Standing before the big double doors, I reached into my pocket, pulling out the key, put it in the keyhole, and turned it. Pushing the doors open, I shined the flashlight inside, and it was massive. I thought it was big from the outside, but the inside is impressive. I couldn't find a light switch, then I noticed that there weren't any light bulbs. It looks like this is off the grid, as I walked into the first large room and saw a fireplace with logs, and picked up kindling. I opened my bag, pulled out matches, and put the logs next to the fireplace. I lit the matches, placing them in the kindling, and blew on them to make them burn. As the logs started to catch fire, they lit up the room.
As I looked above the fireplace, I saw a massive painting. "Lazarus Hollowmere and Medea Hollowmere." Said on the plate at the bottom of the painting. I noticed them as the man Samira had asked to marry the man I assumed was her husband, who was unnamed. As I turned to walk away, I felt someone looking at me, and I quickly turned back to look at the painting. I turned my flashlight back on and shined it on the painting, looked it over before sighing. "What is this, scooby-doo? What would a painting be looking at me?" I said to calm my nerves, even though I didn't believe the words coming out of my mouth after witnessing those things.
Walking around the room, looking at the other paintings, some of the pictures of castles that had their name plates scratched off, making me wonder what that was about. As I left the room, a female and male chuckle escaped from it, making me swing back around, shining the light into it, and not seeing anyone. Before continuing my walk, I stopped before a bedroom door. "Samira Hollowmere" was on the gold plate, making me touch it as it opened the moment I felt it. My mind was screaming that this was a sign for me not to walk inside, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. They wouldn't kill someone they had been trying to get to come here. As I opened it up and walked inside, shining the flashlight around, I noticed a vanity mirror with a chair in front of it.
"Well, you were beautiful, so it would make sense that you had the same things as women in that time," I said, walking over to the mirror and seeing him. "This place is freaky, and that's saying something coming from me." He said, making me nod. "You are right, but I don't hate it. As a matter of fact, it feels like I belong here. You know what I mean." I said as he nodded. "I feel the same way, but this is uncharted waters for us. So please keep your head on a swivel." He said, causing me to nod and pause for a moment. "You know this is the first time we talked this much since I was eight. I kind of missed it." I said, making him smile happily.
As I started to look around the room and noticed a painting of her along with a man tied up naked on a St. Andrew's Cross, she was smiling happily. Looking at the gold plate. "Wedding day." I knew that was the man from my dream as I chuckled at her smiling face. "She seemed really happy, well, that's good for her. She found love." I said, walking out of the bedroom and closing the door as the painting started to come to life, and a woman's foot stepped out of it with her black and green colored dress as she tilted her head at the door, wondering who that was, only to hear a voice. "If you do anything to him, I will kill you." As she turned to the mirror and Evil Bennet climbed out, making her raise her eyebrow.
"I don't even know who he is, and he said I looked happy on my wedding day, so I like him." She said with an eerie smile. "His name is Bennet Hollowmere, and you are his direct ancestor to the Hollowmere bloodline. Meaning he is like your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson." He said, making her eyes light up as she clapped her hands. "Wonderful, I haven't meant any of my bloodline in hundreds of years. But the question I really want to know is, what are you?" She said, flicking her hand as chains shot out of the void, wrapping him up as she walked over, looking him in the eyes as hers glowed an eerie dark green.
"I am his magical potential, you see, Bennet didn't really have what you call a family. His father was never home, and his mother was always fucking the new man she found a liking to so he was left home alone most of the time. His craving for a friend and desire not to be alone birthed me from the darkness within. So I became his family and the only one to understand him truly, he made me at the age of four." The Evil me said, making Samira wave her hand, breaking the chains. "To make something like you at the age of four, I am taking a liking to my grandson. His powers must be massive." She said.
"He doesn't know he has powers; to him, I am nothing more than a split personality. As that's what his parents called me, and the doctors diagnosed him with. Things like magic and monsters are myths in this day and age." He said, making her squint her eyes. "Which one of his parents has blood ties to me?" She asked as an eerie death-gripping cold spread across the room. "His father." He said, making her scuff. "Leave it to a man to destroy his son's potential. Well, now, as his grandmother, I should help him learn about his powers. The mansion will become lively with the sounds of screams once more." She said, clapping her hands. "I have a question, aren't you like 400+ years old. How are you still alive?" He said, making her glare at him.
"It's rude to talk about a woman's age, and if you must know. I am dead in a sense, that I can't leave the grounds as all Hollowmeres are bound to the mansion the moment they are born. Only those with power can come here while alive and use its vast wealth and knowledge. But at the price that once they die, they have to stay here for eternity serving the bloodline." She said before turning around and walking back to the painting. "You don't have to worry about him getting hurt. Hollowmers may be cruel and evil, but we don't hurt our own. He will be protected as long as he stays in the manor during nighttime, as we have harmed many people, and grudges can be a potent thing." She said before stepping back into the painting, as the man struggled inside, she moved her hand over his body.
The Evil Bennet chuckled and walked back to the mirror and entered it.
I didn't explore much as I wanted to wait for day time as I returned to the fireplace and pulled out the sleeping bag rolling it out in front of the fire and used the backpack as a pillow before changing into the sweat pants and t-shirt as I crewled into the sleeping bag and fell asleep as somewhere deep in the mansion gears were turning opening a wall to a library with a gaint table inside it for over fifty people with twelve seats above that table as ghostly figures drifted into the room.
The lower table started to fill up first, as murmurs and whispers echoed until ten more people came into the room, taking seats, leaving the two in the middle open. A man with a cane and a woman with a fan covering her face made everyone stand up and bow slightly. "So, whose bloodline does this strange fellow belong to?" Asked the old man with the cane as Samira stood up. "He is my grandson, father, and I found out something wonderful about him." She said, clapping her hands happily. "Oh, daughter. What did you find out?" The woman with the fan said, walking over, hugging her daughter's arm.
"He was able to use his magical powers at the age of four." She said with a smirk, making her father narrow his eyes. "That's not possible; magical powers only come out during puberty," Lazaurs said, making Samira smile. "I met a being that was born out of his lonely childhood. He said he was made at the age of four. And Bennet doesn't even know about magic." She responded.
"Bennet, that's a good name. I wish to hug my great-grandchild." Medea said happily. But Lazaurs was in deep thought. If someone could awaken magic before puberty, then they must have a powerful connection to the chaotic matter of existence. He must meet him face-to-face.