Lucas put down the paper, feeling a little more concerned than before. If this article was any indication of what they were facing, the situation was far more complex than he had initially believed.
The only humanoid creatures of that size he had encountered so far were the orcs from the first floor. According to his estimates, the orcs were taller than the article suggested, at about 8’2 feet tall, but that could be explained by the coroner being too embarrassed to state his actual beliefs due to how ludicrous they would seem in the newspaper. Besides, the coroner had declared that the murderer was more than 6’7 tall, which left a lot of room for interpretation, so Lucas didn’t immediately discard the possibility.
The last part of the article, where it mentioned the rituals and other strange occurrences, seemed less trustworthy. The evidence supporting these theories was shaky at best, such as weird circles drawn out in the grass or specific objects spread around remote locations. It all seemed a little far-fetched, even to Lucas, who was aware fantasy things actually existed, but he still decided not to dismiss anything immediately
As Lucas quickly scanned through the other newspapers in the basement, he found more clues. Apart from the occasional mentions of random events happening in those words, they all pointed to the same thing: there was a giant killer roaming the area, targeting both people and animals.
The victims either had their neck snapped or were stabbed to death with a large knife, likely a machete. In all those cases, not a single witness survived to describe the perpetrator. A local legend soon formed around these events, with people attributing the murders to all kinds of supernatural folklore.
Lucas’ suspicion of the others dropped slightly after reading all these articles, but he still felt that something was off. The fact that John had brought them to such a place still made him uneasy. The place was either John’s cousin’s or one his cousin rented, judging by how John talked about it.
The fact that Lucas had no recollection of any of them before being thrown into this floor didn’t help with the trust issues either. It was very hard to make assumptions based on a few hours of getting to know them, after all.
Despite the darkness of the room, Lucas made sure to keep an eye on both John and Michael while reading the papers, just to be sure. Now, Lucas pointed his flash toward the distracted John, wanting to address this matter right away. He spoke through the blackness of the room.
“Hey, John, how come your cousin sent us to such a fucked-up place?”
At the first sound of his voice, a loud noise echoed in the basement. Undisturbed, Lucas saw John drop an old pot he had been holding, startled by the sudden break in silence.
“Damn it! Why did you have to scare me like that?” John asked angrily.
“You were the one who brought us here. I just want to know why,” Lucas replied nonchalantly.
“What do you mean, why? The place was free thanks to my cousin and had everything prepared for us. How could I say no?”
Lucas thought about it for a few moments. “So you are saying this is your cousin’s place?”
“…No.” As he said that, a grunt came from Michael’s direction, “I never said that it was his, okay? He rented it and restocked the place. He intended to spend the weekend here, but something came up, and he offered it to me,” John explained hurriedly.
“So your cousin never spent the night here?” Lucas asked with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s what I said. What does it matter anyway? It’s not like the place is haunted or anything. You don’t actually believe that sort of stuff, do you?” A mocking tone was noticeable in his voice, but Lucas ignored it.
“Take a look at these papers,” Lucas said, illuminating the pile of papers beside him.
John and Michael moved through the basement and started reading the papers Lucas had looked through just a few moment ago. He had considered hiding his discovery but found no benefit in doing so. If one of them was with the person who attacked Richie in the forest, they would already know about the existence of the papers anyway.
“Fuck!” Michael exclaimed after a couple of minutes. He turned to John. “What the fuck man? Does your cousin want to get us all killed? Are you in on it too?” he asked aggressively, pushing John, who pushed back.
“What are you talking about? Why would I do that for?” John retorted.
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“I don’t know, but there’s something fishy going on here,” Michael said, motioning to leave the basement.
“You are reading too much into this, Michael. My cousin is dumb; he probably can’t even read.” John yelled, but Michael wasn’t content with that answer and continued exiting the basement.
John sighed, his previous confidence apparently gone. “You believe me, right?”
Lucas shook his head. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter; there’s still that threat lurking outside. We need to prepare. Did you find anything useful down here?”
“Nothing,” John replied sadly.
“Let’s go back upstairs then, that thing could come back at any moment.”
Just as Lucas finished speaking, a loud, shrill scream echoed through the house. They huffed up the stairs and reached the living room. Things were as they had left them, except for Cindy’s pale complexion as she pointed to a window, looking like she had seen a ghost.
“What is it, babe?” John asked, rushing to his girlfriend.
“There was something there… it was hu-huge, and it had a mask on,” she said while crying in panic.
Lucas went to take a look at the window she was pointing at but found nothing outside.
“Was it human?”
Surprisingly, this question didn’t come from Lucas but from Michael. Apparently, the articles had made enough of an impression on him to start believing in the supernatural. From their previous conversations, Lucas knew such things were mere folklore in their world, not real like they were for him.
A frown appeared on Cindy’s face as she tried to recall the figure’s exact characteristics.
“He seemed taller than normal, but nothing too extraordinary, like 7’3 or 7’4. I couldn’t see his face because of the white mask he was wearing, but he seemed human to me—that or a ghost,” she said after a while, which made everyone in the room more nervous, including Sasha, who had just recovered from her recent malaise.
Her description matched that of the coroner, meaning they were likely dealing with the same person. As everyone panicked, Lucas fought the urge to go outside and confront the thing head-on. The mystery was almost unbearable to him, but after nearly getting himself killed on the last floor, he decided to be more cautious. That could still be an orc for all he knew, maybe just a shorter one, or a child, perhaps.
Besides, his mission wasn’t to kill the thing, after all; he just needed to survive. As soon as he thought that, all the lights blinked out, leaving them in darkness. Seconds later, loud steps echoed on the wooden floor.
Immediately, Lucas grabbed the knife he had hidden in his boot and perked up his ears. Unfortunately, his hearing sense became greatly disturbed by all the noise his group made when they realized what was happening. And despite the moonlight, he couldn’t see a thing inside the house.
However, after a few seconds, he was sure something else was there with them. Not only due to the loud footsteps, but also due to a familiar sensation that put his mind on high alert. Moments later, a fight erupted in the room, toppling furniture and causing a ruckus on the wooden floor not far from where Lucas stood.
That’s when Lucas remembered the flashlight he had left on the couch. It took him only a few seconds to find it. When he finally used it, the fight had mostly died down, and he could only see a huge humanoid figure walking away. At first, he thought the effects of the mushroom were still affecting his mind, but he soon noticed this time there was not a trace of that fantastical feeling the hallucinations gave him.
He tried to use identify, but the distance and darkness made it impossible. He considered following and attacking, but something told him that wouldn’t be a good idea.
Despite seeing the giant leave, the chaos in the room didn’t stop. In the confusion, someone stumbled into Lucas, and he felt a stinging pain in his abdomen, making his flashlight fall from his hand—someone had stabbed him.
With a natural reaction honed from multiple battles, Lucas slashed back with his knife. He hit flesh and stabbed two more times before breaking off and putting some distance between him and his attacker.
The pain in his abdomen was intense, but he made an effort not to scream or make any loud noises while he activated his life aura and started healing the wound. Fortunately, like his death aura on the prison floor, his life aura wasn’t suppressed on this floor, likely because it was a part of him. However, the skill that facilitated the healing process wasn’t available, so he was forced to do it “manually”.
After a few seconds he realized a stillness had descended upon the room. The only sounds that could be heard now were a few grunts and whimpers of fear, as everyone seemed to be listening intently for their assailant’s next move.
In the silence, Lucas took a moment to think about what had happened in that brief period of time. The giant from the forest had definitely entered the house and attacked someone, but it wasn’t the giant who attacked him.
He knew because he had seen it leave before he was attacked and because the attack didn’t have much strength behind it. He assumed that, had it been the giant, he would have been torn apart. The question was, if it wasn’t that thing, then who was it? Was it possible someone was defending themselves and attacked him by mistake?
Lucas doubted that. It was dark alright, but that thing was pretty hard to miss—not only due to its size, but also the strong scent and the weird aura it emitted. He had no idea who had attacked him, but he was sure they got the short end of the stick in that exchange, so he wasn’t overly concerned. His main concern was his knife.
If the lights were to return at that instant, what would the others think? One, possibly two, gravely injured people, and him with a bloody knife in his hand, looking only slightly battered. It definitely wasn’t a good look if he wanted to stay on their good side. Which, at this point, he wasn’t sure he even wanted. The constant vigilance was getting tiring, and wondered if it was even worth the trouble. Ultimately, however, he decided it was best to not make any rash decisions.
Reacting quickly, he hid the knife beneath the nearest couch and stood up. If the attacker was still around, he’d regret that decision, but considering that nothing had happened for a few minutes by now, he believed it was safe to assume they had left.
Soon, his assumptions were proved correct as the lights flickered back on, revealing two people sprawled on the floor. They were Cindy and Michael.