“Jason? I’m scared. I think I heard something in the hall.” Kylee Nivea whispered to her husband of two months. “I wish we could have found a hotel. I don’t like this place.”
“I don’t either babe. Something isn’t right.” Jason pulled his newly wed bride close. “I promise though we’ll leave at first light. Just close your eyes and I’ll keep you safe.” Kylee snuggled in close to her husband and tried to find sleep but the temporary escape evaded her. She lay in Jason’s embrace and stared at the wall over his shoulder. Soon Kylee could tell that Jason was asleep by his deep even breaths. She sighed and slipped out of Jason’s embraced. Slowly she sat up and watched Jason’s chest rise and fall. What was it about the place that made it so horror movie like? It was just an old bed and breakfast run by a quiet old lady. She was just imagining garbage about the place. Probably the result of watching too many scary movies as a young girl.


Kylee slid out from under the covers placing her feet on the braided rag rug and stood up. She slowly walked over to the window and let her gaze roam around the view of the yard. She saw the gleam of moonshine off of the three cars below. She caught the movement of some night animal around the base of a shrub. She noticed the gradual increase of the evergreen pine trees the closer they came to the house. In the reflection on the window pane she could see Jason’s sleeping form, the corner of a rocking chair and half of the big wooden door. She watched Jason roll over in his sleep and saw the door open a crack from the corner of her eye. Immediately she spun around to face the door.
“Who’s there?” She called. Nobody answered but the door did stop moving. As Kylee was about to wake up Jason, she saw a flash of blue and heard the echo of laughter. Malicious murder seeking laughter. She ran quietly to the door and stuck her head out into the hall. Nothing. She took one step out in to the hall and looked around. She took another step and listened. Still she heard nothing. She swung her head in both directions and suddenly there was a little boy standing at the end of the hall.

He had little black button up boots and form fitting white pants. His blue shirt had little black buttons and was in a style Kylee had only seen in pictures. His brown hair was slicked to the side and he smiled at her in a lopsided way. His mouth opened but no sound emerged. He slapped his hands on his knees without sound and appeared to be laughing at her. Kylee just stared in shock. Something was odd about this boy. For one he made no sound and two his face seemed to shimmer and his whole body appeared almost transparent. The little boy let out a little laugh, one that Kylee could actually hear, and jumped up and down. He grinned a big toothy grin at her and beckoned for her to follow him. She looked back in the room at Jason’s sleeping figure and back at the boy. He laughed again in his odd little way and skipped out of sight and down the steps. The laugh seemed to trail behind him like smoke wafting to her ears in an eerie distorted way. Kylee followed him down the steps with a pounding heart.

~~~~~~

Radiant beams of sunlight were just squeezing between the trees when Jason yawned stretched and opened his eyes. He rolled over to wake up Kylee and sat up fast. Kylee was gone. He looked around the room to see if she had woken earlier than him. Jason was alone in the room. Kylee had vanished. Panic started to rise in his chest with each resounding heartbeat. He sprung from the bed and flung open the door. He bounded down the hall to the room where the bathroom was thinking maybe she was simply in the bathroom. Hoping she was in the bathroom. But bathroom door was ajar and no one was inside. Jason stood in the hall extremely puzzled. He slowly walked back to their room to see if any of her clothes were missing to indicate that she was either downstairs or taking a walk. He approached the closed door. That’s odd. He thought. I don’t remember closing the door. Jason turned the handle and stepped into the room. His jaw dropped. This was clearly not his room. The bed was now against the left wall with a closet on the right and a massive wardrobe directly in front of him. And all of their bags were gone. He turned around walking back in the hall thinking he had misjudged the location of the room. No he was right. This was supposed to be their room. The door across led to the other couples room and there was the bathroom two doors down from his. He walked over and opened the doors on the left side of the hall. All bedrooms void of people. He then searched all the rooms on the right except for the room occupied by the other couple. Every room was empty. Slowly he made his way back to the door that should lead to his room. Jason continued standing unsure of what to do. Sleepily the door across from him opened and the man from the other couple emerged.

“Morning!” The man piped up. Jason just stared. “You okay man?” he asked when Jason offered up no exchange.

“I don’t know.” Jason croaked. “I can’t find my wife.”

“Consider yourself lucky! I wouldn’t ever be so lucky as to simply lose my wife. Actually, as it happens my wife wasn’t in bed with me this morning either. You sure they aren’t just in the bathroom?”

“Bathroom’s empty.” Jason replied. He could see in the man’s room behind him. There was a large bed on the left side of the room, a dresser to the left of the door, a full length mirror directly behind him and he could just make out the arm of a rocking chair behind the door.

“The name’s John by the way.” Said the man as he closed the door and disappeared into the bathroom. Jason continued to stand in the hall clueless as of what to do next. He stared at the grain pattern of the wood panels and stared at the colorful rag-rug pattern beneath his feet. John came out the bathroom drying his hands on his shorts. He walked past Jason without another glance and stretched as he walked into his room.

“What the-!” John exclaimed. “What happened to my room?!”


“My room did that too. It’s all rearranged now.” Said Jason from behind him. The room was now a sitting room of sorts. There was a love seat and a sectional around a glass coffee table. Knickknack shelves filled with odd little figurines were scattered around the room.

“Something weird is going on in this house, John. We gotta find our girls.” Jason said.

“Should we look downstairs then?”

“Seems as good a place to start as any. I already looked in every room up here.”

~~~~~~

The second floor was much the same as the third floor. One bathroom and a hallway of identical bedrooms. The same change happened each time they opened a door. It was never the same room once you left. John and Jason made their way to the first floor searching every room and being as quiet as they could. The house was dead silent which was odd because they had seen another couple rent rooms last night so they had to be there, plus the owner.

“There is something so wrong about this house. I feel like it’s mocking us.” Jason said as he closed yet another changing empty room. “Is it just me or is it getting darker outside?” John turned his head to the window and saw the sun was clearly shining outside the window but as soon as the light reached the glass it stopped. It really was getting darker in the house. A shiver ran up John’s back and he looked at Jason to see if he felt the same. One look confirmed he had.

Rising up the basement steps and winding through the kitchen and dining room to John and Jason’s ears came an eerie rising and fall laugh. The laugh of an insane person. Hysterical giddy laughter that rose and fell as it floated on sound waves to them. Just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. There was no doubt about it the sound came from the basement. And the only way they were ever going to find their wives was to go to the basement.
~~~~~~

Why is this happening? Thought John. Why now when we’re months from the divorce? And why am I fighting so hard to find her? There is probably nothing wrong. Angela probably doesn’t even want to be found. I bet this is just one of her stupid little stunts to get my attention or make me feel guilty for leaving her at home a lot. Well that’s just fine. She can go galloping off all she wants. I’ll just go take a shower. If only it wasn’t for that laugh. Maybe something really is wrong. Didn’t she say she heard laughing last night? Laughter and footsteps? What if there really is something wrong with this house and she really is in trouble? I should have listened to her and kept driving. I should have tried to find a better place to stay. How did we end up like this? When did our marriage start crumbling apart? Why? Why now?

~~~~~~

The two men cautiously opened the cellar door and peered down the steps. A dank musty smell reached there nostrils. Darkness filled up the steps obstructing their view. There didn’t appear to be any light switch so they had no other choice but to go down in the dark. It took a while before their eyes were fully adjusted to the darkness. Once they could see they saw a room with old furniture and old boxes full of miscellaneous odds and ends. They started walking around the boxes and furniture trying to see if there was any other way out of the first room but there was nothing but junk. They walked back around to where the steps where but the steps were gone. In their place was a door. Through the door was another room like the first but less cluttered. A full circle search found nothing but another door in a different spot, erasing the first. They had no choice but to go through that door too.

This room had nothing in it but a big bronze tarnished mirror at the end. The mirror distorted the image almost to the point of being unrecognizable. In the dust, someone had finger written a word. Neither John nor Jason could read the word from where they were standing. Jason quickly lost interest moved on looking for a door while John moved closer to read it. The word clearly spelled DIVORCE. In the mirror John’s face looked garish and red tinted as if covered in blood. He couldn’t look at himself any more without thinking of how much he felt like a monster.

~~~~~~

My poor Angela... alone with who knows what kind of monster in this house. What kind of monster am I then? Breaking promises meant to last a life time? What does that make me? I’ve got to find her and convince her to love me again. That I love her too. That divorcing will be the biggest mistake either of us will ever make. I have to find her.

~~~~~~

Laughter echoed throughout the basement. Creeping in through the bricks of the walls coming in through cracks in the block windows. A sharp piercing scream shattered through the entire basement. A corn horn beeped frantically from the yard outside. Thick black fog started seeping in through the window in the mirror room. John and Jason looked at each other in panic. Was it poison? Was it smoke from a fire? Was the house burning on top of them? Jason raced to the first door John close on his heels. The door wouldn’t budge fiercely locked from the outside. The fog was thick and heavy and quickly billowing about the room. It swirled around the mirror but did not cover the glass. On the face of the mirror the word divorce was no longer there but the word DEATH was clearly marked.

“Jason, we’re going to die! We’re never going to find our wives! They are going to die without knowing we tried to save them!” John shouted. Something was buzzing in his ears and it felt like the noise was growing. Jason didn’t answer he just looked at him, paralyzed with fear. The black fog had almost completely covered the floor and was creeping up towards their waists. The car horn was still blaring from outside and laughter mixed with the screaming in a horrible way. Jason started beating at the door and begging whatever outside force it was to let them leave with their lives. As John was staring at the mirror, the word death appeared. Images flooded his mind and he started imagining all the cruel horrible ways he and Angela could die. As he was staring he saw the face of a little boy appear in the mirror. The boy was dress in tight white pants, Black button boots and a blue shirt. His hair was slicked to the side and he had on a lopsided grin. The boy laughed silently and then stared into John’s unmoving eyes. The fog was creeping up to their chests now and Jason’s pleadings got more frantic. Still John stared at the boy. He turned around to see where the reflection was coming from but there was nothing behind him except Jason. The fog was at their necks; at their throats, at their chins. Jason threw his fist against the door once more and collapsed in the fog. John cried out and ran to smash the mirror. Before he could reach it, something caught his ankle and he fell. Slowly, the fog curled back out the window. The screaming and laughing stopped, the car horn ceased. All was silent and the mirror room was empty. Slowly the door creaked open and a little boy dressed in blue stuck his head in. The boy grinned in a lopsided way and then laughed.
~~~~~