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[FILE: LILA_VLOG_POV.MP4]
[LOCATION: THE NORTH WING – THE GALLERY OF REFLECTIONS]
Lila Monroe was the "Face" of the group. On their YouTube channel, she was the one who did the makeup tutorials and the "Haunted Aesthetic" outfit checks. Even in a house of horrors, she couldn't resist the allure of the Gallery—a long, narrow hallway lined with towering, floor-to-ceiling gilded mirrors.
"Guys, the lighting in here is actually insane," Lila whispered to her camera, her voice trembling but her influencer instincts still kicking in. "It’s like... every mirror shows a different version of me."
She stopped in front of a mirror that looked older than the rest. The glass was warped, giving her reflection a strange, fluid quality.
Click. Click. Click.
The sound of a metronome began to bleed through the air vents. Lila’s head tilted. Behind her reflection in the glass, a shadow appeared. Dr. Vane stood there, but when she turned around, the hallway was empty. He was only in the mirror.
"Lila," the reflection of Vane whispered. "You spend so much time pretending to be pretty. Pretending to be human. Wouldn't you like to be... something simpler? Something without a soul to worry about?"
"I... I have to find Maya," Lila murmured, but her feet wouldn't move. She was staring into her own eyes in the mirror.
"Look higher, Lila. See the girl in the glass? She’s leaving. She’s going back into the cage. And the beast is coming out. 4... 7... Give me the white."
Lila’s eyes began their slow, sickening ascent. As the brown of her irises vanished, her posture shattered. Her spine curved, her knees bent, and her fingers curled into claws against the cold marble floor.
[FILE: VLOG_MAYA_MAIN.MP4]
[LOCATION: THE GALLERY ENTRANCE]
"Lila? We heard a noise!" Maya shouted, sprinting into the hallway with Oliver and Sophia close behind.
They stopped dead.
Lila was on all fours in the center of the gallery. Her expensive lace dress was torn at the shoulder, and her designer boots had been kicked off. She wasn't standing like a human. She was crouched low, her head twitching with the bird-like precision of a predator.
"Lila?" Sophia whispered, her voice breaking. "Are you okay?"
Lila turned her head a full ninety degrees. Her eyes were stark, brilliant white—two blank marbles catching the light of Maya’s camera.
"Cluck... cluck..."
The sound was low, guttural, and horribly distorted. Lila began to hop. Not a playful hop, but a heavy, mechanical movement. She tilted her head and pecked at the floor, her forehead cracking against the marble with a sickening thud.
"She’s... she’s a chicken?" Oliver gasped, holding his tablet up. "No, wait... the frequency just changed."
A bell chimed over the speakers.
Lila’s behavior shifted instantly. She dropped her belly to the floor, her tongue lashing out to lick her own wrist. She began to hiss, her back arching, her movements becoming lithe and feline. She prowled toward Maya, her white eyes fixed on the camera lens.
"She’s not just one animal," Maya whispered, tears streaming down her face as she kept the camera steady. "She’s a loop. He’s cycling her."
Lila let out a haunting, canine howl that echoed through the stone hallway. She lunged at a velvet curtain, shredding it with her fingernails, her face set in that same vacant, horrific grin they had seen on Ethan.
"The viewers..." Oliver looked at his tablet, his face pale. "The live-stream chat is going crazy. They think it's CGI. They’re donating... they're paying to see what animal she turns into next."
"Lila, stop it! Please!" Maya screamed.
But Lila was gone. She was a biological puppet, her mind deleted, her body a toy for a man who wanted to see how far a human could be bent before she broke. She began to gallop in a circle, her movements a grotesque parody of a horse, while the metronome in the walls kept the beat.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
From the darkness at the end of the hall, Dr. Vane’s voice drifted toward them. "She’s much more popular this way, don't you think? No ego. Just... instinct."
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