It was the day before Halloween when I first heard about the No End House from a friend of mine. He told me that it was a legendary haunted house attraction that was said to be the largest and scariest in the country. Everybody had heard about it, but nobody seemed to know where it was. It was said to hold all the answers for all the mysterious things happening in our town. I was excited about this encounter and was hoping I'll finally get all the answers to the questions no one seemed to know the answers.

　　The rules were pretty simple. You get to enter the attraction. The building contained nine rooms in all. If you managed to reach the final room, you would see a scroll that contained unimaginable power and wisdom or so did rumour have it. The only catch was that nobody had ever managed to make it all the way through to the end anyone who went in to the attraction disappeared forever and was forgotten in a couple of weeks. That’s why they called it No End House that was its nickname because no one ever made it to the end.

　　My friend told me he had tried to find the house and failed miserably until yesterday which he successfully found it but it was scary and his nerves did not let him proceed though I just thought he was being a chicken and had no balls.

　　He said the haunted house attraction was located roughly four miles north to the city and drew me a map. It piqued my interest and I told him I would check it out the next night. As I turned to leave, he grabbed me by the arm and tried to convince me not to go but all was to no avail and he tried even harder. He said that it was unnatural, that the things the house contained would be too much for anyone to endure.

　　I didn’t believe him and no matter how hard he tried to convince not to go there, my mind was made up. Finally getting the answers to all my questions i have been masking for 10 years now by completing a haunted house sounded too good to be true.

　　The next night, I followed the map he had drawn and arrived at No End House just as the sun was setting. I immediately felt that there was something strange about the building. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. From the outside, it didn’t look that scary, yet for some reason, it sent a chill down my spine. The feeling of uneasiness only intensified as approached the haunted house and opened the front door.

　　Stepping inside, I let out a sigh of relief. The entrance hall looked normal, like a hotel lobby decorated for Halloween. There was a sign posted on the wall that read: “Leave all weapons in the tray below and proceed to Room 1. Eight more follow. Reach the end and you get access to uncanned knowledge” With an uneasy chuckle, I placed my dagger and pistol in the tray under the sign and made my way to the door.

　　The first room was a complete let-down. It was almost laughable. It resembled a children’s ghost train at a fun fair, complete with white-sheeted ghosts hanging from the ceiling and mechanical zombies that lurched forward and gave an unconvincing moan as you passed by. I brushed aside the fake spider webs and headed for the door at the far end of the room.

　　Upon entering the second room, I was greeted by thick fog. A rubber bat hung from the ceiling and flew around in a wide circle. Some haunting Halloween music played on a loop in the background. I stepped over a few toy rats that raced back and forth across the floor and opened the door to the next room.

　　At first glance, Room 3 appeared to be just a normal room. It was sparsely furnished, with a wooden chair in the middle of the floor and a single lamp in the corner that did a poor job of lighting the area. It took me a few minutes to realize that there was something not quite right about the room. The light cast shadows across the floor and walls, but the problem was, there were too many shadows.

　　I could see the shadow of the chair against the wall, but there were other shadows beside it that had no business being there. Then, I happened to look down at my feet. My own shadow wasn’t there.

　　At that moment, a vague and foreboding feeling of impending doom gripped my heart and my courage deserted me. Reaching behind me, I tried to open the door I had just come through. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was locked. I didn’t have the option of retreating. The only thing I could do was walk across the room to the other door and press on, further into the house.

　　The fourth room was possibly the most disturbing. There was no light. The door behind me closed automatically and I was left standing there in complete darkness. It was pitch black and I couldn’t see a thing. I was scared to move. I’m not afraid of the dark and never have been, but there was something about that particular darkness that absolutely terrified me. Darkness doesn’t describe it fully. It was an absence of anything. There was just a dead silence. I couldn’t hear a thing. I couldn’t even hear myself breathing. It was the sound of death.

　　Just then, the silence was broken by a low hum. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I felt something pass behind me. I turned around as quickly as possible, but it was impossible to make out anything in the darkness. The hum grew louder and more intense. The noise seemed to surround me. I knew that something was there, lurking in the dark and I knew that it was gradually drawing closer.