This was a very, very, dumb idea. Corvin, being obscenely wealthy,
has a manor with guards in it. And for some reason I thought it was a
good idea to march right up to the gate and not expect something bad
to happen. Still... I guess it went better than it could have. I
mean, obviously, right? I'm still alive here, after all.
I drove in Carlos' car to Corvin Manor. I think I heard that his
family helped found this town, and have lived in the manor ever
since. It looked pretty nice, honestly. I walked right by a lily
garden, on my way to the front porch where I was greeted the Butler
guy, who never gave his name, now that I think about it. He seemed to
take after his master with the creepy smile he gave me when greeting
me. He was tall, dark haired, 30 something year old looking man with
a deep voice and british-y accent. I told him I needed to see Mister
Corvin about a very important matter, and that he would probably know
what it was. I think I meant it as a threat.
"Ah, of course. Please, come inside and we'll try to find Master
Corvin." He stood aside and I went in. "You must forgive
me, my dear boy, I am a fairly new member of this illustrious
household, after the tragic passing of my predecessor two months ago.
I don't quite know Master Corvin's schedule by heart yet, but he does
tend to linger in his little museum downstairs, please follow me
closely." He took off at a brisk pace towards a marble staircase
leading down.
The house was fancy as shit. Pictures everywhere, old clocks, that
depressing dark color scheme old houses seem to love, and equally
depressing looking carpets. Lots of purple, which is a color I don't
particularly like. At least they were clean. The staircase was kind
of jarring to look at because it was pure white marble, including the
walls, compared to the dark colors of the rest of the house.
I paused a bit to take in my surroundings, just in case, and Butler
Guy turned around and snapped at me. "Follow closely,
sir. Guests should not linger in the most patrolled areas of the
house. The guards are a... might bit twitchy thanks to their... Um...
Supplements."
"What kind of supplements?" I asked, looking at one of the
guards. He was friggen enormous. Like some kind of steroid nightmare,
with these glassy, reddish eyes with extremely dilated pupils. If I
didn't know better, and I still don't, I would say they were on some
kind of cocaine/steroid mix. Just the way they were moving around and
looking at things, reminded me of someone on serious amounts of
cocaine, but their eyes looked even more fucked up than what I've
seen before.
"Just a little... Performance enhancer. It doesn't do wonders
for their already limited personalities though, so I would recommend
a degree of caution and lack of eye contact, at least until we find
Master Corvin. They won't disobey him. They can't, in fact." He
gave a dark chuckle and lead me down the staircase.
At this point, I had realized what a big fucking mistake I had just
made. I was here to confront Corvin about his spying. In his own
home. Surrounded by his armed guards. I did not fucking think this
through at all, so I was thanking God when Corvin wasn't in the
Museum floor.
"Hmmm... Master Corvin isn't here? Such a pity. I suppose we
should wait here, then, for him to arrive, as he is bound to show up
soon, given his affection for the artifacts within this place."
That Butler said to me.
"Artifacts" is one way of putting it. It was an extremely
bizarre "museum." The tall room was adorned with paintings
on the walls, of faces and unrecognizable places, one displaying a
giant spider with a human face, and another showing a total solar
Eclipse. I felt on edge just looking at them. But then you have the
weirder things. There were glass cases with an assortment of random
items inside, like a Femur bone covered in weird unreadable sigils,
or an old syringe filled with this strange looking fluid that gave me
a headache just to look at. It seemed very familiar somehow. There
were an assortment of Books, some old, some new looking and some even
looking like notebooks. In the middle of the room was this small
garden, with a large sapling tree growing out of it.
It looked like one of those trees from that Place, but different...
It might have just been a bizarre mutation of the bark, but it looked
like ugly infected flesh was growing through the twisted bark.
On the opposite side of the room from the Glass cases were the larger
objects in the Museum. One of them was a big silvery mirror with
pearls along the sides, reflecting the entire room. It looked very...
Clear. Well polished. But something about the reflection bugged me,
though I couldn't tell you what. There was also a large, battered,
old piano that seemed to be in the middle of repairs. But then was,
again, the weird stuff. The Piano was surrounded by what looked like
camping materials, covered in dry old blood. But the weirdest thing
in the entire collection had to have been the big Black Van with
"Free Candy" on the side of it, next to the Piano and
camping supplies.
There was also a big gold Egyptian sarcophagus. I went up to it and
stared at it for a moment.
"That one" came a voice from behind me. "Was a gift
from my friends in Noctis Custodes, for helping them with their legal
and financial needs." I turned around and saw Corvin coming down
the stairs grinning at me. "It is said to contain the body of
the High Priest Kemseti, who made a pact with a being of golden
smokeless fire, thousands of years ago." He walked up beside me
and pointed at the picture of an Eclipse. "That piece was a gift
from my old friend Albert Conaghan, by an obscure painter named
Gertrude Adalinda, who went insane and killed herself shortly after
painting it." He walked over to the Mirror adorned with Pearls.
"This... Was a gift from my mentor, Silas Marsh, crafted out of
silver from Persia. The Pearls are said to be the crystallized eggs from the Mother of Serpents herself. Every owner before Silas met with a... Less than pleasant fate." He then smiled and pointed
towards the sapling in the middle. "That? That is one of the few
surviving saplings rescued from an old town out West, where the
inhabitants worshiped strange beings and all just... Vanished two and
a half years ago."
I finally recovered from my shock. "Mister... Corvin..." I
don't think I did a good job at hiding my nervousness.
"Well hello there, Jeremy." He said, spreading his arms
wide as if wanting a hug or something. "Welcome to my humble
home. You could have just called, you know, I gave you that number
for a reason." He said with smile.
"Well, I uh... May have misplaced it, sir." I sputtered.
This was not looking good. This was a big fucking mistake.
Corvin shrugged a bit, happily. "It happens." He turned his
grin towards that Butler. "You know, guests are typically sent
to wait in the foyer, not the museum. Certain things down here might
unsettle the poor boy."
That Butler bowed his head. "My sincerest apologies, sir,
but the dear boy was quite insistant that he talk to you right away.
In fact, he looked rather like had something important to tell you.
So I brought him here, in the hopes that we might find you reading.
Alas, it seems you were elsewhere..."
Corvin glanced at me with an expression of mock surprise. "Important?
Oh, of course... What can I do for you Jeremy? Did your detective
work turn up something helpful in your room?" My eyes, meanwhile
were locked on three guards marching down the stairs, who were giving
me a bad look. I say again. This was one of the worst ideas I have
ever had.
"Uh... N-No sir. I just... Well, I did find something you might
be... Interested in?" I was stammering.
He smirked at that Butler, before smiling back at me. "Oh do
tell."
"The... Um... The disappearing students. They have something to
do with Jacob Kase's death. Carlos and I and Victor Kruger, we've all
been seeing this... Thing around. We think its the Spinner. That
thing you and the Timberwolves had a bonfire for a few months ago."
I hoped I could distract him from the Camera issue.
He started giggling and almost jumping around. "Oh I knew it. I
was right, like always. Ha HA. Yes, yes. So that's what he was doing.
And you all three saw it? The same hallucinations. Oh, he is Good. Oh
yes, we need to find him. I might even offer him a job..."
"What the FUCK are you talking about?" I kind of lost my
temper at being laughed at like that.
He stopped and gave me what I think was a sympathetic smile. "You
still don't get it? That nosy FBI Agent even gave you a hint. Didn't
you notice the smell in your Fridge? Sweet wasn't it? I've smelled it
before in certain kinds of incense, during my visits to Africa.
Breathing the incense was supposed to sort of... Unlock your mind
into a different plane of existence. In other words, it causes severe
hallucinations." He giggled more.
"Incense?" Maybe Carlos could find out more about it.
Incenses and Magic shit are kind of his thing.
"It doesn't take much, but that isn't how it was happening to
you. This is the interesting part. Our mysterious friend in black is
using the oil form of it. Heehee. Those cameras you found? They were
recording everything. Late at night, this person wearing all black
with a strange mask would slip in your room or window, and drug your
food and drinks. I don't know who it is, though, but I would very
much like to find out. If he's using the incense I think he is, it
shouldn't last that long or work when dissolved in soda or water.
Isn't this exciting? Who knows what else he might know!"
I couldn't believe this shit. Corvin knew this entire fucking time,
and he is only now telling me? Come to think of it, why the hell is
he telling me?
"Why didn't you stop this if you knew?"
He shrugged and walked over to one of the cases containing a notebook
with the name Mitch Lapierre on it, opening the case up. "Call
it curiosity." He flipped to a page with some drawings and dried
blood on it, and showed it to me. I recognized it immediately.
Slender Man. "You have been seeing this entity, haven't
you?"
I backed up towards that Butler, ready to run. "Are you a...
Proxy?"
He looked confused for a moment. "I don't... Think so? I
confess, I don't quite know what that is. I only know about this
'Slender Man' by reputation. He has never appeared before me, despite
the fact, I hear, that it only takes learning about him to cause him
to being stalking you." He put the notebook back in the case.
"So what is a Proxy, hmm? Better yet, what is it about you,
Jeremy? You, your friend Carlos, Victor Kruger, Jacob Kase... Why are
you blessed with His appearance, when I am not? Why do you get to see
the proof I have so longed for. That... Sweet validation, that
all these years of study and obsession, of rituals and the ridicule
have been worth something. That I was right, all along,
despite everything. Tell me, what makes you so special?" His
voice had become angry, but the amount of stupidity coming out his
mouth was making me even angrier.
"Look you dumb son of a bitch. If you want to trade places with
me, by all means do it. I don't want this, you haven't seen the shit
I have. This monster
is the most horrifying thing a human mind could ever comprehend, and
you want to meet it? Is that why you've been watching us?"
He smirked at me. "Only part of the reason, my boy. You'll see
the rest soon enough, I promise you. Ah... But for now, I have very
important matters to attend to. We'll save the Q&A for later.
Feel free to tell Mr. Kruger and you little magician buddy Carlos all
about our conversation... But if you mention so much as a word of
this to that FBI Agent, you may very well wake up as a guest in our
special quarters, attended to by these fine gentlemen." He
gestured towards his Guards who continued to glare at me through
glassy eyes. He then looked to that Butler. "Would you kindly
see him out?"
That Butler smiled in response and bowed. "Oh, it would be my
pleasure, sir."
I left without a word. What the hell could I say? I wasn't about to
risk provoking Corvin anymore than I already had. I have enough
trouble with Spinner, or... Whoever it is, and Slender Man. I'm gonna
sleep on it and discuss everything more with Carlos and Kruger
tomorrow. This has changed things, and maybe for the better?
