Mansion of Horror

Chapter 10

Josh sat still on the floor. His breathing slowed as a tear dripped down his face. "She lied to me" he muttered to himself. Josh lifted his hand and quickly wiped the warm tear off his ice cold cheek and slowly pushed himself off the floor and stood up. His breathing got heavy and tearful as he paced to the couch that had sucked them in. Anna's favorite book sat there, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" Josh murmered to himself. He reached his arm forward wanting to pick up the book but when his hand got close, another hand grabbed his. One that he couldn't see, but could feel.

     "You can't touch anything" whispered a familiar voice. "You aren't alive, anything you touch will turn to ash. You must be careful in this world, Joshua" hummed the voice. The voice was deffinitly female, soft and quiet, very peaceful. But it was terribly eerie. The hand was still clutcing Josh's and he yanked his hand back and brushed it off with his other. "I'm warning you, Joshua." the girl breathed once more, "Be careful, this realm isn't like the real world. Once you are here, there is only one way out and it is a horrible path."

     Josh stepped forward. "What's the path? How to I get out?" he spoke frantically. "Shh" the girl whispered and held a finger to Josh's mouth. He still couldn't see her but he felt her finger and quickly jerked his head away. The sound of footsteps backed away from Josh and slowly disapeared into silence.

     "But..." Josh started talking but never finished what he was going to say. Josh looked down at his feet, his sneakers now spattered with blood and some of the ashes of poor Jenna whom we had touched and turned into ash. He walked away from the couch with the book on it and started wandering around the room. He looked at all the massive bookshelves and remembered the book he had dropped earlier when he ran to try and help Anna from sinking into the couch and walked over to it. Josh knew he couldn't pick the book up or it would turn to ash, so he bent over and tried to read the title.

     "A Series of Unfortunate Events" he read the title aloud and thought, it seems that I'm going through a series of unfortunate events right now. He was half joking but all the things that had happened, and all the strugles he and Anna had been through recently were simply terrible, and he now just wanted to go home and be with all of his old friends at school and to hang out with Anna as they used to before they planned this whole thing. Josh had never said it, but he never really wanted to go on this horrifying journey to the old abondonded mansion, he just didn't want to let Anna down. After Josh said he would go, he didn't realise Anna would get to serious about it. She started planning a route, what they might do there, and she even dug out an old blank notebook to write all of her discoveries in. But now, Josh was afraid that they would never make it out alive. Even the invisible girl was that he wasn't alive anymore.

     Josh threw himself onto the floor so that he was lying down on his left side. The floor was old wood and it creaked as he fell.

     "I just wish I could leave this place" Josh sighed. "And just forget everything that happened here. I wish..." he cut himself off to avoid going more in depth and making himself feel worse. Josh pushed himself up into a sitting position and hugged his legs as he propped his head on his knees. He started thinking, and flashed back to when he was younger.

     "I don't want to go to bed, mom!" Josh told his mother. He was only 6 at the time and he was very stubborn. "And why is that?" his mother questioned. Josh looked around the room thinking of something to say. "Because" he said. His mother chuckled as she shook her head. "You need to get your sleep, darling." she picked up Josh and put him in his bed. The sheets were camouflage and his pillow case was green.

     "Now lie down" his mother said calmly as she grabbed the covers and gently lay them across Josh's body. He lied down as the covers pushed him back onto his pillow and his mother sung him a lulliby.