I was completely broken. All that effort for nothing! Goddammit, we’re still dying, it’ll be my turn soon enough!
Nobody bothered to keep searching for a way out for the past couple of days. Nobody saw a single reason to do it, we were all doomed either way. I spent my days mostly lying in bed, sometimes leaving to force feed myself so as to not die in a more painful way that I assumed I would in the near future. It was a horrid existence, a fate worse than anything I could’ve imagined.
Soon after the discussion, I gave Amy my journal. I no longer had the intention of writing anything down in it, plus she needed to catch up, so it was a good decision. I managed to come to terms with Amy’s return, and regained my trust in her.
I remembered what Naomi had told us at the end of the discussion. She mentioned how she “sacrificed” herself to be our leader. It showed just how delusional she had become, but in some way, I regretted judging her words. If someone else had died instead of her, she would’ve forced us to work, to dig ourselves out of this mess, yet even after knowing that she could and would do that, I did not move a muscle. She was more of a moody boss than a true leader, but that was better than nothing. It was enough to distract me from the feeling of losing control over my life.
Evelyn regained consciousness the morning after the discussion, but I didn’t talk to her, nothing she could’ve said would’ve been of any help to me. I assumed that she saw a clue in her dreams, like how I had managed to figure out where the third group was hiding..
After seemingly endless self-pity, I was thirsty again, so I decided to go to the kitchen. I forced my body through the hallway, but right as I was about to go down the stairs, I was stopped by Evelyn.
“There you are, “ she said.
“Oh, hi Evie!” I replied in a less energetic tone than usual.
“Can you come to my room for a second? It’s urgent.”
“Sure,” I really wanted to refuse, but for reasons unknown to me, I followed Evelyn into her room.
“Alright, I must ask you something.”
“Go ahead, I’ll try my best to answer.”
Without a warning, Evelyn slapped me across the face.
“What has gone into you?” she asked me, “Petra, you were the voice of reason, someone who wanted to push further. And what has come of you?”
“What are you talking about?” I acted confused even though I knew exactly what her words meant. I was hopeless, but I felt like I had to act even more hopeless than I was if I wanted my despair to feel important enough to be of any notice.
“You’ve been on a steady decline, are you aware of that? Wait, I’ll prepare some tea for us.” Evie walked to the kitchen and I followed her. “Naomi told me loads of stuff about you and everyone else while we were stuck in that big empty room on the third floor. She mentioned your ‘unusual cheerfulness’ that was already somewhat faded by the time we met. I did not worry about that much, it made sense after all. But as more time passed, you continued on a path full of despair. Are you even fighting it now?”
“Of course I’m trying to feel better!” I tried responding in a more cheerful tone, but it was obvious to both of us that the happiness was fake.
“You do not understand me, dear. I am not trying to force you into being happy. Misery is quite natural. In actuality, I’m afraid that you’re running away from reality. In the beginning, you faked a smile to cheer everyone up akin to a clown at some kid’s birthday party, now you can’t handle it anymore, so you’re losing your mind.”
“And what do you think I can do about it? There’s nothing left to do!”
“How troublesome…” Evelyn whispered to herself.
“Evie, I don’t think you’re looking at this the right way. I did act happier than I really was, it was just something that I had to do so as not to push others into an even deeper sorrow. Everything is different now, back then we assumed that we had a chance of escape. If we’re doomed, what’s the point of thinking about such tiny details?”
“Indeed, your argument is somewhat decent. However, we are not doomed. We’ll never be.”
“How are you so sure?”
“Oh yes, you weren’t present when I was explaining what I witnessed while I was unconscious.”
“Please don’t rely on that! That’s just Lucia messing with your brain, I know! The same thing happened to me.”
“Incorrect. I did not receive a clue of any sort, I received a message of hope, I received it from a divine being.”
Divine being? Is she really going that far? I can’t seem to figure out if she is completely serious or if she just wants to give me some sort of hope. Evie has her fair share of unusual beliefs, but she’s not insane!
“What did you see in your dream?” I asked.
“I cannot describe the location precisely. There were too many colors and shapes for me to make out anything. In fact, I felt like there was no solid ground below me, but I wasn’t falling either. Then I saw Lucia, she was in front of me for a couple of seconds. She did not utter a single word or move even an inch, she merely stood there for a bit and then faded away, practically becoming one with the air. After that, a strange feeling took over me, quite similar to a shock in my opinion. That was to prepare me for what was going to happen next.”
Evelyn paused for a second, she still seemed deeply affected by whatever she was going to talk about.
“You don’t have to remind yourself of it if you don’t want to!” I said.
“No, I have to, it’s important. What happened was that everything went to black, I was in a completely empty space. I heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing, smelt nothing, tasted nothing. I felt completely lost for a moment, but then a sharp pain overtook me and words were popping into my head until the pain stopped. I activated a sixth sense. I listened to someone’s words without hearing a sound. I still remember the words clearly. ‘I am not real, no, no, no, not in a physical sense. I am summoned, but your bare eyes cannot summon me! Mendacium visio! Mendacium visio! Mendacia visiones! Bear witness to my creation and I will open up a path of hope!’. I woke up shortly after that, it took me hours to process it, but it should be of great importance to you, Petra.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I expected to hear many things, but nothing even remotely similar to that. The words sounded haunting, and they obviously had meaning. I was skeptical about using it as a clue, but I wasn’t going to forget what Evelyn had told me. What caught my attention the most was “mendacium visio”, it immediately reminded me of the message I saw some time ago. Mendacium, it means “lie”.
It took a moment for me to realize what was laid down in front of me, but when I did figure it out, I felt as if I had been stabbed in the chest by the God of knowledge. Mendivi is short for mendacium visio. Mendacium means lie, visio obviously means vision. So, lying vision! A hallucination, maybe an illusion!
“Petra, are you alright? You look like you saw a ghost.”
“I did see one,” I said, words barely finding their way out of my mind.
“What are you talking about?”
“Lucia.”
“Huh?”
“Lucia isn’t real. She’s just a hallucination. We’re all insane, we’re completely unhinged schizophrenics!”
“Calm down, don’t say things like that. You’re normal, I’m normal, everything will be completely fine. Besides, since when do multiple schizophrenics see the same things?”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m becoming detached from reality. I’m the one who told you to avoid looking for clues, and then I do this, I’m a dumbass!”
Without hesitation, Evelyn slapped me again, it was clear that my whining was annoying her.
“Let’s make a deal,” Evelyn said.
“What kind of deal?”
“I will follow all the clues in our heads and in this mansion. You will completely support me and you will help me out. That will go on until we either escape or until I die. If I die, you can freely give in to the impending doom. Assuming that we’re screwed, my death is practically guaranteed, so why not give it one last shot instead of waiting for these events to end themselves?”
“I don’t know, I can’t stand the fear well enough to continue going down the path you want.”
“Come on, I cannot believe that I’m the one attempting to convince you here. You seem like the person who can get things like these done. Think about your past. I’m guessing you worked hard, your hands are so buff that you could crush my head in a fraction of a second. How did you get to that point, did you only eat and sleep like a toddler until you became strong, or did you work hard? Did you push yourself through a lot of pain and who knows what else? What’s so different here?”
“What’s different here is that I’m risking my life!”
“True, you are risking your life, but if you refuse to risk it, you’ll guarantee its loss. Are you aware of that?”
I didn’t respond. I gave in to her words and simply started crying. I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Why is this happening to me?
“I know what you’re thinking,” Evelyn reached her hand out, “let me save you. The twelve of us that got trapped here are a team, and our team is still living, even with less people. But as long as there are at least two, we can save each other, if not from Lucia, then from our own minds. Make this deal and let us push through with the strength we have left. You help me and I shall do everything in my power to help you.”
“Deal,” I shook hands with Evelyn.
We went to the kitchen where we drank some tea, and I went and washed the dishes afterwards. It helped me calm down, it was a mindless task that kept my body occupied. It felt like a safe spot from all the danger.
Evelyn and I parted ways, and I started heading somewhere, unsure where.
The mansion was way more quiet than usual. I decided to climb up to the second floor and simply walk around until I got an idea of how not to waste my time. I slowly circled around the floor, lost in thought, until I bumped into something in front of me.
I took my eyes off the floor and looked at what was there. Dante!
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!”
“Worry not, I am alright. Is anything apart from the obvious troubling you? I am always eager to aid you.”
“Not really, I’m just thinking of what to do. I made a promise with Evie to help her get out of here.”
“So, she has listened to my words?”
“Your words?”
“Indeed. She was truly broken after we had informed her of Naomi’s death. I brought hope to her. She is far from nihilistic, so I did not have to talk much before she decided to seek salvation. We did negotiate one detail though, I made her promise to not meditate until she was outside.”
“Why’s that important?”
“I view her mediation as a form of prayer, intimacy with the Gods. She gains much comfort from that, but eventually, if she herself is not adequate to solve her own problems, her faith will dwindle away because she will assume that the gods are absent. I do not wish to see that occur.”
“I never thought about it that way.”
“Either way, I am grateful that she heeded my words and decided to spread hope. I must leave now, I have work to finish.”
“Alright, see you soon! But, just wondering, where exactly are you going?”
“I hold nothing against you, but I am unable to tell you. I fear that Lucia is listening somewhere nearby.”
“I see. Then I wish you luck.”
We walked away in opposite directions, I headed towards the third floor. The floor was practically abandoned, so it was rare for anyone to go up there after we had practically checked every corner of all the rooms. After climbing up the stairs, I looked at the long hallway in front of me. The place looked darker than I remembered it being, despite the lights still being turned on. I could practically feel its emptiness.
The bedrooms were locked, but I remembered that they were locked before, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I didn’t even consider entering the library again, even the thought of it reminded me of the night when I killed Alex.
The first room that I entered was the large space that the third group used as a shared bedroom. Most of the stuff inside it was moved long ago, but the room wasn’t empty. Most noticeably, the beds were still there. I moved closer to them and saw that there was a piece of paper on the floor near one of them. There was some text on it, so I picked it up without a second thought. I turned on the lights and read it.
Coming here after the room was abandoned? Perhaps questioning reality or your sanity? Why do you worry so much? You’re going to find the truth sooner or later, you’re not that dumb. Have you not noticed the changed atmosphere here? Doesn’t everything feel emptier, maybe a bit more surreal? Well, it makes sense, most familiar places start feeling less familiar when the events taking place there are different. The traitor is dead, but the threat ahead is worse, isn’t it? Well, that’s not entirely true. The enemy isn’t attacking, it’s merely staring at you, at everyone in the mansion, and that “staring contest” is making everyone lose their minds, even resulting in two deaths so far. What a weird way to lose a battle. Either way, the climax is approaching, so please figure out the secret of this mansion. Lucia has given you everything you need, it’s merely an abstract puzzle at this point. See you soon, my dearest Petra.
-Rose Martel
At first, the message was purely fear inducing, nothing different from what I had expected to see, but when I noticed Rose’s name at the bottom. I was dumbfounded. I quickly shoved the paper into my pocket and ran out of the room. I wanted to think about everything Rose’s message mentioned, but I had no intention of doing it right at that moment. I was afraid of something terrible happening right at that moment, and I had to be with everyone else to give myself even the slightest chance of preventing it.