Miriam

I

June 6th 1997

Baron Empain Palace - Heliopolis - Cairo

The car pulled over at the back of the palace on a surprisingly chilly summer night.

Sarah stepped out walking slowly behind her friend Laila and her annoying boyfriend, as the distant, fast, yet steady beats of death metal pounded against her heart.

She was not sure why she was getting these cold shivers that ran up and down her spine, it seemed like the very air around this place was eerie. She heard a great deal about this palace. She actually studied it in one of her history of architecture classes.

"Baron Empain was not an evil man." Her professor said one time. "He was driven by pure ambition and infinite creativity."

She was at awe when she saw the palace from what used to be the main garden. It looked like a Hindu temple with its sharp edges and majestic artwork. She ascended the first set of stairs when she saw a statue of the Hindu deity Devi with serpents for arms and evil slanted eyes. It seemed like it was looking straight at her.

She was looking at a big lion resting on one of the poles when Laila grabbed her arm and dragged her through the main gate and inside the palace.

The aggressive tunes of death metal were deafening. Her friend had told her about those gatherings many times but to see it with her own eyes filled her insides with pure disgust.

She saw a group head banging to the tunes of Dimmu Borgir, others were sniffing coke and using needles.

Wherever she looked, she saw some hideous act taking place. She stumbled upon one of the most disgusting sights she has ever seen.

A group of people had a cage that was filled with cats. They formed a circle around something she couldn't make out. She approached the circle to take a look, she saw one of the men take out a cat from the cage and very swiftly slitting its throat, and to her utter shock, the blood spilled in the middle of the circle where a man and a woman laid there completely naked, fornicating, while the blood was pouring down on them.

She was overwhelmed, blood rushed to her head and her heart was pounding, she gagged, almost threw up putting her palm on her mouth as she rushed away, out of the main room and into a corridor where she found an old door which she opened, got in and slammed it shut.

She closed her eyes and tried to breathe steadily for a moment. "oh God" She said under her breath with her back to the door as if trying to keep what she had just seen from following her.

She opened her eyes. She was in what seemed to be an old dining room. it was empty and full of dust and spider webs. She walked around the room for a moment trying to get her bearings straight when suddenly she felt a chill running down her spine, there was a faint ray of moonlight coming through one of the windows at the far end of the room. She moved slowly trying to avoid the mess on the floor which was creaking with every step she took.

Suddenly she heard what seemed to be a strange, dull, annoying, loathsome, childish lullaby. She followed it to the end of the room where she found an open door. When she stepped out of the room the lullaby stopped.

She followed the path staring at her surroundings as she went. On the wall to her left there were strange symbols drawn in red, and all along the same wall there were three lines also in red leading to the end of the corridor where another door stood open obviously leading down to the basement.

She wanted to see the whole palace, especially the famous rosary room which no one was allowed in by an order of the Baron himself.

She walked to the end of the corridor and descended the stairs to the basement.