Aberdeer Mansion, Maine (mission)

As much as I tried to keep an even pace while moving through the hall, even I couldn't help but speed up just a little bit at the sound of a woman choking. It's a personal preference but I prefer to try and maintain an air of ambivalence in situation like this. It never helps to let these things know you're shaken. On that same note, that's why I also decided to avoid eye contact with the many supernatural orbs lining the hallway. Eyes were called the windows into the soul for a reason and even if I was reasonably sure these things couldn't get at mine, I didn't want to know what they'd seen over the years.

Finally, a light appeared up ahead causing the eyes to twitch erratically. I switched off my flashlight and slipped it into my pocket now that there was enough light in the larger room up ahead to see. No visible source of the light but I was fine working with what I had. Exiting the hallway I made sure to check my corners on either side. Nothing in the room but the giant doll up ahead. It lacked the decorations that the others had and it was far bigger. Please don't be the kid I silently pleaded as I entered the room.

Bat in my right hand, I drew my gun with my left just in case what I had planned didn't work out. This was a spirit job so there were a number of possibilities. I might be able to just exorcise the damn thing here in its place of power or I might have to destroy whatever was tethering it to this place. Only way to find out was to try everything and hope I was right. If I wasn't...well, now's not the time for negative thinking.

Keeping my eyes on the doll, I began to recite the only exorcism chant I knew by heart. It wasn't exactly a favorite of mine. It was long by chanting standards and most of the oogie boogies I'd run into recognized it right away and weren't keen on letting me finish. The advantage though, was this this puppy packed some serious firepower if I could pull it off. No more kid gloves, I wanted to hit this thing with everything I had right out of the gate.

"Regna terrae, cantata Deo, psallite Cernunnos, Regna terrae, cantata Dea psallite Aradia. caeli Deus, Deus terrae, Humiliter majestati gloriae tuae supplicamus Ut ab omni infernalium spirituum potestate, Laqueo, and deceptione nequitia, Omnis fallaciae, libera nos, dominates.
Exorcizamus you omnis immundus spiritus Omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio, Infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, Omnis and congregatio secta diabolica. Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, dominates, Ut coven tuam secura tibi libertate servire facias, Te rogamus, audi nos! Ut inimicos sanctae circulae humiliare digneris, Te rogamus, audi nos! Terribilis Deus Sanctuario suo, Cernunnos ipse truderit virtutem plebi Suae, Aradia ipse fortitudinem plebi Suae. Benedictus Deus, Gloria Patri, Benedictus Dea, Matri gloria!"

Reciting Christian rock lyrics was about the worst thing he could have done right now. About five words in, the doll stopped twitching. It sat for a moment, only to begin screeching as its jaw snapped far wider than it should, the porcelain around its face cracking open and revealing sharp teeth. Its head began to twist back and forth, making what sounded like snapping necks with each turn. Extending with another violent crack, it stood up, all parts of its body expanding from the joints to reveal sinewy flesh. It more than doubled in size, easily topping at around 8 feet in height. What remained of the doll body resembled segments of armor covering some of its body, though the majority was now the flesh. Aside from the mouth, however, the head remained intact, the eyes still glossy and lacking a soul.

It screamed over and over again in a gasping pattern, then began to rush the alchemist. It intended to bite down on his head and rip it from his shoulders, unhinging its jaw like a snake before violently snapping it shut when it reached the area of attack. Its hands (still encased in porcelain, though the fingers had cracked and extended at the joints like other places to elongate them) went to grab the man's body to hold him in place during the bite. All in all, even if he survived, the man would more than likely need to conjure up some new pants.

I didn't have to wait long before the giant doll decided to take notice of me. It screeched, twisted and warped in horrible motions but as far as I was concerned this was a good sign. The presence had abandoned the creepy atmosphere tactics in favor of going wild as soon as I'd started chanting. That meant it was a pretty good bet that it did not want me finishing the rite if it could help it. That's why even as it transformed into an even more horrid form I kept right on chanting, forcing my annunciations to remain clear while trying to keep a brisk pace. Finally the monster decided to charge me. Unfortunately I was only halfway through the chant. I needed to slow it down. Keeping up my chant, I raised my gun and fired off three shots, one at its head and two at the muscley bits making up its right knee.

If I was lucky, the doll might even feel it but it was doubtful that would give me the time I needed. So I did the only sensible thing and made a break for it. Using the large size of the room, I started moving in a counterclockwise patter around the room's edge. Even if I hadn't been using precious breath to chant, I knew that I couldn't outrun it forever. All I could do was bank on a little bit of a head start from thanks to the bullets and however long it wouR

The bullets did little to hurt it, though they did disorient it. His quick movements caused it to miss its target entirely, tripping and crashing into the wall. Flipping backwards, its toes dug into the wall, followed by its fingers after flipping its front, as well. It scaled the cement surface up to the ceiling, making its way towards its prey. It dropped down a small distance away, intending to pounce on the man from above as it fell. It continued screaming as the chanting continued. Its jaws kept snapping, intending to tear out his throat the moment it came down.

Despite an entrance being there a moment before, the area of the wall where the hallway had been was gone now. Only stone was left, making this a room with no exits. He'd have no choice but to kill this thing. Or die. That was always a possibility.

The loud crash behind me signaled that the doll had crashed into the wall just as I'd hoped. After establishing some breathing room while continuing my chant, I made an about face to keep an eye on it. As if it wasn't terrifying enough already, the creepy thing could climb up the walls and ceiling. Weight forward on the balls of my feet, I moved into an athletic stance as it crawled towards me. Three quarters of the way through with the exorcism rite, just had to keep it off me for a little while longer. I holstered the useless gun again and drove my free hand into two of my pockets in turn as the distance I'd worked so hard to create disappeared.

I tried to time my jump alongside the doll's, throwing myself to my right towards the center of the room as it dove towards me. That snapping jaw was bad news but it was also my best bet at buying enough time to finish the chant. I decided to take my chances and flung my handful of blessing salt and cold iron nails into its gaping maw. Chant was almost done. Just a few more sentences...

It's jaw came down hard, meeting a bunch of nails instead of flesh. A few of its teeth shattered, though the nails were snapped in half. The salt, however, was not pleasant. It hacked and screeched as it vomited up the crystals in large puddles of black ooze. It was desperate now, knowing it only had a bit longer before it was dispelled. Reaching up to its scalp, it pulled with all its might, tearing its own head free from its shoulders. Advancing a few steps, it hurled its severed body part at the man, jaws snapping and crunching all the way. It aimed for his body, intending to chomp straight through his chest and into his heart. The body fell to the ground after that, knowing that its last attack would decide the fight either way, and it had no more use.

I hit the ground rolling, both hands gripping my bat as I got to my feet as quickly as I could. The salt had worked. I'd need to remember to thank whichever god it was that came up with that rule. Despite the sense of accomplishment welling up within me as I watching it writhe and vomit, I had to keep on chanting. I was too damn close to drop the ball now. Backpedaling away from the doll with my bat held up like a sword, I pressed on through the spell as the horrible monster tore off its own head. It stepped forward, shortening some of the distance I'd created and unfortunately I was quickly going to run out of space. I was beginning the final sentence of the chant when it drew back its twisted arm and hurled the still screaming head at me. The old instincts took over and for the briefest of moments I was standing over home plate again. An inside fastball coming in to peg the batter in the chest, dick move. The only problem was that I wasn't bound by the rules of good sportsmanship either. I stepped to the right and swung hard, smacking the doll's head with everything I had while trying to step out of the way. The force of the impact ran up my arm as the finale syllables left my lips.

The head smacked against the ceiling, the shattered pieces falling to the ground along with a splatter of the ooze. The body still lay limp, but even if it tried to get back up, the incantation was finished. The creature's remains began to melt into a pool of the ooze, as well. Then, everything went dark. The red light had gone. Without anything supernatural in the room, there was nothing left to keep the place lit. It was, however, still closed. There was no exit. Despite winning the battle, it appeared as though the spirits would win the war. Unless the alchemist could escape the room, his only options left would be to choose how he wanted to die: Starvation, asphyxiation, or a bullet to the head.

I took a long sigh of relief as the monster finally died down. It was times like this that made me grateful I'd taken the time to learn that damn chant. Unfortunately, the light in the room had vanished along with the supernatural force that had been trying to kill me. I pulled out my trusty flashlight again, sweeping it around the room. The door was still gone. Of course the door was still gone. When had I ever met a spirit that was a graceful loser? No sign of the girl down here. My only hope was that she'd be back up in the mansion now that the beastie was done for. The only question was how I was supposed to get back up there. I hadn't brought any explosive with me but even if I had, that was risky business that might bring the whole place down on top of me. To hell with it. When in doubt, stick with the tried and true favorite. Using my flashlight to work my way over to the holes in the wall left by the doll's feet, I hoisted myself up and started taking swings at the ceiling to transmute as much of the solid material into liquid as I could to open up a path to the mansion above.

Damn it. Of course it wouldn't have been that easy for me. The big doll in the basement wasn't the root of the real problem here and Ogreman wasn't either. I felt a supremely uncomfortable chill run down my spine as he passed by me to leave. I didn't have nearly enough information to even begin to guess what he was or what he wanted but it just felt wrong. He was wrong. As he made his departure I removed my glasses and gave them a quick cleaning with the end of my tie before noticing the strange girl. Some kind of spiritual echo of a victim? That's the trouble with the more spiritual jobs, way too many grey areas to try and work out.

Putting my glasses back on I decided to put Ogreman on the back burner for now and crack on through this doll job. The girl had pointed upwards; the attic. I love it when I'm right and just think, I could have been up there taking care of business over an hour ago if SOMEBODY hadn't decided to play Ghostbuster with a camcorder! Easy Henry, getting worked up won't solve anything. I ignored the dolls for the moment and left the parlor, turning left to head up the staircase towards the top floor.

The stairs creaked and moaned, as one would expect in an old house. Once at the top, they groaned loudly before collapsing, trapping the man in the upper areas of the house. The first door on the right was a bathroom. Following that was the parent's bedroom. Across from them was the child's. Four more bedrooms extended down the hall; merely empty guest rooms. The hallway then branched: Forward were the stairs leading to the highest part of the house, the other leading deeper into the second floor. Obviously, the stairs were inaccessible due to a large portion of them having fallen through.

The other path led to a game room on one end of a path, filled with different board games and toys the family owned, a Ouija board in particular sitting out on a table.  Down another hall was a television room, the rather small (by today's standards) set being off due to no power, a large couch sitting in front of it against the wall. Lastly, there was another bathroom. This one was smaller than the first.

As the rumbling started up behind me I sped up my last few steps just in time to avoid going down with the moldy bundle of wood that had once comprised the staircase to the second floor. There was a long hallway ahead of me with plenty of closed doors lining the wall. I pursed my lips thinking over the situation. There was no way for me to turn back now without suffering a painful fall. As was usually the case, the only option was to press on.

With my flashlight in my left hand and my bat held loosely in my right, I started down the hall towards where the stairs to the third and final floor were located in the mansion’s blueprints. Much to my chagrin, my footsteps were clicking audibly with every step against the old hardwood floorboards. I ignored the unnerving sound along with the closed doors I passed on my way to the staircase. Whatever jump scares and disturbing imagery were inside of them were secondary to the house’s owner.

Unfortunately, there was a little hiccup in my plan. The floor in front of the stairs to the top floor had also collapsed leaving a foreboding eight foot gap. I’m a pretty fit guy but there was no way in hell I was about to clear that void without eating stairs. I’d need to find a way to bridge it. Bringing one hand to my face I absentmindedly stroked my mustache trying to come up with something I could use while watching dust particles fall to the hardwood floor.

…the hardwood floorboards!

Sweeping my light along the floor I double checked the dimensions. They were longer pieces of wood made to cover long, large surfaces; about ten feet long and five inches wide. Tough call on whether or not it would support my weight but all I needed was one good jumping off point. Unholstering my gun, I emptied the last of the magazine into the end of one of the floorboards to try and blow myself a little handhold. The wood was strong but the lead rounds punched through well enough for me to work my fingers under the board after reloading and putting away my gun. It took much more finesse than I would have originally guessed, trying to ease the board up using leverage without snapping the damn thing. Eventually I managed to get it up and onto one shoulder, grunting a bit at the weight. It was heavier than I expected too.

My moaning aside, I dragged the piece of lumber over to the gap and let it fall nail side down across the empty space. It was long enough alright but looking at it again I was getting second thoughts about this “brilliant” plan but then again, what other options did I have? Coming to the conclusion that I was not Spiderman, I ruled out scaling the wall from the outside and settled on my half assed bridge. I took a deep breath and made the first step onto the board, gradually easing my weight and wincing at every creak in the board. Gotta make this quick I thought, quickly tiptoeing my way across the “bridge” with two more long strides that cemented my place as the least graceful ballerina in history.

Not my finest work, but I’d take a break where I could get it. Catching my breath, I ascended the stairs to the third and final floor.

The man had bypassed the last barrier to the attic. All that was left as a simple door at the top of the stairs. It would be too easy if he was just allowed to walk in there, though. Something had to be waiting.

Evidently upset at the fact he didn't come to see them, two dolls grabbed the alchemist's legs, seemingly appearing from nowhere. They were heavier than one would expect (based on appearance only, since just about anything could happen in that place), tugging at his ankles to try and pull him down the stairs. Four more fell from the ceiling, wrapping their tiny arms around his neck and leaning backwards. Still more were waiting at the bottom of the stairs to catch him.

Across the gap were more dolls, probably from the unexplored rooms. They watched as their companions sat at the base of the stairs to grab the intruder. No longer worried with appearing motionless, they began forming a bridge with their bodies to join the others in waiting. Ooze began to seep from their orifices and cracks, the eyes of each dolls falling out to show pitch black holes gushing the slime.

Oh crap was about all I had time to think when the first two dolls grabbed me. Flashing the beam of my flashlight to my feet, I wasted no time in swinging my bat downward to try and bash one of the dolls off me and into the gap at the bottom of the stairs. Before I could do anything about the second one, four more dropped onto my back and latched on to try and haul me back. First things first, I dropped my chin to prevent any of the little freaks from getting a decent shot at my wind pipe and took a step up with my free leg to get my weight forward. It was a temporary solution at best. If I didn't get these dolls off my back soon I had no doubt I'd go tumbling back into that gap in the floor and the clutches of something nasty.

Remembering the effect that the salt had on the larger doll in the basement, I dropped my flashlight and stuffed my free hand into the pocket of blessing salt I'd brought along with me. I sprinkled it over my shoulder and the back of my neck where I felt the dolls grabbing on before throwing myself back first into the wall of the staircase to try and knock them off or worse. If I could knock them loose, another dash of salt and a swift knock from my bat would hopefully take care of the last little bugger clutching at my leg.

Unfortunately, the dolls that had grabbed me weren't the extent of my problems. More of the creepy toys had gathered on the other side of the gap in the floor and were currently in the process of bridging it. Damn it! I admit, it wasn't exactly my wittiest thought but I was working a little thin here. At the moment, my only concern was scrambling up those stairs as fast as I could. If I could just reach the door it would be a simply matter to smash the stairs with my bat to reduce them to a liquid mess. Depending on how determined they were, the dolls would probably figure a way around it regardless but it would sure as hell slow the little freaks down long enough for me to deal with whatever was waiting for me behind the final door.

The human was persistent. The salt worked as intended, harming the dolls and forcing them off, but not before one could take a grip on his light and bring it with it down the stairs. It seemed to purposely roll into the abyss after that, just to inconvenience him. The ones at the bottom of the stairs began making their way of, crawling and oozing like a bunch of fancy slugs. They'd be there in only a few seconds. The ones across the gap had figured out how to make their way to the landing, as well, so they'd soon join him. The salt would eventually run out, but what about the dolls? It didn't seem like they had a limit.

And there went my flashlight. Fantastic. Even when I managed to undercut the little freaks they still managed to be a pain in my tuckus. I may have lost the flashlight but I was far from beaten. As the dolls made their way across the gap in the floor I reached the top of the stairs and threw open the door. Another step took me through the doorway into the attic and I turned back to get another look at the scene behind me. More dolls had arrived. A lot more. It was with no small bit of satisfaction that I brought my bat down on the staircase leading up to the attic and reduced the wooden structure into a sloppy liquid mess that quickly way underneath the doll army, sending them tumbling into the darkness below after my light. Karma's a bitch like that.

The room a good bit smaller than the rest of the house, but had about the length of a whole floor of the house. On the side opposite the door, lit by a candle, was a wooden desk. On this desk were countless old books on the subject of magic and witchcraft. A long bed was position beside it, with the girl on top. The right sleeve of her coat was ripped off, several deep cuts in her arm with blood dripping into a bucket below.

The obvious culprit for this stood next to her. He was an emaciated man with next to no hair, the few strands left being greasy and gray. His shirt was wrinkled and rips, several crusty scars and collapsed veins covering his arms and face and presumably other parts of his emaciated body. He looked towards the door, spotting the man who'd caused him so much trouble. He smiled at the man, showing a collection of about nine butter colored teeth, adjusting glasses that were broken beyond repair and of no actual use for sight with red-caked fingers.

"You're the man who caused me trouble?" he asked, more as a statement than as a question. "I can take your blood, too. Let me finish with this one first." He ran a knife down the girl's arm, making another cut that gushed even more blood into the rusty bucket.

I made a quick scan of the room after closing the attic door behind me. It was a big room but surprisingly sparse. The closest source of illumination was on the opposite side of the room; a small candle set up next to a wooden desk and a large bed. Switching my gun over to my right hand, I started towards the light, straining to get a proper look at the books piled atop it. I was able to recognize a few titles from the unofficial magical "do not read" list but others were completely unknown to me. However, the emaciated old man standing alongside the bed where the girl lie motionless was enough of a clue for me to put it all together. Blood magic was bad enough, really dark stuff actually, but factoring in the dolls as well my best guess was that he was using it as fuel to animate his toys. Then again, I could have been way off base. That's another frustrating thing about magic. There's always about a dozen different ways to do the same thing.

Regardless of how he was doing it, I had to put this guy down before he finished whatever he had planned for the girl. I continued closing the distance between us at a steady pace, my hand gun at the ready for any potential violence he might have in mind. I kept on walking as he acknowledged my and made another cut in the girl's arm. Had to be careful of that knife, I didn't want it slipping and gashing the girl anymore than she already was. I found my first chance as he started pulling the knife away from her arm and decided to jump on it, squeezing off three rounds at his center mass.

The bullets whizzed through the air, bouncing off harmlessly against the air and running back along the path they were fired from, directly at the gun and its wielder. "Don't lose too much blood now," he said, stabbing the knife into the bed unintentionally while aiming for a hand. "We can't use it if it all spills out." He pulled it back out, brandishing it at the man as he walked slowly towards him. He began slicing it through the air, intent on inflicting some debilitating injuries with the least amount of wasted blood. His eyes were incredibly bad, though, so it was always a guess as to where he'd actually land if he wasn't directly in front of something only a few inches away.

I'd underestimated the old guy. Never counted on the chance that he'd have a barrier already set up around himself. The first of the bullets raced right back along the path it had been fired from, crashing into the pistol and knocking it from my hand. My surprise and methodical firing speed worked together to save me from death as I stumbled to the side and fell on my ass in time to avoid the other two shots. I'd lost track of where my gun had flown off to but even if I knew, it was probably beyond repair at this point. Pain shot up my right arm. Looking down I saw my index finger bent at an unnatural angle. It felt like that shot had broken a good number of the bones in my hand. Damn. Had to try and buy time until it went numb but the pain was messing with my focus.

Get it together, Henry! Think damn it! The old man was coming after me directly now, wildly slashing with that knife. Time to start fighting dirty. I released my grip on my bat just long enough to grab a handful of nails and toss them onto the floor in the old man's path. For the moment, they would do nothing but that'd hopefully change soon enough. Grabbing my bat, I favored my left arm to frantically crab walk back to get some space between me and the old man so I could get to my feet.

Here's where it got tricky. I wasn't about to try my chances at winning a knife fight with my dominant hand out of commission but luckily I didn't need that kind of fine control. All I had to do was put my bat in the path of his swing once and let the alchemy do the rest. As soon as the knife impacted with my bat I flexed the old transmutation muscles to try and turn that weapon of his into a glob of liquid metal pooling over his hand. That would be enough to momentarily disarm him but I was hoping for more. One look at those glasses told me the old guy couldn't see well so I was banking on the element of surprise here, hoping that the sudden shock of the liquid metal on his hand would send him stumbling back to step, or better yet fall, on top of those nails.

The swinging continued until the knife hit the bat, the backhand slash blowing the liquefied metal away from him. Even so, he felt the weight change and discarded the useless handle. Moments later, foot felt nail as the pointed object lodged itself in his toe. He fell back, not out of a long dulled sense of pain, but simply to remove the nail.

With blood running, now he could really fight back. Red leaked onto the floor, bubbling up and forming into a golem of sorts. On mental command, it charged at the man, moving over the nails harmlessly to try and clothesline him through the closed door and down into the broken stairs.

I could feel my right hand numbing up and the old man stumbling over the nails gave me the time I needed to bend my finger back into place. Despite what the movies show you, that trick is never an easy process. I couldn't help but cry out as a sharp spiking pain raced through the thickening cloud of shock and my eyes watered behind my glasses. That's when I realized how badly I'd messed up.

I'd made a blood mage bleed.

Summoning a golem that quickly was damn impressive, a horrible abomination, but impressive. I had a brief nostalgia to the giant doll in the basement as I lined up my priorities. Seeing him use that trick had clued me in to a potential way to take away his ammo but first I had to bet past his new pet. It came in fast with a clothesline that probably would have broken every bone in my body that hadn't already been snapped but a clothesline is a pretty easy move to read, even for me. I ducked and rolled over my right shoulder to try and dodge under the blow, making sure to let my bat brush against its leg on the way.

The dolls had been immune to transmutation but this thing was fresh and comprised of the old man's blood so it was worth a shot trying to vaporize the damn thin into a gaseous state. Even if it didn't work, I still had the old matador trick I'd used on the big doll up my sleeve. With a bit of luck on my side, that wild swing would take the golem straight through the door and crashing through the empty space that had once been the stair case.

Regardless of whether or not the monster went down like a Looney Toons character, I had more pressing matters to deal with. Ignoring the old man on the floor for the moment, I made a mad dash towards the girl bleeding on the bed. That bucket was still alongside her, collecting the dripping blood from her arm. Coming to a stop with a slide, I moved her arm away and jabbed the end of my bat into the bucket to vaporize the collected blood the old man had been so intent on saving. It's times like these I wished that I broke the rules more and studied blood magic if only to have a better idea on how to mess with it. My best guess at this point was to try and take out the closest thing to a power source I'd seen so far.

The monster's leg fell out from under it, causing it to trip into a clump on the ground. Being a liquid, however, it easily reformed and continued in the other direction, swinging its arms wildly with frozen claws, though having lost a bit of height. It tried to ram him this time now that he'd decided to corner himself.

Despite the probable death awaiting the intruder, the man still fumed from the loss of his precious fuel. "I need her blood! I can't save them if I don't have her blood!" He wasn't even concerned about the loss of the alchemist anymore, only wanting him dead in order to get on with his work. He'd save whatever he could off his corpse.

Taking out the golem's leg hadn't slowed it down as much as I'd hoped it would but it had been more than enough time for me to take out the old man's blood source. I flung the now dry bucket off the end of my bat towards the charging beast and broke off towards the large desk. My right hand had gone mostly numb by now. At the very least numb enough that I was able to manage stuffing it into my breast pocket to retrieve the glass flask of gasoline I'd brought along in case I had to burn a spirit's earthly tether inside the house. I didn't have the dexterity to get the cork out but I had more than enough finesse to smash the bottle over the old man's desk, covering the various tomes and documents with highly flammable gasoline. I still had that desk between the golem and myself as I crudely grabbed the lit candle and moved it above the desk.

"And you can't save them without these either! Call off the golem or I destroy everything!" I yelled, keeping the old man in my field of vision even as I kept most of my focus on the golem and the partial barrier between us.

The golem smashed the wall as it rushed towards the man, reforming backwards to attack again. It stopped at the declaration of fire. The old man was not amused. "You'll just set yourself on fire. Are you insane?" As ironic as that statement was, he was right. From where he was standing, he'd only manage to trap himself in the flames and die a horrible death by burning. And, despite losing the books themselves, he'd memorized a great deal of the information over the last twenty-something years, and he still had the girl. He'd be able to keep going. He had all the advantages right now.