Do you believe in ghosts? How would you feel if I told you they exist? It all started with the abandoned mansion on the hill; the place of death and sorrow. The place that consumes people whole, leaving nothing but spirit. For years I have observed this place, watching it rot and decay; waiting for the day a new person gets too curious and wanders into the mansion. I think to myself all the time, “why did i have to walk through that door?” and “Why can I never leave?” For I have been stuck in this prison for fifteen years; repeating the day I died over and over again; the day I was murdered by the ghost that was here before me. This is my story.

It all started a week before Halloween. I had just moved to Fiveoaks, in search of work. I had only lived there a couple of months, and had yet to meet the neighbors or the townspeople. Fiveoaks was a small town, with most of the people old fashioned and quiet. Since it was a very small town everyone knew everyone, except for me. The people were cynical against me, treating me like an outcast. Everyone but the girl who lived in that mansion on the hill. She was kind to me and welcomed me warmly. I was exploring the cemetery across the street from that abandoned mansion when she approached me and asked to be friends. She was a pale girl, no older than sixteen with dark brown hair. She never told me her name but she told me she lived in the abandoned looking mansion on the hill. I was a little skeptical but I stayed silent.

The townspeople warned me of that mansion. They called it Murder Mansion, as whoever entered it never came out alive. I didn't listen to them. I had finally made a friend and I was not going to believe some legend. I soon found out that was a mistake.

It was exactly two days before Halloween and the girl who lived on the hill invited me to her house for a Pre-Halloween party. I obviously accepted it, as she was my only friend and I was doing nothing that afternoon. I drove up to the mansion and I was a little confused, because the place looked abandoned and there was no one else here. I got out of my car and I walked up the rotten steps, almost falling in. I knocked on the door and it creepily opened. I should have left and got back in my car but something compelled me to walk inside. I stepped inside and the house looked the same inside as it did outside, abandoned and rotten.

“Hello?....Is anyone home?” I called out, my voice echoing through the house. I stepped further into the house and the door slammed shut behind me, causing me to let out a soft gasp of fear. I walked to the cobwebbed-filled staircase and I called out again. “ Hello? Come on now… this isn't funny”. As soon as I said that I heard a shuffle from upstairs. I begin to walk up the stairs, my heart pounding harder with each step. I grab the hand rail for support as I get to the top of the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. I walk towards what looks like a silhouette of a woman. I get up close to the shadow, still keeping my distance. I speak again. “ Hello? Are you the girl that invited me here?” The shadow doesn't respond. I step closer and with a gasp of wind the shadow disappears. Before I have time to respond a shadowed hand comes to my shoulder, and I am shoved down the stairs. I tumble down the stairs, twisting and turning in every direction. Just as I get to the bottom steps my neck slams on a step with a crack. Everything goes silent as my body slides down, and slumps at the end of the stairs.

I woke up cold, and sore. I sit up and my hand comes to my neck, feeling the bone that is now poking out. I immediately stand up, but when I do I see my body on the floor. My neck is clearly broken, and my eyes wide open. The shadow that had pushed me reveals itself to be the girl who invited me. Within a blink of an eye she fades back into the shadow figure. I go to speak but the shadow ascends and disappears, leaving me alone in the mansion. 

I now sit in the house on the hill, watching fiveoaks grow and modernize, as the mansion continues to rot, still untouched by the town. The legend continues to grow as more and more people go missing in the house; their curiosity getting the better of them just like it did me. That's the curse of Murder Mansion. The house lures you in and traps you in its web. Despite my attempts to warn and scare people away, they mock my attempts, soon leading to their demise. So to answer my question, ghosts are as real as people. Some get to cross over while others get trapped here on earth; unable to find peace. But at the end of the day, you can never escape Murder Mansion. Not even in death.

The End?