I stand before the piano cautiously. I’ve seen so many horrifying movies where people open up pianos and pull out dead bodies, or a piano swallows someone whole. Anything could happen in this horrible place.

I place the sheet music on the piano, taking a step back. I hear an odd clicking sound, and I notice that the keys start to move on their own; the piano is playing itself.

The room fills with the light sound of the piano, and I feel like I could melt. The music is soft, sorrowful, though it captures me in its melody until I feel I can no longer move.

It reminds me of the ocean, how the waves softly lap at the beach. It reminds me of the softness of the sand, how you curl it underneath your toes and how it sifts smoothly through your fingers. It reminds me the most of the sun, how its light dances on your skin, heating you up and warming you from the inside out.

I stand a few minutes longer, entranced. How could someone write such a beautiful piece of music? I feel the tears pricking at my eyes again but I will them away.

A pot plant that stands next to the piano topples over as the music takes a darker tune, and I gasp as a key, larger than the last, falls out. I pick it up and head out the door.

This must be the last key.

I return back to the previous room, looking for where exactly I need to use the key. Kai flicks his tail at me, pointing to the door with the Mona Lisa painting and odd pumpkins inside.

“Try that old clock, the hands have stopped working,” he says. I give Kai a nod of thanks, continuing on my way. He curls up again, resting his head on his paws.

The painting I had left on the table is gone; the room seems to have reverted, and it is hanging back on the wall. However, the Mona Lisa inside it is nowhere to be seen. Instead, there is a gaping black hole where she once was.

I ignore the portraits, instead going back to the room the grandfather clock occupied. When I push the door open, I gasp in surprise.

Like the other room, this one has changed. The statues, dead pot plant and mirror are gone, and the room is much narrower than before. The grandfather clock sits at the centre, standing proudly in the dim light. I see that in taking the other key out of the clock face, it has stopped working.

I see a small keyhole on the clock’s face, and I realise this must be where the large key must be turned. I walk over to it, but I’m too short to reach. I find a chair, that same chair from before, and I push it across the room until it sits before the clock. I take a step up, inserting the key…

A loud, grand ticking begins. I hear a click reverberate around the place, and I realise that I’ve made a sound in all of the rooms. The music box, the Jack in the Box, the pumpkin and finally the old ticking clock.

I walk back to the room, finding that Kai is gone. That cat boy can’t sit still for very long…

I march up to the only door that I haven’t checked, finding it unlocked. The statue of the toy soldier turns towards me and I shriek, however it just collapses to the floor when it sees me, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

The next room is empty, beside the statue of a sobbing woman. She seems to be holding something, but I can’t fully make out what it is. A piece of fruit? Offering to the Gods? Whatever it is, she holds it out with outstretched hands, holding it up for all to see.

The walls are dark, and an eerie blue glow fills the room. There is a lone stained-glass window just beyond the statue, and I walk over to it, scanning it with my eyes. There’s a hole of some sort, and I slide my way through.

A desk, an open book. Another diary entry. The light on the desk is not lit.



Wizard’s Diary

I don’t like illness, because it kept me from going outside.

Because it made no one love me.



I take a step backwards, walking back through to the room with a statue. I feel slightly sorry for the wizard, because no one wants to be lonely. Even the wizard, even though the wizard did unspeakable things, he deserves at least some love, right?

I see an inscription below the woman’s statue, one I failed to see before. I stoop down to read it, but before I can, a feminine voice calls throughout the room.

“My ring… it’s not here. My… my ring…”

I back away from the statue, as there is a loud banging sound that echoes throughout the whole house. It’s so loud; I have to cover my ears. I see the statue shifting, and I make a break for the door.

I find myself back in the room with piano, but somehow a chimney has sprouted out of the wall, its chimney spurting out layer and layer of soot onto the white, pristine tiled floor. I lean into it, blowing away some of the soot. I sneeze and cough a couple times, swatting my hand in front of my face to get rid of some of the ash that’s lifted into the air.

There’s a small pathway, a small pathway that I’m sure I would be able to fit down. I press my hands to the wall, pushing myself forward…

I stumble a little in the darkness, dropping to my hands and knees. I feel like I’m suffocating with the amount of dust that seems to fill my lungs with each step forward.

After a few minutes, I’m just about ready to give up. However, I spot a light at the end of the tunnel. An eerie halo glow of a light purple hue, like the world has changed colours.

I emerge out of another fireplace, in what seems to be the dining room that I ventured through before. Instead of the glow of the chandeliers or the gas lamps that line the wall, there is no source of light, just that purple hue.

An arrow is drawn across the wall and I follow it, back to the small kitchen off to the side.

The knife has stopped chopping, however there is a pot boiling on the corner stove. Although I couldn’t see the figure before, I still felt it. This time, I cannot feel its presence; I know it is not there.

Where did it go?

I walk over to the pot, carefully lifting the lid up a little. A thick layer of steam is excreted, and I place the lid on the bench before me. It smells foul. Like something rotting, perhaps egg or a meat of some sort. I look inside, noticing that unlike the other time, I can actually see the food that’s in the pot.

Just simple cabbage, nothing special.

I walk across to the cabinet by the desk as my cooking instincts take the better of me. If I leave it in the pot for too long, the cabbage will boil too much and become a disgusting slosh. I open the cabinet door, expecting to see a row of fine silverware.

I am met with another door.

It’s a dark room, I can hardly make out anything. I notice the scuffling of cockroaches along the floor, and I try my best to step around them. Skeletons line the metallic floor, and all I can feel is immense heat. I look down, seeing the faint glow of something underneath, like lava and burning coals.

I shiver.

There’s a skull to the side of the room, completely burnt out. Where the eye sockets are, two metal chopsticks stick out. I walk over to it, taking one of the chopsticks in my hand. It’s not too hot surprisingly, though I can feel the warmth of it in my hands.

I hear a growl, and I run backwards through the room. I look to my left, and the skull seems to be floating midair. I let out a scream and reach for the door. More of the skeletons are waking up, reaching towards me…

Slam!

I breathe heavily, holding a hand over my heart. I lock the cabinet behind me, walking back over to the pot. I take the chopsticks in my hands, sifting them through the pot of boiling cabbage.

They come into contact with a metallic ‘clink’ sound, that seems to echo throughout the room. I heave a sigh, pricking it out.

“A… plain gold ring?” I wonder aloud.

I look up, thinking of something to do with it. Perhaps… the woman of the statue wants this ring? My heart races a hundred miles an hour. The skull has propped itself on the window just above the pot; it’s staring down at me. I take this as my cue to leave.

I try the door back to the dining room, but it’s locked. There’s a second door, the one covered in cockroaches, but it’s locked too. I jump, shrieking in surprise as a handprint marks the wall beside my head.

It’s blood.

I stare at the skull in the window, and it stares right back at me, though eyeless. I my head to the side, my eyes widening. I walk back to the cabinet, running my hand over the door.

This could be suicide…

I run across the room, though the skeletons seem to have fallen back to sleep. I take the metal chopsticks and I place them back in the skull’s eye sockets carefully. I see out of the corner of my eye a shuffle from another skull, but I reason that just might be the movement of those tricky cockroaches.

There’s a click, and I run back out of the room, panting as I hit the kitchen. I try both the doors, breathing a sigh of relief as the door to the dining room seems to be opened once again.

I hear the sound of a piano crashing against the concrete, and the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.

Coming towards me.

Something’s coming for me!

I run back to the chimney, screaming as pieces of furniture lift up off the ground and fly towards me. I’ve crawled as far as I can into the hole, yet a chair leg still prods at my sides. I push it away, careful not to drop the ring.

Once I’ve climbed up back up the chimney, I immediately notice that the piano is gone. Instead, a gaping hole sits in the centre of the room where it had been. I quickly leave, hearing the footsteps echoing again.

I find myself in front of the statue of the woman, breathing heavily. I take the ring from my pocket, placing it on her outstretched palm.

“This is my… thank you…” she whispers.

I hear a click, and I see a door to the right, one I failed to notice before. I open it, but not before turning around to give the creepy statue one last look.

But it’s not there.

It’s smashed all over the floor, the arms and legs cut off, the head completely decapitated from the body. One of the fingers points to the door and I nod at it, despite myself.

The door leads to another staircase, heading upwards. All colour seems to be drained from my surroundings…

There’s a long passageway, one with nothing in it but strangely pieced together stained glass windows. One further down is broken, its pieces shattered on the floor. I cannot see any individual colours, however I imagine it must have been beautiful once in a creepy sort of way.

Something comes hurdling towards me, and I scream. The tall, dark haired figure jumps out in front of me, his arm outstretched. From closer inspection his eyes are not fully black, but fully red, like in this strange colourless world he has gained colour.

The thing that attacked me fades, and with it the figure fades.

The wizard saved me?

I blink a couple of times, falling to the floor in my surprise. I hold my head in my hands, rocking back and forth. I begin to cry.

I don’t know what to believe anymore, how this wizard is lonely and how he saved me. But how could he do such a thing to Kai?

I think I’m sick.

I slip into unconsciousness.