"We have to see it."
The voice broke the eerie silence. All eyes turned to Ryan, one of the students known for taking stupid risks for social media content. He stood with his phone in hand, his eyes sparkling with misplaced enthusiasm.
"Are you kidding?" Adrian stared at him in disbelief. "We don't even know who lives there."
"That's exactly why!" Ryan insisted. "We're in the middle of a secluded forest, and suddenly there's a luxurious house? This is a mystery! Imagine if we can get a photo or video. This will go viral!"
"Or we could get shot for trespassing," James interjected with a sarcastic tone.
But Ryan wasn't listening. He had already turned to the rest of the group, his voice rising with excitement. "Who wants to come along? It's only a ten-minute walk. We'll just look from the outside, we won't go in."
Damian observed how doubt slowly turned into curiosity on the faces around the bonfire. One by one, students started nodding, whispering to each other, phones already prepared. Even Veronica, who had been mocking earlier, now looked interested, although she tried to hide it.
"I don't like this," Cedric muttered, returning to Damian and James' spot. His face was pale under the flashlight beam. "Why do we have to look for trouble?"
"Because they're stupid," James replied flatly, but Damian saw something flash in his eyes. Curiosity. "But I'm also curious."
Damian gave him a sharp look. "Are you serious?"
"Think about it, Damie," James leaned forward, his voice low but intense. "A luxurious house in the middle of a forest not marked on any map? It makes no sense. There has to be an explanation. And we are psychology students, we shouldn't believe in superstition. This is a chance to prove that there's nothing weird here."
"Or prove the opposite," Damian retorted.
James smiled thinly. "That's what makes it interesting."
Adrian finally gave in to group pressure. "Alright, alright! But we go as a large group, and we do not step onto anyone's property. Just look from the outside, take a picture if necessary, then come back. Agreed?"
Shouts of agreement echoed through the campsite.
Damian felt a pressure in his chest. He didn't want to go. Every instinct in him screamed to stay, to not approach whatever was in that darkness. But when James stood up and looked at him with a challenging gaze, Damian knew he had no choice.
"Come on," James said. "Or do you want to be left alone here?"
It was an empty threat, they all knew Damian preferred to be alone. But there was something in James' tone that made Damian reluctantly stand up.
Cedric sighed dramatically. "If I die tonight, I'll haunt both of you first before any other ghost."
More than three-quarters of the campers, about twenty students, gathered with flashlights and phones on. They moved in a large group, entering the forest with Lisa in front as the guide.
The forest swallowed them.
The darkness between the trees was so dense that the flashlight beams felt weak, only able to penetrate a few meters ahead. The sound of footsteps on dry twigs and fallen leaves sounded too loud, too disruptive to the unnatural silence.
Damian walked behind James, with Cedric clinging to his side. Cedric's breathing was fast and shallow; he was terrified, although he tried to hide it by continuously talking.
"Why is there no sound?" Cedric whispered. "Usually a night forest is bustling with crickets or owls or something. But this, this is so silent."
Damian had already noticed it. The silence was like a living entity, pressing down on them from all directions. Even the other students' conversations sounded muffled, as if the forest was absorbing their voices.
"We're almost there," Lisa said from the front, her voice trembling.
And then they saw it.
The trees suddenly opened up, forming a small clearing. In the middle stood a house—no, a manor. A magnificent structure with medieval English architecture that shouldn't possibly be here. Dark stone walls rose three stories, with a small turret on the left corner. Large windows with dark wooden frames, some covered with thick curtains. A deep red tiled roof, partially overgrown with moss.
What was most unsettling was how well-maintained the house looked. There were no signs of disrepair, no leaks or cracks. It was as if someone lived here, maintaining it, despite its location which should have made it impossible to access.
But there was no light. The lights that Lisa claimed were on were now out. The house was submerged in a darkness deeper than the surrounding forest, as if absorbing the thin moonlight.
"My god," someone whispered behind Damian.
The group stopped at the edge, no one daring to step closer. Even Ryan, who had been excited, was now silent, his phone raised but his hand shaking.
"This is impossible," Adrian said, his voice shedding all his authority.
Damian stared at the building, and the bad feeling in his stomach intensified. There was something profoundly wrong with this house. Not just its location, but its energy. The air around the manor felt colder, heavier. Like stepping too close to a grave.
"Do you see that?" Veronica pointed to the large front door. "The door is slightly open."
It was true. The massive wooden door was ajar, enough to glimpse the darkness inside. No movement, no sound.
"We need to leave," Damian said suddenly, his voice louder than he intended. Several heads turned to him in surprise; the Psychology Faculty Ghost rarely spoke. "Now."
"Why?" James looked at him with raised eyebrows. "We just got here."
"Because this is wrong. Everything is wrong."
"Or maybe you're just scared?" Veronica's voice sneaked in with a mocking tone.
Damian didn't care. He had already turned, ready to head back to the campsite, when Ryan's voice stopped everyone.
"I have an idea."
No. Damian didn't even need to hear the rest to know it was a bad idea.
"A dare," Ryan continued, a wide smile on his face despite the sweat on his temples. "We go into the house. Just five minutes. Who's brave enough? This will be the perfect story for our farewell memories."
"You're crazy," Cedric said in a high-pitched voice. "That's someone's house! We could get arrested!"
"The door is open," Ryan argued. "It doesn't look like anyone is inside. We go in, take a quick look, come out. Done."
"Or we could get shot," James reminded again, but this time his voice was less certain. Damian could see the conflict on his face, between common sense and a dangerous curiosity.
"I'll go in," Veronica suddenly said. Everyone was shocked. She lifted her chin, defensive. "What? I'm not scared. It's just an empty house."
"If Veronica's brave enough, I'm in too," Ryan said quickly.
One by one, other students began to express their interest. Group pressure worked like a contagious disease. Even Adrian, who was supposed to be in charge, looked shaky.
James turned to Damian. "What do you think?"
"My opinion is that this is stupid and we should leave now."