Slow down, everything will be alright. Just because I’m not watching over anyone doesn’t mean that everything’s gone to shit. They’re not toddlers!

My body wasn’t listening to my mind, my legs only stopped moving once I reached the main hall. The only person there was Blake. He was walking in circles with something in his hands that I couldn’t see clearly, so I approached him.

“Hi Blake!”

“Oh, hey, how’s it going?” he replied in a friendly, but noticeably different tone than usual.

“I’m as good as one can be under these circumstances, and you? What’s that thing you’re holding?”

“It’s just a part of some plan I’m trying out right now,” he said as he moved it behind his back.

“May I know what kind of plan it is?”

“Just something I’m doing with Dante to push us closer to escape. I know that I sound vague, but I feel like Lucia wouldn’t take our plan well if she heard it.”

“Oh, I know, Dante mentioned that he had some work to do, but he refused to give me any details. Don’t worry, I won’t push you for any information!”

Dante and Blake working on something that Lucia shouldn’t hear, and that happening on the day that I find a creepy letter. This can’t end well, I need to do something!

“Blake, where’s Dante right now?”

“Remember that room behind the storage room? The one with the lever?”

“Oh, I know.”

I walked slowly towards it while still in Blake’s sight, but as soon as I was out of the main hall, I took off toward Dante like my life depended on it. Considering the only function of that room, nothing good could come of someone being there. I sprinted into and through the storage room, accidentally knocking over a couple of boxes. I kicked open the door to the room where Dante was, even though the door was unlocked. Suffice to say, I was on edge.

“Petra?”

“Dante, what are you going to do?”

Dante was surprised and upset by my sudden appearance. His body was obviously guarding the lever that shuts off the electricity to the mansion.

“As I have remarked, I am unable to inform you.”

“Well, what are you able to do here other than to shut off the electricity?”

“You make a solid point.”

“But why? Please don’t do it!”

“You said you wished for liberty, did you not? Please, leave this to me. I shall have my revenge.”

Revenge? Everything here is screaming “bad idea”, I need to do something! If I don’t stop their plan now and something goes wrong, I can’t imagine either of them coming out alive! And it’ll partially be my fault, I know that they’re going to do something!

Without warning, I launched myself in Dante’s direction in an attempt to get him away from the lever. Dante wasn’t weak, but he wasn’t stronger than me either. The sheer surprise gave me enough leverage to push him to the ground, but I was struggling to keep him where I wanted him to be.

“What is with you, woman? Get off this instance!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I will not let you die!”

“Do not take me as a fool! The plan is ideal. Not without risk, but what hope is there without risk?”

He managed to push me off of him after a bit. Dante immediately grabbed the lever, but he didn’t pull it. He merely held it as a threat.

“At least tell me the complete plan!”

“And allow Lucia to hear it? Are you deranged?”

“Then whisper it to me.”

“That will do,” Dante looked at the door in a paranoid manner, then moved closer and began whispering. “Blake came across a pair of night vision goggles, the exact ones that the sinner named Alex used to bring Eden’s clean life to a sudden end. His actions were a clue that we have been oblivious to all this time. Ponder, ponder everything, especially the dream brought to Evelyn. Mendacium ‘visio’, lying ‘vision’, the blueprints we’ve found that showcase an eye, have you forgotten all about that? The key is the vision. Lucia overpowered us by seeing everything, but now, we have the will and the capability to blind her.”

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So that’s what Blake was holding! He’ll directly attack Lucia. But this has a chance of working. A terribly low chance considering all the signs, but it is not that dumb of an idea! The question is if Lucia is aware of the plan or if she’s merely confident that we’ll fail. It’s a terrifying risk to take. Maybe the monitor room was also a good hint that her vision was not as omnipotent as her other abilities.

“Dante, are you sure about this?”

“I will not hide the truth, I am aware that we have the possibility of failure. I am a man of God, not one of his sightless lunatics. Death may await me, death may await Blake, death may await both of us. It is inevitable, but our intentions do not include living a life of misery and allowing that misery to infest Gods’ children around us. I have conversed with him and our ambitions agree on that, he’s the most altruistic man I have met here. We would rather sacrifice ourselves for even the slightest step towards bliss of the people around us than live a life of false amenity.”

“I applaud your selflessness, but I’m scared. I don’t know what else to tell you.”

I can imagine Dante thinking like that, but Blake? I did not get to know him that well, but he seemed normal. Selfless, but in a healthy way.

“There’s something you could do,” Dante said.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Could you go to the main hall and watch when Blake begins our plan? I was planning on going there myself and then darting back here to take away the light from the mansion, but it would bring more safety for you to just run from the main hall towards the storage room to inform me.”

“I’ll do it!”

I had no idea why I agreed to such a plan, but I felt the need to give them support. If I hadn’t done that, I would’ve felt like I had broken my promise to Evelyn even though that had nothing to do with this. Everything was now set in stone, thinking was irrelevant.

After walking down to the main hall, I approached Blake.

“Hey,” I whispered, “I’m here to help. When you begin the plan, I’ll run and inform Dante.”

Blake nodded without saying anything. His face screamed of confidence, like he knew every word from my previous conversation. I put my trust in him, so I walked up the stairs without leaving the main hall and simply watched what was going to unfold at any time.

“Lucia!” Blake shouted out.

Lucia instantly walked into the hall from the dining room.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Can I ask you about something?”

“Oh my, someone finally asking directly for my help? You rascals are evolving. Of course, ask away!”

“Can you explain what this is for?” Blake reached out his hands and showed Lucia the goggles.

“Those? They seem like a pair of night vision goggles. You simply put it on your face and it allows you to see when it’s dark. Have you not seen any before?”

“I mean, I’ve heard of them and I know the function, but I’ve never seen a pair, so I didn’t associate this pair with that. Now I want to try them on.”

Blake put the goggles on his head slowly and while he did that, he pointed his thumbs into the air. I took that as a sign to go and I ran into the storage room.

“Dante, now!” I called for him and rushed toward him.

In a single moment, the room was shrouded in darkness. I stood where I was when the lights went out, inside the storage room, right by the door.

The main hall was quiet, I had no clue what they were doing. Even if things were to end poorly, there was nothing I could do to change that. Blake’s fate was in the hands of luck.

I noticed one thing while waiting for this stress inducing moment to end. The atmosphere was different. I could not see if my surroundings were different, but they felt like they were. I felt like I was in another world when I couldn’t see anything. Even the air felt slightly different. Is this mendivi? Is the mansion different when I don’t see anything? Was this present when the lights went out last time? I was probably too focused on other troubles then.

For one moment, the lights appeared to flicker, but it quickly became dark again. With that, the weird feeling I had also went away. I felt like I was in the mansion again. Is this some sort of sign?

After a couple of painful minutes, the lights turned on.

“Dante, are you sure that Blake’s done?”

“The lights turned on by themselves!” he entered the storage room in a panic.

“What?”

“I am not a fool, but I cannot comprehend it. The lights turned on, but I did not lay a single finger on the lever.”

“So what now? Did Blake have the tools to end her quickly? Are we screwed?”

“That we’ll only become aware of once we return to the main hall.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

I waited for Dante to come to me and then we walked to the main hall together. We weren’t far from it, but I dreaded every step. There was most likely a corpse down there and I didn’t want to see it, yet there wasn't much of a choice. I entered the room right after Dante and looked down from the railing.

In a single second, my slowly rising hope was shattered along with any coherent thought.

The sight was abominable. Looking at it was a fate worse than death. Lucia’s body was motionless and there were long rusty spikes coming out of her stomach. Blake was on the spikes. His body in the middle of them, his intestines near the top. Blake’s blood was covering both of them, Lucia’s was nowhere to be found. Lucia’s eyes were gently closed and I only noticed that Blake’s were wide open once I climbed down the stairs. It was a display of hell.

I stared at every angle of this abomination of a murder scene in front of me, unable to comprehend that it was real life. I was so lost that I didn’t notice everyone else enter the main hall. Is Lucia dead? Was this sacrifice worth anything?

My thoughts were still irrelevant, nothing changed except the difficulty of keeping myself sane. Even if I was to survive this hell, I would probably be moved to a mental asylum.

“Come to your senses,” Amy shook me a bit.

Unfortunately, even that small amount of shaking was enough to make me puke. Amy took a step back, but nobody else even noticed my vomit. They were just as lost as me. I was surprised that Amy had the strength to do anything, even after seeing her stay calm through everything, beat death and display every gory fetish known to mankind. Even that seemed useless against a horror such as this, but I was wrong.

I couldn’t even stand anymore, so it didn’t take me long to succumb to my misery. I fell to the floor, my head hitting my vomit, and I quickly fainted.