This is a 'sequel', if you will, to Whispering Pages - timeline wise.

ტThe Autumn Roomტ

Prologue

The dreams came during the last week of September.

They were the same two that continued night after night as if a broken record – nightmares that wouldn't go away. In the first dream, a young girl appeared.

Mai couldn't recognize her. Perhaps it was because the surroundings were lit only by the darkest shades of night. Or perhaps it was because the girl had no face. She giggled and spoke to Mai without lips or a mouth, the sounds echoing in the thick air from every angle. She looked at Mai with dull markings where the eyes should have been. A sense of danger rose and the girl whispered, "Don't be afraid. It all ends here."

The tone of voice, however, indicated otherwise and made realization sink in like a knife. It was as if the girl was meaning to say the opposite: "Be afraid. It all begins here."

The second part of the dream, Mai suspected, was the 'here' the girl was referring to.

The doors to the large house always welcomed her in with discreet intentions. Whether it was an old Victorian mansion one night or a run down apartment building the next, there was always the door to a certain room that appeared. She would be walking down hallways adorned with either plain walls, mounted tapestries, or famous paintings. Following behind would be her friends from school or members of the SPR office, enjoying the tour of what seemed to be her own home.

And always, Mai would pass by a wall where the hidden door would be standing – silent and undemanding. Her companions would pass by unawares, the door hidden to them as the metal key within her pocket. No matter how she held or ran her fingers on it, the coldness of its touch would not disappear. No matter how many times she'd entered the key to the lock, Mai couldn't enter.

It wasn't the eerie images and hints of danger lurking in every hall that entitled Mai to label these dreams as nightmares. It was the fact that she could feel a type of confusing attraction to the door and the house. It was from her intuitions telling her that perhaps something more sinister was to come, and that a dark secret was to reveal itself and swallow her in.

And most frighteningly, it was that perhaps these dreams were a terrible omen, that someday she would come in contact with them.

Both the door and the young, faceless girl.

To be continued in Chapter 1: Encounters