Oh, lord. I hear it upstairs. It's coming, it's coming. The awful banging just like earlier tonight. It sounds as if someone is knocking on the doors and walls with a cannon. It's looking for me. This monster of the house is looking for me. I'm its next victim. It will keep searching through every room until it finds me.
I know it's not one of the Graceys. Their ghosts mean me no harm, they tried to warn me. It's the sinister monster of this mansion. The evil force and presence that was born when this house was built. It knows my name and who I am. And it's searching for me.
Now it's getting closer. I can hear it coming down the grand staircase into the foyer. The chiming of the clock now sounds like the toll of a requiem bell, ringing out my final hour. I have to run; I have to run away from it. But where should I go? There's no escape from this mansion. Everything is locked.
It's now searching the downstairs. Banging on the parlor and conservatory door, then onto the dining room, then to the kitchen, then the ballroom, and then the portrait hall. It's near now. It's banging on the library door. Very soon it will come knocking here on the music parlor's door.
Oh, lord I wish I was somewhere else. Instead, I'm cowering behind a piano waiting for the sinister force to burst through the door. It's now moving across the wall. The sound is terrible. It seems like it could knock the whole mansion down to the foundation. The photographs and portraits are now rattling against the wall from the banging.
Now it's at the door. Why won't it stop? Just please let the awful noise stop. It sounds like it's going to burst the door into a thousand splinters.
It stopped. The terrible pounding has now stopped. But I know it's still out there behind the door, waiting for me to make some noise to let it know that someone is in here. I won't move an inch; I'll barely even breathe. But what's the point? It probably knows and senses that someone's hiding in here, and it won't leave until it storms into the room.
Why did I stay here? Before the others left, I heard it calling me. I swear I could hear this mansion calling my name, inviting me to stay here. They asked me if I wanted to leave with them, but I answered this evil house's call and stayed. Why? Why did I listen to it? If only I had been more sensible this never would be happening. But now it's too late.
And now the pounding is starting up again. It keeps banging and banging against the door, more and more frantic. It does know that I'm here. It won't leave until I open the door and let it in. I should just go over and open the door, so it finally doesn't keep searching and it stops that awful banging.
It stopped again. I can now hear heavy breathing traveling around the doorframe. The doorknob is now turning. I just want to shout, "Go away!" as if that will do me any good.
But now there's silence, complete silence. No banging, no knob turning, no breathing, just silence. Has it given up? Did it realize that nobody was in here? I wait for another banging sound or boom, but there's nothing. It's silent; it must have left. At last, I can finally leave this house of horror.
But as I reach the door, I hear it again. It's the loud, heavy breathing. But now, it's here in the room with me. It's coming from right behind me.
THE END