The Underground

Chapter 13.2

The manor lacked electricity – that much was clear once she left Silvia's room and began roaming the halls. Despite that, there seemed to be a pervasive light that stopped the place from being pitch black. Combined with her eyes getting used to the lighting, she could see with some degree of efficiency.

Of course, that all got thrown at the window when a blinding light appeared out of nowhere and shocked her eyes back into blindness.

She stood at the base of the grand stairs, a few feet from a door to the outside that wouldn't open. Her hand flicked up to her face to shield her eyes from the blinding brightness that had appeared so suddenly in the nearby hallway.

As her eyes adjusted, she could see the light was humanoid and filled to the brim with souls. From one of its blurry hands dangled a chain that held a lantern on the end, its wick a dim flame compared to grandiose of the being next to it.

It was hard to say if the creature in front of her was one entity or a collection jammed together in the vague shape of a human. Perhaps Silvia's name of the twins had been accurate – and referred to more than just two twins.

She couldn't see any of its body. The numerous souls that attached themselves to the physical form were so powerful and many in number that the light burned to look at. An effective shield from her prying eyes. But it was humanoid and, evidently, could talk.

"You're what brought me here?" Vivian asked, slow and careful, her shielded eyes aimed at the ground.

"We are." Its voice was a haunting symphony of dozens of vocals, tied together with one unified purpose. A purpose she was desperate to discover.

"Why?"

If it could chuckle, she thought it might have. It didn't, though. "You were commanded to stop looking. You did not."

She squinted further; an impressive feat given how much she was already trying to cover her eyes. And just like her eyes, her mouth twisted in disdain, soured by the phase 'stop looking'. "What is it you think I'm looking for?"

"This place. Us. The artifacts that create monsters and the killers of those monsters. You're looking for the truth, Vivian Flores, even truths that you couldn't fathom exist," it answered, words too plain and honest for a monstrosity such as itself. "And, unfortunately for you, the threads of fate have given you the potential to find it. We must sever those threads."

"What if I stop? What if I promise I'll go home and never seek you or the truth or whatever bullshit got me into this?"

The person, as much as it could be called that, approached her. Its legs never really moved, but the lantern it held swayed as if it were taking steps. "Vivian Flores. You look death in the eye at this very moment. Every word is a mere prolonging of the inevitability of your demise. You know we have always had but one request for you, yet even now, in this very moment, you still seek the truth with every question you ask."

It continued; its orchestra of voices lower into threatening depths. "If you went home, those questions would burn in your skull just as they do now. They would scorch your mind and torture you until the threads of fate pulled you back to where you were always going to be."

"You may lie to yourself, but you may not lie to us."

With one arm, it raised the lantern raised high above its head. The dim shine of its tiny flame increased in luminosity until it was a glorious sun, rivaling the monstrosity of souls that held it. She felt her eyes pulled to it against her will. Any struggle was futile.

Now, staring at an unknowable creature masquerading in human form and threatening to kill her was certainly an unusual feeling, but the follow up of being pulled through the floor into a laundry room below it may have topped it. In a blink, the light was gone and she was very clearly in a different room, one that she had no right being in so suddenly.