The following is a work of fiction.
Sarah Bishop has over a hundred million followers and subscribers to her various social media and video platforms. Not bad for someone who hasn't turned seventeen yet. She was always clever and hard working. She knew how to work the crowd and keep them intrigued. In less than three years, she's become one of the biggest content creators with a team behind her and millions earned in endorsements. It wasn't long before her videos and contents reached millions of people who quickly became her fans. She had multiple channels. The newest channel "Neighborhood Haunted Houses" became her biggest and most profitable. Every one of the videos went viral reaching billions of people within hours of uploading. They were just silly videos of her walking around in the local abandoned buildings and over reacting to any little sound and light. There were hundreds of the same videos out there but somehow, hers became the most famous and infamous.
The latest episode was meant to be a quick shoot. She brought her all in one guy Jimmy who doubled as her driver, camera man, body guard etc. Whilst she was searching for new locations in the city she came across an abandoned house known as the "Haunted Manor". Sarah spent about an hour reading through the colorful and bloody history. She was in. That afternoon, Sarah posted that she will be live from the Haunted Manor on Sunday night at 7pm. Immediately, the followers and subscribers commented urging her no to do it. Sarah was confused. The comments were usually very encouraging and positive. She didn't understand why suddenly they were opposed with such vigor. Sarah was more encouraged to go for it. That's how she got to where she is, by defying the haters.
Sunday night came around in no time. She brought her usual gear. She's lived in the city all her life and didn't recall a time when someone mentioned this place once. It was a charming looking house, though it needed a lot of work to bring out its original Victorian charm. She positioned her body cam on her self and checked the mic for sound and went inside the house with Jimmy. Her phone went crazy with comments and DMs. She ignored them and proceeded. She was a professional.
The house looked much bigger from the inside. The massive front door slammed shut on its own. Jimmy screamed. Sarah rolled up her eyes and made fun of him in front of her viewers.
"Ahh Jimmy, just letting you know, we're live buddy" She said with an undertone of being annoyed.
They proceeded down the wide hallway. To the right, Sarah saw her SUV parked on the front yard. Jimmy scanned the interior with his camera. The walls were littered with paintings of people wearing old fashioned clothes. Jimmy was scared out of his mind and couldn't wait to get out of here. Sarah had reached the end of the hallway but Jimmy was still some twenty feet behind her. Sarah was doing her usual thing of ramping up the atmosphere for her viewers and answering live questions. She quickly looked behind her to see that Jimmy was way behind her.
"Catch up will you!" She yelled, "See what I have to deal with guys" She addressed the viewers.
Sarah turned the corner.
Jimmy ran to catch up and turned left into where Sarah had gone.
She was gone.
"Sarah!" Jimmy yelled
Sarah was too engrossed in entertaining her live audience to notice that Jimmy had vanished. She walked another thirty feet without looking back. Eventually, one of the fans commented that they can't see Jimmy. A little annoyed, Sarah walked back to the corner. But she realized that something wasn't right. She walked for minutes on end and the hallway was no where from ending. The same paintings continued for miles on end.
"Jimmy!" Sarah yelled, worried.
"Guys, haha, we're having a technical difficulty, I'll be right with you"
Sarah turned the camera off and ran further down the hall where she turned left. It was of no avail. The house was big but not that big, that the hallway went on for miles. All the windows facing the lawn had all disappeared. Sarah was a tough girl. She knew there must be a rational explanation for this. Maybe a secret passage that she came into unwittingly. She kept on trying to stay in reality. But every time she moved the deeper she was falling in. In desperation, Sarah turned the camera on to see if her fans could help. They were all gone.
Still, Sarah kept her wits about her. She turned around. There were endless rows of doors that she was sure weren't there a second ago. As she passed them, she could hear people inside, talking and laughing. Sarah decided to knock. No answer. She turned the old fashioned brass door knob but seemed to be locked. She could still hear peoples' voices coming from the inside. She knocked harder and harder yelling for someone to help her. She looked though the keyhole and there was a man sitting on an arm chair and a woman finally walked towards the door.
What happened was totally unexpected, unimagined.
Sarah was happy that someone had finally opened the door but there was something very strange about the woman. She appeared to be a figure of a female but not quite. She had two little black holes for eyes, no nose or mouth. She resembled a bad computer rendition of a person and she was gently floating in mid air. She seemed to be distressed at the sight of Sarah and was saying something but Sarah could understand what she was saying. Sarah didn't know what to do. She wasn't scared as much she was perplexed. She looked inside the room and saw that the man on the arm chair had the same features and there was a kid on the floor kind of mimicking playing with a toy or an object but she couldn't see anything. Sarah could only come to a conclusion that what she was seeing were real life ghosts. She quickly took out her camera to take pictures, but when she fired it up, the figures were all gone.
"That was a trip" Sarah told her self. She went inside the room and looked outside the window. It was a little creepy. There was a cemetery. The drop to the ground was only some eight feet and there were hedges on the walls. Sarah climbed down and looked around. It wasn't quite totally dark, more like early dawn or dusk. It was weird. She looked around the tombstones. There were three tombs lined up side by side. Sarah went in for a closer look.
It read "Here lies Kate, Michael and little Joseph. May their souls rest in peace"
These must be the figures she saw in the room up there. There were other tombs. Some ten feet away, there was brand new stone that looked as though it was placed here yesterday. Sarah suddenly got spooked. She leaned in.
Sarah's eyes felt like they were burning.
It read "Here lies Sarah Bishop, the world's biggest internet celebrity that no one will miss"
Without hesitation, Sarah turned around to climb up back into the room.
The house was gone. It was now an endless field of tombstones.
Jimmy must have searched the house for hours for Sarah and she was no where to be found. After about an hour, he called the police and the search continued for the next two years without a trace of Sarah.
It's been more that three years since Sarah disappeared and her legend grew larger by the day. Every weekend her dedicated followers visit the Haunted Manor in the hope of finding some sort of a clue. Some say they could hear Sarah broadcasting from the hallways of the Manor.
Written by DK 2021.