Chapter1: He Who Lurks in the Shadows

" ...Nine, Ten. Ready or not, here I come."

Nine-year-old Ari Shimazu spun around and rushed to the front door. As the door opened, the fresh smell of dew hit her face. Skipping through the door she happily twirled around with her skirt lifting to the flow of the wind. She ran across the yard to peek at the corner of the mansion. Her long blond ponytails were flung onto her shoulder and her playful face quickly turned into a smirk after seeing her ten-year-old playmate run around the corner. Young Ken-taro, slim with black hair that glistened in the sun, had met Ari shortly after she moved to the neighborhood.

"Ari, Ari, it's time to go home." Her parents called from beyond the front gate.

"I'll be right there ma, I just wanna say bye to Ken"

"Well hurry up."

She raced after Ken-taro and saw him arrive at a mysterious door. He opened it, entered, and shut the door behind him. Ari came up to the door and skeptically took a closer look. There was a demon's mask on the pitch-black door. With horn's red like blood and eyes bright as the sun, it stared at her and seemed to pierce her very soul through her eyes but she stared back with awe and wariness. Reluctantly, she reached for the doorknob and turned it. The door opened to a short descent of stairs and into a dim hallway. The hallway seemed to extend forever and even after straining her eyes, she couldn't see its end. After a short pause, the urge to descend the staircase and find Ken-taro overwhelmed her and she entered through the door. As she entered, the floorboards creaked under her tiny feet and the door closed with a soft thud. The hallway was immediately enveloped in the warm light from rows of torches that seem to extend into the oblivion of the endless hallway. It was then that she noticed the rows of doors, some opened and some closed but all with different patterns, lined up on the wall, following the torches into oblivion. Looking up she saw the different animal heads, some of which she was aware of and some animals that she had never seen before and some she could have never imagined existed. Stretching from the trophy-like heads were what appeared to be branches. They stemmed over and around the doors and onto the walls till arriving at the floor where they seemed to enter into the carpet as a painting.

Ari's little brain couldn't handle all of what she was seeing at once and she momentarily crumpled to the floor.

"K-k Ken-taro~." "Ken-taro are you there?" She called through her quivering mouth.

Her voice echoed through the hallway but she received no reply.

"M-maybe he is in one of these doors."

She struggled to her feet and leaned on one of the closed doors. This door had a pattern of diamonds entering each other till the smallest diamond. *clack, clack* The knob was turning but the door refused to open. Ari could not figure out why the door wouldn't open even though it wasn't locked. She gave up and decided to try the door parallel to the diamond door. *clack, clack* It was the same as the diamond door and she was starting to get annoyed, so she went to one of the open doors and took a peek inside. She stood there and stared. There was nothing inside the door, only empty darkness that seemed to suck out her soul. Starting to back away she tripped over one of the roots and fell. Her fear of the hallway was ignited and she quickly began to uncontrollably tremble. She stumbled to her feet and ran as fast as her tiny legs would carry her, to the staircase. She hastily ran up the stairs and arrived at the door. *Ba-dump, Ba-dump* Her heart wouldn't stop accelerating as she started hearing howls of long perished creatures, humans and animals alike, exiting from the branches on the walls. Trembling, she grabbed the doorknob and tried to open it but it was locked. Horror struck her face and the hallway fell dead silent. *huff, huff* She felt the hot breath of something breathing down her neck. She froze and shook in her shoes.

'What is that, is it going to eat me, will I die?' All the thoughts that ran through her head at that split second were uncountable but it all boiled down to her quietly sobbing. After nothing happened for a few seconds she started turning around to see if the creature had disappeared. She fully turned and looked up. Eyes wide open and knees clacking, tears streamed down her face as the image of what was standing there was engraved into her memory.