It started like most stories they used to laugh about—three close friends, an old legend, and a dare under the stars.
Ethan, Aria, and Ryan had been inseparable since childhood. Ethan was the quiet one, thoughtful and observant. Aria was fierce, funny, and beautifully unafraid of anything—except losing the people she loved. And Ryan? He was their center. Charismatic, a little reckless, always the first to say "let's do it."
One chilly autumn evening, they gathered around a crackling bonfire behind Ryan's house. The night was soaked in moonlight, the flames dancing like spirits. They'd been drinking, laughing, teasing.
That's when Ryan brought it up.
"The Hollow House," he said, his grin crooked with mischief. "You know, the one past the ravine near Cinderwood Forest? Abandoned. Haunted. Or so they say."
Aria raised an eyebrow. "The one with the stitched-mouth woman story?"
Ethan glanced at her, heart clenching at the sound of her voice. "It's just a story."
Ryan leaned in. "They say if you stay past midnight, you hear her whisper through the walls. And sometimes, if you answer… you don't come back."
They all laughed. Nervously.
And then came the dare.
"Let's go," Ryan said. "Tonight."
By 11:47 PM, they were standing at the gate of Hollow House. It was exactly how the stories described—choked in ivy, broken windows like blackened eyes, and a silence that pressed on the chest.
Aria stepped forward first.
Ethan hesitated, but followed. He would follow her anywhere.
The front door opened with a groan like a dying thing. Dust spiraled in the flashlight beams, revealing torn wallpaper and rotting floors. A strange coldness seemed to seep from the walls themselves.
They joked. Made dumb ghost sounds. Laughed too loud to mask the fear. But something watched.
At 12:03 AM, the whispers began.
Soft. Shivering. Incoherent. They came from the walls, the floorboards, even from behind their eyes.
Aria's breath caught. "Did you guys… hear that?"
Ethan and Ryan nodded. The bravado was gone now.
Then they saw it: a staircase, half-collapsed, leading down to a basement that hadn't been there before.
And the door was open.
Ryan reached for the flashlight.
Aria grabbed his hand. "We shouldn't."
Ethan just stared into the dark.
It was too late.
The whispers had already welcomed them in.
To be continued...