TSW - Chapter 2: The Heart of the House (5) - Familiarity

Randall asked what he was seeing, to which Eryn replied he hoped it was whatever drug Danton was afflicted with. Eryn pointed out to Randall, Danton's glowing serpentine eyes, which didn't sit well with Randall.  He told Lavinia to ignore Danton and to meet him back in the hallway, just to make sure she was safe. Eryn could also see that Chance had entered from the hallway into the room with Danton and like Lavinia, Chance was not interested in their companion's plight. In fact he was more concerned with the paintings around him and the one Danton had butchered out of the frame. Eryn and Xera in the other room were satisfied at least, that Danton had at least someone with him and so proceeded to go up the stairs, not wanting to tempt fate by going through the window. They were similarly followed by Randall and Lavinia before the four of them were stopped in their tracks by a loud crash and both Chance and Danton shouting out in terror.

Inside the room, Danton had tried to escape the incoming water by climbing on top of the display cases, knocking the one he had hidden under before to the floor. As it hit the floorboards, the metallic lid folded out from the centre revealing a striking orange light that shot up to the ceiling. From this light, faces emerged. To Chance; they were the people he had unintentionally killed, or had caused their death by his actions, while Danton saw terrifying reptilian faces of his own visage. These faces screamed out at them, opening their jaws and they seemed to swallow the two, tearing into their psyche and physical bodies as it passed through them. Lavinia, at the sound of the shouting, readied a barrier of green and blue light around her as she darted from the bottom of the stairs to the door. She was swiftly followed by Randall, then Eryn and Xera. The two inside tried batting away the heads but they could not be touched. As Lavina looked into the room, she too saw faces in the light, faces of the people she had killed or captured for a worthless amount of money.

She scrunched her face in defiance and pulled out a small glass snake with a cord tongue from her jacket and had Eryn light it on fire. Danton immediately saw her actions, although the snake he saw, was coiled around her body. He shouted at her, slightly terrified at who he was talking to, what they should do? In response, she wildly gestured for them to get out of the room as she chucked the glass sculpture in and waited for it to go off.  Randall knew she was too close to whatever the blast would be, and pulled her away from the door. Eryn on the other hand stepped int. The face that he saw was singular, that of Rose. His blood started to boil but Danton stopped him before he could move any further. He told Eryn to step back, while he and Chance jumped out through the window.

Xera, like Randall, pulled Eryn back as the glass exploded into two waves of snaking electrical bolts that filled the room. The faces in the light took on pained and mournful expressions as they started to bubble and pop. From the room behind, Eryn could hear Danton shout at him to blast the box where the light had come from with fire, to which a bolt soon flew from Eryn's halo. Lavinia also stepped up to fight, trying to shock light into submission. The faces slowly died away as the light dimmed, they groaned in pain as one by one the faces melted into nothing. Tendrils of light tried to climb out of the metal box but the lid slammed shut on it, severing the tentacles which slowly faded as the group left. Eryn had noticed whatever had just attacked them was trying to escape. With the image of Rose in his mind, he blasted the box with one last fireball, melting it to the floor. In a blink of an eye, the box exploded causing a bright flash of orange light to fill the room and the open doorway. Lavinia and Randall were already up the stairs, while Chance and Danton were in the other room, so neither pair could see Eryn to disappear in the light. Xera could a fleeting glimpse in the corridor outside before was blinded by the light.

Upstairs Lavinia, still reeling from the whatever had attacked them downstairs. Sbe had chosen the first door to the left on the corridor upstairs. It was childrens' play room, her playroom. She rambled to herself, not specifically at Randall, about a stuffed Seskii she had as a child trying not to alert Randall to the familiarity of the room. No sooner than the cuddly toy was mentioned, twenty five or more stuffed Seskiis appeared out of the gloom of the far reaches of the room. Without hesitation, Randall grabbed the torch that Lavinina was carrying. She struggled against him, knowing what he wanted to do. It was in vain however, as Randall threw the torch into the crowd of stuffed toys; setting them alight in an instant blaze. As they burned, they crawled towards Lavina crying, whimpering, calling out in pain to her. She tried to put the fire out using her jacket, forgetting the poisons she had stored in there. Randall however, did not and wrapped her up in her own jacket to stop her from interfering. The stuffing and fur soon burned away leaving nothing in the room as the burning toys turned into flittering leaves of ash. A child's laugh filled the room as they spun around, now seeing the room they were in had become empty.

Downstairs Danton had been talking to Chance about the woman disappearing on him. Danton soon suspected that the other man in their company, who had surprisingly been absent for most of their time here, had more answers than he was letting on. The man hadn't not searched the house like the rest of them, nor did he battle with the light. Danton soon found him reading a book in the room with the slashed paintings.  Danton tried getting the man's attention but it was as if there was nothing else in the world to the man but the book. Chance, frustrated at the lack of response; took a risk and used the tip of his rapier to fling the book up from the man's grasp. With a impulsive flourish, Chance cut the book half as fell to the floor.

Danton again tried to get Zeigev's attention but as he spoke, the man's breath started to quicken and became shallow. He started shaking and his eyes shifted from left to right. Danton found that Zeigev could not be prised from staring into the fire. The man's body started to convulse as he fell of his chair. He seemed unphased as he backed away into the bookcase behind him, never taking his eyes off the fire. He was now incomprehensible and inconsolable. All he kept repeating was I can hear them,  the whispers, the jagged voices and bladed tongues. I can hear them, I can hear them coming for me.