(The link provided wouldn't play the video for me, so I found another one.) :)
I have a feeling that I will enjoy this story, so I might consider turning it into a separate story~832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQC2cCSTbm3
Trigger warning - story may contain suicide/mentions of suicide832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUTfvVpvZCR
Emily stared at the mansion in front of her. Somewhere in the distance there was a crack of thunder. Rain began to fall, pattering gently on the grass and mud. 832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSoevG502fD
A massive house in a place like this... was definitely suspicious. The editors had sent her here to investigate, but she was beginning to regret it.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvIDKQZDXa1
It certainly was strange that they gave her a choice - that they had actually asked her if she'd wanted to stay in the haunted mansion for a month, go treasure hunting and write a blog on it.. She had agreed; of course, doing a job that nobody else wanted to do would hopefully end in a pay rise - but she hadn't bothered to stop and think why. You stupid little girl, she thought to herself. So greedy... but there's no going back now. You have to deal with the consequences of your decisions.
You should have gone back to being shy little Emily. That sweet little girl who wouldn't try to do anything even remotely perilous. But you had to go and grow up into a brave, courageous, daring woman who would laugh in the face of danger. Don't you remember? It was the curiosity that killed the cat.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlf1Y6y98WP
10-year-old Emily would have followed orders from anyone for fear of her own life, but if she was given the choice, she would have been able to say no. But 26-year-old Emily didn't take orders from anyone. 832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCKflLJz13P
You could say that puberty hit her... like a truck.
Clutching the reporter's notepad and feeling the straps of her backpack, she forced herself to move forward.
From the inside, the mansion wasn't all that bad. Everything seemed pristine and well-preserved, as if the previous owner had hardly left.
Emily found herself a room and pulled out her video recorder.
"Day 0 in the haunted mansion. Everything seems fine. I'm about to unpack, and everything is quiet. Too quiet. Who knows what could be lurking around the corner for me?"
She stopped the video and looked around, inspecting the room carefully.
Perhaps this won't be so bad after all...832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYQeNguMQKd
She explored a little. She found nothing.
She slept that night almost peacefully. She woke up; nothing was wrong. The haunted house seemed to be a complete hoax.
But that was when the paranormal activity began.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPzWHnfDPkP
"Day 1 in the haunted mansion. I'm getting a feeling of uneasiness, but that's probably because I'm all alone. I'm about to go exploring again, and you're coming with me, every step of the way."
She ventured almost reluctantly out of her bedroom, scrutinising everything from paintings to tables.
Each room seemed bigger than the last; but none of them seemed haunted.
Although there was one room. A small bedroom in comparison to the others, but something seemed...
Wrong.
Emily stopped, hardly able to breathe.
The key feature of this was the fact that, on opposite walls, someone had placed two mirrors. They faced eachother, and something dropped in Emily's stomach.
She remembered from her research that two mirrors facing eachother was almost certainly a portal to an alternate dimension.
Damn it... I want to go now.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsw77Nlbjkc
"You see this, guys? Two mirrors. A portal... to another world! Perhaps there will be ghosts here after all! Tune in for tomorrow's episode of Haunted Mansion with Emily Kelly!"
Emily couldn't sleep. She tried meditation, but that didn't help as it usually did. Slowly her confidence drifted away, lost in the mists of time.
She began to hear voices, mostly when she was lying in her bed, but also when she went out exploring.
She took photos, with each one showing more orbs than the last.
She began to see faces, too.
The voices got louder, but she couldn't make out what they were saying; but gradually they got clearer.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLtzonkdXNO
"Leave now... Please..."832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnwKOKtiKW
"I'm not a psychopath! P-please! D-d-d-don't kill me!"832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyRSqAUtD5f
"I'm innocent. Please... I'm innocent!"832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpyvWmlobgX
"I'm so lonely..."832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu7v1MwYB6V
"Join me... please?"832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡziUNnGZrny
"Please help us..."832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHtyFMmyemC
"You have to leave... now, please... before... it's far too late..."832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhD8A5rz040
The voices wouldn't stop.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMxOA5ruYuX
The days passed painfully slowly.
She could feel paranormal activity all around her.
She knew only too well that there was a treasure hidden somewhere in this house, and the ghosts were only trying to protect it. Day after day, she forced herself to stay in the house.
"Day 11. I am still hearing voices... Damn... I want to go... Please... Let me go home!"
"I told you."832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7S7VsmiT2d
She turned off the recording.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡktGPWgGI3Z
"W-what..." she whispered.
"I tried to warn you. We tried to warn you..."
She could hear her heart trying to escape from her chest.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBcAVIWOcwy
"I... my name is Amy. I was in the same position as you. I had to document the haunted house as part of a haunted documentary series. But I got driven to madness. I lost my sanity. I eventually committed suicide.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRXJawq1F7W
"I found out that this house used to be prison and mental asylum. So many villains died here. Psychopaths too. Anyone with a mental illness...832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoeB9WKa8dY
"Eventually it got shut down. Someone bought the land and built this mansion... but he, too, got driven to madness.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5rvgNlHlA4
"You have your information. Now, please... go home and tell everyone. If you're lucky, you might only be scarred by this experience for the rest of your life."832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Plep6KdL3
Emily ran. She told her editors everything, but they refused to listen.
She turned to blogging, sharing her experience with the whole of the internet; but to no avail.
She was considering suicide one day when she got a phonecall. A teacher who had seen her blog wanted her to come in and teach her class all about the paranormal and tell them about her experience in the haunted mansion.
She accepted.
"And today, we have here Emily Kelly, with her own experience of the haunted mansion!"
There was a round of applause.
Emily sat down and looked around her.
These kids looked around 12-13. They stared at her as if she was a madwoman, and she couldn't help but wonder if her hair looked wrong, or her face looked too paranoid.
She gulped.
"So... as you... probably will know... I went to the haunted mansion. It seemed okay... but then I got these voices. I could hear what they were saying."
"They are afraid of you."
Emily shivered, and carried on, in a voice that seemed about to burst into tears.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGvaMIe2YP4
"If there are two mirrors facing eachother, it creates a portal to another world, where demonic spirits can enter and leave as they please..."
Someone raised his hand, nervously.
"Yes, Aaron?" the teacher next to Emily asked.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ246LXJ1xPV
"P-please... can Miss Kelly stop now? It's scary..."
There were nods around the class. The teacher looked at Emily.
It had been a fail.
She had never set off in the first place.
The voices were still there.
She felt cold all the time.
She felt as if there was always someone there, watching her.
She felt as if she had nothing to live for.
832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS2Qx2tyYLf
