Curiosity

Chapter 1

Sam's pov

"Hollow-Hills Mansion, in the.. the...?"

I muse aloud. I am neatly writing the address of an old mansion in my journal. But I can't seem to remember the name of the forest it was in.

I bring my pen up to my lips and close my eyes, going through my memories to find the name.

"Wow.. I'll never get used to your handwriting" I hear a female voice say softly over my shoulder.

She walks around the table I am seated at, and takes a seat on the right of me. We were sitting at a small, rectangular dining table, in our cozy little kitchen.

I see that she places a clear, plastic  blue cup on the table, out of the corner of my eye. She rests her elbows on the table with a long and quiet sigh.

I raise my head to see my roommate, Victoria. We've known each other for about 6 years.. and now we're 19.   We're adult. We have our own home and responsibilities.

Being so young and living without our parents, in an apartment, would be difficult if I didn't know the owners of the building. They're very fortunate with money and they had offered me a room to stay in for free.

But they told me that I had to choose 3 other people to live with. One of them is Victoria, and the other is a different close friend of mine. I was a little surprised she had accepted my offer too, as she is younger than me and Victoria.

Victoria was leaning over the table and was staring at my book. She knows about my little fascination with horror related things. So she knows about Hollow-Hills mansion.

I push the book towards her so she could get a better look at the words. My writing is a bit small so I don't expect her to be able to read it. But she could try.

"It says 'Hollow-Hills mansion' its the mansion I've been talking about" I say, reciting the words on the book and briefly explaining them.

"Oh, I remember you telling me about that place. Wasn't it in some.. ka-
uhm.. Kama-tah-something forest?" She asks, pausing near the end to try and remember the name.

"The Kamatayan forest! I was trying to remember the name of it, thank you" I say excitedly as I write down the name of the forest.

"..your welcome?" She says, slightly confused.

Probably because she didn't even know that I had forgotten the name, and unknowingly helped me.

"Anyways, didn't 'Kamatayan' mean something in English" Victoria curiously asks.

She picks up her cup and brings it closer to her mouth to take a sip out of the straw.

"Yes it does. It's in Filipino, and in English it means death" I say.

Seeing that the mansion was in a forest that's in a Filipino language had intrigued me. As I am fluent in Tagalog, and the fact that it meant death in English makes it more scary.

..and I love it

Victoria's eyes widened as she heard me say that. She stares at me in disbelief, as if I should know better and not go into that forest.