The dark shadow stood silently at the top of the staircase.
None of the four friends moved. Their hearts were beating so loudly it felt like the whole house could hear them.
The lantern light from outside barely reached the staircase, but it was enough to see the figure standing there.
"Who… who is that?" one of them whispered with a trembling voice.
The shadow did not answer.
Slowly… it began to move.
Creak…
The wooden stairs groaned as the figure took one step down.
Then another.
Creak… creak…
The sound echoed through the silent house.
The friend holding the diary stepped back nervously.
"We need to get out of here… right now," she whispered.
The others quickly ran toward the door and tried to open it.
But the door wouldn't move.
It was completely stuck, as if something invisible was holding it shut.
Behind them, the footsteps continued coming down the stairs.
Step… step… step…
One of the friends slowly turned around.
The shadow was now halfway down the staircase.
And this time… they could see its face more clearly in the dim light.
Their eyes widened in horror.
Because the face looked strangely familiar…
It looked exactly like one of them.The four friends stared at the figure on the stairs in complete shock.
The face of the shadow looked exactly like one of them.
"That… that's impossible," one of the girls whispered, her voice shaking.
The figure kept slowly walking down the stairs.
Creak… creak…
Every step made the old wooden staircase groan.
The girl whose face the shadow had copied stepped back in fear.
"Why… why does it look like me?" she said, almost crying.
No one had an answer.
Suddenly, the lantern outside flickered, and the room became darker for a moment.
When the light returned, the shadow had stopped moving.
It was now standing at the bottom of the stairs.
Completely still.
Watching them.
Then slowly… it tilted its head and smiled.
The smile looked wrong… unnatural… almost like it didn't belong on a human face.
Suddenly the diary in the girl's hand slipped and fell to the floor.
The pages opened by themselves as if the wind had turned them.
One line was written in big, dark letters:
"The forest takes your reflection… and replaces you."
Before they could understand what it meant…
The lights went out completely.
The house fell into total darkness.
And in the dark…
Someone inside the group quietly whispered,
"Wait… if that thing looks like her… then who is standing next to me right now?"
To be continued....