Main Character: Ryden
"The House That Remembers"
The woods were silent. Too silent.
Ryden stood before the decaying mansion—Hollowmere House, once forgotten, now pulsing with memories that didn't belong to him. The trees bent unnaturally around it, as if afraid to touch its crumbling walls. Moss crept up the stones like hungry fingers. And above it all, the gaping windows stared like black, blind eyes.
Ten years ago, his sister Ayla vanished inside this house.
He never stopped hearing her voice in his dreams.
Today, he returned to remember. To face whatever truth waited behind the door.
It opened before he touched it.
Creaking like a slow scream, the heavy door welcomed him in. Dust choked the air. The house smelled of wet soil, rusted metal… and something else.
Something rotting.
He stepped inside.
The door slammed shut behind him.
The foyer was empty—no furniture, no lights. The chandelier above dripped water. Or blood. It was hard to tell in the gloom. His phone flickered, then died. Dead silence.
Then a whisper.
"Ryden…"
His name. From upstairs.
He should have turned back. But the house wouldn't let him.
Every step on the staircase felt heavier than the last. With each creak, the walls seemed to press in tighter. The hallway above was endless, looping in impossible angles. Rooms repeated. Windows looked out into other hallways.
The house didn't just trap him—it reshaped itself around him.
He saw flashes. A girl's silhouette in a mirror. A shadow crawling across the ceiling. A voice humming a lullaby—Ayla's lullaby.
And then… a door. Her old room.
The handle was warm. Almost alive.
He opened it.
Her bedroom looked untouched. The bed neatly made. Toys on the shelf. And there, on the wall, were words scrawled in red:
"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?"
The lights flickered.
A mirror on the far wall began to fog.
He stepped closer.
His reflection… smiled without him.
Then spoke:"You forgot her."
The glass shattered. A scream erupted from behind him.
Ryden spun, but no one was there.
Suddenly, the floor dropped. He plummeted into darkness.
When he landed, he was in the basement. Except… it wasn't.
The walls pulsed. Breathing.
Chains hung from the ceiling. Some still swung.
A door stood at the end, chained shut. Something banged from the other side.
"Let me out… please…"
Ayla's voice.
He approached the door. The chains fell away on their own.
He opened it.
Inside was a small room. And in the corner…
Ayla.
Pale. Silent. Staring.
"Ryden," she whispered.
"I found you," he said, kneeling beside her.
She reached out. Her hand was ice. "Why did it take you so long?"
He couldn't answer.
Then—her face twisted.
Her eyes turned black. Mouth stretched wide, far too wide. And her voice became something else.
"STAY WITH ME."
Hands burst from the walls, grabbing Ryden.
He screamed.
The room vanished.
He was standing at the top of the stairs again.
Only now—the house was alive. Walls shifted. Floors pulsed like flesh. Whispers filled the air like flies.
"You forgot.""You left her.""You're next."
He ran.
Hallways stretched. Doors screamed open. Paintings wept blood. Something followed him—crawling on the ceiling, tapping on the walls, always one breath behind.
He saw Ayla everywhere. In mirrors. In shadows. In the cracks of the floor.
Then—finally—he saw the front door again.
Open.
Blinding white light beyond it.
He sprinted.
Just before he reached it, the house screamed. The walls cracked. The floor rose to block him.
But he didn't stop.
He leapt through the door—
Ryden landed hard in the woods.
It was dawn.
Behind him… no house. Just trees.
It was like Hollowmere never existed.
He was shaking. Bleeding. But alive.
He looked down.
In his hand… something he hadn't noticed before.
Ayla's stuffed rabbit.
Wrapped around its neck—an old, torn ribbon.
Written in tiny, trembling letters:
"Thank you for remembering me."
And from the forest behind him…
A final whisper.
"I remember you too…"
🕯️ THE END