He entered the house in silence , no rooms to wander through this time, no endless doors to confuse him just a long, hollow corridor with cracked walls and arrows drawn in charcoal , each arrow pointed forward, demanding obedience , the man didn't question them , walked with heavy steps, heart steady but unsure of what waited at the end. The floor creaked beneath him, and every step echoed like someone walking directly behind him but he didn't look back.Something in him already knew if he turned, something would be there , something he didn't want to see ,the arrows led him to a single wide room this time there was no carvings or paintings on the walls only a flood of papers scattered everywhere , consisting of Documents tacked to the walls with rusty nails,Photographs laid out on the table and Faces blurred, eyes blacked out, smiles frozen in static.
He moved closer. Every time he tried to focus on a face, his skull throbbed; he felt pressure building behind his eyes, as if memory itself refused to return then he reached for one photo a figure stood there, arm around another. Familiar. Pain struck him like a hammer and he dropped it ,breath shook. These were his memories but something had torn them apart.
That was when he heard it "You shouldn't be here." The voice vibrated through the room he turned. At the far corner, where the shadows folded into each other, something stood. A figure tall yet incomplete, flickering like a broken image it didn't walk. It glitched forward one frame, then another its face constantly rearranging, melting between faces he almost recognized. "You keep digging. For what?" it said without moving its mouth , the man chose silence once again but he took one step back and the floor fractured beneath him. The room collapsed. He fell through wood, through darkness until he hit cold stone. A maze stretched before him, built of towering walls, lit only by dim lanterns that revealed nothing beyond a few feet. The air was stale.
On the first wall, carved in jagged writing, was the first puzzle: What is carried but never held, born but never seen, broken without touch? He closed his eyes. Breath. That was the answer , his breath left him in a slow exhale, and the wall split open. He walked deeper. The second puzzle awaited on a tablet of stone: I am what you build to reach tomorrow, yet I vanish when you stop believing. What am I? Hope. He felt the word sting his chest as he whispered it, the stone trembled and lowered, revealing the path. A third puzzle stood ahead, this one carved into a mirror: Who are you, when no one remembers your name? He saw his reflection blurred, hollow-eyed. Nothing. No answer spoken, only the silent acceptance of it. The mirror then cracked and dissolved. The maze opened to a chamber. Two statues stood at its center, veiled in dust ,one statue wore his own face, younger, innocent, eyes set forward with ambition. The other was older stern, arms crossed, a presence heavy as judgment…a father maybe? A voice slithered behind him." You know what this is you came all this way to choose" , suddenly a firearm materialized in his hand it was cold, steady , his breathing shallow , he lifted it toward his own statue first, then lowered it. he knows what he has to do, he also knows what the shadow wants him to do ,he turned to the father's statue ,Memories flickered , late nights, unspoken words, the weight of never being enough. Don't, whispered the shadow. ."you need to live with it, that's better for the both of us". His finger hovered on the trigger. He hesitated. His eyes burned. "I'm done chasing your approval," he muttered, voice cracking. BANG!. The shot echoed like thunder , cracks tore through the statue. It split, collapsing into dust.
The shadow screamed an inhuman rupture of sound the chamber twisted. Walls convulsed. The figure lunged from the shadows, form distorting into something violent and raw , and for the first time the man didn't fight back and RAN Down a corridor that stretched beyond sense, walls flickering with ghostly silhouettes. Voices wailed from the darkness
I thought you would be more!You could have done better!Pathetic! Failure! Each word struck his spine, but he kept running. A light appeared a door. Only one way out. He didn't slow, he crashed through it. Silence. He stumbled outside. No village. No houses. Just a vast, dead desert beneath a Grey sky , the town magically vanished as if it never existed. He turned back. Nothing stood behind him now , At the horizon, the black horse waited. Its eyes lowered, its form still yet sorrowful. It knew. He stepped toward it, but dizziness overcame him. The world tilted. His knees buckled."what is happening" He collapsed to the ground. Before darkness claimed him, he heard one last whisper—not from the shadow, not from his father, but from somewhere buried deep within: "This is only the beginning of what you chose" , with that everything faded.