The Secret of the Mansion

Truth be told I don’t want to die in that way, I just wish there was some way to disappear from life temporarily. I made it back to my bedroom and glanced at a little black notebook that sat atop my nightstand. It was actually a journal of bucket lists that I wrote back in college. I skimmed through the pages and realized how dark some of my goals were. Suddenly, I saw something strange. On one of the pages, I apparently wrote “ come across $20,000.” Um, was I high when I wrote this? Come across? Like I expected to magically find $20,000 somehow without earning it? I couldn’t recall what led me to write this or what even happened. I wracked my brain but I couldn’t think of anything. Frustrated that I was nowhere near ever reaching this goal, I slumped back into bed and closed my eyes.

When I opened my eyes again I was not in my room. I was in a completely white-spaced area. I heard a creepy giggle in the distance. I turned my head around and saw a tiny boy but he was hollow.

“Uh, are you a ghost?” I said while kneeling down to the boy’s level.

“Yes,” The ghost boy inched closer to me. “You need my help.”

“Is this…is this about what I wrote in my notebook?”

The ghost boy smiled again. “Yes, exactly.” He started floating around me. “What if I told you I could offer you an opportunity of a lifetime?”

I narrowed my eyebrows. “That depends…what do you mean?”

“You need $20,000 right?”

I paused. “Yeah, that would be nice. Are you some kind of a genie?”

“No, but let’s make a deal.” The ghost boy rose above me. “I want to know if you’re able to handle this challenge.”

“A challenge?” I’m beginning to wonder if I have sleep paralysis. “What kind of challenge exactly?”

“You don’t want to exist anymore, isn’t that right?”

Okay, now I’m getting spooked. Is this just my conscious talking to me but masquerading as a spirit?

“I never said I didn’t want to permanently not exist. It would just be cool if I could leave my current life for some time.”

“And you can. That is if you accept my challenge.”

Still remembering that I’m dreaming, I told myself there was nothing to lose. “Alright, sure. Lay it on me.”

The ghost boy circled above my head and held out a book. “First thing you have to do is imagine an ideal life for yourself. Imagine how you want your life to be instead of how it is.” He glanced down at me before closing the book with one hand. “The possibilities are endless.”

An ideal life. If I lived my perfect life maybe I wouldn’t think about wanting to not exist so often. I thought about being a successful journalist who lived in a mansion with my girlfriend. I thought about how we could both work from home and we would never have to leave our mansion because everything we needed was within our reach. I thought long and hard about everything that I could ever want in an ideal life.

“Okay, I’m done.”

“Excellent!” The ghost boy twirled around and all of a sudden a vortex started surrounding me. It roared violently and my vision blurred. I tried to block the wind but I couldn’t see anything. A few seconds later everything went black.

I awoke in my bed but something was different. This was not my bed. I woke up in a canopy bed draped with translucent laced curtains. I wasn’t sure if I was still dreaming so I rubbed my eyes and hopped off. This was not my room, but it was a room that I’ve always wanted. I went out into the living room and it was larger than any room I’ve ever been in. In the kitchen, I saw a girl with long strawberry blond hair chopping some vegetables. Her back was turned. I had no idea who this was. I slowly approached her and tapped her on the shoulder. She immediately turned around and looked up at me with emerald green eyes and thick long lashes. She was gorgeous.

“Hello,” I said sheepishly. “I don’t know who you are but maybe you can help me,”

She giggled with the cutest eye smile. “You know who I am, silly. I’m your girlfriend, Aria.”

Girlfriend?! “Pardon?” I sputtered and almost choked on my own spit.

“Yes,” said Aria as she turned back to continue chopping carrots on her cutting board. “We live together. Did you drink last night? You don’t seem like yourself.”

Honestly, I don’t even know who I was at the moment. I wasn’t even dating anyone. Just then it hit me. I had been transported into my ideal life.

“Ohhh, now I remember.” I smiled at how beautiful she looked. I didn’t necessarily have an ideal type, but she was close to it. “Sorry, I think I’m still half asleep.”

“That’s why I made you some breakfast!” She grabbed a platter from the counter. There were scrambled eggs, two pieces of toast with jam-filled heart indents in them, and little sausages shaped like those cute octopuses. I was impressed and couldn’t contain my excitement. I thanked her with a kiss and sat at the dining table.

She leaned over and I could smell her Cherry Blossom perfume. “Aren’t you hungry, Aria?”

“I already ate earlier,” She took the plate from under me. “I didn’t want to wake you up so I just went ahead and ate first.”

“Aw, I wouldn’t have minded if you did though.” I leaned in and kissed Aria on the cheek before she went to the sink.

She came back and pulled me off my chair then twirled me around. “C’mon, I already have the whole day planned out for us! We’re gonna do all your favorite things.”

My eyes widened. How long have I supposedly dated this fantasy girl of mine? “And what exactly are my favorite things?” I asked Aria and brought her close to me after I spun her around.

Aria giggled and just grabbed my hand then led me into the same room I woke up in. We watched my all-time favorite movie, Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I cried every time I watched it but this time the ending didn’t make me feel alone. We also read some Jane Austen novels together and took turns voicing the different characters. My Darcy impression from Pride and Prejudice was always spot on but Aria’s Elizabeth sent me to the moon. We ended the night watching Criminal Minds and Aria drew a bath for us. There was a flatscreen TV perched above the bathtub and I remembered that this really was the house, nay, the mansion of my dreams.

That night when I went to bed I had a similar dream as I did in my previous life. I opened my eyes and I was once again in the white room filled with nothingness. I looked above me and the ghost boy slowly floated downwards before landing at my feet.

“Well, how was it? How did you enjoy your dream life?” he asked.

“It honestly seemed too good to be true, but I wouldn’t trade that life for anything.”

The ghost boy chuckled and started circling around me. “Are you sure about that?” He got close to my ear and whispered in it. “I would watch what you say. You are still taking part in my challenge.”

I came to my senses and realized that I was still dreaming. Or was I? Damn, I thought, this was one long ass dream. It felt like a dream within a dream. Dreamception?

“Oh, right. So I don’t get to return to that life?”

“Let me ask you this. Do you think you are still dreaming?”

Now I was stumped. Why would my own dream ask me if I was dreaming? Wasn’t I still dreaming? “Um, yes?”

The ghost boy let out another chuckle, this time more creepy and slightly sinister. “It’s time for the next part of your challenge.” He grabbed the same book he had before and scanned the pages. “You still want that $20,000 right? Well, this time you have to find it in your mansion.”

“In my mansion? You mean I get to return there?” I said almost crying tears of joy. I couldn’t stop thinking about being able to live my dream life for another night and wake up to Aria.

“Yes, but you must find the money before midnight.” The ghost boy turned away from me. “You will also lose something in the process.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Challenge accepted.”

Soon enough I returned to the mansion but Aria wasn’t by my side when I woke up. I begin trying to think of places that could hide $20,000. I hadn’t realized that I knew nothing about this mansion and have only been in like three rooms. I decided to go search for Aria instead to get some intel. I came across a bathroom and saw her sitting in the bathtub. Her face was turned towards the wall.

“Ariaaaa~” I cooed and opened the bathroom door a little more. “How’s my favorite girl doing?” I went up to her and placed my hands over her eyes but something felt wet and it wasn’t the water. I removed my hands from her face and they were covered in blood. I screamed and Aria’s body suddenly fell over and the bathwater turned red. Was she…dead? I panicked but wasn’t sure what I should do and then remembered I still had to find the money. I went through every room that I could and frantically searched everywhere. I wasn’t having any luck and the mansion was trashed at this point. I started to cry and get frustrated with myself. This dream was becoming a nightmare.

Not realizing what time it was, I screamed. “Hey! Ghost boy this isn’t funny!” I banged the wall in hopes that the ghost boy would come out somehow but he didn’t. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples then started banging my head trying desperately to wake myself up from this hell. “Ghost boy, can you give me a hint at least?”

“Break the walls down,” A brooding voice echoed through the mansion. “Find the secret of this mansion.”

I looked for any object near me that could penetrate the wall and conveniently saw a sledgehammer under a glass table. I reached for it and smashed the wall over and over until a black briefcase came into view. I grabbed it and quickly realized it was unlocked. As I saw what was inside, I gasped and dropped the briefcase abruptly. Stacks of cash fell out of it.

“Count them,” the voice commanded. I picked up the stacks and flipped through each of them. They were in bundles of $500 and there were 40 stacks in total. 20 grand.

“$20,000. I found it. I found the money.” I said while holding the briefcase up. “Now what? What do you want from me?”

“I want you to…WAKE UP!”

The voice roared and the mansion I was in crumbled violently.

The money from the briefcase flew out and formed a whirlwind around me, whisking me away to some unknown dimension, and then my vision went dark as nightfall.

I woke up once again and this time I was in my own bed. No canopy, no Aria. I wanted to cry. I sighed and looked at my bedside table. The little black book was open on the same page I left it but this time the “come across $20,000” was checked off with a pentagram symbol. Huh. I tapped my phone on to check the time. It was 11:57 PM and I was scared to go back to sleep.