I stood there, standing in the downpour of the rain, letting it drench my dark hair and clothes. The rest of my friends were nearby gasping for breath, lying on the ground or crouching down with their hands on their knees. Regardless of our physical state, we were all thinking the same thing. Why him?

I looked up from the ground and cursed the mansion; the very same mansion that had taken him away from us. My friend, Alice, ran up to the building and started to pound on the door. She had light blonde hair sticking to her face in a messy fashion, with ice blue eyes that had a crazed look to them. Lexie runs up and dragged her away from the building, whispering soothing words into Alice’s ear as she sobs into her red hair. Austin ran over to Alice telling her to calm down. His brown hair strewn messily about his face as he gently rubbed Alice’s arm.

Alice began crying, screaming. “It shouldn’t have been him! Why did that thing want him?” I ignored her wails of grief, and closed my eyes, wishing for some way to bring back my crazy brown haired and auburn eyed friend, Blake.

I closed my eyes and focused on the rain drops streaming down my face. The pain of losing my best friend was taking over all my thoughts, and I released an anguished scream. Throwing my hands on the drenched grass in front of me, I released all my sobs. I began wishing with every fiber in my being to go back in time and save Blake.

I felt the rain slowly fade away, and the sun began to emerge from behind the storm clouds. When I opened my eyes, I was startled by the scene playing out before me. We were all sitting around on the green grass, contemplating on whether we should enter the mansion or not. Alice was nervously clinging to Lexie, staring at the mansion as if she’d seen a ghost. Lexie was comforting Alice, while staring daggers at Austin for scaring Alice, and Blake was trying to keep Alice from hurting Austin.
   

Everything was playing out just as it did before. The way my friends were behaving, the weather, even the annoying fly that was buzzing around my face. Confused, I looked around the area, and back towards the mansion. As I was studying one of the windows, I could’ve sworn I saw a large shadow pass by. Shaking my head, I focused on the window for a few minutes, until Blake interrupted my thought. “Mary, are you coming?” I hesitated, looking from Blake and back to the mansion. After thinking over my options, I reluctantly took his hand in my own.

He helped me up off the ground and led me towards the mansion. At a first glance, the mansion seemed like your everyday average mansion, with its nice tan walls, and innocent looking roof. But studying it closely, I could easily tell the building was radiating a sinister aura. The tan walls had vines crawling up them, and the windows were dark with wooden boards over some. The windows that weren’t covered up with the boards had blood red curtains that were drawn, not letting anyone look in or out. The whole mansion made me want to run away and never come back, but I know that I’ve been given this second chance to save Blake from his terrible fate.

Blake led everyone to the dark wooden double doors, and slowly pushed one open. Once the doors were open, everyone slowly walked in, looking at anything and everything that seemed suspicious. We walked into a large room, which had black and white tiles on the floor and lavender wallpaper. The little furniture that was left in the room was covered with old white sheets, and coated in a thick layer of dust. I looked around the room and saw occasional red blotches on the wallpaper. I couldn’t help but hope it wasn’t blood, but I knew all too well that it was.

We continued to search through the mansion, everything happening exactly the way it did before. Alice knocked over a lamp that was sitting on a table in the corner of the room, Austin tripped over a broken table, and Lexie discovered the secret door, leading us to a place where we would all regret going.

The passage was long and narrow, barely letting two people walk side by side. The stone walls sent chills throughout the passage, making me wish that I had brought a jacket. There was     no light in the passage, making it difficult to see two feet in front of me. As we continued through the passage, Austin kept complaining about how he couldn’t see anything, and continuously tripped over the cobblestone floor. I finally had enough of his whining that I walked up behind him and smacked him on the head. He shot me a glare, but decided it would be better to quit complaining.

The dark passage continued on for ages, like a never ending hallway. Just when I was beginning to lose patience with the passage, we saw a bright light coming from the end of the hallway. Everyone sprinted towards the room without a second thought, leaving me behind, staring warily at it, and knowing that the worst was only beginning. Upon entering the room, I saw a giant purple figure sitting in a large green armchair. Its big, black eyes were staring at us hungrily, and it was wearing a psychotic smile. The thing slowly stood up, never taking its eyes off of us, and slowly started to approach us.

Without hesitating, I grabbed Blake and Lexie’s hand and dragged them out of the room. I looked behind me, and saw Austin pulling a sobbing Alice behind him. Relived, I focused my attention to finding somewhere to hide. After leaving the passage, I led everyone into a random room. Once everyone was in the room, I slammed the door shut, making sure to lock it, and began to push the heavier objects that were in the room against the door. After that was done, we all huddled in the farthest corner from the door hoping that we had outsmarted the monster. Soon, we heard the faint thumping of the monster getting closer and closer.

Thump, thump, thump! With each pound of his footsteps, we all absentmindedly backed up farther in the corner, and then hid behind a bookshelf. The sound of the monster footsteps grew louder and louder, then grew softer and softer until we couldn’t hear it anymore. We all let out a sigh of relief, as Alice started to breakdown. Lexie quickly tried to calm her down before the monster heard, or could return, but it was too late. Within a few quick moments, the monster’s footsteps could be heard running towards the room, and soon he was banging on our door.

“We need to get out of here!”

“Are you insane Blake? The only way out is through that door!” Lexie yelled.

“I have an idea. Wait for my signal, and then run through the door. Just keep running until you get the heck out of here!” As if on cue, the door was kicked open with such a force that it flew off the hinges and hit the wall across it. Blake jumped out from behind the bookshelf, and screamed while he charged the monster. “Guys, get out of here now!”

Lexie grabbed Alice’s hand and ran through the door without hesitation followed by Austin. I ran towards the door after them, but pulled up short and looked over at Blake, who was currently wrestling with the purple figure. I ran over to both of them and punched the monster in the stomach with as much strength as I could muster.

The monster let out a roar of pain, and doubled over. I took this opportunity to grab Blake’s hand and pull him out of the room with me. I was hoping that the mansion wouldn’t play it’s dirty trick on us like it did last time, but I was disappointed when I realized that it did. All of the rooms had been mysteriously jumbled up. I led Blake through the various rooms, hoping that my other friends had made it out, when we collided with them.

“Guys, I know the way out, follow me,” I anxiously told them. They didn’t question my knowledge and instead obediently followed me through the final rooms. I burst through a solid black door, and found myself standing in the familiar room with lavender wallpaper and a black and white tiled floor. We all sprinted for the door, when the purple monster appeared out of nowhere. Alice, Lexie, and Austin ran as fast as they could towards the wooden double doors, and successfully made it out of the mansion, while the monster advanced on Blake and me.

Blake pushed me forwards to the door, just before the monster had cornered him. I knew that I couldn’t let the monster take Blake, so I did the only thing I could think of, and charged him. Again, I punched the monster with as much strength as I could muster in its stomach, giving Blake enough time to get out of the way. The monster roared angrily and started to approach me at a rapid pace. Before Blake could even protest, I shoved him out of the doors, and watched him stumble and fall onto the ground in front of Austin. He looked back alarmed, and tried to run back for me, but it was too late.

The doors began to close, and Austin had tackled Blake onto the ground just a few feet in front of the door. Blake screamed at Austin, begging him to release him to come and help me, but I knew that Austin wouldn’t comply with his wishes. I sent one last smile to my friends before the doors closed. A loud click echoed throughout the room, leaving me in darkness. My smile vanished from my face, and I felt the tears slide down my face.

The monster slowly approached me. I watched, frozen to the spot, as it got closer and closer to me. The monster didn’t stop until it was right in front of me, staring down at me with its large beady eyes. A large smile spread across its face, revealing startling white teeth, and brought up a large hand. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the pain that would surely come. Soon enough, I felt my body fly backwards, and my back slam into the door behind me. My head rebounded off the wooden surface, and I landed limply on the ground. Pain immediately making its presence felt in my head, back, and my right arm.

My eyelids began to grow heavy, as I watched the monster slowly approaching me again. Closing my eyes, I thought back to my friends. I knew that they were all safe, and that is the only thing that matters. I felt my body get picked up, and I was staring into the eyes of the monster. Again, I was flying in the air, and landed harshly on the tile ground. The pain increased, then I felt none.

Sleep began to overtake me, and I welcomed it with open arms. Knowing that I had managed to save Blake this time. A small smile made it on my face as I drifted off into unconsciousness. Soon, I was enveloped into a white light, but not before seeing the horrible monster smiling down at me.