Broken

Chapter 2

Morgan

Opening my eyes, I find myself in a place that I can only describe as...a white void. There is no sky and there is no horizon. It's just white all around. I stare at the vast stretches of this empty place and take a few steps forward.

"Hello?" I yell. My voice echoes throughout the space yet I hear no response.

"Anyone here!?" I shout as I keep walking. I don't even know which direction I'm going. Maybe I should try going backwards?

But as soon as I turn around, I'm astonished to see this huge old house behind me. Was it....was it here the whole time? I look around. It's the only thing here. I guess I'm supposed to go inside it.

It is an old gothic style Victorian house with broken windows and grey paint peeling off the walls. The wood seems to be rotting as if the house will crumble down at any second. It gives an eerie and ghastly feeling. The more I step closer to it, the more drawn I feel to it and more compelled to enter it.

Like a moth to a flame.

Going up the stairs into the veranda, I walk towards the black wooden door. Gulping, I push the door lightly and it slowly opens with a loud creak that echoes throughout the void and the house.

The door reveals a long dimly lit hallway with faded red wallpaper that has tiny black hearts all across it. The ceiling is curved with dome-shaped lights on it. As I walk forward in the hallway, the door closes behind my back which makes me jump a little in shock. Despite that, I know I need to keep going. I then realize something strange about the tiny hearts on the wall. There's a thin crack in the middle of them. It's not too noticeable though.

The hallway leads to this room that looks like a living room. A shattered crystal chandelier hangs on the ceiling. There's a giant painting of angel wings in front of me on the maroon coloured wall. The temperature here is kind of different, as in, it's a bit cold. On the other side of the room, there is a fireplace. Black burned up wood lays there waiting to be lit up again. On the mantle above the fireplace, there is a white coffee mug with skulls and roses printed on it. Next to it is a broken picture frame without a photo in it. On the wall above it hangs a medium-sized photo frame. In it is a quote by Leonard Peltier.

'We each begin in innocence. We all become guilty'

The dusty and torn sofas underneath the giant angel wing painting surround a round wooden table with a single bowl on top.

I step closer to it to see what's inside.

Oddly enough, it's filled with brightly coloured candies. This seems so out of place. I pick one up to inspect it.

Suddenly, there's a loud knocking noise which almost makes my heart stop and I drop the candy on the floor.

The sound comes again. I can tell it's not coming from the front door where I just came from. It's somewhere inside the house.

"Is anyone here?" I call out.

The knocking stops and I feel myself getting a bit nervous.

I flinch as I hear someone start to bang on the door now. Just... what's going on?

Bracing myself, I try to follow the direction of the noise. It seems to be coming from the hallway to my right. It looks identical to the previous hallway As I walk in that direction, my heart beats faster with every bang.

It's the black door at the end of the hallway. Someone is banging from the inside. Do they want me to let them out?

With my right arm stretched forward, I walk towards the door. The closer I get, the louder the noise gets. I should let that person out, right?