THE HANGING GAME

POV- MIA CARTER

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The attic door groaned open with a slow, aching creak.

The moment we stepped inside, it felt like we’d entered a different world entirely. The air was dense—stale, frozen, almost wet. Our breath misted in the cold, and the wooden floor was warped with time. Four nooses swayed gently from the beams above, as if they’d been expecting us.

I looked at the others. Jason’s excitement had dulled into wary silence. Ethan kept adjusting the thermal cam, trying to hide how his hands shook. Claire refused to let go of my arm—her wide eyes locked on the chalkboard standing in the corner like a waiting judge.

I stepped forward and wiped away the dust.

That’s when it started.

The chalkboard hissed as ghostly writing appeared:

"Are you ready to play?"

The letters scratched across the surface on their own, jagged and angry.

I swallowed hard.

Jason whispered, “We’re live.” The red light blinked on the camera, and with it came a flood of viewer comments.

“Don’t play this.” “This is real.” “Someone’s gonna die.”

We ignored them.

We had to.

Round One – Word: Executioner

I was the Seeker. As soon as I tried to write the word, the chalk jerked in my hand. My fingers locked, forced into a grip that wasn’t mine. The word spelled itself in a spidery script, and the gallows drew itself in thick black lines. I could feel something watching.

Jason went first. “E.”

Correct.

Ethan. “X.”

Correct.

Claire hesitated. “C?”

Correct.

We flew through it. Letter after letter. My heart raced, waiting for a wrong guess that never came. When the final letter appeared, the chalkboard faded to blank, and the candles blew out with a soft hiss.

Round Two – Word: Witchcraft

Ethan’s turn. The nooses trembled when he wrote the word.

The first letter was wrong.

Jason had guessed “Z” as a joke.

A whisper curled through the attic. “Jason…” drawn out like a lover’s cry.

He laughed it off, but his hands were trembling.

More mistakes came. Ethan guessed “M”—wrong. Claire shrieked as she felt something icy brush her neck. The shadows in the attic thickened like fog rolling in.

We barely finished the word before the final part of the stick figure could be drawn. Another win.

Round Three – Word: Possession

Claire broke down crying when we started this round. Her voice cracked when she said, “This isn’t a game anymore.”

But we kept playing.

This time, the board felt hostile. Angry.

Each wrong guess punished us harder. Ethan got claw marks on his arm. My breath hitched when the room darkened so much, I couldn’t see my own hands. But we made it. Just barely.

That should’ve been the end.

We should’ve stopped there.

Round Four – Word: Sacrifice

Jason was obsessed with getting a fourth win. “It’ll blow the channel up,” he said. “We’ll be legends.”

He wrote the word, and the entire room seemed to tilt. The attic floor groaned like it would give way. The nooses twisted violently.

First mistake—“E.”

A voice whispered Jason’s name again, sharper this time. Like claws through silk.

Second mistake—Ethan flinched, yelping. “Something touched me.”

Third mistake—Claire started hyperventilating. Shadows clung to the walls, moving like they had minds of their own.

Fourth mistake—Jason again.

Three long, deep scratches appeared on his neck, bleeding.

He didn’t react. Just stared, dazed.

Fifth mistake—me.

A noose suddenly dropped from above me, brushing my shoulder. It vanished the second I screamed.

We were one mistake away.

Final guess—Jason said “B.”

Wrong.

The chalkboard screamed.

The stick figure’s face warped, twisted, morphed—

Into Lillian’s.

Every candle snuffed out. The attic door slammed shut.

Jason’s body jerked—yanked upward by a force none of us could see. His feet lifted off the ground. His hands flailed.

Then silence.

He was gone.

No rope.

No body.

Just the empty noose swinging in the dark.

The live feed didn’t stop. The comments poured in, filled with horrified faces and frantic messages. People claimed they saw a woman in white behind Jason. Some said her eyes were glowing.

We tried to leave.

#To be continued

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