Page 24 of Monster Mansion

That was all I needed to confirm my plan. Whatever was in here with me had been toying with me since I arrived, and if I didn’t get ahead of it, there was good reason to think that I would be the next name on the long list of names of young women who had walked into this place and never walked back out. If I didn’t handle it as best I could, or if I just left and never looked back, that list would keep getting longer and longer, and I couldn’t rest with that on my conscience.

* * *

I didn’t know why I told myself it was best to wait until sunset to set my things up. The sun was already far behind the treeline, and the living room was cast in an eerie dim light that exacerbated the darkness of every shadowy corner. Ever since my phone call with Blair, I’d felt like every move I made was being watched, studied, like I was an elementary school class pet, and the creatures in the house occasionally would tap on the glass.

Over the past few hours, the light touches had become more frequent, and an erratic stomping from overhead occasionally shook the walls. If their goal was to frighten me, or to stop me from moving forward, they were failing. Every one of their temper tantrum interruptions only fueled the fire inside me. I hoped they could feel my grandmother’s energy—all her traditions and lessons in witchcraft had risen to the forefront of my mind, and every step I took in preparing for my ritual was calculated. If I was unsure of what to do, I simply closed my eyes and let my gut lead the way, just like she’d taught me. My instincts would bring me out on top. All I had to do was manifest that power, that confidence, and I would bring whatever evil plagued this mansion to its knees.

The salt would act like a protectant or a barrier between me and the creatures that roamed these halls. I twisted open the lid to the antique shaker and carefully poured out a circle of salt large enough to surround the wool area rug spread out in the living room. The circle was likely larger than it needed to be, but if the bastards tried to rush me, I didn’t want to risk making them come too close. Once I was satisfied with my salty barrier, I placed the white candles I’d found on the dining table in five points surrounding where I’d chosen to sit on the floor—one for each of the four elements, plus spirit. My heart pounded in my chest, and I swore I could hear the voice of my grandmother guiding me as I set up my weak attempt at an altar.

From my bedroom, I brought down a few things from home I’d hoped would ground me in the “goodness” of my life, should things get hairy—a t-shirt I’d adopted from my dad as a sleep shirt with a motorcycle on it, my books, a tube of lipstick I’d borrowed from Blair and never returned—anything I could look at and feel like “myself.” It may have been overkill, but I had no idea what I was inviting out in the open, and I wanted to be prepared for the worst.

Finally, as the light in the living room began to fade into darkness, I lit the candles with matches I’d found buried in my purse, and lit the cuttings of sage I carefully held between my fingers on fire. Smoke began to float through the air, and I deeply cleared my throat before I began to speak.

“I call upon the five elements to guide me—water, earth, fire, air, and spirit. I call upon the goddess to protect me.”

I had no idea if what I was saying was right or wrong, or even if there was a right or wrong in terms of spellwork, but the words fell from my mouth with ease. I knew intention was the most powerful part of witchcraft, so I focused on one thing and one thing only: calling forth the creatures of the mansion and banishing them as best I could, so their pattern of terror would end.

“I call forth the evil in these walls to come before me to tell me their tale. I call forth the monsters in this mansion. Come to me, creatures of darkness, blood, and shadow. Be here now!” My voice began to rise with confidence, and I felt the air around me swirl and change. The smoke from my sage began to spiral like a gentle cyclone, and a fire burst into life from the fireplace behind me.

“Come before me!” I cried. “Do no harm. Tell me your tale. Speak to me your purpose!”

The fire raged, and I felt the whorls of air lift up my ebony hair like an autumn breeze.

Then came the noise. It was like the hiss of a steam engine in one ear and the rabid growling of a trapped hyena in the other—an otherworldly protest like I never could have imagined. Whatever I was doing, it was working, and I couldn’t stop for a moment or risk losing the momentum I’d built.

“In the name of the goddess, I command you to present yourselves! Show me your true forms. Tell me your tale!” I could hear myself repeating the same lines over and over again, but if there was power in the words, I was not going to get creative. The creatures knew what I wanted, and they were reluctant to give in.

“Do no harm, tell me your tale. Do no harm, tell me your tale,” I repeated over and over as the wind I’d manifested continued to blow, and the fire continued to burn.

The noises of the creatures’ tantrums were growing louder and getting closer with every passing moment. I kept my eyes wide open and my wits about me. I was successfully summoning them, but there was always the chance my protections were too weak. My mind stayed laser-focused, like I had the souls of every missing girl holding me up and raising my power. The noises were so loud now I nearly had to scream my mantra to be heard.

“Do no harm! Tell me your tale! Do no harm! Tell me your—”

Then everything went dark. The wind halted. The fire behind me was extinguished the same moment the tiny dancing candle flames were snuffed out. The shrieking stopped as well, and for a brief moment that felt like hours, all I could hear was the thump of my heart and the ringing in my ears. A voice as crisp as a ripe apple, but as cold as a snowy morning, cut through the darkness like a knife.

“I didn’t believe you had it in you,” it chuckled darkly. “But you’ve done what all others have been too frightened to even attempt.”

I recognized the voice immediately as the one hushing me that night in my room as its shadowy tendrils made their marks all over me. I had felt this presence before, just earlier that same day as it hovered behind me at the kitchen table. I still couldn’t see anything in the darkness of the living room except a vague outline of three shapes before me in a row under where the indoor balcony would be. I felt a tug of curiosity and couldn’t decide if I wanted to pull the chain on the standing lamp next to the fireplace to get a better view of the creatures, or if I wanted to remain ignorant to the faces I knew had to be absolutely terrible.

“So, what now,Logan?” the icy voice asked in a tone that sounded almost… Joking? Sarcastic? Definitely not angry or threatening. “You forced us out of our hiding places for this? To idle here in the shadows, where we can see you perfectly well, but you’re still blinded by the dark. What are you?Scared?”

He was definitely mocking me, and I felt my expression tighten in anger. Was my performance not enough to assure them that I was tougher than they gave me credit for?

“Not a bit,” I snapped through gritted teeth.

I shot to my feet, turned around, and pulled the chain on the lamp to flood the area with a soft amber light. Turns out there was more benefit to the extra-large salt circle than just building distance between myself and the monsters. I had a couch and a lamp within my safe-zone as well. Without giving myself half a moment to second-guess my decision, I turned around to face the creatures that had made me and so many others their playthings.

I felt the anger soften on my face almost immediately. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, but I was certainly not prepared to see not just one or two, but three beings lined up in front of me—one of which I had seen before on the roof, and the other two looking more human than monster in almost every way.

“Surprise,” said the voice from earlier.

It emerged from the being in the center of the trio—a tall, thin man who could have been clipped from the pages of a magazine. His skin was as pale as the moon, with hair to match cut close to his head, and eyes a piercing red that seemed to glow with amusement. He was dressed formally in all black, and shadowy ribbons fluttered behind him, stemming outward from the space on his spine between his shoulders. I was awestruck at howhandsomehe was, and it felt so odd to admit. If I had known it washimwho had been caressing my body in the night, I would have leaned into the touch even harder than I had. I felt a sting of girlish shame in knowing that this impossibly attractive thing had seen me so vulnerable.

To the left of the pale man was another human figure—a second male shorter than him but still taller than me, shirtless up top and wearing loose-fitting military surplus cargo pants with no shoes. His long white-blond hair fell pin-straight over his face as his head dipped to look at me, and I swore I saw the skin on his chest… bubbling like a slow boil. Where the first creature was long and lean, his figure was sturdy and muscular.

To the right of the center was the creature I’d seen on the roof—massive and terribly gangly with skeletal hands ending in curved, clawed fingers large enough to end me with one fatal swipe. Its deer-skull head hung low like a beaten hound, and I swore I could feel the creature’s nerves pulsating off of it like a small child performing on stage for the first time.

“What’s the problem?” the pale shadow-man in the center asked as his lips curled menacingly into a cheshire-cat grin. “Have you been suddenly stricken mute?”

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