Faye?s car screeched to a sudden halt. ?Alright, that?s it.? Faye motioned to a mansion barely visible from the road without actually taking a good look at it. ?There's a light on there. We?re stopping here and asking for direction?s.? See in Faye?s mind it didn?t matter who owned the place. No one could possibly mind having Faye show up uninvited at their home. Why people fell over themselves to offer her assistance, it was a pleasure they always claimed.

Before Mary would even get a chance to respond she had hopped out of the vehicle and was off. She trotted up the walk way towards the house not giving a thought to the fact she had no idea what sort of person lived here and that she was as usual wearing her skimpy little yellow outfit. She ignored the chill which ran through her as she crossed onto the property, she just quickened her pace. The energy levels of Faye could keep her warm in weather most other humans would find uncomfortable.

Faye had always been a gambler, trying her luck was just what she did.

The two ladies stopped on that legendary, and forgotten road so many others had come to before, and the tow truck service had made a killing over the countless years of abandoned vehicles in profits. The road was again abandoned and their car was the only one there. Getting out of the car and approaching the place was something so many souls standing there in the lawn were watching, screaming in dead silence for them to turn around, to run the other way. This is the source of the chill, this is what they mean when they say nobody EVER leaves the cursed grounds once they had you.

But the light was just bright enough to obscure those tortured souls, and the women would simply pass them by, some of them would reach out and try to stop them in a worthless effort, the older ones would vanish into the ethereal void, the younger ones would simply cry. It could easily be mistaken for the moaning of the wind, sorrowful enough as it was naturally.


Before them was an ancient building that had that light, and it was all they would see. The door beckoned them inwards, nobody had in invitation to the estate, but they could walk into hell freely if they so wished to. The unnatural darkness seemed to claw at their hair and as they approached the door seemed to slide open just an inch, was it the wind, or something else?

Then, however there were strange noises coming from the back, at least, it seemed like there were anyway. Something, crying maybe?

Where will they go next, and what awaits them when they get there?

Faye did halt at the top of the steps, looking back with a sigh at Mary who seemed to be tweaking out for some reason. An arch of one eyebrow as she watched the paranoid vampire peering around for the source of this 'sound'. Listening for a second she simply shrugged and moved towards the door once more. She unfortunately never was very good at following directions unless she had her own motivations for doing so.

Noticing the door was cracked open she knocked on it firmly, causing it to open further. "Heeello? Anyone home?" She projected her most sexy voice into the house. Placing one hand on the door frame and the other on the door knob she leaned inside. Adapting that distressed female tone she added, "Me and my friend here are lost and we need someone to point us in the right direction."

Faye cursed loudly as the door slammed on her fingers. At the sudden sound Mary didn?t so much as flinch, but she did have both her guns out in a flash. The human eye could not even have followed the motion it was so quick. Those supernatural reflexes never failed in such a situation. ?You alright?? She inquired of Faye as she moved cautiously up the steps to join her. Those blue eyes, cold as ice, shifting their focus constantly.

Faye may act oblivious in usual circumstance but that was only because it seemed to serve her so well. The detail of the fishing line did not go unnoticed and when she heard the laughter Faye?s growled as she responded, ?Damn kids.?

Mary shook her head. She tried to keep any trace of amusement from her voice. ?Come on Faye? Let?s leave the bloody brats to it and stop at the next house.?

Faye?s face was flushed brilliantly with anger as she looked up from examining her fingers. ?No, let?s go in. Find out where there parents are. Or better yet, teach them a lesson ourselves.?

Mary?s reply was a muttered, ?This is a really bad idea?? But the expression Faye wore stated plainly it was either the kids that would get her wrath or Mary. So Mary would kick the door open and put a heavy booted foot down, bracing herself to make sure it stayed open this time. ?Ladies first Miss Valentine.?

Faye stormed angrily right into the house without hesitation. Mary held her guns at her sides, pointed down at the floor, but did not put them away. Even if it was just kids? She was not about to underestimate them.

Faye took the scene in at a glance. ?Well this place has clearly been neglected.? Faye always had a talent for stating the obvious. The book was of little interest to her so she ignored it as she observed some of the nicer furniture. ?Too bad to, looks like it probably was a real nice pad at some point? Still could be with a bit of work.? Faye added with a shrug.

She looked left, she looked right, back and forth quickly. Then she turned back to Mary with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. ?So how?s about I take the upstairs and you downstairs? We?ll cover the place more quickly that way.?

The book. It would be heavier then it looked and it felt smooth as silk. No it did not vanish as it was touched. The thing felt out of time with the rest of their world. Even though there was nothing that screamed that directly, it was something that just seemed to be older. On the back was the same smooth texture as the rest of the book, but here there was a seal of some sorts. It was obviously magical. Somebody had put it here on purpose. If she would dare to open it, she would see pages upon pages of arcane rituals and crude drawings that seemed to represent the the house they were in. But they would all be twisted and not as you would see them.

Faye Valentine. Just as she rolled her eyes at her partner, again she would hear the laughter coming from upstairs, faintly this time though. Also that fishing string on the doorknob would no longer be there, but the door would then slowly close behind them, making no noise at it did so. The shadows on the walls seemed to be watching every move they would make as well.


Mary Read. She would hear no children laughter as she inspected the book, not that she would be distracted from the noise, it simply would have never occurred for her. If she opened the book, a small piece of paper would fall out from the pages, to the floor. The darkness, even to her undead eyes would seem darker then normal darkness should actually be. Of course she would hear other things Faye never did. The distinctive sound of what she could have sworn thousands, upon thousands of insects. But the sound had no true point of origin and was just apparent enough to be heard.



The house surrounded them now, and that safe exit was only an illusion of being safe, as if they turned around they would just see the door slowly melting into the wall and becoming one with it, but then again who turns around to see if a door is still there when the assumption always a safe bet. The two of them remained there at the entrance of the house, but the longer they would remain there, stranger things would become, and the feeling of being watched was slowly becoming apparent with the both of them, but it was unlikely either of them would ever admit it.

Mary may have been absorbed by the book, but she was ever attentive to their surroundings. Mary's senses were far more acute than any humans could be. The fact that Faye had heard something when Mary had not could only have so many explanations... If the sound was not just in Faye's head... She should have heard it.

"There are no kids. Well, if there are they're not... normal." Mary said as she glanced up at Faye. Her eyes roamed the unnatural darkness as she listened to the sound that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Faye was about to say something when Mary shushed her. "Can you hear that?" Faye's shake of the head was telling. That was when Mary noticed the exit had vanished on them. "Oh that can't be good..." If Faye followed her eyes she wouldn't notice as she focused her attention back on the book.

The vampires calculating mind knew Faye could handle herself well enough under normal circumstances but she didn't know anything about how to deal with a spiritual threat. It was up to Mary to work fast to assess the situation, she flipped through the book some more, looking for any sort of clue as to the nature of this place. Anything that might help them some how. But of course, a piece of paper had fallen from the book! She leaned over to pick it up off the floor - quickly - as she was starting to get a sense of urgency about this.

Emerald eyes narrowed at the stairway in response to the sound. When she saw what was causing it however... Her eyes went wide and she immediately had one of her pistols out. "What the fuck is that?!" Naturally this meant she was no longer leaning back on the wall for whatever difference that may or may not make.

Then it spoke to her, it did not require any consideration. She immediately replied, "Hell no!" Once Faye had been bound by a very dangerous and crazy man who was threatening her with a knife. Faye Valentine would not belong to anyone.

"Go crawl back to whatever hole you came out of like NOW." The gun aimmed on the thing, she would fire if it came any closer.

Mary- The vampire would only see the horrible insects coming from nowhere? No, if she looked closer she would realize that they were in fact coming from inside of Faye's own flesh, burrowing their way out from where she could see, like some corpse not so fortunate as Mary had been to escape that fate, but the idea was there and like somebody talking about an itch you couldn't reach, eventually she too would begin to feel the creepy crawly things inside of her if she wasn't careful. The mind could play nasty tricks on the body and this was one of the worst ones. As she tried to see what Faye was seeing, there was nothing there, no sign of anything, but a gunshot would surely alert anything that was there to their exact location. If it didn't already know, action would have to be taken.

Faye- The little wooden horror did not seem phased by the weapon in the least, it only continued its march and "Be...Mine.." came to her but the words seemed to echo now and sound more sinister than before. There was something controlling the thing. The doll opened its mouth and inside there seemed to be countless rows of razor sharp teeth. It came further down the stairs, it was past the midway point and its arms reached out for her, even though they were nowhere close to her body, those artificial and ice cold black fingers could almost be felt running down her sides, almost in an embrace of death...almost.

The air seemed to get thicker though, for the both of them it was filling with energy, tension and the already eerie house began to get oppressive and crueler.

Escape was possible, easily. Had the vampire looked back in her haste to get out of the area, she would have seen that there was nothing there, just empty darkness, a stairwell and no exit. Nothing threatening at all. It must have all been an illusion, but it was obvious that somewhere inside this place it might have been real, if they were lucky, they would never have to find it.

The room they went to was still on the ground level and they finally moved into the room. Inside there was a statue of a skeletal human, it was bronze, at least it was that color. The eyes had black diamonds inside the sockets, the arms were outstretched towards them, almost in a longing way. The skull was in a permanent toothy grin. It stood upon a pedestal, there were no markings on it to indicate what it was, or why it would be there The whole thing was seven foot tall. Behind the statue was a large desk there, nothing on it of course but who knew what it had inside of it. No windows that could be seen, but there was a light source coming from around the corner on the far end. This couldn't have been the light they saw though. The walls were lined with various mirrors, some were basic, some were ornate and very large. There were about six on each wall, only five with the one nearest the light.

There were no other structures in this room. But the only way out of it was the way they came, the source of the light.

Something horrible.

Inside each of the reflections of the mirrors, was not a reflection of anything at all. If one would look into its view, they would see the events of the past, replaying themselves over and over. All of them, save for two would replay the different deaths of young men, having their chests and throats impaled, and sometimes simply being torn in half at the waist by none other then the skeleton that adorned the center of the room. If the pair would have dared to venture to the last two mirrors closest to the light. The last two mirrors would show nothing more then the two of them, not as their reflections would be, but the pale imitations would be smiling at them for no more then a few seconds, before the monster in the center of the room would come to life and destroy them both with its bronze hands. Those black diamond eyes would always seem to follow them no matter where they moved, and if they looked away for a moment, and looked back. It would always seem as if those hands had moved, if only slightly.

Then a cracked and deep voice came from behind them, this time they could both hear it. "Play with me?" It was coming from where they had just been, and those wooden sounding foot steps began to appear again, but this time it was in nobody's head, or was it another trick played by the house itself?


The light was bright enough where it was reflecting something metal on the desk, only the glimmer of light could be seen though of the desk, it was small as well. There was no doorway to this room to seal it off from the approaching entity, so now time was beginning to seem like an illusion that somebody else was controlling, and the pressure to act was once again on the rise. There were only three choices to be made, stand and fight. Explore the desk and look for anything that could be important. Or simply escape. That metal skeleton seemed to be waiting for something to be done as well, it seemed filled with the potential for coming to life and murdering the both of them at any given moment, it looked that way. If they had looked at it closer they would have seen the very fresh blood that was dripping down it's fingers that was not there before.

That bullet would hit it's mark and the mirror would shatter instantly and the shards of glass would fall to the ground, each tiny reflection, though would keep showing fragmented images of the original scene, with each mirror shattered of course the clues of the way to escape would be taken down with them because they were not inspected carefully, the house had no objections to their destruction and allowed it to continue unheeded, however the most important piece was destroyed when she shattered her own mirror.


The voice's origin came shambling down the hallway now, it could be seen and this time what Faye had seen earlier was readily apparent to the vampire as well, and it came closer towards the both of them, what was once not real, forced its way into reality, but then again who could be sure what reality was, and was not


The skeleton's jeweled eyes seemed to glare at them both now, for the destruction of his room, this had apparently what the beast had been waiting for them to do and indeed had they searched the mirrors, each one of them would be killed and near each of the victim was the pure evidence of broken glass, despite the evil that lurked here so readily there was a subtle and unseen force trying to save people, but it was too weak and its clues were hardly ever noticed, and the skeleton began to slowly come to life with each shot fired, and each mirror destroyed.

Something Interesting.

So only one mirror was destroyed much to the relief of the souls trapped inside of them, being killed once as more then enough, evil has a way of turning a bad situation into something much worse. While Mary was distracted by the gun firing, the little demonic doll would have somehow seemed to cover too much distance then seemed physically possible. And while the vampire was turned away in that one moment of reprimand to her companion, it struck.

The monster lashed out and its razor sharp teeth would have instantly clamped down on her leg, just above her knee. What ever she was wearing would be far too weak to defend against the assault the house delivered. That doll seemed lifeless now, as soon as it struck, but inside of her leg, those teeth seemed to be...squirming inside of her flesh, even a vampire could feel pain.

Faye yanked the chain from her belt and handed it to Mary. She looked at the wound with a wince. "That doesn't look too good..." Count on Faye to state the obvious.

While Mary went about her thing Faye pulled out a cigarette, hopefully it would keep herself from doing anything else stupid for a minute. A silver zippo was taken from her pocket and used to light it up.

Inhaling deeply she looked around the room again. A curious tilt of her head as she noticed that glimmer of light on the desk. Taking a step closer to get a better look.

Mary Read- Those "Teeth" turned out to be nothing more then maggots that seemed seemed way too eager to devour the flesh of the dead, undead or otherwise. Her quick actions saved her un-life. The doll was useless now and nothing more then a creepy dummy sprawled out on the floor, there was nothing more it seemed to be able to do now, or so it seemed. But the blood of the dead woman had awakened something else in the heart of the place, if you could call it that. The blood was soaking into the floorboards and going to places, unknown. Although there were no obvious reactions to it yet, one could only wonder what would drink the blood of the dead. The house was a monstrous thing and sometimes things would have unexpected reactions rather then they would normally. Her would would heal, as expected. But the scars of the bites would not be so obliging to go away. Although it had no effect on her internal blood levels, it could make her feel more drained then she normally would be. Silence returned for a minute and safety seemed to return, if only for a few minutes.


Faye Valentine- The woman would find that her weapons indeed had their ammo depleted, in the outside world they may have been something special, but here the reality rules had changed somewhat and special things became far too common place. This might have a feeling of dread and her partner's words and advice would be to conserve the ammo would surely return to her. As she lit the Zippo she might have noticed the flame flicker, towards the desk. A slight air current as it might have been, but who knew. She was going that ways, to the desk and the thing glinting on the top of the desk was a Key. A silver key that was unlike any she would have seen before. Of course it was attached to the chain and that chain was attached to the desk. So to get the key, the chain would have to be broken, who knows what this would do. The desk three pull out sliding doors on each side. Only one on the bottom on the left side had a lock to it. Perhaps there was a connection. If she looked to the light, she would see what looked like the entrance to a kitchen or something similar to that.

Then they could hear that terrible screech as it echoed through the house with speed, it was chilling to the bone as well, but there was no other signs of anything coming after it died away, so maybe it was just another trick of the house, or maybe something otherworldly was truly awakening from the depths of hell itself.


Gabriel Ashlocke--

Why he came was unknown to any but himself. Indeed as soon as he entered those doors vanished behind him as soon as they closed down on him. He would see the staircase, and either way he could go. Nothing seemed disturbed despite of who had come before. Apparently he was looking for something and did not wait for the welcoming committee to show up. Down the hallway he went, silently. But the committee was not going to be so unwilling to make their presence known. Of all the ways he could have gone, he chose this way. And he could hear voices, female voices ahead of him.

"I heard you, though. Into the breach again?" There was a blood covered soldier leaning against the wall, his arm was missing and the blood was leaking on to the floor, his skin was charred and eyes were missing, but he did not move. "Who are you, and do you taste good. Its been so very long since I have eaten." The tortured soul raised his head and those eyeless sockets just gazed at him, so when he turned around, this is what he would see. Reality was subjective here, and the rules of the game and the house were unlike anywhere else in Rhydin.

Not only the dead man would be there, but the blood that dripped onto the floor and was on the wall would be moving towards him, defying gravity. The thickness of the semi liquid could be heard moving across the wall and over the floor if it was not seen. It was time for him to make a choice.

Faye nodded to Mary, who was clearly not feeling so hot after the encounter with the razor teeth maggot... things... Anyways.... so Faye would carefully open the drawers top to bottom - all except for the locked one of course - and investigate the contents.

Depending on how that went would see if Mary ever got a chance to even melt that chain or not.