Prologue — The Legend of Hillview Mansion
Hillview Mansion had been forgotten by the world, and the world was better for it.
Perched on the edge of town like a tumor, the estate stood alone, fenced off with barbed wire and plastered with ancient DANGER: KEEP OUT signs. It was the kind of place every kid dared each other to visit, but no one ever stayed long. Some said the government once owned it, running secret experiments behind those rotting walls. Others whispered that it was cursed before the first stone was even laid — that the land itself hungered.
Few who entered ever returned.Fewer still remained... human.
The town stopped asking questions after a while.Better to forget Hillview existed.Better to pretend the whispers at night were just the wind.
But kids are curious.And curiosity is a key that opens the wrong doors.
Chapter 1 — A Dare Gone Wrong
Daniel pulled his hoodie tighter against the cold as he stared up at the mansion's dark silhouette. The fence loomed high, but the gaps in the rusted metal were wide enough to slip through if you tried hard enough.
God, why am I doing this? he thought.
"You're not chickening out, are you?" Ethan teased, elbowing Daniel in the ribs. His old friend grinned, wild and reckless, like he always did before they did something monumentally stupid.
Daniel gave a tight smile. "You wish."
Around them, the others gathered — Zoe, filming everything on her phone; Chris, cracking jokes too loud; Maya, already chewing her nails nervously; Liam, Harper, Jules, and Sienna whispering excitedly.
Nine of them in all.
Nine friends, too young to know better, too stubborn to back down.
Tonight was supposed to be the night they proved the town wrong — that Hillview Mansion was just a story. That the treasure rumored inside was real. That they were brave enough to laugh in the face of ghosts.
The plan was simple: get inside, find something valuable, film it, and get out before anyone called the cops.
Simple.
They didn't know they were stepping into a trap.
They didn't know the mansion was waiting for them.
They didn't hear the soft click of invisible doors locking behind them as they slipped through the broken fence and crossed the threshold.
Above them, behind the cracked glass windows, something ancient stirred awake.
And smiled.