**A Gruesome Family Horror**

It started like every Sunday night.

The Harper family sat around the dining table:

**Dad**, always in control, sipping his whiskey.

**Mom**, forcing a smile, hiding her shaking hands.

**Tyler** and **Maddie**, teenage twins constantly bickering.

And little **Noah**, giggling as he shuffled a deck of cards far too big for his hands.

Mom set down an old wooden box.

"Let’s try something new tonight," she said. "It belonged to my grandmother. A game she made up."

The box had no instructions, only a sliding lid and a phrase carved into the top:

**“Each turn is a truth. Each truth has a cost.”**

Inside:
A deck of hand-painted cards.
A glass bowl filled with white marbles.
And a **silver bell** — small, old, and somehow wet to the touch.

They drew cards.

🃏** ROUND ONE**

****

**Dad’s card:**

“Ring the bell, and say what you’ve done.”
“Or the house will show us.”

He scoffed. “Fine. I cheated on your mother. Happy now?”

The bell rang. Once.

The lights flickered.

Then **Mom vomited up her wedding ring**, blood gurgling in her throat.

Dad’s chair snapped backwards, slamming him into the wall. His mouth filled with **live cockroaches**, pouring out of his eyes and ears.

“TRUTH ACCEPTED,” the game whispered in a voice no one wanted to believe was **the house itself.**

🃏** ROUND TWO**

****

**Maddie’s card:**

“Reveal what you buried. Or be buried.”

She laughed. “I didn’t bury anything.”

The house disagreed.

Her skin bulged.

A **rotting cat** clawed its way from her stomach, ripping its way through her intestines. She screamed as fur, bone, and bile slid from her midsection.

Noah screamed. Tyler puked.

The card floated into the air and burned.

🃏** ROUND THREE**

****

**Tyler’s card:**

“Tell them what you saw. Or let them see for themselves.”

He froze.

Dad, bleeding from the mouth, choked, “What did you see?”

Tyler whispered, “I saw Mom drown Noah’s twin in the bathtub when we were little…”

Silence.

Mom’s smile cracked. Her hands began to shake violently.

Then the **bathtub appeared**, filled with black water. Screams echoed from inside.