Stormy Night

Escaping The Mansion

As the friends stumbled out of the mansion, their hearts racing with fear, they found themselves in the overgrown garden, now bathed in eerie moonlight. The air felt thick and oppressive, as if the mansion itself was unwilling to let them go.

Sarah clutched her flashlight tightly, its beam trembling as she scanned the surroundings. "We have to get out of here," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the rustling of leaves and distant howls of wind.

Mark, usually the bravest of the trio, was visibly shaken. "What... what did we unleash in there?" he muttered, his eyes darting nervously towards the shattered remains of the mirror still lying in the mansion's foyer.

Alex, normally the sceptical, had no answers. His mind raced with images of the twisted faces they had seen in the mirror's shards-faces that seemed to mock and menace them with every glimpse. "We shouldn't have come here," he muttered, regret heavy in his voice.

They began to move cautiously through the garden, each step echoing loudly in the silence. The trees loomed like silent sentinels, casting long shadows that seemed to stretch and twist in unnatural ways. A cold breeze whispered through the branches, carrying with it a faint, mocking laughter that chilled their bones.

Suddenly, Sarah froze in her tracks, her flashlight beam illuminating something ahead-a figure standing at the edge of the garden. It was tall and shadowy, its features obscured by darkness. Fear gripped them as they stared, unsure if their minds were playing tricks on them.

Without a word, they turned and ran, their footsteps pounding against the damp earth. Behind them, they could hear the faint echo of footsteps-slow, deliberate, and unnervingly close.

They reached the perimeter fence of the mansion grounds and scrambled over it, not daring to look back. As they stumbled onto the road, gasping for breath, they glanced back at the mansion one last time.

To their horror, they saw a faint glow emanating from the broken windows, a flickering light that seemed to dance and pulse with malevolent energy. The laughter grew louder, echoing through the night air, as if mocking their feeble escape.

They ran until they couldn't run anymore, the mansion disappearing behind them into the darkness of the forest. They never spoke of that night again, each haunted by their own nightmares of twisted reflections and chilling laughter.

And somewhere, deep within the heart of the forest, the old mansion stood silent and watchful, its secrets buried within its crumbling walls-secrets that would forever haunt those who dared to enter its domain.