Pueblo Providentia:

Damned Memoir

Book 1

Black Dairy

Chapter 1

Knocking at the Diablo's Door

"What are we going to do?" ask Mike, he seems agitated. Beads of sweat fall from his forehead as he tried to hide his fear.

"You scared?" I ask, laughing internally. Mike is always a chicken when comes to things like this. Creepy stuff, things crawling under the bed or anything that goes bump in the night.

"N-no. I mean, any plan or something?" Mike stutters. I know it.

"Okay. Fine. You can go home now and just leave me here-"

" I'm not scared, OKAY. Look. I even bring my camera with me." Mike says with confidence. I know he's just hiding his fears away.

"Great! You can get a footage for me. Just like 'found footage' movies." I say as I try to open the huge rusty gate covered with dried vines.

"You need help?" Mike asks. Seems to notice I'm having a hard time opening it.

"Yeah."

Swinging the gate back and forth over and over again as the roots from the vines starts to uproot from the ground. The last push gives a loud screech from the hinges of the gate.

Our eyes are meet with the dilapidated yet grand mansion. Different hues of blue covered the exterior of the house.

The glamour of the place is now in disrepair and nature takes its place as veins swirls up the carved pillar of the terrace. The hammock swing back and forth to the mild wind as if somebody is swinging with it. What a nice place, indeed. If not only tained with a bad history.

" This place is beautiful," Mike exclaims as he pans the camera back and forth.

" I know right," I say as walks slowly to the wooden steps.

The wood creaks under my feet as I slowly pace up the front door. All windows were boarded up with planks. Mike, still taking footage of the place, is murmuring at my back but I can't hear him. I put my hand around the dusty doorknob and twist it.

Door opens as the dust inside are disturb. The inside is a mess. The furnitures are all broken, glass pieces on the floor and leaves and cobwebs covers the whole house. Mike coughs, maybe inhaling some dust.

"I will be looking at the first floor, you take the second," Mike commands. I am shock he take the lead.

"Sure." Without hesitation, I start to take the steps to the second floor while Mike buzz his way to the dining area.

My eyes are meet by the long hallway of the second floor. Striped pink and white floral wallpaper are starting to wear off. White now turns to sepia as the moisture damages its glory. There are three doors in this floor, one on the left, a light blue one, one on the right, the dark blue, and one at the end of the hallway, the door with a two 2-d lion in a inverted position with each other.

I decide to take the door on the left first.

The room is big. Shelves are emptied with just three stuff toys left: a blue cow, pink pig and a white rabbit. I know those three actually. They are the famous mascots of the Providentia Seaside Amusement Resort. The blue cow is Naya the Cow, the pink one is Atam the Pig and the leader of the gang, the white one is Amak the Rabbit. All wears the same black vest and red tie but the undershirts varies with the color of the skin. The rabbit also had a pocket watch on his left arm, the pig had a lyre and the cow holds a spade. All of them is dusty and decorated with black cobwebs.

I assume this is a child room as the stuff toys suggest.

I find no interesting thing in the room so I leave and walk towards the second door in front of the first one.

This room is much nicer. It seems more clean than the first one, which is odd actually. There are few books on the shelf. "The Secrets of Family", "Right Things to do With Old Stuff", "Harvest the Knowledge", and "Conscience Recollection" are some of the book of the shelf. There is one book that gets my attention. It's a titleless book. All pages are missing though. I hope I can find those pages. I think it will lead me to a treasure or something.

I left the room and take the thirds one. I actually like the cravings in the door. I look at it closely as it really caught my attention. The inverted lion on the left looks angrier than the standing one.

"Mike! Give me the camera!" No response.

"Mike?" Okey. Fine. I think his outside that he can't actually hear me.

I twist the doorknob and opens the door. This room is the biggest of the three. There is a terrace overlooking at once the rice field.

I can see from here the old storage of the harvested rice and the Todolove River. The beauty of this place. It always awe me.

The sun is setting. It's gonna be dark soon. I need to go down.

I walk down the stairs calling for Mike's name.

"Mike! It's late. Lets pack up and leave," I shout.

Silence. I never even hear a single step.

"If it's a prank then you should stop it though," I am starting to get annoy than worry.

I walk to the kitchen and see him on the floor. Face down and blood under his body. No.

"Mike?" I slowly walk towards him.

Gasp escapes my mouth as I look in shock as the blood of my best friend oozes from the wounds. Multiple stabs wounds. Blood all over the floor.

The place is getting dark. Heartbeat starts to get faster. I can feel the veins in my pulsating. Tension raising up as illusions starts to form right in front of me. Shadows. Shadows starts dancing around, encircling me, as a smokey dark figure in my height and structure wielding a knife starts whispering "not my fault. Not my fault. He did this. He make me do it," over and over again.

My head hurts, visions spinning, smell of the decaying flesh swoops around me as try to collect my consciousness. No . This is not happening.

I fall on the floor and hear the replay of my statement.

"It is your fault."