The car tires screech to a halt as we pull into the driveway. The house looms above us,  dark and unwelcoming 

“Well” I shrug, smacking my arms to my sides, “we’re all gonna get killed.” 

“Shut up Evelyn” my brother, Drew, laughs, “you're gonna scare Lily.” I shoot him a look.

“What? You’ scared??” I smirk, “Come on Drew, help me with my bags. They are too heavy.” He nods and jogs over, lifting the suitcase out of the trunk and dragging them up the stairs to the large oak doors. My dad came up behind us with the rest of the bags, followed by my mother holding Lily, my baby sister, in her arms. Using what little strength my nimble arms provide me with, I push open the door and take in the room before me. Victorian wallpaper lines the wall, and a big black sofa sits comfortably in the corner of what appears to be the main living room. The place is huge, much larger than it appeared on the AirB&B website. Why we had chosen to come here was the true mystery. My mom had been begging us to come on a hiking vacation, and after years of trying we finally agreed. If it were up to me I would be sprawled out on a beach somewhere sipping lemonade and diving into my newest read. But of course, it's not up to me. That's how we ended up here, in this massive Victorian house in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. Whatever. I checked my phone, 0 bars, amazing. So no beach and no connection to the outside world. How fun. 

Dropping my small backpack on the large wooden table, I split from the group and went to explore the eco-y mansion we somehow ended up in. For the next 5 days this will be home, so might as well get comfortable. I flip a switch on my right and nothing happens, but after a moment the room flickers and then lights up. The floors are tiled, making the entire room seem cold and the emptiness of it does the same. To my right I see a small hallway ending at a small, dark red door.
“Hay Drew, come check this out!” I yell, only to hear him grunt something about how he is the only one actually helping with the luggage. I roll my eyes and venture farther into the narrow hallway. Reaching for my phone I turn on the flashlight feature. 

Dumb house cant even have propper lighting, I mutter and continue foward. 

Finally I reach the door. I try twisting the handle, but it's locked. I yank at it one or two more times but give up quickly. Strength was never my specialty so I'll just have to wait for Drew to be done sucking up to mom and dad. He wants to get a new iphone when we get home so he's been on his best behavior. It was gross. 

Walking back to the kitchen, I sit down on the unreasonably high stool and check my phone again. Still no wi-fi and I’m already starting to get bored. 

Suddenly I get really cold, a shiver up my spine. 

“Mom!” I called “Can we turn down the AC! It's too cold!” 

“Give me a second honey, I gotta get the baby down for her nap,” She calls back and I groan. 

I hear a click suddenly. It was quiet but I was positive when I heard it. My head spins around, searching for the origin of the sound. My eyes land on the red door that now lays slightly ajar. I stiffen. 

“D-ddrew?” I call out, but get no response. If hes messing with me, one of us will, in fact, get murdered here. I stand up. Never in my life had I backed away from a challenge, or had Drew successfully pulled a prank on me. I for sure wasn’t gonna start now. Taking slow but sure steps forward I make my way through the hallway and reach the door. I grasp the handle and pull it open. 

Before me lies a place where my eyesight proves no use. I open my phone again and light pours in ahead of me. But before I could see the stairs leading down, I step forward, expecting more floor, but instead the ground opens below me and I tumble down the stairs, into the darkness. 

The throbbing of my head is the first thing I notice as I regain consciousness. A constant pounding in my ears. Lovely. My eyes open slowly and I glance around the room. For a moment I forget where I am, but as reality comes crashing back, I jolt and rush to my feet. My eyes provide no use so I wave my hands before me in search of a wall - or a light switch - for that. My fingers brush across a chain, and with a quick tug, a single light flickers on. 

I scatter back and press my back against the wall, my eyes wide. Hanging from chains similar to the one connecting to the light are three buffel bags. 

Not duffel bags. I realize. Body bags. 

Something fills the bags, and I can barely make out the shape inside them, but I regret it as soon as I do. 

Three bags. Three bodys, Three hooks hanging them from the ceiling, but a forth one lays empty alongside the others. My breath catches. I spin around to the direction I fell from. The red door sits high, at the top of the staircase. My brain urges me to move and after several moments of terror, my body complies. I sprint up the stairs and grasp the doorknob but it doesn’t budge. I bang at the door shouting, 

“Help!! Help me!!” I hear footsteps on the other side. “Drew?! Drew is that you?! Get me out of here!!!” Within a moment the door before me opens and I tumble out, nearly falling over my brother.

“Evie? What are you doing in the closet?” he asks, confusion clear in his voice. 

“The closet? No Drew, that's the basement!” panic builds in my throat. “Th-the bags and the d-door and oh my gosh Drew we have to get out of here!” I grab his shirt and shake him. 

“Evie, Evie please calm down. What are you talking about? That right there is-” he says, pointing to the open door, that has now shifted to - “a closet.” 

My eyes widened. The stairs are gone. The bags are gone. All of it. Gone. 

“How?” I gasp “Where did? Where did it all go?!” 

“Evie…come sit down. You're scaring me.” 

I stumble a few steps forward, my mind reeling with confusion and fear. My head throbs from my fall and I feel like I may throw up. Drew grabs my hand and lowers me down onto the couch, concern clear in his eyes. 

Should I tell him? I debate. Should I tell him what I saw? 

No. I decide. He won’t believe me. I can’t do this to him, scar him like I have been. No. 

Suddenly my purpose is clear. I must figure out what happened. Find the truth behind the chaos. I straighten up. This. This is what I was meant to do. 

Shaking my head quickly, my vision clears and I relax. 

“I’m ok now.” I say. My brother's worry doesn’t fade, but he nods and lets out a breath. “I think I just got overwhelmed. I promise. I'm ok now.” 

“Just let me know if you need anything, or want to talk about it.” My brother says, standing up. 

“I will. I promise.”

He nods and leaves the room. I watch him as he leaves and listen to the sound of his footsteps as they slowly grow further and further away. 

Letting out a shaky breath, I get to my feet and talk towards the kitchen again. Down the narrow hallway, and reach the door. 

Unlike last time, the door easily pulls open when I lightly tug on it. Unlike last time, I am prepared for the steep drop of the first step.

Unlike last time…I know what lies ahead of me. 

I step down into the darkness and let the door shut behind me. My heart beats loudly in my head, but my strides are sure and confident. I am not scared. I am on a mission. 

My fingers brush along the wall until my feet land on a solid surface. I reach out before me, this time knowing what to look for, and my fingers once again grasp the cold medal chain. The light flickers on. Although knowing what to expect, I still shudder at the sight of the bodies. 

This time I explore the basement more thoroughly, as I am no longer overpowered by fear. To my left, a single mattress lays astray on the floor. The enterriror is fully cement, from the floors to the ceilings. Soundproof. Besides the single hanging light in the entrance, the rest of the room is dark, and shadows dance across the walls with my every move. 

What I am drawn to the most though, is something I had overlooked during my last visit. Lining the walls are numerous carvings. From afar they look like simple indents, but as I move closer, their purpose is clear. They are tallies. Rows and rows of them line the walls, marking the days each victim was held captive, I assume. There are 3 clumps of tallies, one for each person. I slowly brush my fingers against the indents. The tallies all seem to end around the same point, and with a quick count, my theory is confirmed. They all end after 13 days. 

After the last tally, a small red dot. Blood. 

The lights flicker suddenly, and for a moment I am plunged into absolute darkness. 

“Welcome…” a voice behind me whispers. The hairs on my neck stick up and I am frozen in place. Run. I urge myself but my feet stay planted to the floor. 

The lights come back on and I jump, swinging around to see who had spoken, but the room is empty, exactly like what I had seen before. 

Exact one thing. Something that I was positive about was not there before. Directly below the hanging light lies a red book. A diary, I realize as I read the cover. 

I flip to the first page. Each letter is written in a perfectly dark red ink that splatters across the pages. The color matches exactly to the dots beside the tallies. Blood. I began reading the first entry:

They called me a madman, but I am not mad at all. Happy, in fact. I am The Happy Man. 

They called me insane, but I am the most sane person to ever live. 

Others see caos, I see peace. Others see death. I see a new beginning. 

What I did to those people was mercy. 

The sickness that has overcome me is different. They took me to the soft room, so I turned it into a red room. They could not stop me, and their blood will forever mark the start of my end. 

They begged me to stop, but the drive of my knife quited them. 

Blood is a beautiful thing, and I will make the world run cold with it. 

They will feel the pain that I once felt. 

The sights I once saw. 

The death I once faced. 

They will be captured. 

I will be free. 

I shudder. I slowly breathe out and my breath shakes. My mind runs a million miles an hour, my heart pounds in my ears, yet my body stays perfectly still. I turn the page. 

For hours, I sit there reading. Every entry, every word this man ever wrote. Many may think that the mind of a madman would be terrifying and unsettling, but with every blood written word, I am drawn in. 

Time passes, but I am unaware of it. The world moves on but I stay in place, reading. With a single piece of scrap metal, and a great deal of effort, I carve slowly into the wall. 

|

My first tally. The others, they were victims. They were trapped, forced to be here, but I am here by my own free will. Just me. Alone with the words of a mad man. 

I turn the page. 

| |

Another day passes. The diary seems to switch narrators. The original author is gone, and a new story takes place. One of a man, desperate for violence. I turn the page.

| | |

A third day. I heard banging on the door but I ignored it. Whoever they are, I no longer belong to them. They can't reach me in the world I have entered now. I turn the page.

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Four days. I find a bottle of water in the corner of the room. I drink it, I turn the page.

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Day thirteen. The thirteenth day has finally arrived. I turn the final page of the diary, unaware of what lay before me but feeling an overwhelming sense of loss. The end of something important. The banging on the door had stopped days ago. And now silence is the only thing that fills the air around me. 

For the final time, I look down at the red written words on the page, but it isn’t necessary. The words written are spoken aloud behind me, in a low and blood curdling whisper. 

“Your stay here is over….goodbye. Evelyn.”

* * *

Four bodies hang from the ceiling of the basement. The smell of fresh blood and decaying flesh swirls in the humid air. 

A new family has just pulled into the driveway. 

The Happy Man waits.