The Attic: Kyles Perspective

Speech 1

I suppose I should explain if I must…but I already know what the outcome will end up being. I am not sure whether it is sad…or a good thing that I look forward to this fate. There is nothing worse that can be done to me at this point.

I've seen enough.

So if you would like to listen…or even if it falls upon deaf ears…this alone will help me process it…or at least let it fade into the back of my mind….

It started…some time ago…I am not sure of when. My sense of time was skewed and wrecked. All I know is that I woke up in my room...within the mansion that my father had bought. As I am sure you are well aware, my father had made a medical breakthrough that earned us a million shillings…in which he used to give us a life of luxury.

I was young…only two…but I have faint memories of the only time that I was in the same room as my father. Back then, there were three of us…me, my father and my mother. We used to sit in the dining hall and eat like all other normal families would. Life seemed like innocent bliss back then. The servants would bring food and refill your water or wine, always polite and considerate.

My father seemed to have a dusty look about his face…as if he had been living in ashes and dirt. But nevertheless, he always kept a clean look about him. He carried himself in the proper manner; although the way his eyes shifted and batted were of the paranoid type…of one with much to do and other things on his mind.

I paid no heed. I only knew him as my father. He would pat my head and tell stories. He seemed like a noble man. My mother would smile at him while she ate.

But I remember one day, he told me something that was not a story. He locked his eyes upon mine with a grave expression and told me never to go to the third floor. I was to always stay on the second…and only the second.

Perhaps it was the light but I thought I saw my mothers' face pale in the flicker of the candle lights upon the table.

I just nodded at him and promised that I wouldn't.

It was wise to listen to him.

He gave my hair a tussle and told me that I was a good boy and left it at that.

Yet as I sat in my bed reminiscing of the past I realized today was the day I was about to break his rule. I had waited too long. I needed to know why it was so forbidden….

And find out exactly what happened to my mother and father.

Speech 2

I raised my frame from the bed and took steps towards the door facing outside to the patio out front. My desk, wardrobe and table looked as if had not been touched in some time. I am hard pressed to think of when I ever used them. As I opened the door, the chilled air greeted me and my eyes fell upon a lone table with a candle and a note.

I took a moment to observe my surroundings…the evergreen trees stretching into the distance to form the wood we were so comfortably nestled in…and our stone mansion which rose above it, like the proud owner.

I let my eyes rest back onto the note…it was there for a reason. I didn't recall seeing it before. I knelt down and picked up the note gently, reading over its contents.

It was the story that I had just told you...of remembering the only memory I have of my father. I did not know why that note was there...and why it would appear today.

I pocketed the note and left the patio, deciding to continue my search. It seemed strangely quiet as I made my way to the main hallway door. Not a single servant had stirred the entire time I was awake.

Nor had one woke me up…it was of my own volition this time.

I opened the door to the red carpeted hall, walls of polished redwood stretching above me, lined in candles. Picture frames of my family and other works of glorious paintings hung as decoration, not a speck of dust to be found.

Ahead of me was another door…the first floor wasn't too far from where I stood…down the hall to my right were two other doors, the second leading to the stairwell.

Ahh, which ones to choose? I mused with growing excitement and anxiety.

I could not shake the feeling that I was being watched.

Ignoring this sensation, I decided to walk into the large room ahead of me, opening the door as normal. Inside, the fireplace gave light to bounce off the walls and permit vision of the green cushioned couch and table to my right, a picture of my father upon the desk along with a key and a note.

For a moment, I let my eyes stray to the giant stone tablet to my left. Its carvings seemed like something from a past age…ancient writings of stories untold in quite some time. Two candles rested from either side of it, illuminating the carvings of which I did not understand. This did not startle me as I knew my father was the explorer and science type.

I made my way to the desk to glance at the picture of my father. It didn't appear that he had aged much from my memory. Then the note and key called to my attention. I grasped the note and began to read.

It was of the local mayor giving my father the million shillings if he made a miracle cure all. In which it was rewarded upon the creation of something called…Laudanum. I couldn't recall hearing of it before but it explained the untold riches that had been gifted to our family.

I had heard our money was granted though a discovery and it was thus left at that.

What is this laudanum? I mused as I grabbed the small key into my hand.

A thud from upstairs jolted my body and stole my attention. As my head rose up towards the sound, my heart tried to still itself back inside my chest.

I wasn't sure what it was but I knew that I would soon find out.

Finding the other door to the end of the room locked and with no response to the key, I headed to the door to the stairwell. I unlocked it and treaded carefully inside.

Speech 3

*spends a large amount of time tracing the floor in a strange pattern before speaking with a heavy sigh.*

While I hid in the shadows, I heard footsteps. When I looked towards the sound, I noticed a trail of blood leading between two doors…one to my left and right. It looked as if someone had been dragged.

My heart skipped yet my mind was too curious by this point to question moving forward..so I did.

The door to my right was locked…so naturally, I tried the door to my left.

Once I peeked inside, it showed a study room…tables and books strewn about the place with easels set up for…I am not sure, perhaps sketches.

There was a key and note on the table to my left that I noticed…the room was illuminated with candles like much of the house. As I grabbed the key, I read over the note.

It was about someone…perhaps my father?...coming close to a breakthrough with his research…and that he was going to have an assistant try the laudanum.

My stomach sank. The blood I had seen on the way in here…one could only guess how the outcome was.

Still, with determination, I walked out of the study and slid the key into the assistants' door. The door glided open to reveal a bedroom. My mind was sent reeling momentarily and I had half a mind to run. It would have been a beautiful room had it not been covered in blood and trashed.

I made my way over an overturned wardrobe to a note pinned onto the dresser.

The note told of a lady who was selected to be the test subject of the laudanum. She sounded thrilled to be part of the experiment and waited within this room for my father.

I noticed another note in the wardrobe. This one spoke of the lady being pleased with the procedure…however she developed a headache and her arms hurt. She was informed that it would go away after some time had passed.

Then I found a note laid on the bed beside an arcane circle. The lady had to have her arm amputated due to an infection and was given a prosthetic arm. The laudanum still needed work.

Seeing as I had already explored both rooms, I checked up the stairs. To my right was a staircase to the third floor. In front of me was door to some other room. I wasn't sure of where, so I tried the door.

It didn't budge.

Disappointed but now left with one choice, I climbed the stairs to the forbidden third floor. My palms began to sweat with anticipation and dread of what else I might find.

Entering this new space, I was still greeted with silence and nothing more or less. The hall lead me on into the ballroom and lead me past several others rooms; the dining area for the servants, the study, the library and the meeting hall.

Bypassing most of the rooms, I took my chances with the hall that guided me to the stairs…which climbed upward into the attic.

A warm fireplace gave off light and heat that kept it comfortable while sparking off crackles of dancing flames. A picture of an aristocratic family and a lovely lady holding a black parasol hung off the wall to my right. Windows towered above me, covered by heavy red velvet curtains. Everything appeared together and kept in place despite the sudden disappearance of the servants and everyone else I knew. Burning with a desire to answer my questions, I ascended the stairs with careful steps as if to savor the moment of trespassing.

I held my hand on the doorknob…I don't know what I was expecting but I knew it had to be out of the ordinary.

I was hoping it wasn't, maybe something he just kept as a keepsake or perhaps his treasures.

The door opened with a loud creak but I didn't cringe. It was very dark within the room. The scent of blood reached my nose in the breeze. It caused a chill down my spine.

Blood? And it smelled fresh…someone or something was here.

Speech 4

*Takes a breath*

I made my way into the darkness of the room to investigate. I could smell blood…both old and new. I pondered possibilities as I noticed a broken chair and its pieces scattered on the floor ahead of me. A lone lantern hung above me being the only source of light.

The door shut behind me, causing my to jump. Clutching my chest to calm my breathing, I knelt down to the floor for a brief moment.

I didn't want to stay in the dark too long…some deep seated memory that I cannot recall rooted within my bones warned me of the darkness and its secrets. Something bad happens when there is no light. It holds no remorse.

Scurrying to the closest sign of an exit without going out the way I came, I ran into a door. The scent of blood became stronger here and I wondered if I should dare to go inside.

My heart beat its fist against my ribcage as if getting attention to be heard, its voice screaming "No".

But my mind and curiosity pumped a chemical through my body to hush the noises from my chest and egged me on into the room.

This door creaked loudly, the metal worn by humidity and weathering. My eyes adjusted to the darkness as my body trembled.

It soon grew worse as I happened to glance up and notice the chained body of a male, wrapped in a loin cloth and headless, as if some sort of macabre guardian of the room. His arms were outstretched and cuffed to the walls, neck gaping of the tell tale decapitation, old blood encrusted upon the walls and seeping down to the floor.

My heart and stomach leapt into my mouth at once and I gave a moment to catch my breath lest I should lose my constitution.

Reduced to a shivering puddle, I carefully dragged myself to the desk which was littered in ghastly tools of dissection and surgery. I faintly noticed a note among them and was scarcely able to hold it still enough to read for my trembling fingers.

The note was of my father expressing his excitement over luring people to his mansion so that he could use them in his experiments.

He killed these people.

He murdered them for his experiments.

How many?

For how long was he doing this?

Mother told me he wasn't home because he was off serving for the war. When I asked if he would come back, she fell silent and continued drinking her wine.

Or whatever drink she was using that day to drown herself out of her sorrows.

She must have known about this…she must have…her suffering was the answer.

That whole time…he was doing…this….

I scrambled out of the room from the inability to breathe. I barely remember stumbling to the door, my hand reaching for the doorknob.

My ears rang as an explosion knocked me back across the room and into a few boxes and barrels, a vague pain wracking my body.

Not really understanding what happened to me, I stood back up although dazed. I knew I had to get out. That was the only thing that was in my mind.

Get out now.

I made for the door again and opened it without a problem. However, upon closing the door, there was another explosion and I was sent flying like a rag doll down the stairs.

I don't remember how badly it hurt.

I don't remember what went through my mind as I landed and slid across the floor at the foot of the stairs.

I do remember the scent of my own blood and seeing faint lights floating about my eyes before I passed out.

Speech 4

*hunches up and brings knees to chest*

I came to in a hazed state. I heard something move and my eyes cast upwards. A terrifying humanoid creature of some sort advanced upon me, its jaw hanging wide open and drooping past the normal limits of the human body.

I would've screamed had I the energy…but the sight was too ghastly to make a noise.

Then, as suddenly as it appeared, it turned to dust before my eyes, leaving me in the cold darkness.

My very bones ached and trembled as I noticed I was within some sort of arcane circle with candles lit all around me. A note was just within my reach.

I grabbed hold of it, jerking my hand back towards my torso as if afraid that the darkness would rob me of my limb.

To my horror, I realized the note was written in blood. I don't know how I understood it but I could see in the faint light that it said:

"You should not have gone in there…."

I dropped the note and burned it among the candles as if it would erase the memory from my mind.

As you can tell, this was wishful thinking.

Nevertheless, I sat in the circle for endless minutes; perhaps even hours yet the horrid scenery wouldn't change.

Everything was different…it was darker by some unnatural power and much colder. The fireplace didn't even give off the light it had or the warmth. The flame had turned blue.

The painting of the lady with the parasol was shrouded in darkness and there were mad scribbling upon it in blood.

I sat for a long time, wondering if I had completely lost it and just imagined the entire ordeal.

An unearthly howl called my attention and bade me to keep moving.

I didn't want to see that creature again.

Crawling upon the floor like a common rat, I dragged myself pitifully past the fireplace.

Everything had been turned over; couches were upside down, chairs were broken, lamps shattered like skulls upon the rug and it was suddenly much dustier than before.

I reached the door that I had used to enter before. Due to my paranoia, I used but one finger to ease it open for several minutes.

It creaked a little at the pace I used to open it and soon it allowed me passage into the hall.

Onward I crawled into the darkness, too shaken to move any faster. I lit my lantern to give me piece of mind while everything seemed to warp and twist around my sight.

My body leaped at the sight of two knight statues appearing within the blink of an eye and standing before me as if to block my path.

My mind screamed even if I did not and I felt faint. I knew I had to keep moving. The thought of standing still met with its own appeals but my fears spelled death from whatever was waiting for me.

I dragged on through the dark hall and passed by the study which had not been explored yet.

Pausing at the door, I pondered for a second and decided to go ahead and take a peek within.

There was an unlit fireplace, two tables to the left side and a desk to the right with a chair set for sitting along with a few books and a bookshelf. A quill pen rested upon a few documents that were written from various…experiments.

Bypassing these, I eased myself to a door that opened to a huge painting of my father and a glass display case.

My heart leapt again at the sight of the candles burning an eerie dark red instead of the usual orange yellow hue of natural flames.

When I peered into the display case, I saw a note…

The note was the laudanum recipe.

And in it contained large amounts of human blood.

As I stared in disgust, the note suddenly changed to form another message that soaked the paper in blood.

"DO NOT TOUCH MY WORK!"

I heard a door being bashed open somewhere on the other side of the room. I gasped and quickly closed the door shut and cowered under the glass case.

I hardly had time to recover from my scare and now something was attacking. I didn't want to know what it was.

As the growing darkness weighed upon my mind and body, I could hear the shuffling, dragging feet of the creature.

*shudders and voice trembles*

The rhythmic thud and drag of its feet gave the image that it was limping. It drew breaths like its esophagus had been burned, emitting guttural growls unlike any animal.

Everything became much colder…it became freezing. I wasn't able to tell if it was my fear or if it was the creature that was causing the sudden drop in temperature.

I clung to the wall as if it could protect me. I prayed to something that it wouldn't come for me.

The growls paused near the door. I held my mouth to stifle my breathing should it tip off my location.

Nothing happened.

It just stood there.

I swear I could feel its eyes staring right through the door while it seemed to consider barging in.

…

It shuffled out of the room and left to wreck down some other door off its hinges.

I stayed behind, refusing to move until the sounds of banging and ripping wood ceased and the house fell silent again.

Slowly the door creaked open as I crawled forth, moving over the shattered remains of the door which had given me passage into the study. The dining room was now open to access.

I was too out of it to notice the chairs had dead bodies in them.

Cold, dead bodies slumped motionless against the seats and table, their skin ashen like the remains of burnt coal.

I grabbed a key which was beside a plate of human arms and slipped out of the hall and towards my bedroom.

I wasn't fond of the idea of going back towards my room…there was no telling what was going to happen. But I held a key in my hands.

I pressed on past a previously undisturbed room.

With a loud crash of shattering wood and glass, a body was flung out of the room to my right and I gave a loud cry of shock, nearly dropping the key. Before I could react, I heard the familiar howl of that terrible creature as he came bursting out of a wardrobe in that same room.

I could shout no more as I fled as fast as my legs could carry me down the hall and down the stairs to the door I held the key to. Though I hardly had the ability to hold the key still, I managed by sheer miracle to open the door and slam it shut behind me and shrink among the dark shadows of the walls for safety.

I never thought I'd ever look to the darkness for comfort before then. Even as it scraped at the confines of my mind and rattled my nerves to the core, I prayed it gave me brief safe keeping from the thing I knew would kill me.

Speech 6

I…shudder to have to recount this for you…but…here it is….

When I looked up…I realized I was on the first floor. The door was firmly shut behind me…and I knew I was safe.

From that floor at least. As for what was here, I knew I was not guaranteed.

But I had come this far and I wasn't quite ready to give up. It was dark…very few lights were on…except for a red glow underneath the door frame to my right. I decided that that was where I was going…I wanted to see what it was.

Oh what a fool I was…

*his breathing speeds as he tries to speak*

I...It was atrocious…as soon as I…got to the d…door, it…burst apart from the swinging chain of this…thing! Its mouth was torn…eyes bugged and swollen…red…its body was covered in blood, gashes, lesions, skin grafted and sewn onto skin…and the smell…the smell…it was so thick with blood...death…I glanced behind the creature and..there were countless bodies piled up on the floor which was sticky with blood and flayed by this…thing…the candles were red…as if it had soaked the floor around it…this thing howled and screeched with a sound from hell and gave chase.

I couldn't scream, my breath caught in my throat as I ran somewhere, anywhere to escape from the thing chasing me. I threw open a door and my mind failed me…I felt the ground rush to meet me…dragging my numb body across the floor in absolute desperation, I struggled to hurry away as I could hear the rusty chains drag across the floor and it wheezing, gasping for air before I closed the door. With the last of my strength, I slid underneath the desk and pulled up the chair…

As I passed out to the sounds of the door being busted open and the hellish winded panting of the thing, I felt everything sink away from me….

*catches breath*

…

…..

….I...came to after…some time…I was surprised I was alive…I thought I should surely die…

I didn't hear anything anymore…the darkness held me in its grasp…and there was no door to speak of…

I took my chances and moved the chair aside, crawling back out of the room. I went into my primal animal mode as I tried to see what was past the red room.

I ignored the sight of the bodies for the sake of my sanity..or what was left of it.

I dragged on to the end of the hall which curved to my left…and thus I followed it. There, a couple tables lined up in the center with bookshelves that covered the walls and a door to my upper left. What looked like firelight danced under the door frame…so I crawled over to it and pushed the door open.

Sure enough, there was a fireplace in the center of another arcane circle. There were chairs lined like an assembly in front of the altar.

It forced me to stand up and examine it, finding a key and a note on the top where speeches were given. The note simply read:

"Burn those who oppose our research."

I had not much reaction left in me but I took the key and made my way back down the study, down the halls…and finally into the door I hadn't touched.

It creaked open…my eyes took a moment to adjust…

I remember there were three statues…two knights on either side of the wall ahead of me…and a goddess of some sort in the center, wings folded behind her. The pose she was in kept her upright and towering above me with her head slightly tilted down at me, her left hand up as if in motion to summon something.

Entranced, I took a few steps forward to examine the stone goddess. But as I drew closer, there was a flash of light…and a row of knights appeared in front of me and blocked my path, as if to shield the goddess.

My heart leapt but I crept back to the door I was originally meaning to unlock.

She was to not be disturbed….

I opened the door and headed down the stair well…when I heard the screech of the thing again. I nearly stumbled as I was heading down the steps, my heart leaping so hard that I coughed as I sprinted to the door and tumbled into the basement and shut the door with my feet.

I kept inching back until my back hit the wall. I caught my breath and rolled over to face the basement I had escaped to. There were huge barrels lined up…a faint and musty smell…this was about as far as I could go without leaving the house. Somewhere…my answer was hiding…

I moved along the cool, dirt floor to the maze of large barrels that I rounded with caution.

Upon finding a door that lead into a small chamber, I peeked inside.

Everything was still normal..dark…but normal. I heard no shuffling feet…no gasping….

Silence.

I decided to stand up and face the door my left. It seemed like the only place left. There was natural light filtering in through the bottom of the door.

I took my chances and stepped through the door. It was a huge stone chamber, like a dungeon only with arched windows that stretched high above my head. Far ahead the vast space was a lone glass display case…and a knight statue.

This seemed too quiet.

Too easy.

But I ventured forward anyway to see what was inside.

The door shut on its own behind me.

I shivered but nothing more as I continued forward.

A voice spoke to me when I began to get close enough to see the case.

"Don't go any further…."

I hesitated but ignored the warning and took a step. Six knights appeared around the case, leaving enough space for me to make it through.

The voice spoke again.

"Please, do NOT end up like your mother…"

My blood froze upon the remark.

Who was this speaking? How did he know about….

I was taken by a mix of adrenaline and anger; I ran through to the display case.

But something lifted me up like a gust of wind and threw me back through the door which shattered to pieces as I fell. I hit my head on the ground and…I passed out right where I had been tossed….

All I remember going through my head was the thoughts of my mother and father…and I kept thinking about her.

What happened to her? Where is she?

What has my father done?

End of Part I