Chapter 1. The Abandoned Mansion

Have you ever woken up simply not recognizing the world around you? It's dreamlike and almost surreal that you just don't believe its reality or that it's even happening in the first place. Similar to a milky layer wrapped around your mind, causing difficulty to comprehend what you're seeing, almost as if gazing through the eyes of a stranger.

But then reality sets in with a startling and almost disorientating force, yet all at once causes the senses to clear up and suffocate.

The overhead lights are suddenly much brighter and almost blinding but the confusion lingering causes the stinging eyes to keep wide-eyed and open; the air is suddenly staler and harder to breathe in as the throat constricts and the chest tightens to the point of hyperventilating, resulting from the sensation of dread from deep within oneself.

Where is this place…?

It's something hard to comprehend and even harder still to explain the sinking fear that only being lost and alone can do to a person. Many believe that such horror will never happen to them. But that is a lie. I know because I had been one of those people and even now as I keep muttering to myself and shaking my head, I was trying to convince myself that this is all a dream. I just had to dispel this nightmare.

I know it's real though. I can feel the truth deep in my bones that this was reality even as I heaved myself off the cold and unfamiliar rough flooring and bare feet touched the torn apart book pages and covers scattered around the room. I can see the overhead lights above, glaring brightly down upon my trembling form, brown eyes lingering briefly upon the overthrown shelves and cabinets toppled haphazardly with white piles of cloth spilling out like a stream underneath the dark wood and onto the ground.

No dream could create such a realistic feeling, it had to be real and already I hated the idea. This is real and it was frightening to find oneself in a place never seen before, having no recollection of having ever seen or been in a room before but then wake up in the unfamiliar place nonetheless…

Different scenarios' and wild possibilities began to flitter through my mind, each one wilder than the last, but with one constant theme: danger.

It is so mind gripping that I hadn't even noticed that I had begun pacing from one side of the room to the other while gasping desperately for air. I couldn't even recall clammy hands patting over chapped and dry lips, over pale and ashen cheeks before entangling themselves deep into the dark brown curls of my hair. I hadn't even noticed the sharp sting when I would stumble once or twice against the perfectly kept grand piano.

But the pounding in my head was something I knew and acknowledged – it was a moment of disorienting pain, one that caused my eyes to roll up and obscure my vision. I was drowning in cold, and there was a rushing in my ears as though being underwater. I was being dragged downward and deeper into the abyss, except that it wasn't dark. There was only white fog obscuring my senses and blurred shapes were moving around me. Then came a voice, female –

"You have to admit that it looks just like it…"

The sounds of someone moving on dead grass – a door creaking open – a joyous and teasing giggle –

I jerked back to life and found myself lying flat on my back on the floor. The lights were buzzing overhead and I had to wonder what had happened. The voice had sounded familiar but I couldn't seem to pinpoint from where and to whom.

I felt very sick and when I put up my hand to push my glasses back securely, I could feel the cold sweat on my face. I heaved myself back onto my feet and quickly gazed around, brows furrowed and fingers pressed to my temple. The headache was still present but it was coming in and out in spurts, one moment so agonizing that I could barely comprehended up or down, and then the next so dull that it was almost annoying.

"What happened? Who was that?"

I knew that person. That person was familiar to me…. But who was it? I couldn't seem to get the right image of them, the right face to match the voice I had heard.

It was during these moments of wonder and confusion that I had spotted it, something lumped underneath the piles of ripped and torn apart paper. It felt like the world had slowed down to me as I leaned forward, brushing and pushing away book covers and paper – then the next second I held an oak-handled pocket knife.

I had seen it before, I realized. The handle was smooth and the same, the weight briefly familiar. Then I flicked open the blade and noticed how sharp the steel was despite the sliver of scratches from use it had. Blood pounding in my ears, I turned the knife over and froze.

"My Lotus, everlasting love …your cousin." Those were the words I mouthed while tracing the scratchy writing printed into the blade. It was my cousin's knife, the pocket knife I had gifted to her one summer when she had gone on a hunting trip last year.

Mireya had admitted that while it was fun she wouldn't repeat the trip again, and that was the last time I had seen the knife. I had been so sure it had been forgotten, left somewhere in a dark corner or underneath piles of things, never to be seen again. But now here it was and I wasn't sure whether to feel joyous that my cousin could be here or frightened because the knife was with me and she wasn't.

Once more it was as though freezing water was rising in my chest, cutting through my insides and then it happened again. I was falling through a thick white fog, the familiar female voice was louder than ever, echoing through my head –

"Is it really abandoned?"

"Now don't you say I never cared for your gifts~!"

"Locked! I'm really starting to hate locked doors –"

Numbing, swirling mist was filling my brain…. What was I doing? Why was I checking doors? Why was I going deeper into the building, down stairs and through hallways….? I needed to find my cousin; no I needed to get out of this manor.

I was now in front of a door, the entrance door. But it wouldn't open no matter which way I pushed and pulled the handle. Had Mireya locked the door? I quickly moved towards the windows and tried to pull them open. But my arms had only jerked and wouldn't budge the windows.

I didn't wish to be here any longer I realized. But even when I pulled back my arm and rammed my elbow against the glass, it hadn't even rattled. No instead I had been the one jostled and hobbling back in pain.

It was like the window was affixed, a model or prop but that couldn't be right. I could see the dead grass making up most of the property, could see the brass gates lighting up underneath the sun, and see the forest growing like a barrier just outside of the property.

Suddenly I was falling again, falling through the icy mist…. And this time I realized whose voice I was hearing.

Mireya's voice was shouting, panicking –

"Natalie, go! Run –"

There was so much screaming and the dark visage of the enemy –

A cold shiver swept through my body and I froze, chest tightening as I stiffly turned around. There behind me was a monster. It was a large creature that toward towered to the ceiling. Its face and body was almost human but the gray-skin caused my stomach to contract. It was glistening, grayish, and almost seemed ready to decay.

Then the thing drew up its hand, its black eyes cold and empty, before suddenly the world spun. Pain erupted throughout my entire body and I now found myself on the floor, exposed skin burning red from having slid against the wooden flooring so fast, and my limbs aching from having crashed into the wall.

But the monster was coming again, its mouth parting and letting out a long, slow, and rattling breath. "You won't…escape…"

I flinched and immediately raced down another hall, heart pounding and tears mingling with the sweat on my face. A monster, I had to get away from it! I dove for the first door I could clamp my trembling and clammy hands on, struggling to open it even as I noticed the monster looming closer… and closer.

The door burst open and I quickly shut the door, locking it and stumbling back with a yelp when the doorframe rattled. The monster was outside and wanted entrance. I curled into the corner of the bathroom, crouching and hiding my face into my knees as I sobbed.

"Dream… a dream – it's not real!" But the stinging pain over my body, more consistent against my mid-section, said otherwise. The door rattled once more and for a hysterical moment I worried if the monster would break down the door but then there was silence. The beast was leaving.

I couldn't move though and I didn't want to move. My limbs were locked up and the fear threatening to overthrow me was building and sinking throughout my body.

God what was that thing? A monster… A disgusting and hideous monster that had trapped me – us –

I gripped tightly onto the pocket knife still clamped shut in my hand, the grip so tight that my knuckles where turning white. For brief moments I wondered if Mireya had been caught by that monster or if she had gotten away safely.

The very thought of her being hurt caused me to shudder while I cried and prayed.

Welp~ Much Thanks to My beta, the amazing Fk306 whom has been helping with this story, she has been an amazing help. I also do not own the HetaOni franchise, only my own OC's and the plot that will occur. :)