House Of Mystery

"Visitors, I assume?" The voice, like silk, like pureness, but deep, a man’s, brave, but flawed? Maybe, she cannot think, the fear in her mind screaming at her to run, to run. But she cannot, the creature now visible in the flickering light of the fire. But what manner of creature, that stands on two legs but roars with it's teeth bared, with blood tangled up in its brown fur? What manner of creature indeed? "It seems that I am welcoming both welcome and unwelcome, but it does not matter." Why does he speak so elegantly, when he clearly can see that there is a creature in front of him that defies all logic? Is he blind? Surely he must be, to act so calmly. "I'm a Doctor, you see, a Doctor of something you must be very familiar with." The man scratches his chin, and then steps up to the growling creature, and with one swift movement, passes his hand through it's chest. Not punched through, not clawed, ripped, rend, simply passed, like a hand through water, so effortlessly. "Doctor Richard Occult, at your service." He frees his hand, no blood on him, no obvious marks that he just put his hand in the chest of a hell beast, or whatever it is... "Silver, holly, ivy, all that, ridiculous ideas when you can simply..." The creature howls, blood of its own, black blood, oozing out, oozing, oozing slowly, it's own black blood, and then with that final howl of defiance it falls, dead, last breath gone, taken, lost. "...Remove the heart of the problem?" He smiles, the heart in his hand still beating, a massive misshapen lump of muscle, and with that he clicks his fingers, and it's gone in a puff of smoke, a puff of smoke, the creature dead at his feet, the girl, tears in her eyes, the drip-drip returning, loud, obvious. "He'd make a nice new rug, if I dare say." The smile fades as he sees the pain, sees the pain inside her, and then shakes his head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... This isn't the time for jokes... What's your name, miss?"

"Rose."

Doctor Richard Occult's eyes widen, and then he clicks his fingers again, the young woman gone, vanished to her home, no memory of the ordeal, the experience, and with that, the dear doctor, so alone now, so alone for some reason only he and his inner demon know, sits back in his chair, the fire flickering. "The House of Mystery... Brings bad memories..." He grits his teeth, purses his lips for a moment, and then wipes the forming tear away from his eye. "Oh Rose..." Drip-drip. The drip-drip of tears.

So alone now, so alone in the House of Mystery, resting place for the damned.

On this Halloween, just as on every other Halloween, they would gather at midnight, swapping their stories, but eventually, as would always happen, the tales of horror would finally end.

But that's all they were - tales. The real horror began when the tales of the unexpected ended. That's when the really unexpected thing happened. It was inevitable.

They all waited nervously, just as they always did, for the unforeseeable event that was about to happen.

Cain glanced over at Destiny, who was frantically flicking through his book, desperate to find a page that would tell him what fate had in store this time.

Meanwhile, Abel looked over at Mordred, Mildred and Cynthia, who were casting yet more protection spells that were doomed to failure.

Eve just sat there. After all these years, she and her sons should have gotten used to it by now, but they never did. No matter how many tales they told, someone else always had to have the last word. And so she closed her eyes, and waited once again for the unexpected. She didn't know what it would be, but she knew what it would sound like.

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