An Unearthed Mystery at Kingston Manor

"I don't want to die here!" Jacob yelled.

"Then you should have never come!" I yelled back.

The door slammed shut behind us and the baritone laughter filled the hallway again. The red tint in the air seemed to be getting brighter and brighter. The scratching of their nails against the door was getting louder with each passing second. With a scream, Jacob ran forward, knife held high in his shaking hand, and began stabbing at the door.

"You can't keep us out!" he screamed. "This is just a house! It's not some fucking monster!"

I shook my head in disbelief as he continued to stab at the door. This wasn't happening! We had just gone for a little exploration of an old house that was said to be haunted and now we're being chased by demons? The stress of it all was getting to me, causing me to start hyperventilating. I'm not sure how long I stood there in shock before a hand clamped down on my shoulder, spinning me around and sending me tumbling into Michael who had approached from behind me.

"Focus," Michael ordered, breathing heavily. "We need to survive." He turned and looked down the hallway at Jacob who was still trying to break down the door. His eyes darted toward me before he made a decision and dashed forward, slamming into Jacob with such force that they both went sprawling across the floor.

Jacob groaned as he pushed himself up, blood running down his face from where it had struck against the wall and ground while he'd been knocked out cold by Michael. Michael jumped up and backed away from Jacob quickly before turning to look at me pleadingly. He gestured with one hand towards Jacob, who was massaging his face and glaring daggers at the both of us while making his way unsteadily back up to his feet.

I nodded grimly and stepped forward, scooping up Jacob's dropped knife as I approached him cautiously, keeping one eye on Michael who had positioned himself against the wall near our exit point of choice, ready to make a run for it if things got too bad for us. Jacob glared at me murderously but didn't rush forward or attack me as I stood in front of him holding the knife out defensively between us. He spat at my feet before looking over my shoulder down the hallway where we'd heard those awful growls earlier on. He took a step back towards them which caused me to step forward threateningly with my weapon while also trying to keep an eye on Michael in case he tried anything stupid like hitting Jacob from behind or something like that without thinking about it first. After another glance back at Michael, who was watching intently along with me, Jacob moved carefully toward the dark corner where those noises were coming from once more before stopping suddenly and looking over his shoulder at us again with a glint of amusement flashing through his eyes briefly before he turned back around towards whatever lay in wait there.

I couldn't help but wonder what he thought he saw there by that corner when whatever was lurking there had managed to catch his attention so much that he'd risked stepping forward even though we had no idea what was there or what kind of danger awaited him if it suddenly pounced on him unexpectedly or something like that. He inched forward once more but nothing happened until finally he stopped again about three quarters of the way across where I could see him staring intently at whatever lay hidden in that darkness as if waiting for it to make itself known so he could take action against it or something like that while we watched closely from our side of the hallway against whatever would happen next in this bizarre scenario we found ourselves in together by sheer coincidence alone or something like that.

A low growl emanated from within the darkness but other than that nothing else happened which led me to believe that maybe whatever was hiding there was waiting for Jacob to come closer instead so it could pounce on him like some sort of jungle cat hunting its prey or something like that which would cause one of us standing here watching this strange spectacle unfold to call 'Jacob!' pretending to be surprised when it did jump out at him hoping that doing so would cause him to fall for its trap then get eaten by whatever lurked inside that shadowed corner there but hopefully not because honestly I'm pretty sure I don't really want either one of them dead after having barely met them today but they didn't know that so I guess they'll just have to play along with my plan if they want any hope of getting out alive tonight or something like that otherwise we'll probably all die here together just like I predicted earlier today when we first arrived here this afternoon after hearing all those rumors about this place being haunted or something like that which is why we shouldn't have ever brought them here in the first place because clearly we're all going to die tonight unless...