3 Down the basement

I stood at the entrance of the basement calling out Lia's name, but she didn't respond. I should have just waited in the school parking lot with her until mom got home, instead of waiting here.

"Lia! Please don't make me come down there!" My heart was pounding as the whispers continued to ring in my ears.

I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. I didn't know what I would be dealing with, but I couldn't go down there without anything to defend myself with. I slowly walked down the steps into the dark basement. My hand was shaking as I turned on my flashlight from my phone. I'm going to get myself killed looking for her. She never thinks before she acts. If we get out of this; I am going to kill her!

Once I reached the end of the stairs, I shined my flashlight around the room.

"Lia? Answer me? Where are you?"

The light suddenly switched on, and Lia was standing in the back of the room.

I dropped to the floor, in relief. "Oh my gosh! You're going to give me a heart attack, little girl! Why didn't you answer me when I called you?"

"I couldn't hear you with all those whispering voices. But now I don't hear them anymore." She said.

"Me neither. Now let's get out of here."

Lia walked around the room, ignoring exactly what I said.

"Look. More paintings. He sure likes to paint a lot." She was talking as if she wasn't scared at all.

I frowned at her. "Did you not just hear me? Let's go!"

"But Malaika, come see. This girl looks like you." She said while pointing at one of the paintings on the wall.

I quickly walked over to the painting. Irritation, confusion, and fear were playing with my emotions.

As I looked at the painting I saw a girl with dark curly hair, brown eyes, and brown skin. She was sitting on top of a throne with a sword in her hand. There were a bunch of people kneeling beside her as if she were a queen. "It...kinda does look like me."

"And look at this painting, Malaika." She pointed to a painting with one of the creatures that I saw from the hallway paintings. The setting of the painting was different. It was in a snowy forest and instead of a guy in the painting, a girl was standing next to it. In this painting, the creature wasn't dead. It looked like it was trying to attack the little girl.

"Now that girl kinda looks like you," I said.

"Yeah, it does," Lia said while taking a closer look at it.

I pulled out my phone and took pictures of it, just in case Levi tried to move them later. "This is creepy. Just wait until mom sees this."

Lia's eyes were still focused on the painting. "It also looks like the painting is moving a little."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh don't be silly."

"No… It is moving. The monster is moving in the painting!" She yelled.

Suddenly I heard the whispers again. This time they were louder than ever. "Lia... you're too close, let's go-"

Before I could finish my sentence, a giant hand with claws came out of the painting and grabbed Lia's arm. She screamed as it tried to pull her inside.

"Lia!" I screamed.

I grabbed her other arm and tried to pull her backwards. The ground began to shake, and the lights flickered on and off. Dust was running down the walls and things began to fall. The painting formed into a portal. It glowed a greenish-black color as her arm was being pulled in deeper.

"Help! Help me, Makaila don't let go!" She screamed.

The wind around me started pulling me forward. Suddenly objects started flying into the painting and hitting me in the head in the process. It took all that I had to not let go of her. My feet started dragging against the floor, and my sister's body was now halfway through the painting. I couldn't hold her back much longer.

The painting pulled us both inside of it. We were spinning around and around as if we were stuck in a tornado. I could see that the monster had a hold of Lia's arm. I tried to kick it away from her, but It scratched my leg. I couldn't help but scream in pain.

My grip on Lia's arm loosened, and I felt her being pulled out of my grasp. At that moment something hit my body and I flew in the opposite direction of Lia.

I fell and my body landed on the cold ground. I tumbled and tumbled until I stopped flat on my back.

I knew that this should have made every part of my body ache, but I felt nothing. I couldn't hear anything but a ringing in my ears. The air now seemed to be a lot colder and my body was shivering. When I opened my eyes, all I could see was white dots falling on my face behind a dark grey background. While breathing heavily, I sat up slowly.

My vision was blurry at first, but it slowly came back to me. As I looked around, I noticed that I was in a forest. There was nothing but trees and snow all around me.

I've never been more scared and confused in my life. I had to process what just happened. Lia and I were in the basement, and then there was a monster in a painting that swallowed us, and we ended up in a forest. Then I suddenly realized that Lia was nowhere near me. I got up quickly.

"Lia! Where are you? Answer me, Lia!"

The monster was also gone. What if... it ate...no, no, no. I've got to find her!

Now, I was panicking and tears started to flow.

I ran through the woods searching for her. I still didn't have a clue as to where I was, and it was getting darker by the minute, but I just had to find my sister. I called out her name many times, but there was no response from her.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my leg and I fell. I pulled down my sock and saw a huge deep cut. It was so deep that my leg was bleeding and my skin was a little purple. I couldn't move it around without feeling a lot of pain. I guess the cold atmosphere prevented me from noticing it earlier. I couldn't just sit there all alone. It was getting dark, and I was freezing. I didn't know what could be lurking in the woods and I hadn't had time to think about that. If there were more creatures like the one I just saw, then I was going to be toast.

I forced myself to stand up, and the pain struck my leg again. As unbearable as it was, I continued limping through the forest. There had to be civilization somewhere and I had to find Lia.

However, after a minute of searching, I fell face down into the snow. I wanted to get back up, but I just couldn't.

My sister was probably dead and I knew that I was next. It was hard to keep those kinds of thoughts out of my head, but It seemed like the truth. I would either be eaten by another monster or freeze to death.

"No! Shut up!" I screamed to myself. I was determined to keep faith. I had to.

Suddenly, a sound of a loud growl came from in front of me. I looked up and saw another monster, licking its sharp teeth at me. All of its eyes were staring directly at me.

I laid my head back on the ground, suddenly losing faith again. It seemed that being eaten by another monster was the only option.

It began to charge at me.

I closed my eyes and waited for the painful part to be over, but it never came. There was nothing but silence.

After a moment I raised up and saw that the monster was lying dead on the ground. The blood that was covering its body, spilled into the white snow.

The sound of footsteps came from behind me.

"Aww. I was gonna get that one." I heard someone say.

"Hey. Who's the girl?" A different voice this time.

"I don't know. I just found her lying there." Someone else said.

I turned around to see two guys and a girl standing over me.

"Who are you?" I asked. My voice was beginning to lose its sound.

"We ask the questions here. Who are you?" The girl asked.

I tried to respond, but I could feel myself losing consciousness.

"Look. She's been scratched. We should take her back home."

"Nah, she's already dying, let's just leave her. Or how about I end her misery and kill her off now."

Their voices began to fade away, and everything went black.