Morning arrived with an eerie calm.

The storm had disappeared.

For the first time, Ashcroft Manor was bathed in sunlight.

It should have felt comforting.

Instead, it made the mansion look even more unsettling.

Ethan hadn’t slept.

The notebook found in the forest replayed in his mind.

Day 1: They have returned. The experiment has begun again.

Someone had been watching them.

Not a ghost.

A real person.

---

“I’m done guessing,” Ethan said.

“We find whoever wrote that notebook.”

Mason grabbed an apple from the dining table.

“I support this plan… mostly because whoever’s spying on us probably has a normal house.”

Ethan laughed.

“You think about food in every situation.”

“It’s a survival skill.”

---

They followed fresh footprints leading into the forest.

Nearly half a mile from the mansion, hidden beneath thick vines, they discovered an abandoned stone building.

It looked like an old research station.

The rusty metal door stood slightly open.

Inside were broken computers, dusty filing cabinets, and shelves full of old documents.

On one wall hung dozens of photographs.

Every photograph showed visitors to Ashcroft Manor over the past thirty years.

Every group had disappeared.

The final photographs were the most disturbing.

Ethan and Mason.

Taken yesterday.

Someone had secretly photographed them from inside the house.

---

Mason searched the desks.

“I found something.”

It was a personnel file.

Across the top was printed:

Project Ashcroft

The pages described a classified psychological experiment.

Participants had been invited to the manor with promises of learning hidden truths about their families.

Instead, they were observed inside an environment designed to manipulate memory, fear, and trust.

Hidden speakers.

Secret passages.

Moving walls.

Actors.

Drugs mixed into food.

Everything had been carefully planned.

Ethan felt sick.

“So the hauntings…”

“Weren’t all supernatural,” Mason finished.

“But whoever ran this project wanted people to believe they were.”

---

A loud clap echoed behind them.

Someone was applauding.

They turned.

A middle-aged man stepped from the shadows wearing a dark raincoat.

“You figured it out faster than most.”

He smiled politely.

“My name is Dr. Victor Hale.”

“You sent the letters,” Ethan said.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because your parents were involved in Project Ashcroft.”

The words struck Ethan like a punch.

“My parents were scientists?”

“They tried to shut the experiment down after innocent people began disappearing.”

“And the fire?” Mason asked.

“They destroyed part of the facility.”

Dr. Hale’s smile faded.

“But they couldn’t destroy everything.”

---

Ethan clenched his fists.

“You’ve been manipulating us.”

“I’ve been testing you.”

“For what?”

“To see whether memory or fear is stronger.”

Mason rolled his eyes.

“You know… you could’ve just sent us a survey.”

For the first time, even Dr. Hale laughed.

“You remind me of your father.”

---

The laughter ended as armed guards emerged from hidden rooms.

There were six of them.

Each blocked a different exit.

Dr. Hale calmly adjusted his gloves.

“I’m afraid I can’t let either of you leave.”

Ethan looked around the room.

There had to be another way out.

Then he noticed an emergency exit behind a stack of old cabinets.

He whispered to Mason,

“When I say run…”

“I’m already emotionally running.”

Ethan grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and slammed it into the lights.

The room exploded into darkness.

The guards shouted.

Alarms blared.

Mason yelled,

“I can’t see anything!”

“Perfect! Neither can they!”

Using the confusion, the two friends sprinted toward the emergency exit.

Behind them, Dr. Hale shouted,

“Stop them!”

They burst outside into the forest.

Bullets struck tree trunks nearby.

Branches snapped.

The chase had begun.

As Ethan and Mason reached the edge of the woods, Ashcroft Manor came back into view.

But something was wrong.

The mansion was burning.

Flames climbed through the windows exactly as described in Eleanor Ashcroft’s journal.

Ethan stared in disbelief.

“The fire…”

Mason whispered,

“It’s happening again.”

And standing in front of the burning mansion was Elias, the old caretaker.

He looked directly at Ethan and shouted one final warning—

“Before the house falls… find the truth beneath the clock!”

The roof groaned.

The tower clock struck midnight.

Then the entire mansion shook.