Before I Take You Too
You've always been afraid of the dark. Even as a child, shadows seemed to move on their own, and the silence of the night felt like something was waiting for you. But now? It's not the dark you're scared of anymore. It is the house.
When your family moved into this old place last fall, you were excited at first. It was big and beautiful, full of history, but something felt wrong. The creaking floors, the whispers in the walls. And then, every night after everyone else fell asleep, you would hear it. A dragging sound, like something heavy being pulled across the floor. You would lie in bed, frozen, waiting for it to stop. But it never did.
One night, you couldn't stand it anymore. So you grabbed your flashlight, heart beating, and sneaked out of your room. The dragging sound was louder now, closer. It led you to the attic door, cold air slipping through the cracks beneath it. Your fingers shook as you reached for the handle.
You shouldn't have opened it. The attic was dark and empty at first glance. But then, in the corner, you saw her. A woman, hunched over, dragging a broken doll across the floor. Her hair was wild, her face pale and sunken. Her eyes locked onto yours, and you felt ice run through you.
"Help me", she whispered, her faint voice lingering in the air.
You couldn't move. She crawled closer, her eyes never leaving yours. "Help me...before I take you too."
You panicked, and you quickly slammed the attic door shut and ran back to your room, terrified to look behind you. You didn't sleep that night. You couln't. The dragging sound never stopped. But now, it follows you everywhere you go. Your house, your school, your bathroom, your kitchen, anywhere and everywhere. It's closer than ever, and you're not sure you'll be able to escape.
Journey Quest: The Lost Key
Lily stood in front of the old house, her heart racing. The house was big, with tall windows and a wooden door that seemed to whisper secrets. She had heard stories about this house, that it held a treasure locked away. But to find it, she needed the key, and the key was lost.
She stepped inside the house, the air thick with dust. The floor creaked under her feet, and everything seemed frozen in time. She remembered what her grandmother had always told her: "Sometimes, you have to look carefully to find what you need."
Lily walked slowly, feeling the weight of her grandmother's words. The first obstacle was the stairs. They were steep and broken in some places. She paused, worried about falling, but then took a deep breath and carefully stepped onto each one. Slowly but surely, she made it to the second floor.
There, she found a table covered in dust, and on it, a box. She opened it, hoping to find the key, but it was empty. She was disappointed, but she did not give up. Instead, she remembered her grandmother's second lesson: "Never stop looking, even when it feels like you've reached the end."
So, Lily kept going, searching room by room. Eventually, she came to a library full of old books. She scanned the shelves and, behind a thick book, she felt something strange,a small switch! She pressed it, and a hidden door opened, revealing a dark hallway.
The hallway was narrow and cold, and Lily hesitated. It was easy to feel afraid, but she remembered her grandmother's final lesson: "Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's moving forward even when you're scared."
Lily stepped into the hallway and walked toward a small wooden chest. Her hands trembled as she opened it, and inside, she found the key!
She held it in her hand, feeling proud, not just because she had found the key, but because she had learned something important along the way. The treasure wasn't just the key, it was the lessons she had learned: to keep going when things seemed hard, to stay brave even when scared, and to never stop looking for what's important.
With the key safe in her pocket, Lily walked out of the house, ready for whatever came next. The real treasure, she realized, was the journey itself.
Please, Don't...
At a school, there has been a rumor about "doppelgangers", this appalling tale has spread to each and every student, invoking an almost bone chilling atmosphere across the building. "Doppelganger" has become the word of horror, which has stricken the minds of its preteen inhabitants. A doppelganger is someone who looks exactly like you, but isn't a twin. People who look alike but are not related or connected in any way. They not only share similarities in appearance, but also may share behaviors and DNA. The children both yearn and loathe the idea of a doppelganger. The prospect of popularity and attention is of the essence to the media influenced adolescents, but on the other hand the possibility of death, which is described in the folktale if you meet your doppelganger is too great, for it would take away the preteen's media and material focused lives from them. Each person has roughly SIX doppelgangers out there in the world. In fiction and mythology, a doppelganger is often portrayed as a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon and usually seen as a bringer of bad luck. As stated before when two doppelgangers meet each other, one sadly must perish, and usually the good person is the unfortunate one. Frequently upon meeting one will be consumed by a sort of craze, and murder the other, or one will be found dead "naturally", soon after meeting .
January 21, 20xx - 11:09AM In a classroom, there are two girls sitting across from each other at one table talking during break time.
"Did you hear about the rumors?"
"Which rumor?""
"The rumor about the "doppelganger".
"Oh, that. I did, everyone was talking about it recently, even the teachers."
"Do you believe in that?"
"Yeah, I kinda do. Since y'know, everything could be, it's just that you've never seen it before."
At the same time, in a busy hallway, another pair of girls are walking side by side, further spreading the incessant gossip of the super natural phenomenon.
"Hey, Erina, did you hear about the rumor?"
"No, what rumor?"
"What? You didn't hear about it? Everyone was literally talking about it all day."
"Yeah. I was busy listening to music.""
"...So what's the rumor?"
"...You know about doppelgangers?"
"Nope. Never heard of it."
"...Okay, a doppelganger is someone who looks exactly like you, but isn't a twin. People who look alike but are not related or connected in any way, not only share similarities in appearance, but also they may share behaviors and DNA. And actually each person has roughly SIX doppelgangers out there in the world."
"Are doppelgangers a real thing?"
"Yes, it does exist."
"Why are you that sure?"
"Well, because a student from our school from the 1980s had met their doppelganger."
"And, what happened?"
"...They died."
"...Really?""
"Yes, really. I know about this story because I accidentally read it in one of the books in the library."
"Accidentally?"
"Yeah."
"But where exactly in the library?"
"The history shelf, A14."
"Wow, you even remember the shelf name and number when you accidentally read the book."
"Yeah, but still, you will die if you meet your doppelganger."
"How will you die? Do they kill you or do you just naturally die because you met them, like a curse?"
"Ummm, to my knowledge both things could happen."
"What happened to the person from the 1980s in the book you read?"
"They died, and it's still a mystery, no one actually found out how they died and who killed them, if they were killed."
January 21, 20xx - 9:40PM Erina is in her room doing the homework that was just given today. Suddenly the doorbell rings. She then went out of her room to the door to look through the peephole to see who was outside. And it was her best friend, Irene. So she opened the door.
"What are you doing here at this time?"
"Nothing, just came here to see you. Want to go on a walk?"
"Sure. My mom is not coming home tonight."
They then went on a walk for 20 minutes. When Irene took Erina back home, she suddenly hugged Erina.
"What are you doing?"
"Hugging."
5 minutes later.
"That's enough, I need to go to sleep."
"Okay, okay, sorry."
"Have a good night, see you next time. Bye."
"Bye." "See you next time?", Not see you tomorrow then? Hmmm.
January 22, 20xx - 8:01AM In the morning at school, an outburst of gossip erupted throughout its generally cheerless halls. Some students even talked about it when class was in session, without the slightest hesitation to what they're missing, or in regard for their fellow classmate's learning.
"Did you hear about the news?"
"Of course, everything about Irene Scarlett from class 1-5 right?"
"Yeah, her death was really sudden and surprising."
"But how did she die?"
"You didn't know?"
"Well, I know about her death because a bunch of people were talking about it everywhere in the school, so I don't really know anything specific about it because I didn't watch the news."
"Oh, well she died due to a car accident, when she was crossing the street."
When Erina got to school, she overheard everyone talking about Irene's death. And she was really shocked because just yesterday, at 9:40PM Irene literally came to her house and they went on a walk for 20 minutes. And now in the morning her best friend suddenly died? But the thing that really shocked her is that Irene's death was recorded around 7:13PM. So who was the person that came to her house and went on a walk with her? They even hugged. The thought of that made Erina's skin crawl. If the rumors are true, and the time is recorded correctly, what if the cause of her death is more sinister?
January 22, 20xx - 4:02PM Erina walking home from school. "A ghost?" was her first thought, then she got to thinking about doppelgangers, and from that point the worries and theories that had accumulated from school were swirling around in her head, her chest was thumping, and the incessant contemplation which seemed as though it would never cease had not helped the sickly feeling whirling in her stomach. She clutched her abdomen and heard a faint nauseating groan emit from her tight belly. Erina leaned into a rough concrete fence. The sunset was forming on the horizon in the distance. The hues of purple, pink, and yellow had somehow helped to sooth her, even through these confusing and tragic times. She saw a dark figure in the distance, every step they took seemed to block out the sun more and more as they came closer. she glanced around realizing she was all alone, sweat formed around the side of her face and her eyes widened with fear. The footsteps seemed to never end, and the minutes felt like hours. When their face suddenly came into view she thought she was looking directly into a mirror. "Please, don't". Was all she was able to utter, before...