Midnight Mansion Escape

"I thought we were gonna go to a haunted house, not real life horror."

"Shut up Dhruv."

"Yeah, shut up Dhruv, you pussy," said Priya.

"I am not a pussy!" Dhruv retorted, "Just scared of ghosts... and bats..."

A bat fluttered about Priya's head. She shrieked and ran into the living room where the others were waiting for her.

"Did it touch you?" asked Ajay. The bat was still flying around their heads.

"No, but it's pretty scary nonetheless," Priya said while holding her knees.

"I think we should just leave," Riya suggested. "This place sounds spooky."

"What? Are you crazy?" Pramukh quipped, "We came all the way here to explore this haunted mansion. How many people get to do that in real life? You guys will be lucky if something happens tonight." He then looked at Dhruv disapprovingly and added, "Well, maybe you won't be so lucky."

They had been best friends since high school - Pramukh and Dhruv shared their love for soccer and sci-fi with each other from the very first day they met. Meanwhile, Priya and Riya bonded over their shared passion for makeup on the first week of college. Ajay became the glue that held them together when he introduced himself during a class break one afternoon. The four of them have been inseparable ever since.

That evening, they decided to pay a visit to an old abandoned mansion on the outskirts of town which was rumored to be haunted.

As soon as they opened the front door, they were greeted by a musty smell that filled their noses as they stepped inside the foyer of the estate. They slowly made their way through the house looking at all the old furniture and paintings in awe while trying to ignore their own discomfort of being in such a creepy place. They even found an old dusty typewriter on one of the tables in one of the rooms; they were determined to write a short story inspired by what they had seen that night before leaving but could not figure out how to turn it on or where to find paper that fit it properly. Still, they took some pictures of themselves making silly faces in front of it anyway with Pramukh's phone before heading upstairs to explore more of the vast mansion.

The five friends eventually found themselves in a room on the second floor facing a large window that had curtains closed tightly behind it from top to bottom except for a small gap that allowed light from outside to shine through onto the floor in front of it.