In the Dark of the Night

Chapter 10

Entry 39 Monday 13,May
Noon

Despite my hopes, reaching the funroom did cost us another life.
I should start at the beginning.

We made it to the first floor without an incident occurring, we took the left-hand hall until it ended in front of two sets of oversized, dark oak doors. The map indicated to take the doors that had it's right door carved with a fox in flight and it's left one had a dozen bloodhounds bounding through a forest. Once inside, I realized that we entered the trophy room.

I couldn't help but stare at the buck's head that was mounted over the fireplace as the memory came to mind. I know I should write about what happened but as I face my own mortality I cannot help but remember the times I spent with my father. If I close my eyes right now, I can smell the wetness of the spring grass after the shower. Ahead was was both my father and Akira, my father-in-law, both sat tall in their respective saddles. We were on a fox hunt. Akira was visiting to give wishes on the first wedding anniversary of my marriage to Shoda. There was only a few fluffy clouds on that day as we rode the rough shod terrain after the sly fox. The excitement had my blood pumping within my veins, I could hear my own pulse that seemed to echo the rhythm of the chestnut mare's hoofs. The baying of the foxhounds caught my attention, I turned towards the hounds when I heard a commotion. The hounds started to bark in agitation when the sound of tree limbs breaking echoed through the forest. I urged my mount into a full gallop, the greens of leaves and the browns of tree bark blurred together as I raced ahead, I recognized the sound as a deer that crossed the path of the first prey, the fox. It had happened before, we would start out hunting a fox or perhaps quail when we would stumble on a deer. Such a meeting usually meant a good feast that night.

Unexpectedly, howls of pain were heard. I remember frowning at that ear splitting sound. My father's hounds were not only purebreds, but were very well trained. When faced with a frightened deer, they would circle around it in attempts to stop it from bolting away, it was not uncommon for a deer to panic ad cause serious injury to a hound if the dog should get close enough to get kicked. Shoda was right behind me and both father and Akira were behind him. Laughter rang out as Shoda chided our fathers for being so slow that a couple of upstarts such as ourselves were able to pass them by. Suddenly, our attention was given to the fleeing dogs, over half of the pack, who all had their tails between their legs as they ran out of sight. We later learned that they didn't stop running until they reached the kennels. I slowed my steed down as I reached a clearing. There stood a great stag, even though he was facing away from me, I could tell that his heavy antlers were wider than my arm width. A few brave dogs stood their ground, growling. What shocked me was the stilled bodies of six hounds that were trampled. We have lost some hounds on hunts before, but never this many at once. My blood ran cold as the stag stopped rearing up and started to turn around. A high pitched bark from the side drew my attention to the red fox that the hounds were originally chasing. I watched as the fox acted so unusual. When it bolted away, realized that the fox was reacting to the stag. For some reason, it was afraid of the stag and I remember doubting that it was just because of the stag could trample it.

A howl of pain caused me to look back at the clearing, and my face paled as the blood drained from it. This stag had bitten a hound. Now if it is unusual for a deer to protect itself by snapping I have no idea. However, then and now, I am certain that is was not normal behavior for a stag to bit down on a dog and shake it as if it's trying to break the dog's neck. That is what this stag did and more. As this beast began to charge at me, the men arrived in time the shoot it. Later on they told me that I must imagined things in the shock, for deer are herbivores and they would not eat chunks of dog meat. They said that what I saw was a deer that was rabid. Back then I convinced myself that the stag bit in defense and what I saw was the blood mixing with the foaming at the mouth that rabid animals experience. However, with the past days events, I am forced to review those early visits to this estate with open eyes. I am sure that I saw the mad creature swallow chunks of flesh and for a fleeting moment as it charged at me, it's eyes glowed with a pinprick of red light.

Now I wonder, was the stag possessed by a low level ghost or spectre? It was five days after the encounter with the stag that Shoda sent me to the doctors and I found out that I was pregnant with Jun. Could that encounter been a prelude of what was to come?

Thinking back on that night, over ten years later, I find myself glad that father beheaded the stag and only stuffed the head. I would rather not look upon the full body of that beast with the horror that surrounds us.

Enough reminiscing, it it time for me continue on. Where was I? Oh, yes we were in the trophy room. It took me a few minutes to find the lever that would open the hidden door to the water's passageway, as it was titled in the book that mapped out the estate. The lever is the raised paw of a bronze statue of a hunting dog. Once it is depressed, the portrait of Herne the Hunter swings open from the left side, revealing the door.

As the door opened, we could se why it was called the water's passageway. The passageway was a canal inside the house. The bottom of the channel ranged from two to - I guessed about sex feet under water. Lining both walls were what looked at first site to be shelves that ran down the entire length of the passageway. On inspection though, they were narrow trenches filled with oil. On setting it aflame, the fire ran down the trenches, lighting the way. To my amazement though, there were mirrors on the ceiling that reflected the light, amplifying it. Breaking the water's surface was pillars of white marble. The steps were not at all even; sometimes they rose up one after the other,creating rising steps, then they would began to descend. As we went down the passageway we sometimes has to use steps that were one to three inches underwater.

It was dangerous to use the ascending steps after we walked through the water. Our wet feet kept slipping on the steps. The polished marble gave no traction. Add to that fact that Kohaku carried Jun while Akira carried Misao since the girls still wore leg casts.

"Damn! I forgot two of the kids had broken legs." Yusuke swallowed the dread that rose in his throat. "Maybe Shizuru would have trouble too, she's got that arm cast."

"Maybe?" Keiko asked dubiously.

"Well, it depends on what the length of the cast is. Think of it, when you're high up and trying to balance, you put both arms out to the side. If you start to loose your balance, you send both arms into cartwheel motion."

"I see what you mean, Yusuke. If Shizuru's cast went only yo the middle of her forearm, then most likely she would be able to use her arm for balance. But if she had a cast that went past the elbow, she wouldn't be able to use the arm for balance. If she tried to spin her arms while wearing a full arm cast, she would risk loosing her balance."

It was not easy on Shizuru or myself either. I will say this, there is nothing like a massive belly to make things difficult. I could climb the grand staircase with a minimum amount of trouble. I know where the steps are; they do not alternate between ascending and descending. More importantly to any pregnant woman it that the steps are wide and there are rails!

Not only did I have trouble seeing the steps that averaged about two feet by two feet, but waddling about as I am, the fact that the steps had no railings nor an adjoining wall was inviting disaster. I can be only thankful that we were descending from the tallest point when it started.

We were on the step, somewhere between six to ten feet above the water. It was difficult to gauge the exact distance in the dim light. Our fears were heightened when we heard a buzzing that echoed through the tunnel, bouncing off the walls. At first, it reminded me of those science documentaries on insects. The smell was the next thing we noticed, actually it was Akira the first noticed and identified it.

I remember him stopping right in front of me to take a deep breath. He then turned around and asked "Does anyone else smell that?" When we said yes, Jun asked what it was. Akira gave his first grandchild a saddened look as he answered.

"Blood."

It was the coppery tang of blood in the air that was paired with that infernal buzzing that caused us to try to go faster on those slippery steps. It was was when we reached a level part of the steps that we first caught a glimpse of what was approaching. It looked like a red cloud that was buzzing and smelled like blood.

The others echoed my own screams as we noticed that something was moving inside that cloud!

At first, we dared not to jump off the steps and run through the water, it was deep and would slow us down. Several times, Akira had to let one of Misao's legs drop so he could use that one free hand to grab Shizuru or myself as we started to stumble.

Do not let this entry fool you.

I may sound calm but it is a facade. It has taken me several hours of crying before I could even attempt to open this journal and write what has most recently transpired. Everyone had a part of calming me as well, even the undead. Both the crypt keeper and the ghost we call the Irate Monk reminded me of the importance of the journal. The events at this most haunted house must be recorded. It has taken some time however I suspect that the ghostly monk has much to do with calming me. I've noticed that since the deaths began and I start to shake, he walks near me. I can feel the coldness that accompanies ghosts and after his passing, I have calmed down.

However it happened, I am thankful that I have calmed down and I began to record how the latest death has happened.

The cloud seemed to be faster than we were, for as fast as we tried to go, this unnatural thing was still gaining on us. The buzzing increased and soon we could see that whatever was in cloud was large. Then Shizuru pointed at it, screaming "There's more than one thing in that!" She panicked and turned too fast, loosing her balance. Akira tried to grab her but the momentum she had caused him to fall as well, taking Misao.

"Aw, man!" Everyone agreed with Yusuke's exclamation. The tension was building. They knew that another of that group would die. but not who or how. "It's obvious that Shizuru survived, but what about the others? Damn, I can't believe that I used to think that I had a worse childhood than Kuwa - Kazuma. Bah, it's hard calling him that."

Thank the gods that the water was deep enough and we were only a few feet above it so the fall didn't hurt anyone. Also, the water wasn't too deep so they were not in danger of drowning once Akira picked little Misao up. By then the cloud was closing in. As it came nearer, we could see that there were a score of creatures inside it and they were not small. Those of us still on the steps hurried as fast as we could, quickly reaching a point where the steps were only inches above water. Since Akira was walking in the water, we could tell that the floor was descending, making the water level rise. It reached the point where Shizuru had to throw her good arm around her grandfather's neck. By then, we could see the inside of cloud.

Dear gods, it was filled with insects of enormous size. Imagine a mosquito that was over one hundred times its natural size, with an unnatural bloodlust. That is what we faced, not one, but a score of them. Those monsters were as big as a man's hand! Before we could react, they had reached us. A normal mosquito's bite is nothing compared to these beasts' sting as they bit. These undead insects bites were as if we were being stabbed with stilettos. I fell to my knees with the intent to protect my belly, my son. The pain was so bad, I have no idea how may were biting me when Kohaku told us to jump into the water, dive under and swim. I remember hearing Akira yelling at Misao and Shizuru to take a deep breath.

As I jumped in, I saw Kohaku jumping with Jun. I am thankful that swimming underwater was easier that walking! I was able to keep up with the others. We would rise up only to take a breath a few times. We had to stop when our hands reached a wall. On rising out of the water, we saw a that there was an opening just above the water level. As we started to crawl into the new and dry tunnel, I looked for everyone.

I quickly noticed that Father MacGavin was missing. We looked back the way we came ... Gods, even though it's been hours since then, I still shudder with horror at what we saw.

The good father was not able to reach the safety of the water. His prostrate form lay sprawled over the steps. That unnatural bloody cloud had dispersed ... after the creatures feasted on MacGavin's blood. Based on what we saw of the multitude or puncture wounds and his withered appearance, I would have to say they swarmed on the on the poor man, draining his blood.

We traveled down this last stretch of tunnel in silence until we reached the end. There were five doors. I opened the one that had the cold, rustic iron handle in the form of a jester's nose. The creaking of the door echoed as Kohaku walked in first. I was startled at the sudden swish of paper. I looked up to see it was only Kohaku using some ofuda to protect the area as we rested. We did not dally but went to the carousel after a few minutes. At it's center tower was the door to a spiral staircase that took us down to the tunnel that connects to the crypts. In an hour's time we safely arrived at the family crypt.

As we rested under the protection of the Crypt Keeper, we had to see tot the girls casts. The swim ensured that they were all drenched. At first we were not certain what to do. The doctors told us to keep the casts dry, yet there we sat and they were dripping wet. Do we risk that the bones are healed enough and remove the casts? Finally we decided that we could not keep the wet things on the girls, after all, the soggy mess were no longer helpful to the girls. If any of the girls has some pain after after the removal, we would use wooden sticks and strips of clothing to immobilize the offending limb.

Kohaku removed the ruined casts as I was writing. I can now say how the girls fared. Thankfully, Jun is having no problems at all. Misao was wincing a little, but is able to move about. Shizuru is able to move her arm but I can see that it is painful to her. She refuses to allow Kohaku to "tie her arm up in a bunch of sticks", end quote. I insisted that she used a sling then. She tried to argue, however Akira, her dear Grandpa Kuwa told her that it helps with the pain and if she needed to use her arm, then she could pull her arm out.

We will rest here, attempt to get some much needed sleep while under the protection of the ancestral spirit that guards the family tombs, that creature we know only as the Crypt Keeper. It has told us about a tunnel that leads from the crypts to the outside of the house. The friendly ghosts have stated that the evil is only beginning to extend outside the house and does not come close to the entrance of the tunnel.

For now, that it.

So far ... That is all I can say to that news. So far those abominations haven't reached it. I wanted to leave immediately for the tunnel, while it was confirmed to be clear. It was Abigail that pointed out that we have to rest. If we push on without resting, we would not be able to run as fast or react quick enough to survive. I am exhausted I cannot stand so I have to rest as they insist. I can only hope that the evil does not close off our escape route.


~TBC~
The idea for the blood cloud came from the Libris Mortis, and the entry on the Bloodmote Cloud. Again I own just a copy of the book but I don't own the copyrights.


Fellow writers keep a dictionary by you as you type --- it help save you from embarrassment. I had to look up the word prostrate to ensure I spelled it correctly. I didn't, it was originally spelled = prostate X__X
no the poor Father MacGavin was already going to be killed but his family jewels were not damaged so I had to go and correct that spelling!