Echoes of empathy

Lilly walked through the corridor, with only two doors remaining she thought to herself "soon I'll be free". As she walked to the door on the right side she thought about how she'd burn this place down if she would get out of here, how she would return to the mansion and set it ablaze, to stop this from happening to more people. How this place would give her nightmares for the rest of her life. She could never feel safe in the dark again. 

She reached the door, took a deep breath and steadied herself for what was on the other side of the door. 

As she opened the door she saw a bathroom, not one like we know nowadays but old, as time itself stopped. There where lit candles everywhere lighting up the room. A copper coloured stand alone bathtub, which was worn with scratched and faded colours throughout. The walls of the bathroom panelled with stained wood. There was a tall standing mirror in the far right corner, the mirror was intact although some of it was faded and has some hairline cracks in one of the corners. The toilet was nothing more than a wooden box with a hole in it, but it looked clean. To the left side was an old vanity table with a small mirror, some perfumes and make-up laid on top of the table and a small stool in front of the table. The stool was made of some sort of metal, but the sitting was covered with a brown fur of some animal. Unlike many of the other rooms in this house the bathroom actually seemed clean and well maintained, not a forgotten artefact from a time long ago. 

As the door closed behind her Lily didn't even have a second of rest before the bell already tolled. Straight away as the tolling bell echoed throughout the bathroom the candles started to fade, with each toll the darkness crept in on her. As the bell stopped she saw an apparition appear on the stool at the vanity table. It was a woman dressed in mourning attire, a long black gown and a veil covering her face. Her appearance ethereal, with a translucent quality, as if she existed between the realms of the living and the dead. The most striking feature of a this woman was her sorrowful appearance. The woman was crying, her cries echoing throughout the bathroom, as a piercing sound through Lily's body. She felt sorry for the woman but even though she knew the woman was grieving she also felt frightened, after all this mansion had learned her not to trust anything she saw. Despite the eerie surroundings, the tolling of the bell and everything the mansion had thought her, her heart aching with empathy for this poor woman, she slowly stepped towards her, her hand reached out to put on her shoulder, ready to comfort her. 

As she drew near, the ghost's cries seemed to intensify, echoing off the walls of the old bathroom. Lilly reached out a trembling hand, her fingers hovering just inches from the ghostly figure. She wanted to offer comfort, to somehow ease the woman's pain, but she hesitated, unsure of what would happen if she made contact. 

Suddenly, a chill ran down Lilly's spine as she noticed something strange about the ghost's reflection in the mirror. It wasn't just the weeping widow's image staring back at her, but another figure lurking in the shadows behind her. The figure was indistinct, its features obscured by darkness, but Lilly could sense a malevolent presence flowing from it. She wanted to flee, every bone in her body told her to do so, but as she looked at the weeping woman she just couldn't do it. As Lilly stood before the weeping widow ghost, her resolve hardened. Despite the creeping fear in her chest and the malevolent presence she sensed lurking in the shadows, she couldn't abandon the grieving woman to whatever dark forces haunted this mansion.

As Lilly stood in the darkness of the bathroom, the realization dawned on her with chilling clarity. The shadowy figure she had sensed lurking behind the weeping widow was not merely a malevolent presence, it was the very perpetrator of the woman's grief, the one responsible for her untimely demise. Lily took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and spoke, her voice barely above a whisper but filled with determination. "I won't let anything harm you," she vowed. Lilly understood that she had stumbled upon a tragic loop, a spectral re-enactment of the weeping widow's final moments, doomed to repeat itself until someone intervened. And she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was meant to be that someone. Gathering her courage, Lilly focused on the scene playing out before her. She watched as the weeping widow sat at the vanity table, her tears mingling with the flickering candlelight, unaware of the looming threat behind her.

As the shadowy figure materialized, Lilly's heart raced with a mixture of fear and resolve. She couldn't change the past, but she could alter its course, disrupt the cycle of tragedy and set the weeping widow free from her eternal torment. With a swift movement, Lilly stepped forward, placing herself between the weeping widow and her attacker. "Stop!" she commanded, her voice echoing through the darkness with a newfound authority.

The shadowy figure hesitated, its form wavering as if caught off guard by Lilly's intervention. But then, with a deep husky growl, it lunged forward, its intentions clear. Lilly braced herself for the impact, her heart pounding in her chest. But before the shadowy figure could reach its victim, something miraculous happened, the weeping widow's spectral form began to shimmer and fade, her cries echoing into the void.

In that moment, Lilly understood the true power of her actions. By confronting the darkness head on, by refusing to be a passive observer to tragedy, she had broken the cycle, freeing the weeping widow from her spectral prison. As the last echoes of the woman's cries faded into silence, the darkness lifted, replaced by a soft glow of light filtering in through the small window. And though the bathroom remained unchanged, Lilly knew that she had made a difference, that she had brought peace to a troubled soul trapped between worlds. With a sense of relief and pride washing over her she took a moment to acknowledge what just happened, she actually set one of the spirits that was trapped in this mansion free. She could feel the peace and tranquillity in the bathroom, something she not felt in a long time. The memory of the weeping widow's sorrowful cries lingered in Lilly's mind, a touching reminder of the fragility of life and the power of compassion to transcend even the darkest of circumstances. As she left the bathroom behind her she was ready to go through the last door of this corridor.