The next room is well lit, the walls a pale yellow that seem to glow under the light of the gas lamps. There’s neatly tiled floors in check-like pattern, two tables at exactly the same places, with chairs surrounding them and dolls placed atop them, like someone was having a tea party with their toys.

 I spot a door across the room, and I beeline towards it. As I expect, it’s locked, just like the others.

I scan the room, noticing a small piece of paper atop the second table.

“Make a mirror image,” I read aloud.

I realise that the scheme of the room is symmetrical. The tables are placed at exactly the same width apart, the toy bears are sitting at exactly the same angles. Even the furniture surrounding the tables seems to be placed exactly so.

There are a few differences, however. On one side of the room, a chair occupies a small stuffed frog. The opposite table has a piece of cake on it while the one nearest to me does not. A pot plant sits still on the ground, and I can’t move it. I notice there’s another one I can move.

“I have to make this room mirrored,” I tell myself.

I walk over to the chair, taking the frog out of my pocket. I glance across the room and place it in the centre chair between two others.

I find a piece of cake sitting on a rack underneath cutlery, so I take it out and place it on the table, across from the other piece of cake, exactly placed so that even the strawberry on top of the sponge underneath is facing a particular direction.

There seems to be only the pot plants to move, so I try my hand at the one that is not fixed to the floor. It’s lighter than I expect, and it takes little effort to shove it to the other side of the room.

I see new things about the room that differ, things that I failed to see before. There’s a vase on either side of the room, one with five flowers in it, the other with six. I realise that there is a flower atop one of the chairs, so I take it off and run across to the vase with five, putting it in.

That must be it, right?

Wrong.

I roll my eyes as I stare up at the walls. There’s two pictures, each with two people rowing in what appears to be a kayak or small boat of some sort, racing along the river. I notice one of the portraits has a switch behind it, and I press it.

So far so good.

There’s a click, and I rush over to the door. I open it, but not before running back across to pick up the frog, that seems to be staring at me intently.

This new room is quite similar to the room I went in before, the one that was like a study. However, this room is smaller, with only a small table with a lamp and vase. There is a book in the centre.

Wizard’s Diary

My father and mother didn’t love me, so I __________ them.

I’ve been in this house ever since.



The word is scratched out and too hard to read, but I think I know exactly what was written here. I flick to the next page quickly, reading it aloud.

“Go through the next door and let nothing distract you.”

The door opens up onto another long corridor, however this ones seems to be paved with blood. The walls are a putrid green, as if moss is growing out of the red sticky substance that covers it. There’s a horrid stench in the air.

I almost move to the left when I see the familiar glint of an arrow hurdling through the air towards me, but I decide against it.

It’s coming right for my head!

I shut my eyes, gasping as I anticipate impact. No distractions, even if it means an arrow is hurdling towards me…

I open my eyes abruptly. The arrow never came. I continue walking forward, more confident than before. I just have to ignore the fact that everything’s covered in a coppery-smelling sticky red substance…

“Kai?” I ask.

I’m halfway down the corridor, and he seems to be sitting there, all by himself. His ears perk up, and I almost step across to him.

His eyes are different, not the fluorescent yellow I’m used to.

They’re blood red.

Kai lets out a mewl of disapproval and I run in a straight line, away from him as he leaps towards me, intent on scratching skin from bone.

This is not my Kai.

I continue down the corridor, finally finding myself at a door. I push it open and slide down the wall on the other side, breathing in a heavy sigh of relief. That was too close.

Once I have regained my breath, I scan the room. Nothing of importance, and no Kai. Just a single note on the centre of the floor, one with two words printed on it in bold print.

HE’S HUNGRY

There’s a single door, one with a small peeping hole about the size of my palm to peek through. My heart beats louder still.

He’s hungry.

I listen carefully to the door. There’s something large shuffling across the floor, but I don’t want to look inside. I hear a hiss and my eyes widen in realisation.

Snake.

He’s hungry.

I look through the window, falling backwards in surprise as I shake my head repeatedly. It can’t be that big…

The long tail of the snake stretches along, covering a majority of the floor space in the other room. Its skin is scaly and has a coarse look about it, coloured somewhere between forest green and a putrid brown. I know that with a mouth as large as that, the snake could easily swallow me whole, digest me for months on end in delight.

He’s hungry.

Perhaps this is what the note on the floor was talking about… a hungry snake.

There’s only one option for me to take. I can’t go back, or I’ll easily be distracted and fall to my doom. On the other hand, this frog has been a good companion for its short time venturing the halls with me.

I shake my head, feeling the tears fall from my eyes. I begin to shake uncontrollably, ready to throw up on the tiled floor.

I don't think I can do this…

I continue tearing up as I pull the frog out of my pocket, forcing it through the hole in the door in front of me. There’s room enough for it to fit, but it doesn’t want to leave my palm. I feel the sting of tears in my eyes as I watch the frog squirm, pressing it though harder. It gives me a sad look, and I know it knows exactly what is happening.

I fly back, hands hitting the hard floor behind me as I hear a repetitive thud, the door almost falling off its hinges. I curl up in a ball, running a finger over my eyes.

Tears of blood, again.

I wipe them away furiously, picking myself up.

I cannot cry.

I walk across to the door. There’s silence on the other side, and I let out a heaving sigh. I push the door open, revealing a small reptile room. There are snakes everywhere, though many look dead, their skins submerged in oils in jars line the shelves above me. There’s a fissure in the side of the wall, and the area around it is streaked with blood.

Fresh blood.

I let out a strangled sob, holding my hand to my mouth. I find another door with my shaking fingers, pushing it forward…

But not before I spot the frog, its skin pale as a ghost.

It’s dead. A ghost.

I shut the door behind me with a thud, sinking onto my hands and knees. I continue on like this, crawling on all fours until I find a dimly lit section of the corridor, one lined with statues of cats and lit with candle chandeliers suspended from the ceilings.

Each of the cat statues has a blank expression on their faces, their eyes burning into my back. I look up, noticing one different from the rest.

Kai jumps down from the statue, rushing over to me. I curl up in a ball, pulling him close, sobbing into his fur. Kai stretches his cat arms out before him, and I notice they have become matted with blood.

“What… what happened?” I ask him, voice shaking.

“Nothing, the wizard just got cross with me,” he says pointedly.

“You need to rest, you look terrible…”

I give Kai a small nod, resting my head on his back. He curls up around my face, making himself a soft pillow for me.