…”

“Then we can stop whatever is going on, and hopefully find the Baron’s daughter.” Ulysses finished her sentence as he nodded in approval at the makeshift plan. It was the only plan they had at this point. There was only one problem. With doors that appeared and vanished without a trace, how could they ever find the exit, let alone the heart of whatever made this house like this in the first place? That would be a difficult riddle to solve.

One thing that could be done; only thing that could be done was to explore the house. They would explore from top to bottom once again, unsure what exactly it was that they were looking for in the first place. Illyana had her courage restored as she now got a sense of what to do. They had a goal now. A proper destination. This destination however lay at the end of a road covered by a dense fog and a pathway that had many branches on it like a misshapen tree.

Yet, of course, the chances of finding a strange door or a hidden pathway would never arrive no matter how hard they looked. Even if they were to remove every wooden board from the floor, remove all doors from their hinges, open every window, and look under every bed, they would never find anything that would remotely resemble a pathway for one simple reason: the house did not wish it to be. Joshua and Jacob looked around the bedrooms upstairs, yet were not drawing anything up. Joshua had decided that the best possible action would be to have him and his brother check multiple rooms by splitting up to cover more ground. Jacob was no fan of this idea, but after exhausting every option so far, what choice did they have? After the third room, Jacob went into one bedroom. He had checked this room many times before, and just like before, it was the same.

Jacob returned to the hallway and would wait for Joshua, yet he hadn’t come out of the room yet. Perhaps Joshua had found something? He was about to call the others when he heard something behind him. The sound of a woman’s cries filled the air, though muffled by a door. He pressed his ear against every door until he found the one that had the loudest sound.

“There you are~,” Jacob said with a grin on his lips. The Baron's daughter! He had found her at long last! Jacob was thrilled. The reward was as good as his. He opened the door and would gently creep his head inside. “Angelica? Angelica, you're safe now.”

Yet it wasn’t Angelica that sat on the bed crying her eyes out. No… far more than that. It was Diana, his brother's wife.

Jacob looked at her with a great deal of shock. His heart skipped a beat, and he covered his mouth to hold a gasp.

“D-Diana? What are you doing here? How did you get here?”

“Jacob…” She looked at him with tears in her eyes and stood up. She went to him and placed her hands on his. “I-I had to find you. This guilt. It's been eating me up like vultures pecking at a carcass “

Jacob placed his hands on her shoulders and would try to calm her down. “Diana, stay calm. We’re going to get you out of here. You’ve made a big mistake coming here.”

“No, Jacob! We can’t leave. Not yet.” She wriggled out of his arms and stood back, away from him. “You want to know what a mistake is? This! This is a mistake.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Us, Jacob! I’m talking about us!” More tears poured out of her eyes, her face red with sorrow and shame. “I have to tell him. I have to confess to Joshua. I can’t lie to him anymore.”

“Look, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Just calm down, We can tell him after we get out of here, okay?”

“Tell who?” Joshua stood in the doorway with a confused look on his brow. Jacob turned to Joshua in surprise and then back to Diana. Yet as soon as he looked towards Diana’s location, she was nowhere to be seen. He looked around, creeped out. “W-What the?”

“Jacob?” Joshua placed his hand on Jacob’s shoulder and tried to comfort his brother. “Are you okay? You look pale.”

Jacob blinked and nodded, shaking his head as if to rid himself of delirium and regain his focus. “I-I’m fine. J-Just… it's just this place. I think it’s getting to me.” He looked around once more to make sure that he was not going crazy. He sighed and then went out with Joshua.

The two stepped out of the room and continued their exploration of the house. Joshua himself felt uneasy around this place. As he walked through the area, he saw shapes that darted and vanished around the corner of his eye. Something small, but recognizable. Spiders. He shuddered at the sight of it, closing his eyes and continuing to walk on. He had to put it out of his mind, but this is just what he needed. More spiders. He hated spiders and it seemed that the feeling was mutual.

Ulysses and Illyana were walking in the hallways down below, looking through every door and examining every room. Under the beds; out the windows, in the closets; there was nothing noteworthy to find. It was maddening. Illyana was still shaken up by the images she saw previously. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the burnt remains of her brother, though she had no idea if it was real or just her imagination. Ulysses didn’t react, so that was evidence enough.

She sighed to herself and then looked at Ulysses with a dower, sullen look.

“I don’t think we’re going to find anything. I’m going to check on Jacob and Joshua.”

“Alrighty then. I’ll finish up here.” His eyes never strayed from looking in the closet. Once she was gone, he sighed. This place was nonsensical. There was nothing here. Nothing but old dusty rooms and the creaking of the door as Illyana closed it. At least he assumed she closed it. He stepped away from the closet and closed it.

“What am I missing?” He thought to himself as he looked around, but it was nothing. He sighed and went to the door and opened it to leave. But the hallway wasn’t there anymore. The door opened up to a burning town. His breath escaped him in shock as he watched the destruction. He was outside? How? What happened here? Memories began to flood his mind. That smell. The smell of charred flesh and burning wood. The smell of depravity he prayed never to see again. He looked around, The room he was in was gone. It had been as if he were somehow transported to another area. He felt someone bumped against his shoulder.

“Captain! Are you alright, sir?” A young soldier had bumped into him and looked worried. Ulysses’s jaw hung open and he stepped back.

“T-Tom?” His voice shook as he saw the man here in front of him.

“Sir?” The young man tilted his head in confusion and repeated himself. “Are you alright sir?”

“T-Tom. You… you’re not supposed to be here…”

Tom stood puzzled and looked more nervous with each passing moment.

“Sir, you’re not making sense…”

“What’s not making sense is that you’re alive. I saw you die. I held you in my arms as you were bleeding out. An archer shot you in the neck…there was nothing I could do…”

“Sir, you’re scaring me. W-We should report to the healer at once. You’re clearly not well.”

“I am well, Tom. You… this doesn’t make sense.”

He looked around, his breath heightened and his heart pounded. He thought for a moment and realized where he was. When he was. He sprinted off in one direction as Tom stood by.

“C-Captain? Where are you going?!”

Ulysses made a mad dash. He had to look for that house. Maybe he could prevent it. Maybe he could stop it. He had no idea what all this was. Was it a dream he was having? Did he fall asleep? Maybe that’s what this all was. Maybe this was all a dream he was having. A lucid dream at that. What else would it be? He was still sleeping in the tavern and was just having an odd dream. It was so simple! Why did he not think of it before? If this were a lucid dream he was having, then perhaps this time he would stop the nightmares. For one brief moment in his life, he could warn her. He could stop the nightmares. He could move on!

Ulysses made it to the house that had haunted his dreams. He felt a smile on his lips. If he were dreaming, he would enjoy it. He kicked in the door and looked around.

“Hello?! Anyone here? I’m not going to hurt you!” He looked all around the room to find any signs of life. He heard the creaking of the floorboards above him, and he ran up the stairs. “I’m here to save you!” He opened the door upstairs. “Come with me. We ca-” His heart sank. A cold chill washed over him as he felt his spine tingle. The woman and her child were dead on the floor in a pool of combined blood. Standing over them was something even more horrifying. Another version of him, coated in their blood, holding the crossbow that killed them. Ulysses walked backward until he felt the door pressing against his back.

“No… no…”

His voice trailed off into a whimper as the other Ulysses stepped forward.

“What did you think you were going to do? Run in like a knight in shining armor to save the damsel in distress? It's cute how naive you are.”

He walked forward, his boots hitting the wooden floor like the clapping of thunder to the cowering Ulysses.

“No matter what you do, and no matter where you go, you can’t change what you are. A coward and a murderer. Oh yes. Look at you now, cowering like a frightened little pup, whimpering for its mother.”

Ulysses covered his eyes and sank to the floor.

“You’re not real… You’re not real!”

“Oh, I’m as real as you. I am you. You’re just too much of a gutless coward to admit it to yourself. This is what you are. A coward. Like a rabbit that caught a whiff of the hunter, you run.”

“I-I didn’t mean to hurt her…”

“Oh no. You saw something that terrified you so you shot it. You let your fear get you because you are nothing but a sniveling little child.”

“Shut up…”

“Oh, Shut up, eh? What are you going to do, soil yourself?”

“I said shut up!!!”

Ulysses grabbed his double and wrestled him to the ground, strangling him. He squeezed as the double turned blue and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. The double kicked his feet as Ulysses continued to squeeze tighter and tighter. Suddenly Ulysses heard Illyana’s voice.

“Ulysses!” She stood there shocked and watched Ulysses with terror in his eyes. He was like a rabid animal right now. Ulysses looked up at her. They were in the hallway right outside the door he came out of. He looked down to see that he was “strangling” a rug. He let go and stood up and caught his breath, trying to calm down.

He tried to think of something to say, but he drew a blank. What had happened? Was he going crazy? He shook his head and cleared his throat.

“Gods above…we need to leave this place…”