The Forgotten House

The rain had started softly at first, a steady drizzle tapping against the windows of the car as Claire drove down the long, winding road. She had never liked driving at night, especially on roads she didn’t know, but she had no choice. Her phone's battery was dead, and her GPS had long since lost signal. The map she found in the glovebox only made her more confused. She was supposed to be on her way to visit a friend, but the detour she’d taken had led her herea desolate, unfamiliar stretch of woods, deep in the countryside.

Her headlights cut through the rain, illuminating an old, crooked house in the distance. Its silhouette loomed, dark and foreboding against the inky blackness of the night. The house was isolated, nothing around it for miles, and yet it seemed… alive. Every instinct in Claire’s body screamed to turn around, to drive back the way she came, but the thought of spending the rest of the night out on that road alone, in the rain, with no one around for miles was too much.

Maybe she could find help there. A place to sit, to wait for the storm to pass. She could always leave in the morning.

Pulling her car up the gravel driveway, the tires crunching beneath the weight of the heavy rain, Claire couldn’t shake the sense of unease that washed over her. There was something wrong about this house. Something that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

She turned off the engine. The car’s silence was eerie. Outside, the rain fell in sheets, drenching everything in its path. Claire didn’t want to get out of the car, but she knew she had no choice. She grabbed her umbrella and stepped out into the storm, feeling the cold bite of the wind as it whipped around her.

As she approached the front door, the porch creaked beneath her feet. She knocked, the sound echoing through the stillness of the night. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the door creaked open, as though pushed by an unseen hand. Claire hesitated but stepped inside, calling out softly.

“Hello? Is anyone here?”

The house was dark, colder than it should have been, as though it hadn’t been lived in for years. The air smelled of dust and mildew, and the floorboards groaned beneath her weight as she made her way through the narrow, cluttered hallway. The walls were lined with old photographs, their faces obscured by time, the images fading and cracked. Some of the frames were askew, as if they had been hastily placed, almost carelessly.

There was a distant sound, faint and unnerving, like something dragging across the floor. Claire froze, her heart pounding in her chest. Was it someone coming toward her? Or was it something else? Her instincts screamed for her to run, to leavebut something held her in place.

A door at the end of the hallway opened slowly, revealing a room bathed in a dim, sickly light. Claire couldn’t see whoor whatwas inside, but she could feel its presence.

“Hello?” she called again, her voice trembling, but it was swallowed by the silence.

Stepping forward, she reached for the doorknob. It was cold, slick with moisture, and as she turned it, she noticed something strange: the door seemed heavier than it should have been. She pulled with all her strength, her breath caught in her throat, and finally, the door gave way, swinging open to reveal the room beyond.

The walls were lined with mirrors, each one shattered, their jagged edges reflecting a thousand twisted images of Claire. She was surrounded by fractured versions of herselfher face distorted, her eyes wide with terror. But in each reflection, something was different. In some, her face was covered in blood. In others, she wasn’t alone. There was something else in the mirrors with her, something that moved just behind her, though she couldn’t see it with her eyes.

Then she heard it.

A low, guttural growl, emanating from the shadows in the corner. The sound was like nothing human. It vibrated through the floor, shaking her bones, filling the room with its horrifying presence. Claire turned around, heart pounding, but the shadows in the corner were empty nothing there. Nothing except darkness that seemed to stretch on forever.

Her breath quickened. She backed away, the sound of her footsteps deafening in the quiet of the room. The air felt thick, suffocating. She couldn’t breathe.

The growl came again, this time louder, closer, and she saw it. For a split second, a pair of gleaming red eyes flashed from the darkness, glowing with malice. Something huge, something with massive, clawed hands, was watching her.

Before she could move, the door slammed shut behind her with a deafening bang. The mirrors flickered, their reflections warping, distorting even further, showing her only glimpses of something unholy moving just behind her. Something that wanted to tear her apart.

Claire’s pulse raced as she stumbled backward, her mind screaming at her to runbut there was no way out. The house had swallowed her whole. She tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Her fingers slid along the edges of the walls, searching for a way out, but the shadows in the room shifted, tightening around her like a noose.

In the mirrors, the thing behind her was closer now, its grotesque form more definedits arms long, its mouth wide with rows of sharp, yellowed teeth. It let out a sickening laugh, its eyes gleaming with hunger.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” a voice whispered in her ear, a voice not her own, not human, but something older. Something twisted.

And then the darkness closed in.