Chapter V

Her hand was seemingly stuck on the door as the funeral played out in front of her. So far, the guests were already seated. Finally, Michael stepped into the room, wearing an all-black suit. His eyes were a bit red and swollen from crying as he made his way to Dorothy's coffin, caressing the glass panel that separated him from his love.

"Dorothy..." he said. "Dorothy, I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you..." He ran his hand across the glass panel, his tears falling onto the surface. 

"Come, Master, the mass is about to begin..." said a servant as she escorted the grieving man to one of the pews.

As the ceremony began, everyone began to fade before her eyes, kind of like smoke dissipating in the wind. The chapel returned to its decrepit state, and all the churchgoers had disappeared, save for the old coffin where Dorothy was in. As she was able to move again, she approached the coffin, and saw that the body was no longer there, but in its place was a note. It was very brief and the amount of urgency in it was unmistakable. It said:

Find the truth. There are dark secrets and even darker hearts involved. 

Along with the note was a dagger with a rose on its hilt. The blade was surprisingly sharp, as evidenced by how quick it cut her finger when she accidentally held the blade. She took the dagger and made for the door near the pulpit. It was another long hallway on the other side, this time the sides were lit with torches, which was strange, given its abandoned state.

The walls were dusty and covered with cobwebs, and the paintings were barely recognizable due to it being slashed in the middle with some sort of blade. As she continued to traverse the dark and dingy hallway, she stepped on a piece of paper, the crunching sound catching her attention. She picked it up and saw it was a journal entry from possibly one of the servants in the mansion based on the language used, but it was barely legible, but what she could make out of it made her heart jump. It read:

The Master is heartbroken. She died too quickly. Since then --- dark things --- already left two days ago, said something about devilry --- not sure

Dark secrets and darker hearts, she thought as she pocketed the note and kept walking. There's more to the story than meets the eye, and I need to know what. The hallway ended in a fork, which was reminiscent of one of the hallways she was in earlier, and if she recalled correctly, she chose right last time, so now she went to the left.

She opened the door and found herself in a small living room with a fireplace, a painting of the mansion hanging above it, some hunting trophies, a small boudoir and another door leading to somewhere outside. On the small table near the fireplace was an envelope whose top was torn open. The letter in it was still neatly folded in place, as if it was never read. Slowly, she pulled it out, making sure the paper didn't crumble, and quickly read it. 

Dearest Michael,

How are you? I trust you are doing well despite the sickness that had gripped the town.. How is our daughter? She has not written to us these past few months.

Please do pass this along and tell her to write to us. We miss her dearly. We shall visit soon once the plague subsides. 

Yours,

Catherine Stein. 

"Ah yes... she was nosey, that one." said a voice from behind. It was brimming with rage only tempered with cold calm, and there wasn't anyone in that house with that kind of voice except him. She froze in place as she felt him approach her. How did he even get here so quickly, she thought. I thought he was at some sort of party! She didn't even dare look back as two, large strong hands rested on her shoulder. 

"Catherine..." he said, his voice brushing against her ear. "She.. wasn't very approving at first of our relationship, but I assured her that it'll all be alright." She was frozen in place as one of Michael's hands wrapped around her waist. "Now, be a dear and try not to escape. I had to cut the party short because of you." 

"Cut... the party short?" she asked. Somehow she didn't want to know the answer to that question but a chuckle from the mansion's insane master made her immediately regret asking. "I'll show you." he answered with a menacing tone as he took her wrist and pulled her out of the room.

The way they moved through the halls felt different. She could swear right there that her feet weren't touching the ground as Michael took her to another wing of the mansion. What was even stranger was the fact that everything they passed by was decrepit earlier, and now it seemed restored. All the notes she found so far told her to find the truth, and she wanted a way out of the place but she seemed to be getting nowhere. 

Then that smell hit her again. That rancid, somewhat metallic scent was in the air, and it was so bad that it was as if it attached itself onto the walls, the carpeting, and everywhere else. Oddly enough, Michael didn't mind it and just kept on walking, his grip like a vice around her wrist. 

"We're almost there..." he said in a very giddy voice. Finally having a chance to get a closer look, he seemed a bit paler compared to the painting and his previous apparition. He was still handsome but his cheekbones seemed a bit more pronounced, and so was his jaw. His dark hair seemed to have white streaks on the side, making him look older yet he wasn't. 

"And we're finally here!" he said with a smile. They stopped in front of a large, gilded double door. The smell was even more intense here that she nearly threw up. "You'll be in for quite for a surprise. After all, I know red is your favorite." Without further ado, he pushed the heavy doors open, seemingly with otherworldly strength, and what she saw on the other side made her fall to her knees and completely throw up.

Across the ballroom hall were several dead bodies. The guests who had been invited to Michael's party had all been murdered in violent ways. Some had missing limbs, some had their eyes gouged out, but there was a common pattern among the corpses...

They were all eviscerated. 

Looking up at Michael, she now realized why the smell had been intense. Aside from the menagerie of dead, bloody bodies, he too, was literally covered in blood. He turned to meet her gaze, streaks of red across his face as he took her by the wrist and pulled her up. 

"It's our turn to dance without those annoying, two-faced wastes of life." he said with a manic smile as he pulled her inside the ballroom hall with him.