The mansion was set way back from the road. More than a mile and the trees splintering and storm raging made the moonlight struggle to shine with black streaks of darkness from the storm. Finally after 15 minutes of stumbling in the dark to stay on the path, they see the flickers of the main house. Lights in the windows guided them into a large formal garden full of ghastly statues and sickly ponds. The place might have been nice once, now it was just a haven for nesting spiders and owls.
Rick struggled to find the key. He thinks he brought it but isn’t totally sure. Checking his pockets and looking at a more and more cold and alarmed Jennifer, he remembers he stuck it in his sock. Sounds like cataclysmic violence in the forrest startle them. Sounds like only an earthquake or rockslide could make. Deafening sounds of geologic violence. Rick tried the old skeleton key and had no luck. Twisting it trying to get it in the lock. Jennifer smiled and in one deft move gets it to slide in and turn.
Opening the heavy wood door to a dark hall beyond. Inside was dry as a bone but something here felt off. The cavernous space of the entry hall was strewn with dead leaves and muddy footprints. A statue was knocked over of some female divinity and the angelic faces on the ornate brass wall lamps had a look of extreme hate on their cold faces. Rick tried to remember where the relic was supposed to be.
Somewhere in an adjacent drawing room. In the blackness they could make out the rose colored glass of a room beside them to the right, beyond the hall way stairs in the far end and pools of total blackness to the left where roman pillars opened to another room that gave off unpleasant vibes. They tried the glass doors to the right and it opened. Inside was a cozy room with french couches of another era, books covering the walls and relics of a lifetime of learning.
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The relic wasn’t here and Jennifer had to use the bathroom. Rich vaguely remembered there was one off the kitchen and several more upstairs but the layout of the house was not as he remembered it. Where he thought the kitchen would be was another dark hallway that led to an outdoor courtyard and rooms that looked like they were full of abandoned medical equipment and ominious devices under white sheets.
Exploring more they found a maze of disused annexes, servants quarters and porticos that seemed to lead to endless other buildings that seemed to be in less and less of a lived in state. Jennfier was ready to pee her pants so she set off alone with his lighter to relieve her self at the first oppertunity. Rick tried to find the study where the relic should be. Beside Jennifer he felt like a protective knight and protector. Alone in the sprawling hallways he felt like he wanted to run as fast as he could and sleep in the safety of the car.
He keeps stumbling over books strewn about the floor. “Current practices in vivisection, a modern guide to dissection” “West Mansion, scar on the face of the Earth” “Mayan incantations and death rituals” “Demons and Demigods of the Hebrew Bible” “Spiritual manifestations, a new take on the Afterlife, death and journeys to the underworld in classical fiction” Thoughts of horrid faces lurking in the dark, whispers in empty rooms and antechambers filled him with dread. A feeling of panic washed over them as sounds came from the opposite direction of where Jennifer went.
Rick didnt know if he should follow her or investigate the sounds of running and crashing coming from where they had just come from. He wants to check on her but is scared he might interupt her trying to wipe her ass or come off as a pervert, but he cant stay here. He needs to pick a direction and commit to it. At least wanting to peek at whats going on, he moves to a doorway to get a look. It's the police!