Ray adjusted her tiny detective hat with the same calm she used for everything—including brushing her teeth and solving murders. Jed, meanwhile, adjusted his hat for the 8th time because "it didn't sit right" and "maybe haunted wind was messing with it" and "Ray, do ghosts like hats??"
Ray blinked at him. "Jed. It's called Ray's Mansion. We're here because of rumors, not fashion advice."
"But what if the mansion likes hats?! What if it—"
She cut him off by poking him with her pen-sized notebook. "Focus. Haunted place. Weird stories. People hearing their names whispered. Doors that lock themselves." She paused. "Also… kind of funny it has my name, right?"
She said it casually, but Jed made a face like she'd just summoned a demon by accident."That is NOT funny, Ray. That is the opposite of funny. That is FORESHADOWING."
Ray shrugged. "Or coincidence."
Jed opened his mouth to argue, to present all seventeen reasons why "coincidence" was statistically impossible, but… something made him stop.
He looked up.
Fog.
A soft ribbon of it at first. Then, as they walked down the street, it thickened… thickened… thickened… and the world around them blurred like a watercolor left in the rain.
Ray took another step forward.Jed took another step closer to Ray.
"Um… Ray?" he whispered, gripping the edge of her coat like a frightened toddler. "Was this fog here one second ago?"
Ray casually pulled out a pocket-sized map. "Hm. Weather wasn't supposed to be foggy today."
The fog swirled around their legs.
The sound of the city faded.
Houses, once lining the street, dissolved like chalk dust in water. One blink—gone. Another blink—more gone. Soon, the street wasn't a street at all, just a gravel path stretching forward… and absolutely nothing behind them.
"Ray…?" Jed squeaked, his voice three octaves higher. "I can't see our street. Or the bakery. Or… anything at all."
Ray turned around, expecting to see their neighborhood.
Instead, she saw grey emptiness, shifting slightly like something alive was breathing underneath it.
"Oh," Ray said.Just that."Oh."
Jed clutched her sleeve. "Why did you say 'oh' like that?! That's your 'hm-yes-we-are-already-dead' voice!"
Ray tilted her head. "I don't have a voice like that."
"You DO and you just USED it!"
Before she could reply, the fog ahead of them split. Not gently, not politely—violently, like curtains being yanked open by invisible hands.
And there it stood.
A mansion.
Ancient. Towering.Built of dark stone that seemed to absorb the light around it.
Its windows glowed faintly green, as if something inside was awake.
Jed's jaw dropped.Ray blinked.
"That," Ray said calmly, "was not on the map."
Jed made a horrible squeaking noise. "Ray… this mansion… it literally rose out of the fog. From nowhere. Like—like—"
"Like a haunted mansion?" she offered.
Jed nodded vigorously. "YES! EXACTLY! LIKE A—wait." His face slowly paled. "Ray. RAY."
She looked at him.
He pointed behind them with a shaky, trembling finger.
The path they'd walked?
Gone.
No footsteps. No road. No nothing.
Only fog.
Swirling. Thickening. Sealing them in.
"Ray…" Jed whispered, voice cracking. "We're trapped."
Ray, composed as ever, closed her notebook and calmly tucked it away.
"Well," she said, eyeing the mansion's ominous front doors, which creaked open with supernatural timing."That saves us time. No need to knock."
Jed whimpered. "Raaaaay…"
She patted his head once. "Don't worry. If anything happens… just scream."
"I AM ALREADY SCREAMING ON THE INSIDE—"
They stepped toward the threshold.
And the doors shut behind them.