Godspawn prompt 2: A tour

“This house once belonged to an incredibly wealthy man many decades ago. He cared for and took care of it until his dying days, keeping it in a beautiful, pristine condition. He had no help, nor any family to pass it onto, hence why this magnificent piece of history is now being taken care of by the city." The young man’s smile was full of pride. He wore a freshly pressed tan suit that had no hints of hairs or creasing. His vest was yellow, indicating that he worked for the touring company, and he wore a tag bearing his name that sat on the left side of his chest. His straight dark hair was gelled and combed back and his facial hair trimmed to perfection. The young man scanned the group with his piercing blue eyes, trying gauge the interest of people that joined today. Once he determined that everyone was still paying attention, he led them inside to the lobby room.

 

The lobby was giant, to say the least, much bigger than the entirety of a single family home, yard included. The floor was tiled with white and green marble slabs that seemed to be at odds with the red wallpaper, filigreed with gold. Two crescent-shaped staircases were on either side of the room that led to the floors above. A beautiful, bright crimson carpet covered the stairs and presumably attached to the one on the second floor. At the far side of the lobby, directly across from the entrance, was a large oak-framed doorway that opened up to a hallway leading deeper into the house.

 

Everyone’s shoes clicked and clacked across the tiled floor as the tour guide gestured to the walls. There were dozens of portraits that had captured various moments in time. From a pristine water fall to the devastation of war-torn villages, it looked like this man had various interests when it came to paintings.

“Cornelius Howitt, as you can see.” he continued, pointing at the largest portrait in the room. It was placed above the hallway entrance, perfectly centered on the wall. The man depicted in the painting was an older fellow, probably in his early 50s, and he was handsome to most. With sharp features, inky black hair streaked with silver, and stone cold gray eyes, the man leered out at those who stood below him. He stood tall, holding a black can that almost disappeared against his jet black suit. “Loved to collect, and commission, paintings from around the world. You can see the landscapes from various countries, as well as cities and spaces. Some of them might be a little, well…” the tour guide paused for a moment, it was mostly for dramatics. “Unique, shall we say? But, unique isn’t bad. In fact, some say that we shouldn’t hide the evils of humanity’s wars, a statement that I tend to lean toward.” he finished with a chuckle.

“Now then, let’s proceed.” he started toward the hall when a young hand, and voice, popped up.

 

“Excuse me, mister.” a little boy probably no more than 10 years old spoke. “Can we go upstairs first?”

The tour guide turned to address the young boy.

“Ah, upstairs… I’m afraid the upstairs is off limits today. Unfortunately some damages have been found that need taking care of first. I’m actually surprised the barriers haven’t been set up.” that last part was muttered more to himself than anyone else.

The group continued down the hall, turning into the first room, the noise of their walking and murmurs fading away.

 

Once the group was out of sight, sneaky feet tip-toed over to the staircase. It was a shame that the barriers hadn’t been set in place, but not so to the young, curious tourist. Looking over again to make sure she was in the clear, the young woman quickly made her way up to the second floor. Looking down both hallways they appeared to be the same, red carpet, yellow striped wallpaper, and many, many doors lining each side. She noted it strange how no paintings hung on these walls, considering Mr.Howitt was said to collect them. Perhaps he didn’t come up here often? It was a massive place for a single person to live it, after all.

 

“Right, or left?” her voice, light and soft, came out in a hush. It didn’t take too long for the young woman to decide, and she started down the leftmost hallway. Each door looked the same. They were made of oak and each one had carved into it elegant shapes of leaves, branches and flowers, some even unfamiliar to her. She peered into the rooms, one by one, seeing nothing of interest. Most of the rooms were bare, others had sparse furnishings, while some of them held old paintings and statues covered in cloth. Were these the items that were damaged? She wondered. The curiosity got the better of her and she made her way into the twelfth room on the right side of the hall. This room was rather bleak and musty. It had just one dim bulb in the center of the ceiling that acted as the only light source. The floor was made of plain floorboards with no elegance to them, and the walls were an off coloured cream, though that could have just been the doings of the light.

 

There didn’t seem to be much in here, just a couple of covered statues and paintings that she began to uncover. Three paintings and Two statues.

“Interesting…” she muttered, moving her fingers along one of the sculptures. It was the bust of what appeared to be a young woman. Though it was created from a white clay, the details seemed almost immaculate, even the eyes looked near realistic. Long curly hair with individually sculpted strands of hair caressed a young-looking, rounded soft face, the artist even took care to add dimples and a smattering of freckles over her petite nose. She stood there for what felt like minutes, just admiring the visage of the woman in front of her. She continued to take note of every intricate detail until… it almost felt like she was looking at a bust of herself..? But how was that possible?

 

Shaking her head, the young woman turned her attention to the paintings. To her relief they were just more landscapes of places she’d never been to before. One was of a vast swamp, the second one was the hot savannah of… Africa? And the last painting she viewed looked oddly familiar; It was a single green hill painting against the backdrop of blue snow-capped mountains. The grass was dotted with tiny white flowers that were immaculately detailed, and on top of the hill, directly in the middle of the frame, was a tree- one that had a carving in it.

 

“Is that…” she leaned in closer. “My dad carved that…” she whispered, “He cut deep into the tendons… I remember the bark writhing and pulsing, spewing blood where the knife dragged… the whole thing shuddered, the canopy dropped mounds of hot flesh all around us, it-” the young woman stumbled back, her heart racing in shock. Those were not her memories, that was not how it happened.

 

Frantically, more scared than confused, the young woman ran out of the room, stumbling down the hall as she did. She moved as fast as her legs could carry her, passing door after door after door after door after… How long was this hallway? She should have been at the stairs by now, but the hall just kept on stretching out before her as if there was no end to it. She glanced back to see if maybe she passed it, but instead was met with something horrifying… Flesh and muscle replaced wallpaper and carpet and there were no longer any signs or doors or a way out. Her eyes widened at this sudden change, watching the meat pulse like it was living, breathing. This had to be a nightmare. She turned her attention ahead of her where everything looked normal, normal except for purple and red veins growing up and out of the walls while connecting to others and expanding outward.

It wasn’t long before she started to hear the thick splashing of muddy water with every step she took, but something deep inside her knew that it wasn’t mud.

 

Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes, she was confused, scared, she didn’t know what was going on. She regretted leaving the group and going off on her own, she didn’t mean to, she was just curious and now she was probably going to be lost in this never ending hall of flesh! She cried out for help, cried out that she was sorry, that she would make it up to the tour company- she would even pay whatever fine there was for breaking the rule, she just wanted to leave!

Then out of nowhere ahead of her she saw salvation, it was the tour guide. Tears still running down her cheeks she approached the guide and a huge weight was lifted off of her shoulders. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” she bawled, throwing her arms around him. “I’m sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean to, I’m-”

“Hey, hey now it’s okay don’t cry, what’s wrong? Did you hurt yourself?” More than a little confused, the tour guide pushed the young lady off of him, though he did try to comfort her as best as he was allowed to. “You don’t look injured, what happened? Why did you leave the group? We were worried.”

The woman wiped her eyes, “I-I…” she sniffled, gazing up at him. “I saw…” it then hit her like a tonne of bricks- everything was normal again. No blood, no meat, just… normal. Was it a dream, a hallucination? “I… got lost… I’m sorry.” she trailed off in a whisper.

The tour guide frowned, looking around. “Here, let’s get you back.”

 

The woman sighed in relief, feeling his arm move around her shoulders as he led her mere feet ahead and then down the stairs. She closed her eyes, leaning into him as she tried to steady her breathing. What the hell happened back there? Maybe some of the pipes were damaged that caused gas to leak into the halls. Yeah, that had to be it… Lesson learned, she thought, stepping down stair after stair after stair with this man. For some strange reason it felt like the stairs were even longer this time; she swore it didn’t take this long to make her way up, so shouldn’t it be faster getting to the lobby? A few more minutes went by and they still hadn’t stepped onto marbled tile.

“Hey, Felix?” her voice rasped as she opened her eyes. That’s when she noticed something was definitely off.

 

Before the two of them was an open doorway, just like the one in the lobby, but bigger and weathered looking. Beyond that was a large room lit only by candle light arranged in a circle on the floor. But why..? And before the woman had time to question or protest, the tour guide gripped her shoulders and pushed her into the room. She didn’t have time to register what was happening before she found her arms and legs bound with rope

 

“W-what are you doing?!” she cried out in surprise. She felt the air leave her lungs as she was thrown to the ground. “H-help…” Bleary-eyed, she looked around as much as she could from the floor. The dim flickering lights assaulted her eyes, and beyond them stood a bunch of dark figures. She couldn’t tell who they were or what they looked like, but seeing them stand still like that made her hair stand on end. She writhed and struggled to get up, to get out of her bindings, but someone kicked her down again, causing her to mew lin pain. Whoever knocked her onto the floor stood on her back with one foot, leaving her unable to get up again.

 

And then the chanting began… Unfamiliar words sung in a dark melody began to fill the room. It was unlike anything she’s heard before and definitely not something sung in church or on the radio. The words put her on edge, filling her body with dread. She had to leave.

 

The young woman struggled again, doing her best to get up and run, but as she did the chanting just grew louder and louder under it deafened her thoughts. She tried to scream but her voice was lost in the choir. It was at that moment that she felt a hot pain in her back. She shrieked out again, but again nobody could hear her, she couldn’t even hear herself.

Pain shot throughout her entire body as the sharp object was pushed deeper and deeper into her flesh, her meat, her heart.

Hot tears streamed down her cheeks, her vision began to blur and darken. The words that pervaded ever so strongly started to fade into the void, as did she. One desperate plea for help barely made it past her lips before the darkness took over.

 

Chee’s eyes suddenly snapped wide open, a hot sharp pain in her chest slowly dulling away.

“Ah-ah….” she clenched her teeth whilst clutching her chest. Her heart thumped painfully as she tried to catch her breath. It wasn’t long before the sharp sensation washed away, allowing the fey-lizard to think a little more clearly. Taking a deep breath she finally managed to take in her surroundings.

Gnarled and twisted trees with a dark gray canopy, the sun and moon shining through at the same time; that was nothing new to the fey creature. But what stood out most was the beautiful country estate in front of her, with tall oak doors with a strange demonic skull carved into it. And moreso, the stature of a young child, a girl that stood in front of those doors.

 

Her skin was pale like moonlight, her long straight hair stringy and oily, and she wore an old long black skirt and a ragged white shirt that looked to be stained with old blood. She stood there with dark eyes, void of any life, set on the doppler.

“This is my house.” she said, her soft child-like voice carried out into the forest that surrounded the house.”This is my brother’s house, his and mine. Strangers aren’t allowed because they’re never strange enough.”

 

Sweat rolled down the dopplers neck as she watched the strange child change, and not in a good way.

 

The girl’s pupils expanded unnaturally until there was nothing but a pair of black orbs set in the child’s eye sockets. She smiled a smile that was too wide for her small face, revealing a large set of sharp, jagged yellow teeth. Then there was her left arm… Her left arm shifted, twisted, snapping and expanding to become twice as long as it had been before. Flesh was rent cleanly from her muscle as bone shot out to form something akin to a serrated mantis claw. Ribbons of flesh fell to her feet as she sprinted towards the frozen Chee.