Chapter 5: The Face Without Eyes
The mirror shattered with a deafening crack.
Suddenly, dozens of silent figures surrounded Arjun.
Their clothes looked centuries old.
None of them had eyes.
Only smooth skin where their eyes should have been.
Together they whispered:
"Give... back... our... faces..."
Arjun fled upstairs and barricaded the basement door.
Three knocks came from below.
Again.
And again.
Patient.
Waiting.
Searching the attic, he discovered his grandfather's hidden journal.
The final page read:
The house does not haunt people.
It collects them.
Every thirty years it chooses one bloodline.
I escaped only because I gave it something else.
Now it has chosen you.
A photograph slipped from the journal.
It showed villagers standing beside Arjun's grandfather.
Everyone had eyes...
Except one little boy.
His face had been scratched away.
Written on the back were six chilling words:
"The child was never buried alive."
That night, there was no knocking.
Instead, Arjun heard the slow turning of his bedroom doorknob.
The door opened.
A muddy little boy stood there.
His eyes were gone.
Two bleeding holes stared into the darkness.
He smiled.
"I found my face."
He pointed toward the bedroom mirror.
The reflection was no longer Arjun.
It was the eyeless child.
Behind him, a towering creature unfolded itself from the darkness.
It had countless arms.
Countless mouths.
Every mouth whispered the same terrifying sentence:
"Only seven nights remain."