The door to the mansion was thick, black and heavy. Sara turned the faded handle and it opened with a creak. It was dark and musty inside, and she hesitated for a moment before entering.

A sudden gust of wind rushed past her and slammed the door with a THUD. Startled, she checked the handle, pulling on it as hard as she could to no avail.

Darkness closed in around the edges of the room, making it even more difficult to see. "I've been waiting for you," came the same voice from the forest. The sound was heavy and dark, like the clouds just before a violent storm.

Sara felt a strange presence surrounding her body, strong and suffocating. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

"Ah, there is so very much I want with you." The Stealer brushed past her hair like a thunderstorm with fingers of wind.

"Can you help me find my way back home?" It was all that mattered.

A dark force momentarily tightened around her throat and she found it difficult to breathe.

"Yes."

The grip was released and a shaky sigh escaped her lips.

"What do I have to do?" The blaze was still smoldering within her, fueling a brave determination.

"To return to your world, you must escape five traps, successfully retrieving a hidden object from each one. After each escape, you must offer me something that belongs to you.

After the final task, when you have willingly given me the thing I desire most, you will be set free from this world."

Sara turned and looked around the dark room, searching to find the source of that voice. There was a crumbling fireplace directly in front of her with an old dusty chair to one side. To the right of that was a broad staircase leading up into the dark. On the far left was a door to another room.

There was a sudden BANG, and the pale woman appeared from a dark corner, drug across the floor by an invisible force shrouded in a black cloud. "I see you've already met this monster," the deep voice growled. The invisible hand grasped the pale woman's throat and she struggled to breathe. The door to the left opened up and revealed a pitch black room, something that looked very much like a black hole. The woman was thrown into that eternal darkness and the door slammed shut behind her.

Sara ran over to the door and opened it, but the black hole was gone and it was just a plain empty parlor room with regular couches and end tables. It looked like it might have been nice at one point, but now everything was gray, dusty, and dim.

"What did you do to her?!" She screamed, but the house was empty and still again.

A strange quiet settled in, as if it had always been this way, as if everything that had just happened did not happen.

It made her uneasy, and she began to question her sanity. Was that all just my imagination? Maybe the stealer and the pale woman are just creations of my own mind. She didn't know if she was more relieved or troubled by this idea.

If it is all in my head, I have nothing to fear from them, and nothing to lose from finding out what they want.

She approached the staircase on the other side of the room. The wood was worn and covered in a thick layer of dust, and it led her up to a long dark hallway with several doors on each side. They were all closed except one, and from it came a dim light that spilled out onto the dusty floor.

An anxious anticipation gripped her as she neared the door, a desperate hope that whatever was on the other side would bring her one step closer to seeing her girls again.

But as she entered, the mansion fell away, and instead of stepping onto wooden floors, her shoes landed on damp grass.

She found herself in a little clearing surrounded by trees. Directly in front of her was a short dock leading out to a small pond. The sky was heavily overcast and drizzling rain. Wispy mist glazed the tree trunks.

When Sara turned around to look for the door she had just come through, it was gone. There was no sign of the old mansion anywhere; only the barren forest stared back at her.

When Sara turned around to look for the door she had come through, it was gone. There was no sign of the old mansion anywhere; only the barren forest stared back at her.

She bent down and brushed her fingers against the damp yellow grass. It was cold and wet. I don't think my imagination could have done this.

Just as she was about to stand again, the dark cloud of the Stealer appeared above her, an invisible figure surrounded by black smoke. She could feel the weight of his presence on her shoulders, preventing her from moving.

His voice was close to her ears and it made the hairs on her neck prick up.

"Retrieve the key at the bottom of the pond, but don't get caught by the demon that lives there. You only need to get the key into the air to escape the trap."

The Stealer vanished again and she was on her own.

The air was chilly, but she removed her boots, socks, pants, and sweater, and placed them next to the dock on the ground with her keys and phone.

The damp earth stuck to the bottoms of her feet, and the cold air made her bare skin shiver. She cautiously placed a foot on the dock, testing it out. It was wobbly and unsteady but it held her weight as she slowly walked to the end of it.

The pond was a murky gray. There was a lot of mud and weeds obscuring her view of the bottom, but in the midst of all the muck was a faint glimmer. It looked like a tiny bubble of golden hue barely visible through a dark filter. The key!

Sara tried to gather the courage to jump but she wasn't a great swimmer and the muddy water gave her a shudder. If I go in I might not make it out again.

But this was her only chance at getting home again, so she had to try. Dive down, grab the key, swim back to the top. I can do this. Using every ounce of willpower she had, and against her natural instincts, she took the largest breath her lungs could hold and dove head first into the mucky water.

She could feel every fiber in her muscles contract from the cold; it stung her eyes and her legs cramped. But she kept kicking and kicking, straight down to the tiny glint of faded gold at the bottom. Almost there!

She reached out a hand and dug around in the soft mud. It's got to be here somewhere. She let out some air from her lungs, feeling the mud squishy between her fingers. Finally her hand nudged something hard. It was the key. She grasped it as tight as she could and turned her head towards the surface.

She tried to push off the bottom with her feet but her toes just sank into the mud. Ugh! Rowing with her arms, Sara rose just enough to start kicking again when a flash of movement rippled through the water on her right. She turned, but there was nothing except the dark grayish murky water.

Another movement caught her eye on the left. She turned just in time to see it, a strange human-like creature with large black eyes, a sleek, scaly body, webbed hands, and razor sharp teeth headed straight towards her. She panicked and kicked forcefully with her legs, swimming as hard as she could towards the surface.

She could see the rippling water above her head, the soft glow of outside light. But before she could reach her hand with the key above the water, a sharp agonizing pain ripped through her body. Aaaaahhhhh!!! It was her leg— the creature had a hold of it in its mouth. The surface grew further and further away as the creature pulled her deeper back down into the water.

Fuck!! This can't be happening!!

Her lungs burned and the pain from her leg shot through her body, a searing lava in her veins. She tried kicking the creature's head with her other foot, but with every kick the creature's teeth just dug deeper into her flesh and she almost gasped in some water from the pain of it.

But the whole struggle had brought her just a little closer to the surface again. This is my last chance! Thrusting her arm upwards, she let go of the key, throwing it towards the water's surface, hoping it would reach the air just above. It didn't go far enough and she panicked as it started falling towards the bottom again. Shit!

The creature was already pulling her back down. She let out all the remaining air in her lungs and kicked her free foot as hard as she could against the creature's head. It struck right in one of its large black eyes, causing it to recoil and let go just long enough for her to catch the key on its downward float and throw it towards the surface again.

The creature was headed towards her once more, about to sink its sharp teeth into her leg, when the key broke through the surface and touched the cold air.

One moment she was struggling in the murky pond, ready to pass out from lack of air, and the very next she was coughing and gasping and dripping wet on the dusty wood floor of the mansion.

She had been on her stomach, bent over one elbow as she coughed, but now she collapsed onto her arm and lay exhausted. She didn't dare move her leg because of the pain that spasmed through her body when she did.

Darkness compressed her wet body, fierce and thick. "Bandage your leg," the Stealer's voice was like a clap of thunder, menacing and immediate. There was a roll of bandages on the floor next to her. She grabbed them with one hand and, grimacing, wrapped it tightly around her gaping calf.

There was so much blood. It smeared onto her hands and forearms, it spilled into a pool on the floor and seeped through the floorboards.

The Stealer began darting about the room in a dark mass of cloud, accompanied by a low, labored breathing, like an angry ocean in the distance.

Sara watched his movements apprehensively, unsettled by her suspicion that his erratic behavior had something to do with her wound.

"I will get what I want, but not yet," he spoke to himself.

She unsuccessfully tried wiping the blood from her hands onto her thighs, feeling sick by his dark shadow making chaotic movements through the room, clearly aroused by her injuries.

Still trembling from the adrenaline of the pond, still angry at being in this strange world at all, the words tumbled out before she could stop them. "Just leave if you can't handle yourself!" she yelled, too upset to even feel surprised at her own boldness.

His voice came out as another thunderclap. "Don't forget, you have two minutes to give me something that belongs to you—" and he was gone.

Just as he disappeared, an hourglass appeared next to her. The sand sifted steadily from the top glass to the bottom. She didn't have much on her to begin with and had even less after removing her clothes to swim in the pond. She looked down at herself and her eyes settled on the ring she still hadn't taken off her finger. My...wedding ring.

The sand hissed through the hourglass as Sara hesitated. She slowly pulled the ring off her finger. For being so tiny it felt as heavy as the weight pressing down on her chest, as heavy as a boulder attached to her ribs, heavy enough to drown her. It made a little clink as she set it on top of the hourglass before the entire thing vanished right in front of her. The ring, the hourglass— both had disappeared.

Sara's anger bubbled to the surface once more, spoiling everything it touched as it did.

Damn this!! I hate you! I hate all of this! I just want to go home! The tears collected behind her eyes, but she refused to release them, choosing instead to slam her fist against the floor. Something clanked beside her.

The skeleton key. If she hadn't been so angry she might have been intrigued.

There was an open box nearby, and inside it was black velvet upholstery with several empty indentations. One of them was the exact shape of the key. She placed it like a puzzle piece in its slot and closed the lid.

She looked around the room. It was a small den, with a little soot-covered fireplace and an old couch. On one of the couch cushions, lying in a neat pile, were her clothes, boots, keys, and phone. Thank god! She was still damp from the pond and the cold air bit at her skin. She hobbled over to the couch and painfully managed to get her clothes back on.

After her struggle to get dressed, she was too weak and tired to move, and every cell in her body felt depleted. The couch was musty and faded, but she laid her head on it anyway and fell fast asleep.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Sara stirred.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Groggy, she opened her eyes. How long was I asleep? She had no idea if hours or days had passed from the time she had first gotten lost; every moment was an incomprehensible mess of events and time had been contorted into something stretched and infinite.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Wimper. Wimper.

The sound finally caught her attention, striking her with a jolt of new anxiety. She searched desperately for the source, tracking it across the room with her eyes. There was a small door knob on the wall next to the empty fireplace, and she crawled over to it, dragging her wounded leg behind her. Just as she suspected, it was a tiny door.

Sara unhooked the latch and it opened with a burst of dust. A figure fell out of the open space onto her lap, wrapping their arms tightly around her waist. Blonde hair sprawled out over everything. "You saved me," the pale woman whispered in her soft, airy voice.