New Revelations

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?