The shadow house

Eric took a deep breath of fresh air and started walking away from an inn. He looked at the dark sky and chuckled at how it remembered his wedding night. Cloudy night, making the sky look dark as a black paper. Despite the darkness and the creepy atmosphere, it was warm enough to make Eric take off the jacket.

"Gloomy!" he said with a sad smile on his face, after remembering his late wife, Pandora.

The image of Pandora's face in his mind made him to focus on the quest the voices assigned him to. Reaching the haunted house. He took a slow and deep breath and clenched his fists tightly.

"Let's go." Eric said with a slightly frowned face.

In an hour, the house was in Eric's sights. It looked gloomy, and the doors were glowing red.

"Almost there." Eric said while quickening his pace.

After reaching the house, Eric suddenly felt dizzy. He took a step, but his mind went blank for a second and he almost fell over. However, he quickly recovered.

"I'm almost there." He muttered as he reached for the door handle.

Before Eric reached the door, it opened itself. Eric jumped back in shock, coming back to his senses, as he looked into the hallway of an abandoned house and the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Come!" the deep voice ordered from the upstairs.

Eric shivered as he walked upstairs. He took slow steps as his legs trembled from uncertainty. He couldn't see that the shadow behind him was forming, despite the lack of light source.

"Come." The voice said again.

"Come." This time it was a childish voice of a boy.

"Come." A young girl's voice echoed.

Eric's eyes turned dark as he the shadow's hand grabbed him. His legs went numb, and his eyesight went blurry.

"Join us, Mephistopheles." dozens of voices screamed.

"W-What did you say?" suddenly Eric snapped back to reality. His voice, filled with anger, trembled.

"Join us!" Voices echoed within the room.

The shadow's arm was not moving, but stuck on Eric's shoulder.

"Join us!" the voices repeated themselves.

However, Eric was not listening. He stood still and muttered.

"What did you call me?" Eric asked.

The voices stopped as an entity walked out from the shadows. A weird shadow creature with bright red eyes, but no distinctive facial features. It stared into Eric's back, but this time it did not grab him.

"What's wrong? Answer me." After a minute of silence, Eric asked. His voice trembled.

"Why did you react like this to your own name?" A shadow behind him asked in a voice filled with curiosity.

"My name is Eric." Eric muttered in reply.

The two of them stood still until Eric turned back to the creature. When he looked at the shadow creature, Eric was unfazed. His face was expressionless.

"You promised me answers." Eric said as he looked into the creature's red eyes.

"You're amazing!" The shadow said in a deep tone, surprised that Eric snapped out of hypnosis.

The shadow walked in circles, inspecting Eric and placed its dark hand on Eric's shoulder.

"You're absolutely, fucking amazing!" the shadow's voice was cheerful this time.

"You deserve a reward!" a girl's chuckle left the shadow person.

The moment the shadow placed its hand on Eric's shoulder, the shadow's eyes brightened as dragged Eric's soul from the body.

*************

Suddenly, Eric was standing in a flower field on a sunny day. He stood there speechless as he remembered this field. This was his wife's flower field near his house. He turned around to see Pandora carrying a big black box.

"Eric! Could you help me out?" Pandora asked him, clearly struggling.

"P-Pandora?" Eric gasped, frozen in the spot.

Eric started running toward her, trying to hug her. However, he passed right through her. As if she was a ghost.

"Yeah, one sec." Suddenly, Eric heard a familiar voice.

"I told you I would carry the gift. You didn't have to!" Eric complained as he took the box out of Pandora's hands.

"It's not heavy at all!" Pandora chuckled.

"If it wasn't heavy, you wouldn't ask for help, silly!" Eric's past version frowned, dissatisfied that his wife was carrying the heavy box.

Pandora wore a beautiful short red dress that reached her knees. Her long and silky black hair reflected the sunlight and her smile was the most beautiful sight for Eric.

"So her name is Pandora?" the shadow took a form of a blond child, and stood beside Eric and watching the scene unfold.

"Yes. She is my wife." Eric said, staring at Pandora with sad eyes.

"She was your wife." the shadow chuckled.

Eric looked at the kid beside him and frowned.

"What do you mean?" Eric asked.

"Don't you adult humans say when marrying, 'Till death do us apart'?" kid chuckled.

Eric ignored him and continued looking at his past version, carrying the black box.

"This was the day it happened."

"Indeed. I assume you lost your memories because of a trauma." the shadow said.

Eric gazed at the kid with eyes wide open.

"You want to tell me I saw the killer?"

"Of course. I already saw your memories. I am simply showing them to you." The shadow said with a smirk.

"As a reward, for amusing me." the shadow added.

"Tell me, what would you do if you were the actual killer?"

"Huh?"

"What if you did kill them?" the shadow smirked.

"I-Impossible." Eric said, however, his voice trembled in doubt.

Was this the truth? Could he be the killer?

"Let's find out, shall we?" the shadow snapped his fingers.

Eric stood frozen as the shadow teleported them from the flower field to the wedding venue. He looked around and saw many people, and white roses all around the venue.

The two of them stared at the wedding ceremony as the priest was beginning his speech. Eric and Pandora were standing in front of the venue.

"This is it…" the shadow said.

"This is the moment of truth."

"We gathered here to…" the priest spoke, but suddenly he was interrupted by a loud noise.

Suddenly, a group of armed men broke into the wedding venue. They were wearing masks, and on each shoulder there was a symbol of an eye.

"Y-You can't be here!" an elderly who was standing in the back said, but a man suddenly slashed his throat with a dagger.

"M-Murder!" a woman screamed, but was cut down by one of the men.

Suddenly, the panic broke out, and Eric grabbed Pandora's hand. Trying to lead her to safety, Eric took her hand and used the panic to go to the emergency exit. However, as the two of them were trying to sneak out, a sword stabbed Pandora from the back.

"E-Eric…" Pandora's voice trembled, as a blood slowly drip out of her mouth.

The moment Eric saw her dying, his face froze in terror. However, he saw a huge box opening in his mind. The next moment, his face turned emotionless.

Pandora tried holding Eric's hand tightly, but suddenly lost the grip and dropped to the floor.

"Who's Eric?" Eric's past version stared into the body of his dead wife. His eyes were dark, but curious.

The murderer behind him swung his sword at Eric. However, he dodged it with no effort. It startled the murderer for a moment, and he swung at Eric again, but again Eric dodged.

"So you're a fighter, ey?" the murderer asked, as he swung a sword at Eric who was not paying attention to him, however, still somehow avoiding all the strikes.

"What's yo name?" the murderer asked.

"My name is Mephistopheles." Eric's gaze never left Pandora, however, it was not the same loving gaze he usually gave her, nor it was the gaze filled with grief. It was a gaze filled with interest.

************

"… As I said," The shadow smirked, as he watched Eric's past self turning back to face the murderer, and snapping his neck with his bare hands.

"You're fucking amazing!" the shadow chuckled in amusement.