A picture hook fell to the floor from where a picture had once hung. The
sounds of scratching intensified around them, as if swirling in the walls.
Chance turned towards where the hook had had once been fixed. He could see
flashes of green behind the tiny hole and decided to widen it by stabbing it
with his sword. The scuttling continued to the point where Chance could feel
his rapier almost vibrate by the traffic going over it. Zeigev was still
moaning about the voices he could hear but had now started to gingerly point
towards the fireplace.
To Danton's surprise there were flames rising up although they made no
sound. He looked back at Chance trying to get his rapier out of the wall and to
Zeigev before leaving them both for the fireplace. As he knelt, he noticed the
fire was burning from nothing, there were no logs or kindling of any sort.
There was also no heat from it, and no sound. If someone was to encounter the
flame, they could be consumed in the cold fire before they even noticed it
happening. Cautious of its qualities, Danton put the tip of his blade into
fire. Chance had now gotten bored downstairs and had now decided to leave both
Zeigev and Danton. Unbeknownst to Danton and Xera, Zeigev had started clawing
scratch marks into the wood beside him.
Danton was a little relieved to find he was pretty much alone when he
yelped out in pain when applying the blade to his bare skin. The fire was still
burning hot even if it wasn't giving off any heat. There was a child's laugh as
he burned himself from the direction of Zeigev. Danton slowly turned, expecting
Zeigev to be laughing and gripping his blade. In fact the old man's face had
now lost all definition and pigmentation. His hair had fallen out and his eyes
and nose were covered with his now pale leathery skin. Adorning his head
were now multiple mouths sewn shut at every angle. They seemed to try to speak
and shout but the thread that bound them held fast. The only mouth was that of
the first just below where the nose had been. It screamed and giggled while the
rest of the body contorted and shuddered.
Upstairs Lavinia and Randall had left the now empty room and crossed the
upper landing to the opposite room. It was similarly unfurnished and possibly
even dustier. Candles with green flames, cast more shadows than light. In the
inky darkness a man, tied up to a chair, appeared to them both. The man was a
bloodstained shambles. His hair was greasy and matted and fell in tangles over
his bowed head. The man's clothes were muddy and torn, with most of the rips
tinged with red. As the apparition developed, Randall had now gone as pale
Lavinia. Both of them recognised who was sat in front of them and they
didn't know whether to be relieved or scared. Lavina remembered every cut
and bruise she had inflicted on that man. Randall was reminded of the many
times they had to carry him to a new place to remain hidden. In Lavinia's mind
they had to finish what they had started, even if went against the contract.
She grabbed the torch back from Randall and threw it at the restrained man.
The lights flickered for a second, as a walking fireball now rose
from the chair and lumbered towards them. A child's laugh echoed as parts of
the man burned away revealing the charred bone underneath. Lavinia's instinct
for running to the door failed her again. As she reached out for the handle,
she could hear Xera mumbling to himself on the landing and his footsteps were
coming closer. She opened her mouth to shout for help but the door slammed on
her and Xera. As she turned around, expecting the flaming man, and reached
inside her jacket to pull out a poison dart. With desperate force, she tried to
kill the creature but the dart flew right though the man, with his body turning
into curling wisps and then disappearing into the atmosphere. Randall could see
Lavinia was now on the verge of another breakdown and like usual, had to
reassure her of her surroundings. It took strong words and fierce shake to
bring her back to reality. Randall could hear her over and over again
whispering not real and allowed himself to relax for a split second.
Xera who had been on the other side of the door, had been knocked about
ten feet back and had hit the opposing wall. With a heavy head and aching back
he stumbled up to his feet. Before going in he lent against the door to assess
the danger. Xera heard the mumbled arguments of Lavinia and Randall and the
thud of something heavy lodging itself into a wall. The room then fell silent
and Xera was compelled to act. He tried the handle but it gave resistance, as
if someone was holding on to the other side. He tried it again and again,
until on the last try; the force he had used to try to open the door had laid
him flat out on the floor as it opened with ease. Accompanying Xera's pratfall
was the all pervading murmur of giggling.
Both Randall and Lavinia were taken aback by Xera's abrupt and
unfortunate entrance. They too heard the laughter and, although convinced what
Lavinia had seen wasn't real, she screamed at the laughter that seemed to be
playing with them. Her shouts stirred something within the walls and the
floorboards. The gentle scratching soon grew into cacophony. The floor started
to vibrate under their feet. One or two candles fell to the floor as the walls
started to shake. From where the man had been sat, the floor burst open, as
tiny green reptilian creatures poured forth from the hole in the floor. The
mass of scale and claw now tried to drown Randall with their numbers. In a
desperate attempt to escape he threw out a matt white ball which had the been
the first thing he had found on his person.
As it hit the floor, small holes appeared on its surface, followed by a
thick dense cloud of smoke from those holes, that filled the room. To Randall
the smoke took on the form of Lavinia dying in front of him over and over
again. Lavinia could see the stranger that had been roasted and tressed for the
dinner table and Xera saw his cure for Black Sunshine curing him, but killing
everyone else.
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