“Anyway, the door to my laboratory is over here.”

Alis missed the words, but snapped back to reality at the sound of Viktors’ voice.

She gave a few quick looks around the room, confused, then walked in silence toward Viktor.

He was standing in front of a large door that looked different from all the others. It was a solid black wrought iron door. The designs on it were very medieval, as if it were a re-purposed castle door.

“I made this area my personal lab when we got here. From my understanding, they built the estate from the remains of an old demolished castle. Rather than remove all traces of it, they simply re-purposed everything below ground level. There are catacombs beneath us, and more hidden passages than you could imagine.”

“Oh, so you’re leading me into an old castle dungeon, huh? Should I grab the old flame torch from my car?”

Alis giggled at the thought.

“Well, you’re half right. We are descending into a part of the old dungeons. If you can believe it, someone was even so courteous as to bring it up to a modern level or two.”

He winked at her as he flipped a light switch just inside the door.

They descended the old stone spiral staircase into the basement area. Viktor’s lab truly impressed Alis. Halfway down the stairs, the ambient hum of machinery began softly, and grew louder as they walked. Many odd steampunk style machines mingled with modern age parts and machinery. The lab was dimly lit, but alive with colorful blinking, pulsating, and glowing lights.

As soon as they crossed the threshold into the lab proper, the loud screech of the metal door slamming startled Alis.

With his hands stretched high and resting on the door, Viktors’ head hung low, as if disappointed with something.

“Ok. Now that we’re here, I can finally relax.”

He turned back to her. Something had changed in his demeanor. She could see it in his face, but what it was she couldn’t tell.

“Alis. There are some things you need to know about this place. Foremost, I’m not the caretaker here.”

Immediate panic welled up as the meaning of that statement sank in.

“WHAT!? Then who are you? I’m warning you, I’m armed and I will defend myself.”

With a quick hand, she reached into her purse and raised it up slightly.

Viktor threw his hands up in surrender.

“No, no, it’s nothing like that, I swear. If you’ll sit with me a moment here, I’ll answer all your questions and explain. Please.”

He motioned toward a rather large antique desk at the other end of the room as he took his seat behind.

Following his lead, she hesitantly took one of the two seats opposite him. Her hand never leaving her purse. A clear warning.

“Right then. How about I go first and explain things, then I’ll answer anything you wish? Sound good?”

She nodded at him in agreement.

He sucked a deep breath in, clasp his hands, and let it out.

“Ok. So, everything I told you before is true except for the caretaker fib. I apologize for that, though there is a good reason. You see, I and my associates are here investigating the disappearances. I assume you heard the rumors in town?”

She nods.

“This estate has a long, long, blood-soaked history. There was once a count who lived here. The organization removed him from recorded history because of the atrocities he committed here, on these very grounds. The legend goes he was once a peaceful count who treated his subjects right. Giving more than he took. Providing employment for his people, he opened the doors of his royal home to all who were hungry, in need of shelter, or other amenities. He ordered the construction of the castle for those reasons alone. He never needed nor wanted any kind of status.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Sounds like quite the character. You’d hardly find that level of basic human kindness these days. “

“You are quite right. This was a man looked up to by many, even actual saints, to hear the tales. Not long after the completion of the project, his mind degraded. Madness would slowly consume him. He’d get violent with his people often, and began ordering executions for the smallest issues, regardless of criminal standing. This wasn’t the worst of it, though.”

He looked down at his desk. His eyes blank and mind miles away.

“The story goes he’d host these grand parties. During these parties, people disappeared. Not just from the party, either. Every party ended with mass disappearances from all over the country. At some point, the townsfolk nearby tired of the extravagant parties, the madness, and everything about the count. They’d had enough. A mob formed to raid the castle late one night. They stormed the castle after a party had ended, knowing that most or all the guards would be too intoxicated to do anything. What they found deep within the catacombs of the castle left a stain on history forever, even on the land itself. Many of the disappeared villagers were subject to a most twisted form of sacrificial ritual by the count.”

The dim lights of the laboratory flickered in the ensuing silence. Alis couldn’t imagine what would drive such a noble count to this level of madness.

“Does anyone know why the count did it, or for that matter, how?”

"Supposedly, the count had become the thrall of something beyond us. Many called it an evil god, others called it a devil. According to rumor, the count had gained divinity, and with it, all the associated powers. Though, to keep this divinity, he was required to pay tribute to the being that he pledged his loyalty to. To do so, he offered more than their lives. Their lusts, fears, pain. This being fed on intense feeling. Until the mob discovered him, he’d sated the being by letting it feed on the raw chaos he created with the villagers who disappeared. They were bound by unknown means, some say magick. Forced to endure the throes of pain, pleasure, and torture. As one book described it."

He made air quotes with his hands.

“It was a genocidal orgy of torture and the most depraved sexual acts imaginable.”

A look of disgust crossed her face.

“I’m not so sure I want to hear those intimate details.”

He nods at her.

“You and me both. When the mob arrived, they were naturally upset and wrathful. Naturally, as it goes with heinous super villains, the count easily wiped the floor with the mob. In a frenzy, he killed everyone. At the castle, in the town, and some even the few towns nearby. Old survivor accounts say he was ‘taken’ by the evil god he served. No one knows if that means literally, or if the god killed him. Only that he disappeared after that horrible night, never seen or heard of again.”

“I—”

She stopped short of her thought.

That was quite the story, though Alis still had many questions. More now than before.

“So, what does all this have to do with my deed and checking out this estate? Why the need to come to this lab?”

He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head.

“Well, you see. This is the event that cursed the lands here, creating an ‘Ethereal Distortion’. This is when many people experience powerful emotion together, as a large group. Think of catastrophes or large celebrations. Human emotion is a powerful and amazing thing. In mass concentrations, it resonates and charges the Aeth in an area and causes the distortion event. The distortion at its core is a thinning of the barrier between worlds that we call, The Veil. Anywhere an ethereal event happens, you get paranormal happenings. My group is here to investigate, because there’s been a rise in supernatural activity. So much so that we could read the energy levels from all over the world. All pinpointing and converging here.”

Alis couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was he serious about believing in science? All the machinery would point to yes, but this talk of the paranormal?

“Pardon my skepticism, but I don’t believe in the supernatural. How could you, a man of science, believe such things?”

“Well, see. That’s the simple part. I’ve experienced it, it helps that I’ve such a curious mind, I can’t sleep until I find a solution to any problem I work on. My therapist likes to say “.” He’s wrong though, I’m just an enthusiastic study.

He flashes her a knowing grin.

“I believe science will eventually find all the answers to all things. For now, the paranormal is the only word we have for these things that we don’t understand, but exist. Surely you haven’t been so oblivious of the phenomenon happening since you arrived? Hearing voices in the hallway, seeing my magick trick.”

An image flashed before Alis’ eyes and she froze. The man at the gate.

Every hair on her body stood on end.

“I-the man at the gate!”

“What man?”

“The man from before, when I arrived at the gate to the estate. That wasn’t you?”

His face crinkles in confusion.

“No, I only met you in the parking lot. I’d just been out to a storage nearby and found you on the way back.”

Her eyes widened, fear’s icy grip closing in.

“There was a man just past the gate, right at the curve. Well, it was a silhouette of a man. He had a red glowing… aura? I guess is the right word?”

Viktor’s relaxed demeanor disappeared, and he lunged forward.

“Alis! What did this man do? Anything of note?”

The concern in his voice wasn’t helping her anxiety here.

“No, he just watched me for a moment. I recall the wind picked up and nearly blew me over, though. Why, what’s this about?”

Fear was clear on his face, plain as day. As easy to see as her own, and that scared her even more.

“Alis, Igor and I have seen a lot here. This man isn’t one of them. That’s something new. Going off that description, a much, much more worrisome issue, though. That aura means whoever he is, he can manipulate Aeth at a top level. And Alis.”

He pauses, trying to find the best way to word what was coming next.

“We’ve only known of one person with a distinctly red aura connected to this land.”

Her body trembled as the heightened anxiety further took root.

“W-who?”

He paused and swallowed the air with force.

“The Count.”