My friend told me about a haunted house attraction that supposedly paid $500 to anyone who could make it through all nine rooms. He said no one had ever collected.
I found the place off a county road about forty minutes from town — a long two-story building with no markings, no signage, just a hand-painted number on the door. Number 1. I went inside.
Room 1: A dark room with strobe lights and latex monsters on cables. Classic carnival haunt. I walked through in about two minutes. Easy.
Room 2: The room was completely white and empty, except for a television in the center playing static. I stood there for about thirty seconds before a face appeared in the static. A human face. Screaming. I walked through. Still manageable.
Room 3: The room appeared to be a normal living room — couch, lamp, coffee table. Sitting on the couch was a figure I cannot describe. When I walked past it, it stood. I ran.
Room 4: Empty. Then I realized the walls were breathing.
Room 5: I don't fully remember Room 5. I know I was in there for a long time. I know that when I came out, I was crying. I don't cry. I couldn't tell you what was in there.
Room 6: It looked like my childhood home. Every detail correct. My mother was in the kitchen. I know my mother was dead. This did not make me less afraid. This made me more afraid.
Room 7: Empty. Just a door at the far end. I walked through it. This was a mistake.
Room 8: I was outside. I mean I was genuinely outside, on the county road, under the night sky. I thought I'd found the exit. I walked back to my car. I drove home. I went to sleep.
I woke up in Room 8.
Room 9: The door opened into a mirror. My reflection did not move when I moved. It smiled at me. I turned and ran back through every room I had come from. They were all empty now, all wrong, all backwards.
I found the exit through the door marked 1.
I drove home. I called my friend to tell him I'd made it. He told me he'd never told me about any haunted house. He told me he'd never heard of one.
I still can't tell you why I went back the next night.
But I found the door again. And there were ten rooms this time.