Haunted Mansion

It was a dark and stormy night, the kind of night where the wind howls and the rain beats against the windows like the bony fingers of some malevolent spirit. But that was the least of the concerns for the group of five friends who had decided to take a shortcut through the woods on their way back from a party.

They had heard rumors about a haunted mansion deep in the woods, a place where terrible things had happened long ago. But the rumors had always seemed like just that, rumors, until they stumbled upon the mansion itself.

It was a sprawling, dilapidated structure, its roof caved in, and its windows boarded up. Ivy and other vines crept up its sides, as if the house was being consumed by nature. But there was something more sinister about it too, something that made their skin crawl.

Despite their misgivings, the group decided to investigate. They were young and foolish, and the prospect of a real-life haunted house was too enticing to resist. They crept inside, their flashlights casting long shadows on the walls.

The interior was musty and damp, and the air was thick with the smell of rot and decay. But the group pressed on, their curiosity getting the better of them.

They wandered through the dark, dusty rooms, each one more decrepit than the last. They saw old furniture covered in cobwebs, rotting books and papers scattered on the floors, and strange symbols etched on the walls. It was as if the house was alive, and it was trying to tell them something.

Suddenly, they heard a sound, a low, guttural growling coming from the darkness ahead. They froze, their hearts pounding in their chests. But then they saw it, a pair of glowing red eyes staring back at them from the shadows.

They turned and ran, their footsteps echoing through the empty halls. But the growling followed them, getting louder and more menacing with each passing moment. They could hear it breathing, feel its hot breath on the backs of their necks.

They burst through the front door and into the storm, their clothes drenched and their hearts racing. They looked back at the house, but the red eyes were gone, and the mansion was silent once more.

But it wasn't long before they realized that they weren't alone. The growling continued to haunt them, even as they made their way back to civilization. They could hear it in the shadows, lurking just out of sight, waiting for them to let their guard down.

And then, one by one, the friends started to disappear. They would go out for a walk or a smoke, and then they would never return. The remaining friends searched for them, but they found no trace, no sign of what had happened to them.

It wasn't until they went back to the mansion, against their better judgment, that they found the truth. They discovered a hidden room, filled with the remains of their friends, torn apart by some unspeakable horror.

But they never found the source of the growling, the creature that had stalked them through the woods and beyond. And they knew that it was still out there, waiting for its next victim, waiting to claim their lives as its own.

In the end, the friends had learned a terrible lesson, that sometimes, curiosity can lead to the darkest places, and that the things that go bump in the night are all too real. And as they left the mansion for the last time, they knew that they would never forget the horrors that they had witnessed, and the growling that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.