The Mansion

Part 4: Forsaken

I slowed down and began to search for a door handle that could lead me into a room to hide out in for a second, to catch my breath; instead I caught the sight of some movement and I somehow knew it was the same shadow as before. The shadow boy emerged and crawled toward me on all fours. I then heard him turn a knob and a door creak open a few steps in front of me. He then scurried off again. I held Mycroft up, "Should we go through the door, Mycroft?", I asked him. He nodded in agreement that we couldn't give up now anyway, and so I reached out and walked around the open door. I could see it was a staircase into a basement of some sort. "Do you think the keys could be down here?", I asked Mycroft. "I don't feel good about this", I said, as I hugged him in close. I stepped down once, paused, and then softly continued to descend. My heart beat ever harder with each step. Step. *Pound* Step. *Pound* Step. *Pound*! As I made it to what seemed to be the bottom, I could make out a little girl on the right side of the stairway against the wall. I saw that she was chained up on the floor. I turned fully toward her and saw a metal bowl, and she was lying there unmoving on her side, curled up next to it. Before I had a chance to do anything, a voice echoed from behind me, "Shadowman's coming!". The blithe delivery belied the horror of the statement, and I turned to see another young girl of the same age, and height...and, "Wait?...they were exactly the same!". "They must be identical twins", I concluded to myself. This girls' hair was a bit longer, and darker, but the similarity was uncanny. She walked over from the other side of the basement stairs and looked me up and down. "Shadowman's coming!", she repeated gleefully; and I had no time to react before her mouth spread wide with an out of place grin, and she grabbed my shoulders. Then her head tilted backward, and she began to scream as her mouth fell open torturously; but this was no ordinary scream...it was a scream of pure and unending agony. I began to shake and sob uncontrollably; and as a darker than the darkness shadow towered over and descended upon us, Mycroft slipped from my hands and fell to the floor with a quiet *plop*.