The Mansion (8 page)

Tony pushed himself up onto his knees and
looked around, wiping his nose and chin with his sleeve. His eyes
widened when he saw the large amount of blood smeared on the
material. He looked at his friend, who continued to moan while
lying on his back and holding his arm. Tony then looked back up the
staircase, expecting to see the three children, but they were
gone.

He spat a mouthful of blood that had drained
from his nose through his nasal cavity onto the floor.

‘Come on, we got to get out of here,’ he said
to Jeremy.

He knelt next to his friend and began to aid
him, first into a sitting position and then, once he himself had
gotten to his feet, he helped Jeremy into a position where he could
get his feet underneath him and allow Tony to pull him up by the
armpits. Once they were both standing, they slowly began to walk
towards the lights and sounds of the dining room, pushing through
the invisible barrier of spinning dust and dirt.

As they entered the dining room, all the
laughter stopped. The broad-shouldered man at the head of the table
stood and smiled at them as he beckoned them in.

‘You have finally made it,’ he said.

The two remaining investigators froze. They
then felt cold hands push them into the room. They both looked
around and saw several young children. The girls all had large
white dresses while the boys wore black bow ties on their white
shirts. They all pushed the two men further into the room. Both
Jeremy and Tony tried to stop their momentum by leaning back and
pushing against the cold force, but their legs kept moving forward.
Soon they found themselves being pushed onto a chair that had been
pulled from the table by a couple of men, who bowed and, as they
sat, they then returned to their own chairs. The children then
moved around the room, each one standing behind a person sitting on
a chair.

‘I am so glad you could join us at this
special time,’ the man at the head of the table said.

Tony looked at all the faces of the people
sitting at the table and noticed their pale complexions. Their
clothing and hairstyles were of an early Victorian time. He then
noticed the partly eaten body of a man, its side and stomach open
and revealing a cavernous void where its intestines should have
been.

Jeremy gasped and gagged as if he were about
vomit. He had seen the head of his friend and fellow investigator,
John. The top of his head had been removed and a large silver
handle protruded from it. Tony heard his friends gagging sound, and
it distracted him from staring at the cooked flesh on the body. He
looked at Jeremy and then followed his gaze until he saw the head.
Tony could do nothing more than stare. There was no thought or
emotion present at that moment—just the vision of the head.

‘As you can see, your friends have agreed to
join us on this special night—a night when we will all become
one—one with each other and one with this great house,’ the man
said.

His words slowly began to fill the
emotionless and empty void of Tony. For a moment there was no
sound, and then his inquisitive inner voice began to ask what the
man meant.

‘I can answer that for you my friend,’ the
man said, smiling at him.

Tony began shaking his head. He was sure he
had not said anything out loud.

‘In this house, all voices can be heard. All
thoughts can be seen, and all fears and desires can become a
reality,’ the man continued.

Tony again shook his head and looked
nervously at Jeremy, whose pale skin had an almost green hue to it.
Jeremy swayed lightly back and forth as the pain from his arm
engulfed his body.

‘What we believe is that once the body has
expired, its spirit or energy can be utilized to help us stay here
in our own paradise. This house has been passed down from
generation to generation—its secrets and rituals handed on to the
next member of the family. The family lineage died out, but we
found a way to live on. Sacrifice of the innocent, the taking of
the will of someone feeds us—it feeds the house and all that are
tied to it through blood.’

Tony looked at all the people sitting at the
table. They all smiled and nodded. He then noticed the sculpture of
antlers begin to move. It swayed gently as if being blown by a
gentle breeze. It then began to rotate.

The man looked up at the sculpture and then
at Tony and Jeremy and continued.

‘We can give you all that you desire. All you
have to do is to give in to us. Your friends have allowed us to
share their spirit and energy in exchange for their deepest
desires. As you can see,’ he said, pointing up at the
sculpture.

Jeremy looked up at the two bodies that
slowly moved with each other as the sculpture moved, their
nakedness and contorted position looking like a page from the Kama
sutra, except that in several places antlers protruded from them.
He then began to throw up on the table space in front of him.

‘What…have…you…done?’ Tony stuttered.

‘The man desired the woman, and the woman had
deep feelings for him, so they received their gift. Each other,’
the man said, smiling.

Jeremy suddenly shot to his feet and kicked
back the chair. He turned and ran to the open doorway. The children
in the room all looked at him as he left, their faces momentarily
disfigured. Tony saw their faces and gasped, their real identity
revealed: blackened, cracked skulls.

Jeremy ran through the corridor and reached
the front door. Even with his arm still being cradled by his
un-injured limb, he still managed to launch a heavy kick at them.
The loud bang as his foot crashed against the solid oak door echoed
around the open hallway. He could feel the cold wind begin to swirl
around him, signaling the arrival of a spirit or spirits. He ran
back up the stairs, bounding two at a time, until he reached the
hallway with all the bedroom doors. He paused, briefly noticing
they were all open, and looked back over his shoulder and noticed a
spinning vortex of dust and dirt ascending the stairs. He ran along
the hallway until he found the room with the large window. The
strange grey light from the snow outside still cast an eerie
luminance in the room. He ran to the window and kicked at it. The
window vibrated, and he stepped back and kicked it again. Still it
didn’t give in. He looked it up and down, searching for any signs
of weakness. He then peered out through it and stepped back
quickly. Gathered on the snow-covered lawns were hundreds of black,
misty shapes. Bright white eyes blinked at him. A sudden blast of
cold air made him shudder, and he turned quickly to see two boys
standing at the door, their faces full of anger. He heard a giggle
and saw two girls lying on the bed, their lower legs being kicked
alternatively in a playful manner as they rested their chins on
their interlocked fingers. There was a flicker of black against the
grey light, and two more children appeared, a young boy and girl
holding hands, their blank, expressionless faces staring at him. He
could feel his heart pounding against his chest. His mind was full
of a strange, loud nothingness, and he couldn’t think straight. He
could hear only white noise as his brain and emotions exploded
within him.

‘You are not allowed to leave.’ The sudden
sound of several children’s voices filled his head.

His whole body shook; he was finding it hard
to breathe. Through complete fear, he turned and threw his whole
body at the large window. The sudden shattering sound of glass
pierced the grey night sky. He stumbled briefly before falling. He
felt a moment of peace settle over him, and time slowed down; he
felt like he was falling for an age. He had time to hope that the
fall would end his torment. He waited for the ground to arrive, but
it never did.

As Jeremy burst through the window, the dark
shadowy figures quickly began to swarm around him, their dark
energy swallowing him up.

Tony sat motionless in his seat, his mind
full of questions. Even in a state of terror, he could still find
himself questioning everything.

‘You want to know about your friend on the
table? He wanted to be desired and have women enjoy his body,’ the
man said, laughing.

Tony managed to force out a question, his
voice broken by fear.

‘Why are you doing this?’

The man sat back down in his chair and lifted
his glass of wine.

‘Tonight is a special night. The moon is
full, and the house is alive with energy. A celestial alignment has
allowed us to roam free,’ he said.

Tony sat shaking his head, his eyes fixed on
the twisting sculpture. Each time the two entwined bodies of his
investigating friends appeared, his eyes widened.

‘We’ve been waiting for you for a long time,’
the man at the head of the table said.

Tony looked at him with confusion.

‘What do you mean?’

‘The world beyond the one you live in is full
of opportunity. There is no such thing as distance or time. You can
travel and hear everyone and everything. We heard your prayers of
wanting to visit here. Our living relatives allowed you to be here
on this night,’ the man said with a grin.

Tony shook his head harder and faster.

‘I don’t believe you. You’re just trying to
get into my head,’ Tony shouted.

The man began laughing. He placed his wine
glass on the table and stood once more. He then began speaking out
aloud in Latin.

Tony could do nothing but sit in the chair.
He told himself over and over again to move, but his body refused.
The man’s voice grew louder, Tony could feel the air in the room
become thicker, and then it began to crackle with energy. Little
sparks exploded all around the room.

An ice-cold wind began to circle the room,
picking up the sparks as they exploded and joining them together
until a ring of blue light throbbed above the heads of the guests
sat at the table. The children moved closer to the guests who sat
in front of them. Tony watched as the young girls and boys faces
began to darken. Their flesh began to disappear until all that was
left was burnt and charred skulls. They brought their hands around
to the front of the guests, each child holding a rusty knife. The
guests lifted their heads back as if offering their throats to the
blades that hung a few inches from their skin.

Tony looked back down at the man who had his
arms raised, his hands disappearing into the pulsing blue cloud of
energy. The blue ring became more and more intense as he his voice
grew louder. The sculpture in the center of the table spun faster
and faster until it became almost tornado-like.

The man at the head of the table suddenly
stopped his chanting and removed his hands from the ring of energy.
When he opened his eyes, they were a shiny black color.

Tony watched as the children drew their rusty
blades across the throats of the men and women sitting at the
table. No blood escaped the open wounds, only a dark haze that
flowed like smoke up into the ring of energy. Once the last of the
black smoke of their spirit had escaped the bodies of the guests,
they fell forward, their faces smashing into the plates and food
that lay in front of them.

Tony could feel his heart pounding against
his chest. The anxiety and fear that had welled up inside of him as
he sat and watched the spectral deaths of the guests blocked any
rational thought. He could feel his spirit fighting against
whatever force was keeping him in the seat. Suddenly he was free.
The sudden release caused him to shoot to his feet. The children
all looked at him and began to shriek, their high-pitched wails
forcing him to cover his ears as he bolted to the door.

‘There is no escape my friend,’ the man at
the head of the table shouted just before he faded away.

As Tony reached the door, he had an urge to
turn and look back. The sight of the room changed before him like a
reseeding tide; half the room was still dressed in all it's
splendor and brightly lit and still decorated, while the other half
was returning to the darker old room that the team had used as a
base camp for their monitors and equipment. On both sides of the
room the children still stood, their charred and burned skulls
screaming at him.

He ran through to the front door and charged
at it. He tucked his head down in preparation for the impact of his
shoulder against the door and closed his eyes. The heavy thick-set
door didn’t even budge. He found himself rebounding and sliding
along the floor.

A blast of cold air alerted him to another
presence. He didn’t want to wait to find out whom or what was going
to appear; he just wanted out. He pushed himself to his feet, not
even noticing the little pool of blood left by the open gash in his
chin, reopened the moment he crashed into the door.

He ran back towards the dining room and
almost fell over his team’s equipment and monitors. There were no
other people or any sign of the ring of blue energy that had hung
above the table moments earlier. He quickly looked up at the
sculpture and noticed it was back to its darkened, empty self. He
moved through the adjacent door and down a small corridor and burst
into the kitchen, the darkness of the room causing him to come to a
complete stop just inside. He could not see or hear anything; he
backed up until he was standing next to the open door. He ran his
right hand up and down and along the wall, feeling for a light
switch. His eyes searched the darkened room ahead of him, and he
made several passes of where he thought the switch would be before
looking at the wall in the dim light and seeing the little
round-tipped switch. He quickly flicked it down and returned his
gaze to the room.

The room sat empty; the pots and pans that
hung above the large table slowly began to move. He then felt the
cold air begin to swirl around his legs before increasing in
intensity and height. The clanging of the pots and pans caused a
sudden electric charge to run up his back. He spun around,
searching the room as the cold wind continued to increase in
speed.