The Mansion of Trials and Trials

Sudden Teleportation

Crows cried in. I slowly opened my eyes. Dizziness struck inside my head instantly, with blurred visions, the colors in front got mixed together as one. Smelling green, cold, hard stone tiles chilled me freezing. Although tiredness killed my legs, I tried to stand. Numerous questions just kept on dashing, my memories were shattered away like pieces.

Yet, all I did know was, I must have blacked out.

".......where am I?" I wondered as I gazed around. It was dark and quiet. Well, not completely quiet. Nature was never quiet. Owls were hooting and chirps of crickets crept into my sleeves. I could barely see anything clearly. Dim moonlight was the only thing I could rely on. A few lantern lamp posts stood out, yet they were all lit off. There were bushes, flowers and trees everywhere but they were all neatly maintained and planted. Nothing familiar. I presumed I must be in someone's garden. But who? Again questions.

I tried not to think and started walking. You would not get any answers here anyway. I took a step and strolled through the piles of dried leaves. There was a soft rustling sound.

Instantly, all of the crickets stopped chirping. Owls turned their heads.

There was complete silence.

Every single sound in the garden was shut down. Thousands of eyes were glaring at me.

I was surrounded.

Fear froze my body.

At the next moment, the crickets started to chirp again. The sounds came back. Everything returned to normal. As if nothing had ever happened. I doubted myself on imagining things.

Searching in darkness, a flashing light caught my eye. I walked closer. A firefly danced above a flowerbed of scarlet flowers. Although I was never a flower specialist, I could still describe it as an elegant and unusual looking flower. Curled petals with significantly long stamens. A flower with no leaves. Looks odd but extremely beautiful. I wondered what it was called.

All of a sudden, a crow screeched out loud in the wild air and startled me. I looked up. My eyes went wide.

The sky was purple.

The moon was red.

"What the hell?! Am I dreaming?" I shouted. None of this reality made sense to me, "Where am I? Where is this place?! Why am I here?!" I continued questioning but silence betrayed me. No one replied. Recalling back, I remembered I was walking from college back to my home for the holidays but then I ended up here.........suddenly.

"HELLO?! Is there anyone here?! HELLO?!" Unexpectedly, a strong gust of wind blew against me from behind. Something got blown along the wind and hit my head. I searched around. A piece of torn old plain poster laid on the ground. I picked it up, of course.

It says,

WARNING

DO NOT TRUST ANYONE IN THIS MANSION

DO NOT DO ANYTHING THEY TELL YOU TO DO

ALL YOUR ACTIONS ARE BEING WATCHED

YOUR CHOICES WILL DETERMINE YOUR FATE

FOLLOW THIS

OR ELSE YOU WILL BE DEAD

Reading, I felt puzzled. "A warning poster? Where does this come from?" I questioned the air. The paper just got blown away and emerged out of nowhere.

"It says there is a mansion here. But what mansion? I don't see any—-----A MANSION!" Lifting my head, I shouted out loud in shock. My eyes stopped at a gigantic mansion with skin shivering. I wondered did I just miss that out or had the house just emerged out of nowhere?

Scared, I studied it closely. Cross windows, balcony, stones tiles and bricks. It was nothing more different than an old-fashioned residence. Yet, as the chilling breeze blew, shadows and shades on the tile rooftop got extended by the distant moonlight, forming weird shapes and patterns. I doubted my eyes. The shadows were moving, like tiny black human figures. One of the shadows stared at me and smiled.

"Why are you still standing there?"

"Ahhhh!" I jumped up. An unfamiliar voice suddenly emerged behind me. A grayish white haired young girl dressed as a maid stood quite a few miles away from me. Her eyes were glowing yellow.

"Who......who are you?!" I cried. Instantly, in the blink of an eye, the girl appeared right in front of me. She leant her body near me with her head up close. I could see a word tattoo on the side of her forehead. It printed the word 'Resident'.

She stared at me deadly. Our distance was shortened into a few centimeters in less than a second! I didn't know how she did it but goosebumps appeared on my skin.

"Puppet." The girl replied. I froze. My mind went blank. She took the poster away from me and tore it into pieces. The scraps of paper blew along by the wind.

"My name is Puppet. Salutations, Wanderer. You are the last one. Now, hurry up and get inside the Mansion!" She grabbed me by my arm, trying to pull me into that creepy mansion. Terrifying, her hand was as cold as ice with a texture of a hard surface. I noticed some round ball joints, connecting her arm with clear straight lines. Oh, dear me, she didn't have a body temperature.

"Wait, what? No!" I rejected her. I tried to sound more polite even though she might be a monster. "I'm sorry but I need to go home. Can you tell me which way I should go?" Feeling bothered, Puppet crossed her arms.

"No. You can't go home. It's raining. You will get wet if you stay outside any longer." She insisted and pulled my arm again. I felt odd.

"Raining? What are you talking about? It's not raining now." All of a sudden, a cold drop of water touched my skin. I looked up.

The sky started raining heavily.

Thunder and lightning flashed and roared.

The sky was pouring down water as if it had been raining for hours.

"What the hell is going on.....?" I exclaimed out loud. Puppet ignored me and gently knocked on the entrance doors. The door opened a small crack automatically, just enough for a person to get inside. In order to prevent being soaked, I went inside the Mansion. Or should I say.

The Mansion made me enter.