Page 7 of Misery Manor

As soon as I walk into the room, I see a four-poster king bed made up with Gothic-style black and red bedding. A sheer red canopy is draped delicately over the posters, and the walls are covered in a deep red and black damask wallpaper with old cameos in between each shape.

In the corner of the room, a human-sized teddy bear with a jagged Chelsea smile and fake human eyes is holding a bloody knife. The drops of blood clinging to its fur catch in the light like glittering rubies. It’s completely out of place in a room like this, and a feeling of deep unease begins to settle in the pit of my stomach.

I can faintly hear wind howling, and I figure it’s just a recording since there wasn’t even the slightest breeze outside.

The creator of this attraction really went all out. It feels like I'm in a real haunted house with ghostly entities. The blood on the bear looks real, and those eyes…

I should be looking at a set of shiny black ones, but they’ve been replaced with the most realistic looking human ones. I’m almost amazed at the attention to detail, but when I walk over to the bear to get a closer look, my stomach turns as my nostrils are assaulted with the sharp smell of iron, and those eyes are a little too real.

It’s fake. None of this is real. There’s no way someone would splatter a teddy bear with real blood and place real, human eyes where fake ones should be.

“Jamal?” I call quietly, voice shaking as I walk towards a door to the right that must be a closet. I wouldn’t be surprised if I walked in and found him and Megan making out.

Made-up images of the two of them together begin to flood my mind, pushing away any fear I had just moments ago, and before I have a chance to think about what I’m doing, I'm storming over to that door, throwing it open, and stepping inside.

It’s not a closet, I quickly realize with great regret as I plunge into darkness.

CHAPTER 4

HIM

A scream rings out in the darkness of the Manor. I leave the shadows of the hall to follow the sweet sound.

“You seem to have taken a liking to her.”

I freeze and turn around to find Gideon standing behind me, red devil mask barely visible in the shadows of the hall.

My fingers flex around the handle of my scythe, itching to touch that little creature from the foyer. “Leave her alone, Gideon. She’s mine.”

He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even acknowledge that he heard what I just said as he glides past me silently, the scent of death clinging to his cloak like the finest cologne.

I follow him to the living room where the girl from the foyer pushes herself off the stunt bag with a grunt. This room isn’t lit by candles since the floor-to-ceiling windows allow enough moonlight to filter in.

Gideon and I keep to the shadows and don’t dare to say a word.

Her thick, curly dark hair falls around her shoulders wildly, and all I want is to run my fingers through it. The dress and jean jacket she’s wearing make her look so dainty in such a murderous place like this.

“God, I can’t wait to get out of here,” she says shakily, dusting herself off.

I smirk beneath my mask.

Since opening, we haven’t had many visitors. When Gideon bought the mansion earlier this year, he was so sure it would be a hit, but we’ve only had a few visitors since we opened in mid-September.

Until tonight.

It’s Halloween, so we decided that we wanted to try something… different.

Another scream comes from somewhere in the manor, and I’m almost positive someone has found the body of the visitor we had a couple hours ago.

The little creature jerks her head in the direction of the noise and runs out of the room.

“Don’t fuck this up by catching feelings,” Gideon warns coldly.

I look at him. “Do I strike you as the kind of man that would catch feelings?” I ask murderously. I haven’t looked at anyone that way since…

I don’t say it out loud. Can’t say it out loud without being filled with a whole host of regret and sorrow.

Gideon continues to stare at the spot where the girl once was.