Chapter Seven

Suddenly, the room went dark. The only sound was the crackling fire, filling the silence. Everyone grabbed their phones, flashlights coming on, cutting through the black.

Maya let out a small, nervous laugh. "Well, that's… spooky."

Brian waved his phone around, the light bouncing off the walls. "Nice going, Rose. You keep talking about creepy stuff, and now we're stuck in a haunted mansion with no lights. Guess you jinxed it! This just keeps getting better!"

Alex stood up, his face half-lit by his phone's glow. "It's probably just the fuse. I'll check the main switch in the basement."

A pause followed, and then a chorus of hesitant excuses filled the room.

"Yeah… no," Brian said with a weak chuckle. "Basements are creepy, man. Especially in places like this."

Typical Brian. All talk, no action.

Maya smiled apologetically. "You're brave, Alex, but I don't think I'd be much help down there. Electrical stuff? Not my thing."

Sophie, who had been off her phone for a while, shrugged. "I'd come, but… basements, dark, spiders? Not really my scene," she said, though her tone was lighter, not mocking.

Katie sat on the edge of the couch, biting her lip. "I'm kind of terrified of the dark. And basements." Her voice was soft, not dismissive, just... nervous.

Alex sighed, clearly frustrated but not angry. "Alright, fine. I'll go by myself."

I stood up as determination settled in. I was still shaken from earlier, but I couldn't let him go down there alone. "I'll come with you," I said, surprised by how steady my voice was. The last place I wanted to be was that basement, but someone had to support him. The rest were acting like wusses.

Katie looked up at me, eyes wide. "Rose, are you sure? After everything..."

I nodded, more to convince myself than anyone else. "Yeah. I'll be fine." I wasn't sure I believed that, but I needed to do this. Something about it felt necessary, even though my heart was racing.

Katie hesitated for a moment longer, then stood up. "Well, if you're going, I'm not staying here." She forced a small smile. "Strength in numbers, right?"

"Right," Alex smiled, relief evident in his voice. "Let's just get this over with."

Brian flicked his light towards the basement door, the beam casting a narrow path through the dimly lit hall. "Good luck, guys. Don't get eaten by the house or anything."

As we moved deeper into the house, the feeling of being watched crept over my skin. We had checked the place earlier in daylight, but now, in the dark, every creak of the floorboards felt like something lurking behind us. When we reached the basement door, a cold draft hit us—sharp and unsettling, as if the very atmosphere was warning us to turn back.

Alex, Katie, and I stood frozen, waiting for someone to take the lead. When no one did, I stepped forward and opened the door. The stairs vanished into the black void below. Katie hesitated, her voice unsteady. "Damn! Do we really have to go down there?"

"It's the only way." I gulped, sweat forming on my forehead. The truth was, I was scared, terrified but we had to do this.

As we descended the stairs, the air grew colder with each step. At the bottom, we swept our phone flashlights around. The basement stretched out before us, shelves lined with rotting boxes, everything coated in thick dust.

After fumbling around, we finally found the fuse box. It was an old switch, you had to manually turn on and off—no modern tripping system. As I looked closer, something stopped me. The switch had been flipped deliberately, like someone had turned it off on purpose.

"Someone did this," I whispered.

Katie's hand tightened on my arm. "But why would—"

Before she could finish, I pulled the switch down. The lights above sputtered back to life with a harsh buzz.

We all looked up as the glow filled the hall outside the basement door, lighting the steps back to safety—but it only reached so far. The basement stayed pitch black. The light stopped at the top of the stairs, like it knew better than to push any further. It felt like something in the thick darkness below refused to be touched, and didn't want to be seen.

Katie wrinkled her nose, waving her hand in front of her face. "God, this place stinks," she muttered. "Let's get out of here."

Just as we turned to head back, Alex's flashlight flickered across something in the far corner. A door. "Wait—what's that? Do you hear that?"

I heard it. The faint, insistent buzz of flies coming from behind the door. I froze, my heart skipping a beat as I swung my light in the same direction. Alex moved toward it, but Katie and I stayed put, too scared to follow. My beam drifted as I shifted, catching on something half-buried in the dirt-caked floor.

I crouched, wiping away the grime, revealing a book—old, with a worn leather cover.. My fingers trembled as I lifted it. "Alex... look at this."

Alex, who had nearly reached the door, stopped and came back to me. His eyes narrowed as he took the book from my hands. "Where the hell did you find this?"

"I don't know," I whispered, my voice shaky. "It was just... there."

He flipped through the brittle, yellowed pages, his brow furrowing as he skimmed the strange symbols and foreign texts. His eyes went wide with fear.

"What is it?" I asked, barely above a whisper.

"It's... it says Codex Arcanum ," Alex said, his voice low and tense. "It's black magic, Rose. Evil stuff. I've read about it. I study this in my masters program—mythology, esotericism, dark magic rituals. I didn't think I'd ever see something like this in real life."

Katie's face paled. "We shouldn't be here," she muttered, backing away. "Let's just get out."

"Yeah, but check the door," Alex urged, moving toward it.

"No," Katie said, her voice shaking. "We're not checking it."

But my feet moved on their own, following Alex. The door was thick and wooden, its scent musty, like old wood decaying from the inside. I flicked my light over it and squinted at the faded letters carved into its surface.

" Creatura Noctis ," I whispered, the words strange on my tongue.

Alex came up beside me, staring at the door. "It means creature of the night. It sounds familiar. Like I've read about it."

He flipped through the book, trembling fingers stopping on a page. His face paled. "Look... the same words, Creatura Noctis . It says it feeds on humans once a year. They call it the Creeper."

My blood ran cold at his words. What had we gotten ourselves into?

Katie spun on her heel, stepping onto the first stair. "I'm leaving. I didn't sign up for this shit!"

We turned to leave, but the light from our phones caught something we hadn't seen before. Deep claw marks covered the walls, the plaster torn and gouged, smeared with dried blood. My breath hitched, legs trembling. Something had been here—something not human.

"Guys! Don't be stupid! Hurry up!" Katie's voice cracked, close to tears.

"She's right," Alex stammered. "We need to leave, now!" He grabbed my hand, yanking me toward the stairs and tossed the book to the ground.

As we rushed back up, slamming the basement door behind us, my heart hammered feeling I'd have a heart attack. I knew it wasn't over. Whatever was down there was coming for us and something awful was about to happen.

"We need to tell the others!" Katie gasped, her voice shaky and breathless.

We did. We really did.