Ivy shoved open the front door of Delacroix mansion, six-gun in hand, and stepped out of the howling rain, Ash right beside her with his Mauser at the ready. The door’s thud echoed in the halls, sheets of rain slashing behind them.

The four of them crowded inside, and she shut the door, closing them into eerie stillness.

“Hello?” she called, her voice echoing in cavernous halls.

No response. Alarm bells went off up and down her spine. The lights had dimmed, deepening the shadows. Her gaze flicked everywhere, looking for threats, as she blinked again and again, attempting skill checks to see if anything had changed while they were gone. Her HUD was frustratingly quiescent. She had a spell that she could use to turn invisible, the Veil of Zorath-lin, which she kept in mind, in case she had to make a strategic relocation.

She called again, “Hello!”

No response came.

“Anybody else feel like they’re waiting to jump on us?” James said.

They all nodded.

“What do we do?” Elwood asked.

“We still have to find the diamond,” Ash said.

“Let’s think this through,” Ivy said quietly. “We found Zack’s remains in the basement. What if he succeeded in opening the safe and stealing it?”

“And before he got out, something happened to him,” Elwood said.

“Something got him,” James said.

“Anastasia said that shaft goes all the way to the attic,” Elwood said. “You suppose they keep great-grandpa up there?”

“Possibly,” Ash said.

“So we head for the attic,” Ivy said.

“But there might still be clues around the house to what’s going on,” Elwood said, “stuff we need to find.”

Ellie was right. Ivy said, “Yeah, we barely beat that minion out there. We are not equipped for a boss fight.”

“You think there’ll be a boss fight?” James asked with some alarm.

Elwood said, “Should we assume that our mission is structured like a modern video game? Maybe it’s nothing like that.”

Ash rubbed his chin. “Our guns barely did anything. I think it was James’ fire that really killed it.”

“Don’t you mean, ‘chased it away’?” James said, eyebrows raised, looking around pointedly for other Delacroix family members.

“Right, chased it away,” Ash said. “But, one sec. If Jean-Paul is upstairs in the attic and Zack had the diamond and Zack didn’t get out of the house, does Jean-Paul have the diamond? And if Jean-Paul has the diamond—”

“Why didn’t he give it back to Gilbert?” Ivy said.

“Geel-bear was too scared to ask?”

“Jean-Paul is pissed off about being locked in the attic for decades?” Ash said.

“What if he can’t leave the attic?” Elwood asked.

“What if he’s mutated just like ol’ Jackie outside?” James asked. “But, you know, boss-sized.”

A moment of silence, then Ivy waved her free hand. “Too much supposition, not enough facts. We need to stick together and explore this place.”

James wobbled on his feet and reached out against the wall to steady himself. “Maybe I need a nap first.”

“Are you all right?” she said.

“I’m not sure. That fight…took a lot out of me,” he said, making a motion toward his face that looked like he had just removed his visor to rub his eyes.

#

James stripped off his visor, trying to steady himself against the wave of weakness and dizziness that washed through him, squeezing thumb and forefinger into his eyes, feeling the soft, rubbery texture of the gauntlets against his eyelids.

When he opened his eyes, he saw…

Nothing.

No, not exactly nothing. A dim, gray void, filled with a wan light, like being in an empty closet with the door closed. But the walls of the closet were textured like bas reliefs, but animated. He remembered the features of the mansion’s foyer, and the walls were textured to match them, but featureless, colorless. Three vague shapes in the dimness around him, closing around him with concern.

In a weird sensory disconnect, he still felt his Victorian era costume and the Delacroix house around him, the stone of the wall.

What had happened? A wave of dizziness had washed over him, accompanied by a watery weakness in his limbs, as if he were about to collapse, like when his dickhead PE teacher had made him run a half-mile for a test mixed the last time he’d had the flu. The sensation was fading but not fast enough for his liking.

Ivy’s voice, the pale swatch of her lower face hovering. “Do we need to get you out of here?” Strange to hear it coming from her mouth now, not filtered and processed by the sound system and earphones. But he couldn’t hear the mansion now, the storm, the creaky creepiness of the structure, only a muffled emptiness occupied by their muted voices.

“James,” Ellie’s sweet voice now, feminine, “do you want to sit down?”

The sound of her real voice braced him. He straightened, puffed out his chest. He needed to get back into the game so that he could keep practicing being a smooth operator on Anastasia, so that he could use those skills on Ellie when they got out. He knew guys in school with Girl Skills, like they were born with some sort of magic touch. He had always wanted to be one of them, to have the confidence they had, but without all the douchebaggery.

He put his visor back on. “I’m fine.” The mansion exploded back into life around him, feeling more real than reality. The featureless grayness of real-world beyond their visors was a lot like his real life. This was the kind of life he wanted to live.

A footstep in the corridor ahead caught his attention. He took a few steps forward and found Annie in the hallway, her face beset with troubles, her eyes wide and confused.

When she saw him, her brow smoothed, and she gave him a faint smile. “Ah, Mr. Magician-al.” Then her expression turned to alarm. “Why are you carrying weapons?”

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Ivy stepped forward. “We were attacked. Again.”

“Tell me,” Ash said, stepping forward as well, “are the creatures that haunt this place members of your family?”

“I—” Annie’s mouth worked, and her eyes flickered as if she were reading something, but she just folded her hands and turned away. “I’m sorry.”

James caught her arm. “You’re sorry? My sister could have been killed.”

Elwood stepped forward, pointing with his cane. “What are you not telling us?”

Annie’s voice fell to a whisper. “If I tell you, they’ll kill me.”

She said it with such conviction, such terror, that it brought everyone up short. It sent a chill up James’ neck.

Ash was the first to speak, “Your family?”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be here,” she said, her voice a shrill, tortured hiss. She turned away again.

“Help us!” James said. “We’ll help you. We’ll protect you.”

“You can’t,” she said. “You haven’t seen what I’ve seen. They’re here.”

At that moment, the sound of scuttling claws came through the walls. Things were passing within feet of where they stood. More things like the creature from the mausoleum? Were there any other ways out of that hollow wall except the basement?

“We’ll try! I promise!” James said.

She seemed to relax a little. “I’ll help you as best I can.”

Successful Skill Check! Gain 4 points to increase your Persuade skill! You have gained an ally. At least for now.

James didn’t want to think about what that last sentence might mean, so he just gave Annie a big smile and took her hand, warm and soft in his. “Fear not, dear lady. No harm shall come to you if James the Magician-al is around.”

#

Ellie rolled her eyes at James’ ham-handedness, but she had to hand it to him. His earnestness was endearing in its own way.

But they needed to get to the bottom of what was happening here. “Miss Delacroix, Anastasia.” Ellie did her best to turn on Elwood’s natural charm and charisma. “For us to help you, you must tell us what’s happening here. The things in the walls. The things we’ve encountered. One of them wore a wedding ring. Is Jean-Paul in the attic, still alive somehow?”

Anastasia said, “I never see them. They have names. I hear Delphine and Gilbert speaking of them sometimes.”

“Not Renard?” Ivy asked.

“I rarely see Renard. Tonight was the first time in weeks. He most often takes his meals in his chambers. His research keeps him terribly busy, you know.”

“Do you know anything about his research?” Ivy asked.

Anastasia shook her head.

“It’s about resonance. He has all these strange objects like tuning forks—”

“Tuning forks?” Anastasia blurted. Her face slipped back into her previous confusion, and she began to rub her wrist as if it were in pain. “That’s…” Her head kept making small shakes of refusal.

“What are those things?” Ash asked.

“Don’t you already know?” Anastasia said, composing herself.

“I want to hear you say it,” Ash asked. He still had his pistol in hand pointed at the ceiling.

She drew herself up and sighed. “My family is…cursed. A malady lurks in our bloodline, handed down from…Jean-Paul. Some of us…change. Some of us do not. I fear that I myself—” She bit back another sob.

Ellie had to hand it to this actress. This was an Academy Award-level performance, because the reality of it was utterly convincing. And the way she kept rubbing her wrist suggested real pain mingled with worry or…something else.

Ash said, “What about Jean-Paul? Is he in the attic?”

Anastasia clasped her elbows. “He…is very ill. He’s lived up there for my whole life. That poor man. What a horrible existence he must lead.”

“He never goes outside? Never sees the sun?” Ash asked. “What is wrong with him?”

“Alas, I do not know. I am not a doctor.”

Ivy stepped forward, hands on hips, one of which still held her six-gun. “When was the last time you saw him?”

“I…don’t remember,” Anastasia said.

“What do you mean you don’t remember?” Ash asked, voice rising.

Anastasia straightened. “I mean just what I say. I cannot recall when I saw him last. I know that I must have seen him at some point, but…I cannot recall the time or the circumstances.” Confusion rose in her voice. “Is that not strange?”

“Uh, yeah,” Ivy said. “And you never thought that was strange before now?”

“I…never thought about it at all.”

“Where are Gilbert and Delphine now?” Ash asked.

“They said they were retiring to their rooms.”

“Who are your parents?” Ash asked with a strange expression. “What are their names?”

Anastasia’s mouth opened to answer, but nothing came out for a long moment. “I…They died when I was a baby.”

“What were their names?” Ash said, stepping closer to her.

“I…”

“Oh, come now,” he said. “With such a tight-knit family, how can you not know your parents’ names?”

As Anastasia continued to stutter, James stepped, “Now, let’s not badger the poor girl. We’re all a bit on edge.” He took her hand and patted it. “Stay close to me. I won’t let anything harm you. Even these rude dweeboids.”

She gave him a wan smile.

Throughout this exchange, Ellie had been listening to the things moving in the walls, scratching and scuttling, like huge cockroaches. “We need to continue the investigation, and may I suggest we don’t leave each other’s sight?”

Ash and Ivy nodded.

“Let’s go,” Ash said.

“Follow me for a moment,” Ellie said. “I’m hearing noises in the walls that are not in this chimney to the attic.”

She led them up the stairway, to the second floor, ears tuned, then took a left down a corridor lined with doors on both sides, trying to follow the noises.

“What’s down here?” Ash whispered to Anastasia.

“Empty rooms,” she said. “We don’t really use this part of the house.”

At a particular door, the scratchings sounded louder, so Ellie gripped her sword cane and turned the doorknob. The door swung inward with a slight creak, to reveal a bedroom that looked distinctly un-lived-in. Dust covered the bare, lumpy mattress, the spare nightstand, and the kerosene lantern upon it. In one corner stood an armoire with a door ajar.

Ellie crossed the room with Ash and Ivy crowding in behind her. Ellie moved toward the armoire.

“Hey, be careful!” Ivy whispered.

“Uh, cover me?” Ellie said.

Ash held his lantern higher, and Ivy edged forward with her pistol.

Ellie reached for the armoire door. Swung it open.

The scuttling noise was louder for a moment, then receded.

The armoire stood empty except for a couple of dust bunnies. But then her gaze caught the dark void near the top of the armoire’s rear panel. A crude hole in the wood, not cut as if by a saw. Then the edges of the hole glowed in her HUD.

Behind the hole in the armoire gaped a hole in the wall itself, jagged tips of lath and crumbles of plaster surrounding the opening like teeth.

Successful Insight Check! Gain 4 points to increase any skill! Insight checks represent moments of inspiration or lucky knowledge that might lay outside your character’s general skill set.

The rear plywood panel of the armoire and the plaster wall of the mansion appear to have been chewed away from the other side, as if by claws and/or teeth.

The opening looked too small for anyone but a small child to crawl through.

“You got some awfully big rats around here, Anastasia,” Ivy said.

Ellie leaned in and listened at the opening. There was no question. She even heard little skitterings and titterings under the floorboards, in the ceiling. How many of them could there be?

“There’s something moving around in there, maybe several somethings,” Ellie said, “and they’re much bigger than rats.”

Successful Perception Check! Gain 5 points to increase any skill! Perception checks represent moments of sharpened sensory acuity.

“So who’s going in after them?” Ivy said with a smirk. “I got this bustle that would no way let me through there.”

“No way am I going in there!” James said, voice rising. Then he glanced at Anastasia. “It would be most undignified.”

Ash said, “What this means that these creatures have the run of the house. They could jump out at any time and from any direction.”

“Anybody else here thinking about the movie Aliens?”

“Oh, don’t remind me!” James said.

“Or like that Hellscape: Mars mission we tackled that time,” Ash said to Ivy.

“Yeah, but we got a whole lot less firepower now,” Ivy said uneasily.

“Look, guys,” James said, “going in there is a monumentally horrible idea. That space is probably is probably crawling with creepy mutant kids. No offense to you and your family, Annie. You want to face them in their own territory?”

Ash sighed. “James is right. We need to look for clues out here. Look for powerups, look for the diamond. And watch our backs.”

Ellie glanced at Anastasia, who was looking thin-lipped and pale.

“Is it just me or does that storm sound like it’s getting stronger?” Ivy said.

Ivy was right. The wind moaned through the house like a living thing, and the noise of the rain on the roof and the walls formed a surging rumble, prompting James to ask Anastasia, “You ever, uh, have any serious storm damage?”

“We get powerful storms sometimes,” she said, “but Chateau Delacroix is as sturdy as a stone.”

Ash stepped back into the hallway, his lantern flickering. “Let’s keep moving. Hey, there’s a light down there.”