Jonathan gazed around the basement, his eyes seeing but his mind not comprehending

“What the hell is this?” he wondered aloud.

He shook his head as he took in the wall of brutal items, all hung against one wall. Axes knives, a chainsaw, tools for cutting, maiming, impaling. He squinted in the darkness. In the centre of the room was a human-sized table with straps for arms and legs. Over there in the corner was a large metal barred cage. Against one wall, there were manacles. Against another there was a human sized crucifix.

Suddenly Jonathan knew what he was looking at and he swore.

One wall had been reserved for newspaper clippings and Polaroids. Missing persons reports from across the UK. Then there were photos next to the reports, taken inside the basement. The missing people, screaming, their faces flecked with blood.

“Oh god,” Jonathan whispered, and he felt the sudden urge to throw up.

It was a murder room.

There was no other way of putting it.

“Jonathan?” Peter’s voice called from the top of the basement stairs. “What is it? What’s down there?”

“Well, I’ve got the same question,” came Gary’s uncle’s voice. “What’s going on here, then?”

The magician had returned from the McPearson’s farm with Captain Vaughn, and was feigning surprise at Fran’s discovery.

“I think you all better stay up here, whilst I have a look at this, don’t you? It being my property and everything. This is very unusual. Never knew this place had a basement. Ah, Captain Vaughn, why don’t you and your men collect everyone in the living room whilst I look into this? How very peculiar.”

Jonathan heard David’s footsteps coming down the stairs.

“What is all of this?” he demanded as the magician reached the basement.

David looked around at the instruments of torture and death..

“Well, this is just disgusting isn’t it?” he said, “My god, what is all of this?”

“Are you seriously trying to tell me you knew nothing about this?” Jonathan demanded.

“Me? I haven’t been to this property in years. I’ve certainly never seen this basement before.”

He scrutinised the Polaroids and scanned the room.

“This’ll be that nephew of mine, won’t it then. Gary. This must be all his doing. I always knew there was something not right about that one. That’ll explain why he became a zombie, won’t it? And why he was so keen to get you all here.”

“Oh, come off it,” Jonathan said. “You can’t expect me to believe that Gary is behind this. It’s your property, you, you did...”

“Charm person. Now look, Jonathan, what seems more likely to you? That I, an upstanding businessman with no time on my hands, is some kind of serial killer, or that my nephew, the undead nephew at that who spends all his free time hanging out in graveyards, is the freak in the family. In graveyards, Jonathan. Always was a bit of a weird kid. Well, now we know where that has led to, don’t we?”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

David (Level 3 Magician) has cast Charm Person on you to bend you to his will. Make a Level 3 Willpower test to overcome the spell. Level 2 willpower test Critically Failed. You believe the magician!

Jonathan felt his thinking become fuzzy.

“Yeah... yeah, that makes sense,” he said. “That makes perfect sense. It was Gary all along. That’s why he wanted us here... he’s sick, isn’t he? He’s really sick.”

“That’s right,” David smiled congenially, “Mad as a hatter. You’re lucky I showed up when I did or god knows what would have happened. We better tell the others, don’t you think? Warn them and so on?”

“Right, yes, yes, we better do that,” Jonathan nodded.

He ran upstairs to the living room.

“It’s Gary,” he said. “There’s a murder room down there and Gary, Gary, he’s a killer. It’s horrible...”

Jonathan’s exclamation was met with gasps of disbelief.

“Gary?” Chantelle said, “That doesn’t sound right.”

“I’m with Chantelle,” Peter nodded. “That sounds a bit, well, not Gary.”

“I’m telling you,” Jonathan said, “It was Gary.”

Captain Vaughn radioed his men at the McPearson’s through their Personal Role Radios. Everyone heard the slurred message from Sykes. One of the civilians was dead and Gary had killed him.

“There you go,” David said, standing behind Jonathan. “He’s already at it, isn’t he? He always was a freak.”

“I shink he’s heading towardssh you, shir,” Sykes continued.

“Pull yourself together, man,” Captain Vaughn ordered, “And get after him.”

“Yeah,” Goremaster said, “Yeah, that sounds about right. Let’s hunt the fucker and if he has done it, then we put him in the ground.”

“Do you want ush to shoot him, shir?”

Captain Vaughn looked at David.

David shook his head. “Let’s see if we can capture him, hm? I mean, he may be a freak but he’s still family, so I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.”

Captain Vaughn relayed the magician’s instructions.

Chantelle and Peter frowned and gave each other quizzical looks. Fran was too scared to say anything. Silvia just sat on the sofa with her head in her hands.

“Well,” David said with a smile, “This is all exciting, isn’t it?”

Chantelle stood up and then raced to the front door before anyone could stop her.

“Gary!” she shouted out into the night. “GARY! RUN! THEY’RE COMING TO GET YOU! GET OUT OF HERE!”

Her warning was cut short as a soldier dragged her back inside and threw her onto the sofa.

“Get off me, you bastard!”

“I think that’s quite enough of that,” David said, “If you lot can’t behave yourselves then we’ll have to just detain you here for the moment, won’t we? Jonathan, Goremaster, Captain Vaughn and two of your men, I want you to get Gary for me.”

“Sir, are we really doing this?” a soldier muttered to Captain Vaughn.

The captain nodded his head. “We’ve got our orders. There’s a serial killer zombie out there. You know what to do.”

David smiled as everyone sat in silence in the living room, two soldiers guarding them. David beckoned to Fran.

“Why don’t you show me how you found that secret door?” he said, grinning.

“I...no I’d rather not,” Fran said.

“Come on, no need to be shy,” David said, “I just want to see how you did it, that’s all.”

Fran rubbed the palms of her hands on her jeans, then nodded and went into the side-room.

“Keep an eye on this lot, would you?” David said with a wink at the two remaining soldiers in the room.

He followed Fran to the side-room.

“So how was it you found the secret door?”

Fran nervously explained what had happened.

“Right, I see, and then you went down these stairs, did you?”

He beckoned to Fran to repeat the activity. Fran shook her head.

“No, it’s alright,” David smiled, “I just want to understand what happened, that’s all. Nothing to fear.”

Fran felt her better judgement crumbling under the weight of the magician’s plausibility. He’s right, she thought. It must have been Gary, mustn’t it? It can’t be David. He’s a magician like Harry Potter. No, it’s that Gary freak. He’s the one that did all of this.

She walked back down the steps into the basement.

“Wonderful,” David said from behind her. “My god, you really are a stupid cow, aren’t you? Just like all the others. So gullible. So stupid. So not worthy of being alive.”

Fran’s blood froze.

“Hold Person,” the magician said.

The Level 3 Magician has cast Hold Person on you. You cannot move or speak. Make a Level 3 Willpower check.

Fran concentrated on what little Mana she had left. 3 points of it had recovered since she had used it all on the Spot Hidden check earlier, to see if she could break the spell. It was no use.

Willpower check failed.

“Now then,” the magician said with a grin as he stroked the blade of a saw hanging on the wall, “How about we try out that magic trick you wanted to see?”

As hard as she tried, Fran couldn’t scream. She couldn’t say a word at all.

“What was it? Ah, yes. ‘Sawing a woman in half...’”