"Hush, I'm here." Ron's voice reached me, making me nearly faint with relief.

I grabbed the hand that found my shoulder in the darkness and pulled myself up.

"What shall we do now?" I whispered as if the total darkness required total silence too.

"We'll see if we can find them but if we can't, we must try to move on..." he said, pulling his phone from his pocket and switching on the torch.

"Sara..." I called shakily as we reached the corridor, the cone of light from Ron's phone landing back on us reflected by the mirror, making us look like two pale, footless ghosts hovering above the veil of mist, trapped in this house forever. That's what we are, that's what we will become unless we get out of here fast...

I shivered, feeling dizzy and cold despite the blanket I was clinging to, and Ron squeezed my hand tighter.

"Maya, please don't look." He said as we reached the bathroom, turning towards me and pulling me in an embrace, trying to block my view of the bathroom's white-tiled floor. But it was too late, the cone of light shimmered and shook as it touched the large pool of red liquid, blood!, spilt just behind the door.

"It's ok," I whispered into his chest, more to myself than to him. "It's ok, it's just a game..."

"Yes, Maya. Yes it is. Let's go, let's find our way out. Then it will be all over."

"Where do you think they all are?" I asked him as we continued down the corridor, coming to a stop by the floor-ceiling mirror.

He fumbled with his phone again, trying to call someone, anyone, but it did not work.

"Outside, waiting for us. We must keep thinking that. And soon we will join them." He said, giving up, pulling me closer and kissing me.

"Of course." I agreed, pulling him down for another kiss, wishing we had never stepped unto this awful house, before we both turned towards the glass. "It must be the mirror, Ron. We tried everything else..."

He nodded. "Ok. Let us try." He vanished towards the bathroom then was back, carrying a chair, even before I could get scared that, like the others, he would not come back to me.

"Stand behind me." He said before he passed me his phone and threw the chair against the mirror.

It shattered in millions of pieces, glittering like hailstones as they flew through the air then were swallowed by the mist lapping at our feet. The noise of the breaking mirror was so loud that the ensuing silence seemed deeper than before.

"We have another door." Ron said. "Mind your feet."

I trod over the shards carefully with my slippered feet and turned the light on the lock.

Ron had to try all the keys before he found the right one. "That's two keys to go before we are out, if I remember well." He said, opening the door.

Another corridor unfurled in front of us, long, dark and cold... A smell of mould and humidity flared up my nostrils. It wasn't pleasant, but it managed to clear my mind of the mist we had been breathing for nearly two days.

"Maya?" Ron asked, looking at me inquiringly. "What are you thinking?"

"I... I'm not sure this is the correct way. I thought we were supposed to get back to the front door but this corridor seems to lead out of the building..." I said, reaching out to one of the walls beyond the doorway. Unlike the walls within the house it was made of stone, wet, and covered in patches of moss.

"But one of the keys they had given us opened it, and we did not find any other door..."

"What if it's a trap, some trick to confuse us. What if we get lost wherever this leads to, and when someone comes to look for us they won't find us..." What if... the others are... dead and Ron, knowing something more than I do, is trying to trick me, get me out of the way... He is Matt's friend, not mine, after all...

"Maya, we must move on, please, I need you to trust me."

He pulled me in an embrace again and I buried my face in his chest, my arms wrapped around his waist. It was the most difficult moment of my life. I knew him, yes... And then I didn't... not enough. And yet in the two days since we walked inside this house he managed to make me feel... in love, something that Matt had never managed... I needed to trust him. I had to.

"Let's go." I said, pulling away from him.

He sighed deeply before he said. "Promise me that should something happen to me you'll take the keys and go on. At least one of us must get out and find help."

"I promise." I said, suddenly convinced that our four friends were really injured, if not worse, and needed our help.

We spent hours in the corridor slipping our way down, always deeper, listening to the tiny paws scurrying around us in the darkness, Rats!, before the floor started to rise again, and after a while we found another door, unlocked this time.

Ron's phone died the moment we opened it but luckily, the place beyond was brighter. After a cloud of bats startled by the loud creaking of the iron door settled under the ceiling again, we could see that we were in a cave. I caught Ron by his t-shirt and pulled him back at the last moment, even as I realised that we were meters above ground and he was about to step into the void.

"Thanks, Maya," he muttered as we collapsed to the floor, scared and exhausted. "I think we should rest before we go on..."

I was so tired, thirsty and cold that I only nodded, curled up under the damp blanket and with my head resting on his lap I went to sleep, forgetting all about the rats, bats, and other creatures inhabiting the tenebrosity reigning around us.

When I woke up the light reaching us from the cave seemed different, weaker, but it was still sufficient to make us see just how high we were.

"I'll go first," Ron said. Once I'm down I'll help you." He said, then disappeared beyond the door frame before I could protest.

I watched him place his fingers and the tips of his shoes into the crevices between the stones of the cave's wall but it was too wet. He lost his grip soon and ended up slipping the rest of the way.

I heard his sharp intake of breath as he landed, telling me that he was injured, but he pulled himself to his feet even as he said. "Jump. There's no other way. I'll catch you."