Marcus has always had a crush on his best friend Oliver.
Marcus met Oliver during the 7th grade. Before that, they hardly knew each other, and they hardly even talked to each other. But that all changed when a mutual friend of theirs introduced them to each other, and they were best friends ever since.
At first, Marcus didn't have any feelings for Oliver. He knew that deep inside he was a closeted bisexual; he knew he liked girls, and that he also liked guys. His feelings only surfaced during the ninth grade, when Oliver started hitting puberty hard. Being a volleyball athlete, Oliver's training built up his skinny body. He grew a little taller, gained leaner muscles, and was fit all around. Marcus especially noticed this when they would hang out after his volleyball training session every afternoon.
But no one knew of Marcus' attraction to Oliver, even Oliver himself; and Marcus wants to keep it that way. He didn't want to ruin their friendship, especially know that they were about to graduate.
Oh, was he in for a big surprise and change (literally).
The day before graduation, Oliver invited Marcus to go explore an abandoned mansion with him. Of course, Marcus was down to go, and the two head off to explore.
Now, this abandoned mansion rumored to be haunted. Years ago, a group of kids went inside to explore. The next day, they went missing and were never heard of again. Rumors have circulated that the mansion was owned by a witch, or was the hideout of a group of criminals. But Oliver didn't care. He wanted to explore the mansion, and to prove to everyone that the mansion wasn't haunted. And besides, he wanted to spend the last day of his high school life exploring and spending time with his best friend Marcus.
"We're here!" Oliver said. Marcus looked, and there right before them was the biggest house one could ever imagine.
"Woah," Marcus said, as he marveled at its strange mystical aura.
"Race you inside. Last one's a chicken!" Oliver shouted as he sprinted towards the main door. Once he got there, he realized that they were locked. "Huh," he said. "Guess we have to find another way in."
"Wanna try the roof?" Marcus asked, to which Oliver nodded. They found a ladder by the side of the mansion, and they both climbed to the top.
However, once they reached the top, Oliver took a step, and immediately the old roof gave in, and he fell to the top floor. "Oooohhh," Marcus remarked. "That must have hurt."
"Shut up," Oliver said, annoyed. "I think the floor's too creaky, and it might be unsafe for you to jump down here with me. I'll just get to the main door and unlock it for you, okay?"
"Okay," Marcus said, as he chuckled. "But be careful. There might be ghosts in there. Oooooooohhhhhhh...."
Marcus started climbing down the ladder. He was thinking of how Oliver suddenly fell from the roof, and how funny that would have looked like from the inside. "I should have brought a camera," he said to himself.
Once he got down, he started to head for the front door. But all of a sudden, he heard a creak, and when he looked for the source of the sound, he realized that a side door had opened. "Hey, I thought you were going to open the main door?" Marcus asked, thinking that it was Oliver who opened it. But when he entered the door, he saw that there was nobody there, He had entered a rusty old kitchen, but Oliver was nowhere to be found. And as if things couldn't get any weirder, another door opened. "Okay man," Marcus said worriedly. "Not funny, bu I'll play along." He entered the door, and realized that it lead to the basement. He thought Oliver was already down there, but once he was far away enough form the door, it immediately shut behind him, and everything went dark. "Yo, Oliver! This is not cool man!" Marcus shouted as he went back towards the door and tried prying it open. But he couldn't see. He took a miss step, and before he knew it, he was tumbling down the basement stairs and landed on the ground with a thud. "I'm gonna kill you when I find you Oliver," he whispered, thinking that this was still all his best friend's doing.
Then, all of a sudden, the basement lit up. Marcus saw that there were torches lined across the walls. They looked something out of a fantasy movie, like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. And by each torch, there was a door, and each door had a symbol carved on it.
Marcus marveled at the room. He was already getting creeped out, and thought that all of this might not involve Oliver after all. "HELLO!" he shouted. "Is anyone here? Look, if you're a criminal or a witch or something, me and my best friend just went here to explore. We didn't mean to intrude. So please, will you let us out?"
Marcus waited for a reply, but he only heard silence. He started walking across the hall of doors and started examining each one. Each door had a unique symbol engraved on it. One head the head of a wolf; another had a bird; and another had the head of a bull. But there weren't just animals engravings. There were also some other strange ones. One had the head of a person with pointed ears, furrowed brows and tusks sticking out of its mouth (Probably an orc, Marcus thought.). One had the engraving of what seemed to be a dragon's head. Another one even had the engraving of a symbol that seemed to look like fire flame.
There countless of other doors with symbols on it, but Marcus wasn't able to look at all of them, because he suddenly heard a voice coming from somewhere. He thought it was Oliver, and tried looking for where it came from. He waited, and he heard the voice again. It was coming from the...