A/N: Hello to all, I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! It has been a little bit since a chapter was last written for this story. I have been taking a few days to write it, Ryan is about to be put through a hallucination hellhole, we all know it isn't going to be fun for him! XD, I pumped this one out right on time for my birthday, so I hope you all enjoy this latest chapter to Living with ManEaters!
(Chapter 16: Hallucination Hell)
So that was his name, Bill Blake.
It had been revealed to him in a precognitive dream, this was a man he had never seen before in his entire life, the ex-marine couldn't scavenge any similar names or faces from his childhood, into his teen years, and into his adult years.
What he did know about Bill Blake, is that he was a piece of shit who was about to get what was coming to him without a doubt.
The pump action shotgun was strapped to his back, the LEMI and the 9mm was attached to his utility belt and so was his gladius sword. The ski mask protected his head and face from the bitter frost that was the air, however it still stung his eyes and made his lips chatter and chap.
With a deep breath, he began to descend the hill and curved out and away from the castle, glancing over to his left to see the crucified remains of slain men that were drained of their blood, at first, he thought they were scarecrows, but seeing a crow pluck out the hollow, soulless eyes of the rotten and frozen corpses proved him wrong.
It was quiet, perhaps too quiet as the former soldier marched through massive gothic ruins that was centuries old or maybe even older than centuries. Massive cracks were slicing into the massive stone bricks that formed pillars, archways, and even a bridge that the ex-marine had to cross.
The only noises at this point were the chilly wind howling and the crows cawing as they took flight, he could hear nothing else. His nose, however, picked up a horrid odor as he crossed the bridge, upon further inspection, he noticed that there were rotting bodies hanging from nooses, dangling down from the pillars that towered over the bridge…
"Good lord…" Ryan said to himself with a shake of his head in disbelief while passing under one of the hanging bodies, they seemed to be covered up in tarp which hid any facial or bodily features. Then something unexpected happened.
"Follow your gut, Ryan." A voice with a certain English accent suggested to the bold man from behind him. The eyes of the trooper and now knight of Castle Dimitrescu shot open with fright, the voice startled him, but when he turned around, everything seemed to be pleasant as he saw standing before him, Dan Valentine!
"You've gotta be shitting me…" Ryan said to himself as his gloved hands placed themselves on his hips, a surprised smile etched onto his face.
"I'm not shitting you; we've been following your journey since you survived that mission." Dan replied with a lighthearted chuckle.
"I wish people would stop reminding me of that damn mission, and who the fuck is we?" The ex-marine growled between his gritted teeth; it was a reminder that he had failed to keep his buddies safe.
"Unfortunately for you buddy, you will. It's what defines us, it doesn't matter whether you got your ass kicked or came out on top, moments like those shape who you truly are, my friend. You're a survivor, through and through, I admire the fact that you've made it as far as you have!" Barlow exclaimed with his voice filled with pride, moving out from behind Dan.
Ryan's eyes went wide again as he saw the Forgotten Ops emerge from behind Dan one at a time, his breathing became shaky as if he was on the verge of breaking down, his eyes grew misty as he felt the tears starting to rise.
"I'm surprised sunshine has made it this far, look how soft he is!" Moises teased as he stepped into view, getting the spectral visions of the old band of brothers to laugh heartily.
"Shut up, Moises." Ryan said playfully as he wiped a lone tear from his eye, his voice trembling as he spoke.
There was a brief pause as the band of brothers in arms stared at each other, Ryan standing about ten yards away from the other four. He truly was a survivor, seemingly being the last one alive from that botched mission from an entire decade ago, it was a testament to his strength and will to overcome the odds. He had survived the streets when he was young, he toughed it out in basic training, he survived the deserts of Afghanistan, he fought through the devastating lycan horde for a few missions before it all went to Hell that fateful day. One of the youngest members of the Forgotten Ops, with Malosi being two years younger than he was.
"You said to follow my gut, what do you mean by that? It can have a lot of meanings in this village, I don't know if you're talking about my entrails being spilled out on the ground by one of those wolfmen or to trust my instincts." Ryan questioned Dan with a raised eyebrow, he assumed that his old pals knew what his mission was now.
"Follow your gut feeling, your intuition shall guide you to where you need to be. However, tread lightly. There is trouble ahead." Dan explained to his best friend, but he also lent him a warning in advance. The journey wasn't going to be so easy for Ryan, there would be intense trials and tribulations to come for him and it wouldn't be so pretty either.
"Oh great, I can't go one day without a fucking conflict here…" The ex-marine groaned as he palmed his face while shaking his head, becoming irritated at how he had to fight for his life almost every day no matter the circumstance. Perhaps his bonding with the Dimitrescu family was a sort of calm before the storm.
"Yeah, shit stinks around here. So we've learned by watching what has happened in the village." Malosi replied to the irate expression of his good friend.
"How long have you guys been…well…haunting this village?" Ryan asked, becoming curious now. If they had seen everything, maybe they knew what the Man in Black was weak against! Maybe they had credible information that he could use.
"We've been trapped here; the Man in Black keeps us here. We weren't allowed to move on when we died. We've been forced to watch every atrocity that takes place, even before your arrival. You must free us, Ryan. The only thing is, are you willing to go through Hell and back to do it?" Barlow asked, Ryan stood in silence for a moment, thinking of all he had been through.
The streets, the gangsters, the terrorists, the lycans… He overcame them all.
The ex-marine took his necklace in which was adorned with a Christian cross, he clutched it in his hand and gently squeezed it as his eyes narrowed with determination, staring back up at his old pals as one of his favorite Christian quotes entered his mind.
I can do all things through He who strengthens me
"I've prevailed through the worst, I can sure as hell do it again…" Ryan said, his voice cold but calm and collected all the same.
"Excellent, we can see into your future briefly, that is the only thing positive about the dump we're in right now. You will be faced with several hallucinations; you will arrive at House Beneviento and shall be bombarded with things you could never fathom. After the meeting you attended with the matriarch of House Dimitrescu, every other lord of the village doesn't trust you, as a matter of fact, they all currently despise you." Barlow warned, his voice grim as he had a slight look of worry on his face.
"Well that's comforting…" Ryan joked nervously, from his moments of bonding with House Dimitrescu, he had entirely forgotten about the other lords of the village that he had seen at the cave church meeting, he had only been in that place twice and both times were intense encounters.
"Remember, it is only hallucinations, nothing you see in that perimeter is real. It is only your mind playing tricks on you." Barlow tried to remind Ryan, but for the case of the ex-marine, hallucinations would feel too real, almost like a lucid dream in the waking world.
"Let's hope so." Ryan replied before bumping his chest with his fist before outstretching his arm, the rest of the squadron pressed their fists against his for a "go team" ritual before pulling their arms away, howling into the skies like wolves.
After a few seconds, the spectral visions of the deceased Forgotten Ops members fizzled away into thin air, leaving the ex-marine alone once again. The only sounds he could hear again were the crows cawing as they flew overhead and the running water below the bridge he stood on, even the wind had come to a still, again reminding Ryan of a calm before a storm.
"Alright, Donna. Do your worst." Ryan growled with grit in his teeth, continuing his march across the bridge where he would enter through a large wooden gate. The former soldier would walk out into an open area with a large chalice like object in the center with ceremonial pillars and carvings surrounding it on a slightly raised platform. Candles surrounded this platform to give the area some lighting as the tall rocky hills put this location in the shade, there were a few gates which would lead to different directions, these wooden gates had symbols on them with a lock included.
Ryan's eyes peered around these gates, wondering which one would lead him to the Beneviento residence, as he turned to face the way in which he came a cooling shock sensation akin to that of static electricity surged at the back of his head and traveled down his neck, following this sensation, the ex-marine would get the urge to turn around and face one of the gates.
The gate he was looking at had four winged designs adorning the wood, a four-winged key would be used to open this door, but the former soldier didn't possess such a thing at the time. Instead, he took his shotgun and blasted the lock apart, taking two shots in a row to deal enough damage to slide the lever out of place, the gate slowly opening with a creak.
The first thing that Ryan noticed is that the shade of the area got significantly more dark than he was when he stood in the open area, a natural corridor had been formed due to the towering rocks that loomed high above him and the vegetation had grown out of control, with several weeds sticking up that he had to pass through, something within him told him that he was going in the right direction, so he followed that sense just as Dan had instructed him to.
He continued down this path, walking up a hill and rounding a corner as a certain sense of dread started to swell within him, there was something about this place he didn't like. He couldn't point the finger at what it was though, the towering rocks slowly lowered in height the further he walked, but he was still stuck in a trench as he approached a tree in the distance with ghastly looking limbs that resembled gnarly looking hands that was reaching out for him, but that wasn't all he seen…
Little bodies were lifelessly hanging from the limbs about fifteen feet in the air, upon getting a closer look as he approached the ghoulish tree, it thankfully belonged to a doll. However, even if it wasn't the body of a small child, it was still just as fucked up, what kind of psycho hangs dolls like this? The ex-marine also noticed that the environment had changed, everything was surrounded by a mist, adding another layer of discomfort to him.
The sense of dread within his gut continued to swell as he looked down to see tombstones lined up under the same tree, his eyes directed themselves up again to see even more dolls hanging still from the limbs.
"What the hell…?" Ryan gasped nervously as the grip on his shotgun tightened, holding onto the weapon for dear life as he continued down the path, a disturbing sensation began to overcome him as he felt like he was being watched, the ex-marine found himself looking over his shoulder and turning around to see nothing behind him.
Dammit, I hope those dolls are just those hallucinations… Ryan thought to himself, the only sounds he could hear was his boots crunching through small patches of snow and dead leaves under his feet and the occasional croaking and cawing of the crows in this area.
He would come to another turn again, another unpleasant sight greeted him this time. Hanging on a stake was a black tactical vest and a dark green muscle shirt, the same thing that he was wearing upon his arrival into the village. The man felt a pressure in his throat that forced him to nervously swallow as he made his way to the wooden bridge that just barely swung in the wind. The mist that hung in the air became twice as intense as it was when he was passing through the trench filled with hanging dolls.
As he started to cross the bridge, it swayed back and forth with more intensity than before, even some wooden panels fell from it that startled him.
"This damn bridge is going to give out on me." Ryan said to himself before shaking his head, thinking that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Another sound filled his ear in the form of running water, there had to be some sort of flowing rapid under his feet that he couldn't see, but the only direction he could go is forward.
After he crossed the bridge, he noticed an old looking gate, it appeared to be a gate that would lead to a cemetery, Victorian era in design. As he approached the gate, he heard a voice calling out to him that sounded distinctively familiar.
"Ryan Miles!?" The jolly voice of his late father called out as the gate opened with a shrieking creak, the ex-marine was startled as he yelped, not expecting a sudden voice to call out his name and break the silence.
"Wait a minute…dad?" He asked as he passed through the gate, reaching out his arm. From how hazy the environment was, he could barely make out anything of his father that appeared familiar.
The only thing that Ryan could tell was that his dad was wearing a black suit and black shoes, having his hands over his heart like a person in a casket, only that he was seemingly alive and not dead. The lips of the ex-marine began to tremble, it had been so long since he had seen his father as he approached him.
Unexpectedly, the vision of the former soldier flashed and when everything went into focus again, his father had vanished into thin air, Ryan was taken aback as he stood there with a puzzled expression.
"Hallucinations…" He said to himself as he continued moving down the path, but now his dread spiked higher inside of him, and those disturbing sensations continued to intensify the longer he was in this location. The haze didn't seem to end and the cemetery like designs of the fences and structures around him didn't help either.
"Ryan, come with me." The voice of his father said again, the ghostly silhouette of his dad reappearing before his eyes around ten yards in the distance.
"You're not my dad! You're not real!" Ryan exclaimed as he rushed towards the hallucination of his late father at full speed, and as expected, there was another bright flash before his body vanished again.
The former soldier slowly walked past a small, aged building, the wood was starting to rot and fall apart. Lighting was dim all throughout this area, the natural light slowly fading away as the sun was setting, soon he would be in total darkness, with the only light then would be lanterns attached to wooden posts. He began to walk faster now to try and catch up with the hallucinations in his attempts to attack them, he knew that who he was seeing wasn't truly his father, it was merely a mind trick caused by something around here.
"You've become so strong, son." The voice of his father spoke again as his silhouette reappeared, Ryan went to do a superman punch only to have the light flash before him again and thus his punch cut through the air to hit absolutely nothing!
"Stop fucking with me!" The ex-marine yelled at the top of his lungs, baring his teeth angrily as his heart started to pound within his chest.
Finally, the hallucination seemed to vanish, the man could no longer feel any sort of presence looming over him now. However, Ryan felt that the visions of his father were going to be the least of his troubles from here on out.
Ryan would take a stroll down a hill and rounded a curb out into yet another open area, this time in the center of it was a large tombstone with several smaller ones surrounding it, a few dolls were leaning and laying up against the large one. A strange yellow aura seemed to glow around the smaller stones, yellowish green plants were sticking out of the ground in between the smaller headstones.
Curiously, the ex-marine approached the hill of the deceased to see that there was another grave marker on the ground. Sadly, it looks as though some of it had been cut off
"-a Beneviento 1987-1996"
A nine-year-old child, dead. The heart within his chest felt heavy as he took a knee to pay tribute to the kid that was buried six feet beneath the marker, taking a deep breath as this person was the only one he could truly pay respects to. His parents didn't have any graves, nor did his friends of the Forgotten Ops, or even the entire town that went missing.
"I'm sorry that you were taken from us so young, little Beneviento. I hope peace is what you found when you opened your eyes again, may you rest in peace." The ex-marine said softly as a single tear streamed down his cheek before he stood back up to continue advancing to where this path would lead him.
He came up to a door, no nob of any kind seemed to be present except a golden slot in the middle. On the wall next to the door was a plaque that read: "Give up your memories."
The man didn't have anything of worth to surrender to this door, he didn't have any pictures or items that reminded him of his parents until he looked down at his cross necklace.
I can't give this up Ryan thought to himself as he squeezed it in his hand, he felt through the slot to discover that it would drop whatever was put through it down to the floor behind it.
"You'll get it back." The voice of Barlow said within his head, Ryan growled as he shook back and forth violently to try and get the voices out of his mind, thinking they were hallucinations.
"I'm not a hallucination you fool! Put the cross in the slot and you'll get it back eventually when you find Donna." Barlow admonished the ex-marine, Ryan sighed in relief as he would lean against the door.
"Thank God…" Ryan said as he took in a deep breath before inserting the cross necklace into the slot, he heard the chain of the necklace rattling as it fell to some location.
"What am I supposed to do with Donna?" Ryan asked out loud, hoping he could receive an answer from his old friend.
"You'll need her, trust me."
"The fuck does that mean?" Ryan asked only to receive no answer, perhaps Barlow and the rest of his allies could see further into the future and could see his battle with the Man in Black. Why would he need one of the lords to give him aid in battle? It didn't make any sense, the only thing that Bill Blake could do was teleport between black clouds and that seemed to be it. There was no need for any assistance, but if his Forgotten Ops allies could see into the future, he would need to listen to them.
"Yeah, yeah, keep being cryptic." The ex-marine complained as the door at his front clicked and slowly opened to reveal what seemed to be a small cave, as he entered it, he noticed to his left was a pile of stones with some candles scattered about on top.
To his front was an elevator, with a click of a button, the gate slowly opened with a squeak. This wasn't some door elevator either, it was a gothic looking gate, like everything else in this entire village, it was outdated by damn near a century too.
As he entered the elevator, he pressed the up arrow and the gate slid shut again and along came more loud squeaking sounds as it started to rise. Suddenly, the lights within the elevator began to flicker and it would be a matter of seconds before Ryan was engulfed in pitch darkness.
"You mean to tell me that this place can afford a castle, vehicles, and damn elevator systems, but can't afford fucking light fixtures!?" Ryan screamed in frustration, then the lights came back on again almost as if the system was responding to his voice.
Ryan took a few glances around him to see if anything was different, what he would see on the wall shook him to his core, he knew deep down inside of him that it was another one of those damn hallucinations, but it still fucked with his mind regardless.
"In loving memory of Ryan James Miles, 1988-2021"
Above the words was a picture of a smiling Ryan Miles before his departure to Europe with the Forgotten Ops, a younger version of himself without the beard and the stress made lines and wrinkles on his face.
"Stop…fucking…with…ME!" Ryan screamed at the top of his lungs before slamming his fist into the obituary that had been patched to the wall of the elevator, before his fist could connect, there was a flash, and the paper went away.
"This is starting to piss me off…" The ex-marine growled as the gate to the outside opened to another little hollowed out area within the mountain, Ryan walked through the dimly lit cave, which had candles to his right as opposed to his left this time. There was a ray of light ahead, meaning that it would lead to the fresh air.
Once he left the cave, he turned around the bend to see a large Victorian era mansion ahead, it had been perfectly built on a cliff that hung over the side of the mountain, settled next to a gigantic waterfall that would plunge into an icy cold lake far below. The massive estate was fenced in by old iron fencing and it seemed shockingly desolate. So far, his hallucinations didn't seem so bad. Only visions of his father and a fake obituary seemed to be bothering him, but he stayed alert incase any more threatened to manifest before his eyes.
Ryan slowly approached House Beneviento, the sounds of the roaring water rushing over the side of the waterfall was strangely relaxing. The ex-marine felt like this spot would be perfect to camp out at if he had never befriended the Dimitrescu family and if this estate wasn't built here, it was far enough from the village where all the lycans were roaming, sure, they were smart enough to ride horses, but did they know how to work an elevator?
Once he reached the front door, he took in a deep breath. So far, he only had two hallucinations. With the way Barlow had warned him earlier, it seemed like he would encounter several of them. However, numbers didn't mean anything if only one of them could scare him half to death. Ryan was about to get hit with a swift dose of reality that Donna's hallucination inducing pollen could create much more than just visions of a deceased relative or an obituary…
Upon entering the mansion, he was hit with a scent of roses. There was an entrance to a hallway to his right and a foyer at his front, a rug had been spread out on the floor, and in the middle of a room sat a table and chair. The flower smell was coming from plants that were sitting on the table, a staircase would lead up to a second floor as well. However, it wasn't the only thing that was in this room, sitting all the way against the wall was an open casket sitting on an elevated platform, the body inside made him want to vomit from fear alone…
The heart within his chest leapt into his throat and stayed there, he was frozen with fright and couldn't even get close to the pinewood box that was colored black. The insides of the casket were lined with a red-violet colored flocking fabric, the person inside was none other than Ryan Miles himself, an exact clone or copy of him.
"No…fuck no…" Ryan said to himself, his voice shaky with fear as he backed away from it, his back pressing up against the door. He turned around to leave, but when the doors opened, he was met with a hallway instead of the outside, reality seemed to be shifting around him once he had stepped inside of the mansion, now it was starting to get real.
"Fuck you Donna!" He screamed at the top of his lungs only to be met with dead silence, there was no noise, no crows cawing, no sound of massive amounts of water flying over the edge of a gigantic waterfall, just deafening silence.
His eyes noticed a portrait of Beneviento holding the tiny doll that went by the name of Angie, this time her face wasn't obscured by a black veil. She was quite the beautiful woman under the mask, he had no idea why she decided to hide her identity, but regardless of how much of a pretty face she was, what she was doing was absolutely sickening and evil.
"Fuck…" Ryan gasped to himself as he tried to look closely at his own body in the casket, makeup had been slathered over his stress wrinkles to make his body look good while laying in the casket, too much makeup had been applied to his corpse that it looked like a wax dummy or mannequin. The colorless lips made it even more unsettling to look at.
The ex-marine retreated into a door, entering the living room. It was neatly stylized, but there was something else that stood out in this room just like the foyer. Standing on a cabinet was a twelve-inch-high doll, arms outstretched, eyes having a far away stare to them, still as a statue. It looked drastically different than the Angie doll, this doll looked rather normal compared to Angie.
On the table sat a few candles that dimly lit up the living room, another portion of the room was shrouded in shadows with slight amounts of light coming in from the fading day on the outside as the sun continued to set beyond the horizon. Also on the table was a paper showing off the plant in which was producing that hallucinogenic pollen that was causing these illusions and nightmare fuel visions to flare up and manifest.
(Meanwhile)
Bill Blake sat on a pew, a dark mist at his front as he stared into the void. He had previously created a portal to Castle Dimitrescu within Cassandra's closet, Daniela's room had already been broken into, causing the doors to each room be locked to prevent more assassins from attacking the daughters, but this wouldn't matter.
With Ryan gone and trying to hunt him down, the Man in Black could have his way with Cassandra if she was to enter his room. He had formulated a plan in his mind to infiltrate Castle Dimitrescu while their guard was low, having silently stalked them from the shadows in the black mist form to disguise himself.
Bill Blake had seen the bonding they had in such a short time; he couldn't believe his eyes. The way the daughter trio acted around the ex-marine made him sick. Lady Dimitrescu, uncharacteristically sobbing into the arms of a weak, foolish man-thing after having so many villagers fear her and her family's methods of making their vintage wine…
Cassandra's closet wasn't the only location that he had created a portal to, he had also formed a black fog at the tops of the castle right near one of the towers. Within that tower housed a casket with a man inside, holding a massive dagger in his opened hands, the Dagger of Death's Flowers. This dagger had been rumored to have capabilities of ending the lives of demons and other monsters that roamed the lands of Romania, the weapon itself being crafted in the Middle Ages. It was the only weapon that could truly cause Lady Dimitrescu pain, as such, she had locked it away in this private sector.
However, Mother Miranda knew all too well about what went down at Castle Dimitrescu, and she had relayed this information to the Man in Black about the blade that was the bane of the countess' existence.
Speaking of the matriarch, Lady Dimitrescu happened to be in her quarters as the phone was ringing, her maids had cleaned up and fixed everything that she had broken from her outburst of anger not too long ago where he hurled the desk and mirror across the room, smashing into the floor.
The countess squinted her eyes shut as the loud, obnoxious voice of Angie shrieked into the other line with a worried yet angered tone of voice.
"That big dummy Ryan is here, invading my property!" The doll squealed into the phone, causing the tall woman to move her head away from her phone.
"Why so?" She asked in response, starting to grow confused since Ryan was originally trying to head to the Man in Black's location in order to defeat him in open battle.
"I don't know! He just showed up, he hasn't tried to attack anything yet, nor has he caused damage, but he sounds pretty angry…" Angie replied, her squeaky little voice overcome with worry towards the end of her sentence.
"Well, find him and try to speak to him. There must be a reason why he is there in the first place, he was supposed to go find that fool that has been harassing us!" Lady Dimitrescu boomed.
Wait a minute, he's with us and not against us? Angie thought to herself, all those hallucinations to try and keep Ryan away, all for nothing. If anything, it would make Donna and Angie seem like total dickheads, realizing her mistake, she began to panic.
"Shit! shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shitty, shit, shit!" Angie squeaked like an angry chipmunk before hanging up the phone, this caused the countess to chuckle some, finding the doll's reaction to the revelation comical.
(Location: House Beneviento)
Ryan entered through two red double doors into another large room, he was stunned into silence once again as he looked around.
Plastic arms, hands, legs, and feet were dangling from the ceiling from hooks. In the center of the room was a table, a beige colored tarp had been thrown over what appeared to be a body in which was laying on said table. In the room sat various tables and desks with machinery on top of them, there was a shelf on one side of the room that had dolls and doll parts sitting on them as well.
"What is this place?" Ryan asked himself as he glanced over to his left to see a radio sitting on a stool, there appeared to be a few sets of windows, meaning that there was another room beside this one. Unbeknownst to the ex-marine, he had stepped into Donna's doll workshop.
There was also a chair that sat in front of the table with the tarp thrown over it, when Ryan turned back around to leave the room and backtrack, there was something in the chair now. It was a paper, he picked it up and flipped it over to see somebody had a message for him:
"Forgive me." Is what was written on the paper in fancy cursive handwriting, this must have been a letter from Donna Beneviento herself, Ryan sighed, but then came a flash, and the paper was gone.
Another one of those damn hallucinations, what if Donna was lying to him? He couldn't tell because he didn't know her personality, when he was at both meeting involving the four houses, she was silent and sitting the furthest away, her face obscured by that black cloth.
However, his hallucination peril wasn't through yet, for when the paper vanished, so did the tarp on the table. The sight of the body laying beneath the tarp was something that stunned Ryan Miles into complete silence, his soul was frozen with fright.
Laying on the table was a plastic, dummy body of his own father, as if Mrs. Beneviento had taken his father and transformed him into a doll. Now he couldn't tell whether or not his parents were truly dead, or they had just disappeared and their fate was to be turned into a fucking mannequin.
"This is sick, fucking sick!" The ex-marine screamed at the top of his lungs, then came another flash, his hallucinations starting to occur at a rapid pace now instead of taking their sweet time to hit him.
The doll body of his father remained laying on the table before him, but the machinery on the other tables and desks within Donna's doll workshop had vanished, now replaced by other bodies. He shook his head in disbelief as he noticed that one of the bodies was of his mother, another body was of Dan Valentine, another one was of Malosi Johnson…All of them dead and transformed into dolls like some twisted form of taxidermy on humans.
The former marine took a step back to the double doors, about to leave the room, but he found that his back didn't press against any sort of nob and there wasn't no sound of creaking hinges, when Ryan turned around, he was met with a brick wall that blocked his exit, reality was shifting on him once again, and now he was trapped within the basement, this creepy ass doll workshop.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Ryan screamed furiously, pounding his fists into the brick wall to get nowhere with his anguished attempts at breaking free.
"Leave me the hell alone!" He cried out, rearing his head back and yelling into the air. He received a response in the form of plastic popping and squeaking noises, he was becoming angry and more emotionally distraught the more he had to endure with these hallucinations, he turned around to see that every life size mannequin of his former family and friends were twitching violently.
The heads of the massive dolls were shaking back and forth at an unfathomable speed, their arms and legs vibrated as if they were having a seizure, up and down at an incredible pace. The squeaking and popping were their joints moving about. This caused Ryan to expect the mannequins to come alive any second now, he reached back and grabbed hold of his shotgun that had been given to him by Cassandra back at the castle, hoping and praying to himself that a shell would put these creepy bastards down.
Suddenly, a loud pop came from the radio and grainy crackling began to play from it. The radio itself, just like everything else in this entire village, was outdated, hence why it was making crackling sounds in the form of old school white noise, like that of a record player, the sound popping and cracking with age.
An old song began to play on the radio now as Ryan continued to back away from it, everything seemed to be coming down on him all at once as the dolls continued to vigorously shake and gyrate with erratic movements. The song itself was This Time it's Real by the musician Horace Heidt. The song had been covered numerous times, but this one was one of the first recordings to be produced, originally being made in the year of 1938, eighty plus years ago.
The violins playing now on the song made it seem cheerful and happy, but it only made the current situation worse as the dolls didn't stop shaking violently. Ryan's breath grew ragged and shaky as he aimed the shotgun at the radio now.
"Shut the fuck…u- "Before he could finish, a thought had crossed his mind that made this hallucination even more freaky than before.
All songs had a meaning, hallucinations weren't real, but the song playing on the radio was titled: "This Time it's Real." So, did this mean that whatever was happening now wasn't mind tricks, was this reality?
Another flash manifested in his vision, thankfully, the dolls had vanished entirely, leaving the tables and desks back to their original conditions with machinery on top of them. The radio continued to play the music, and it started to soothe Ryan. He turned towards the double doors, ready to leave this Godforsaken place just to realize that the doors must have been locked on the other side, or something else was preventing him from opening it them.
"The well, you're in trouble, Ryan. At the bottom of a well, there is a breaker box key. Get it and get the hell out of that basement." The voice of Barlow spoke into his head again, offering him some assistance of where to go next, since Ryan was too disturbed to think with his gut.
"The fuck you mean I'm in trouble?!" Ryan screamed loudly; the words of warning offered to him by Barlow wasn't helping him whatsoever as the music continued to play.
"You're about to be hit with the worst hallucination yet, so ready your anus." Barlow warned once more, not giving any details of what was lurking down there in the basement with him…
"Dammit, Barlow! Stop speaking to me with this riddle shit and help me out!"
No response, but he had another task.
He looked around the room, the double doors weren't going to budge, and he wasn't about to ruin Donna's property, knowing what she could do, she could potentially be worse than Lady Dimitrescu with how menacing she was with those hallucination inducing plants.
The only place he could go now was a corridor that was next to a shelf, he took in a deep breath before heading down the dark hallway that consisted of stone bricks, now things were getting even more outdated than before.
When he turned right, there was equipment hanging on the stone brick walls and a door with various runes on it. When the former soldier tried to open it, he found it to be locked.
"Oh no, hell no, I'm not about to go looking for fucking keys or any damn thing in this house." Ryan grumbled, feeling like he had seen enough with the illusions and hallucinations that screwed with his head, he blasted the lock with his shotgun and the door slowly creaked open with a simple push of his hand.
When the door opened, the man was met with a dark void surrounded by stone bricks, there was a staircase leading down into the abyss, it was as if he had just opened the door into Hell and he was about to go walking into the depths of it too. He crossed his heart with his finger before marching down the old steps, there was a powerful scent of age and dust that had collected on the steps, as if this place hadn't been visited in a long time.
As he made his way down the stairway, the only sounds he could hear was his footsteps echoing into the darkness and a strange squeaking noise as if there was something moving around with wheels at the bottom of this staircase. His grip on the shotgun tightened as he continued bravely, but deep down, he was afraid of whatever the hell that Barlow was warning him about, if something even worse was soon to meet him, he dreaded what it could be…
When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he came out into an open area that was dark and dank. Sounds of dripping water were heard coming from above before splattering on the floor, in the center of this dark chamber was the stone well. The estate that was House Beneviento had to have been built over this well, because the floor in this chamber was nothing but stone bricks that had moss growing between the cracks, probably centuries older than the Victorian mansion that Donna lived in with all her living dolls.
Ryan also found the origin point of that squeaking sound; it was a wheelchair. Who the hell in House Beneviento needed a wheelchair? Donna wasn't an old woman by any means, and the nine-year-old child couldn't have been disabled enough to where she needed a wheelchair. He began to think of anything from his past life that could relate to the wheelchair, knowing that most of his hallucinations were of his past.
His mother didn't have one, his father didn't have one, not even his grandfather or grandmother had one, suddenly a thought came to his head! There was once an elderly woman, probably in her late eighties or early nineties judging by her appearance alone, her name was Bessie Misenheimer and she was his next door neighbor for five years of his life up until she supposedly passed away when the entirety of the town went missing. Ryan remembered helping her out with various things around the house and he even brought her groceries for her because she couldn't get around well, having struck a friendly relationship with the elderly woman.
Besides Mrs. Misenheimer, he couldn't recall anyone from his past needing a wheelchair except her. So, it had to be referencing her for some reason or another. There were puzzle pieces, clues to whatever was down there with him, but he didn't know why the old woman had a role to play in it, not yet, at least…
Taking Barlow's word, Ryan would descend into the well were various parts of dolls were seen submerged in the murky water, as told, a breaker box key was sitting on top of the doll's head, the ex-marine picked it up and would slip it into his pocket before ascending the ladder again.
Something was different when he began to climb the ladder, that dreaded feeling that something terrible was soon to happen started to flare up within his gut and chest again. His eyes darted from side to side to see if any ghoulish hands reached out from the walls of the well, just to see nothing.
When he reached the top of the well again, the wheelchair was covered in a black ashen material that wasn't there before, just like her house was covered in the black gunk when the town vanished without much of a trace.
He began to ascend the stairs again to get back into the doll workshop and as he done so, he started to hear something else…
Gurgled cries, croaked groans of agony, and loud mushy sounding footsteps as if wet rags were placed on the feet of people in pain. The ghostly wails of agony, sorrow, and God knows what else had different tones to their voices, some sounded young, others sounded old, some sounded female, others sounded male.
"Oh dear God…" Ryan said to himself, his voice overcome with dread as his lips trembled, his beefy arms began to shake as he held on to that shotgun for protection.
"I've got protection, whatever you are…" He said, trying his best to be brave prior to meeting the thing in the basement. As he turned into the corridor that would lead into the doll workshop, a red light had been switched on, it wasn't turned on before.
When Ryan entered the workshop, the radio was repeating "This Time it's Real," but this time it sounded more demented and distorted than before. The radio's grain and crackling had intensified twice as much as it originally was and every table and desk in the room had been turned over, black ashen material was spread out all over the room, the workshop itself had almost every single light turned off, the soot on the floor seemingly made things darker, not helping in the slightest.
Through the white noise of the radio, Ryan could make out a monotone male voice that seemed to be saying: "Help them, help us."
As the ex-marine listened to the broken radio, his eyes followed a trail of footprints and handprints leading outside of the room. The sizes of the footprints varied from small to little, so did the handprints. To his dismay, there was even paw prints of cats and dogs, what the hell did the poor pets of these people deserve to get taken wherever.
Ryan started to put the puzzle pieces together now, it was an army of undead humans and animals. That shouldn't be too bad, how wrong he was…
He followed the dark trail down the halls, rounding corners as the sounds of those wails of agony and the gurgled cries and moans of the suffering continued to grow louder, meaning that they were closer…
As Ryan rounded every corner, he expected one of the undead to be there, only to be met with nothing. His lips trembled and his legs were shaking, this was the most terrified that he had been in his entire life. The heart was racing in his chest as he heard a loud mushy stomp close by as he walked down another hallway.
The thing that would greet him was something out of his darkest nightmares, it made what he thought would attack him look like sweet, Heavenly dreams. What the ex-marine would see made him want to drop dead as his heart jumped into his throat.
A large fleshy mass of dead bodies, smothered and covered in that black ashen material, mixed in with blood, bodily fluids, piss, fecal matter, and vomit was crawling around. Decaying, rotten faces of those that had died were twisting and mangled up as they groaned and moaned. The snouts of dead cats and dogs were gnashing their canines like rabid versions of their old selves. The large mass of gore seemed to have two arms at its front, meaning that all these bodies had formed to create one gigantic unholy abomination. The arms were made from piles and piles of human remains, be it arms or legs, he could make out feet and hands here and there. The flesh beast even had hands; the fingers of those hands were masses of arms formed together to create a gigantic finger. The demonic monster even had claws in the forms of the bones of the dead sticking out from the 'fingertips' of this thing.
Large fish like eyes were on the beast too, looking all over the place as it's supposed mouth opened to reveal ribcages pointing downwards on the top and bottom 'jaw' of this thing, these ribs were supposed to be the teeth of this abomination. The roar of the flesh beast seemed to sound like a muscle car engine roaring to life as a massive vehicle rushed down the road, the roar shook the halls and rattled the furniture and potted plants, some pictures and paintings even fell from it.
"Help us! Oh God, help me!" Voices screamed from the faces and heads of the beast that formed its body, Ryan shook his head in disbelief as he had no other choice than to run for his fucking life. A simple shotgun wouldn't be enough to take it down.
Ryan could hear the screams and moans of the suffering bodies follow him down the hall, as well as the beastly growls that the insidious nightmare was vocalizing as it chased him down the corridors. The ex-marine could hear its fleshy hands platting along the flooring, it seemed to move slow, which was good, he could easily outrun this thing, but being in the same house with it was a whole other problem that Ryan needed to get away from.
"What the hell?!" He screamed in fright as he looked over his shoulder to see the abomination rounding a corner, is this what Donna was saying sorry about. Did that crazy woman finally realize that Ryan was trying to help her out and not invade her house, could she not stop what was happening?
"Ryan, help me!" A voice screamed, it was his father's voice, his own father was one of the bodies that formed this unholy behemoth. It was then that the ex-marine put all the pieces of the puzzle together:
This thing wasn't random bodies forming into one massive beast, it was the bodies of everyone and everything that vanished in that town, if Ryan had been taken, he would have been on that beast too. This had to have been a creation of Bill Blake, the Man in Black.
That poor Mrs. Misenheimer…she too was part of this monstrosity that was hunting him down, tears of fear, sorrow, and rage welled up in his eyes as the heart within his chest continued to pound, threatening to jump from his mouth or to burst from his chest, hell, it might even explode if it was to beat any faster than it was now.
Hot tears streamed down from Ryan's eyes as his lips trembled, his hands clenched tightly into fists, the leather of the gloves squeaking from the tightness as he glared hatefully towards that monster that was now starting to come down the hall into the doll workshop.
"Y-you…FUCKING BASTARD!" Ryan screamed as loud as his lungs could let him, his voice breaking up as he cried to himself, his breathing abnormal and ragged as his chest heaved up and down non-stop.
Overcome with emotions, he attempted to hurt that beast with his shotgun, the weapon roared as a shell launched from the barrel. When it connected, it appeared to be absorbed by the skin as a tiny mouth appeared, swallowing the shell whole.
Ryan had to give up on his chances of fighting this thing with conventional weaponry, maybe explosives would work, but he didn't have time to craft any, nor did he have any on him now. Having no other choice, he would continue his attempts at fleeing, blasting open a door to enter a medicine room.
He would hear a loud roar come from not too far behind him, the monstrosity was slowly trudging after him, reaching out for him with its massive, horrid arms. The ex-marine attempted to open another door that would lead out of the room, only to find it locked. His eyes peered over to see a locker, but he quickly decided to keep running, firing the shotgun at the door to blast it open to escape the hellish beast made of gore and flesh.
He could smell that damn thing from a mile away, so Ryan had many advantages over this thing. As positive as it was, he still couldn't help but be frightened to his core when going up against that thing. He needed to get to that breaker box where the elevator was in the basement, he would be home free then, away from that nightmare.
After blasting his way into a few more rooms, he noticed the elevator up ahead. A loud gasp of relief forced its way out of his mouth as he darted for the elevator, he had lost the beast by moving in and out of each room in quick succession, but he could still smell that demon, he found himself looking over his shoulder to see if it was coming or not.
As he inserted his key into the breaker box, the walls within the room vibrated as a loud, muffled roar of rage was heard. It was coming for him, and it wasn't too far away at this point. The ex-marine turned the key, and the breaker box opened. The light wasn't on yet, it must be needing a fuse.
"Shit, Barlow, you didn't fucking tell me this would happen!" Ryan screamed furiously as he pounded the wall, thoughts rushed through his head like a tidal wave, struggling to focus on one plan of action to try and find a fuse to get the thing working.
Sitting in the breaker box was the relief of a child that seemed to be in a position in which made it appear like it was being carried. Ryan realized that this would be placed in the slot on a door that he had passed by earlier as he traversed through the basement, before encountering that…thing.
The ex-marine grabbed the relief and turned around, ready to go find the fuse in order to get the breaker box working again, but before he could even start for the doorway, the abomination was there, crawling into the room with its gore mass feet squelching every time they connected with the floor.
With its guttural grumbles and growls, along came the sounds of the ghoulish moans and groans of those who had been forced to join this thing in creating the body. Suddenly realizing that his father, mother, and that Mrs. Misenheimer were all alive, but suffering…suffering for what was probably years of torment. He could only hope that this thing was a hallucination even if the song on the radio was describing that this was real.
As the rest of the beast crawled into the room, Ryan noticed that it lacked legs, but had a tail that resembled a fin of a whale, except it was compromised of several body parts of various humans and dogs and cats, soaked in the grotesque mixture of disgusting bodily fluids and feces. Since it was slow, Ryan baited it to try and walk around the table that was in the center of the room before making a run for the hallway in which it had just come from, darting in and out of several rooms to put the most amount of distance between it and him as possible.
Ryan would eventually end up back at that door with the reliefs of the mother and child displayed on it, when he locked the child into the slot, the door would click and slowly open to reveal a well-lit deeper level of the basement.
"Finally, holy shit…" He said to himself as he descended the stairs, the texture and wallpaper was in tattered and terrible condition just like the above floors, but at least the lights were on. As he went to round a corner, he was met with a toppled piece of furniture that blocked his path, he sighed and entered another door in his search for a fuse.
He would pass through a kitchen, with pots and pans hanging down over cabinets, various plants were laying here and there as well as he slowly crept his way out of the kitchen and onto the other side of that fallen furniture. The next room that the former soldier would enter is a bedroom, his eyes locked onto something that was attached to the wall, it was what he was looking for, a fuse.
With a sigh of relief, he took the fuse from the wall, but everything in the room was shrouded in total darkness. The ex-marine gasped as he looked around frantically to see if anything else had changed, if there were any other hallucinations coming after him, fortunately, there wasn't.
There was one place left to go now, the breaker box and back up to the above floors, away from that freakish beast of evil. When he entered the hallway, he noticed that everything was smothered by darkness as well.
"Not this shit again…" He said to himself, his voice trembling as he entered the hallway to pass through the kitchen. Everything was silent again, too silent. He felt like he was getting watched with every move he made, the ex-marine knew one hundred percent that he was still being hunted by that monstrosity.
When he left the kitchen, he began to make his way up the stairs slowly. That feeling in his stomach rising as there was nothing but a black void where the door opened out to, as soon as he reached the top of the stairs, that thing greeted him unexpectedly!
With a ferocious roar, it lunged at Ryan with all its weight surging forward, taking a swing at him as well with the claws. The attack just narrowly missed him, but it came way too close for comfort as he could feel the wind stroke past his face!
The former soldier let out a scream as he stumbled back from fright, losing his balance, he would take a harsh tumble down the stairs, grunting with pain as he struck the edges before finally rolling down to the floor at the bottom of them. His eyes peered up to see the beast was slowly crawling down the stairs towards him, its large fisheyes looking every which way possible.
Perhaps it was the adrenaline and terror that was rushing through Ryan's veins that caused him to explode back to his feet, feeling no pain as panic replaced it. He stumbled his way through the kitchen and found his way back into the bedroom, there was nowhere to go now, but to hide as he could hear that thing following him.
The ex-marine scrambled under the bed and tried to calm down his breathing as much as he possibly could, his breath was ragged and shaky as the heart in his chest felt like it would explode at any given moment due to how hard and fast it was pounding. A few tears ran down his cheeks from fear alone as he felt something cool all over his body, his eyes bolted open as he examined his skin under the gloves, taking them off to see that blood was seeping out of his pores.
Ryan was so stressed out, so afraid of what may happen to him if he was caught by that demonic monster, that he was sweating blood. His vision grew blurry because his own body began to crack under the pressure that the stress and anxiety itself was putting on him.
I'm not going to fucking make it, I'm not going to fucking make it Ryan thought to himself as he heard that nightmare machine enters the room, hunting for him.
It was a terrible struggle, trying to keep all the panic and fear to himself. If Ryan didn't receive another set of stress induced wrinkles on his face after this incident, he would be shocked. His trembling, tear filled eyes watched as the beast's tail drug along the flooring, hearing the moans and groans of the suffering, the disgusting squelching its footsteps made due to the mucus and other fluids slapping along the ground, not to mention the distorted, hellish sounds the beast itself was making without the suffering humans that made up its body.
As soon as he would see the tail drag away from the door, leaving behind a trail of bloody mucus, he crawled out from under the bed as fast as he could before making a mad dash out of the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him as the beast roared on the other side, shaking the walls.
No more time to fuck around, it was time to get the hell out of there as fast as his legs could allow him to move. With bloody sweat rolling down his body, his heart about to rupture, his vision going blurry, he had one chance to escape and one chance only, he had to take it.
Everything seemed like a flash as he rushed through the kitchen and back up the stairs, not looking back a single time as he frantically dashed for the elevator. With shaky hands, he fought to work the fuse, baring his teeth with frustration every time he messed up. Thankfully, that monster wasn't behind him yet, or so he thought.
After taking a moment to breathe, struggling to relax as his heart still pounded and was even receiving palpitations as it slowed down to a relaxed beat, it messed with his breathing as well, which was still shaky. Finally, a green light switched on, indicating that the elevator was finally working. The gates slowly began to open for him after the ex-marine pressed the button to call it, another moment of relief settled into his brain as he could hear the machinery working within the walls to lower the elevator down to his level, that relief didn't last long.
The sound of those roars came again, the walls trembling from the force of it as Ryan turned to face the large doorway, there, underneath the dim red lighting, was the beast. Along with the roars came the usual moans, and groans, as well as the gnashing of teeth.
"What?!" Ryan cried out in horror as he saw the terrifying beast drag itself into the room with him, slowly gaining on him as the man began to frantically tug at the gate, trying to rip it open to get an early escape.
His eyes remained fixed on the gate as it continued to open, eventually allowing him inside, he didn't hesitate to jump into the elevator and quickly pressed the up button. When he turned around, that monster was even closer than he thought, causing him to scream louder than he ever has in his life out of fear as he unloaded shell after shell at the terror.
Click, click, BLAM, click, click, BLAM, click, click, BLAM!
Ryan reloaded and fired shells from his shotgun as fast as he could while yelling like a man possessed, the shells did nothing to slow the monster down as the gate closed right when it went to take a swing at Ryan, it's claws scraping steel and causing sparks to fly as it roared hatefully towards the ex-marine while the elevator began to rise, mucus and spit flying from the mouth of the beast as it let out a roar of pure rage.
Ryan collapsed against the wall, he was physically and emotionally spent, his face was filled with exhaustion as he took in deep breath after deep shaky breath. His head shook in disbelief, amazed at even himself that he survived that ordeal without having a damn heart attack, he knew he was close to having one, it was quite a rare occurrence for one to sweat blood.
When the elevator doors opened, Ryan flung himself out and into another hallway, back on the first floor yet again with a relieved smile slowly spreading across his trembling lips. The image of that grotesque monstrosity would never, and will never, leave his mind. It will be something that haunts his dreams for the rest of his life. Gangsters, terrorists, lycans, none could compare to that demonic beast he just had to face.
"I-I'm done wi-with this fucking house…" He grumbled to himself, his voice breaking, almost crying with tears of joy now that he was done with that horrid ordeal.
The ex-marine pulled himself up to his feet and began to leave the house, he could hear what sounded like a doll laughing at his terror, but he brushed it aside, shaking dolls were nothing compared to that thing in the basement.
"Donna…you can cut it out, right now." He said with a growl in his voice, hoping that the mostly silent woman would hear this and acknowledge his words well.
When he would exit the hall into the living room, it was revealed that day had become night, evident thanks to the fact that no lighting was coming in from the outside of the house and through the windows, the living room was dimly lit by candles sitting on a table and a dim light on the ceiling.
As he began to make his way for the door leading to the foyer of the estate, a sudden voice stopped him. It sounded different from any other voice he had heard in this mansion, it sounded more human than what you would think an ugly ass psycho doll would sound like.
"Wait! Don't leave." A female voice pleaded, the ex-marine turned around to face who it was, in a chair sat a woman dressed in all black, with black nail polish and the same black veil thrown over her head and face to hide any features of it.
Ryan unmercifully cocked his shotgun as his eyes narrowed with rage, his lips trembling as his teeth bared into a hateful snarl.
"Got anything else you want to throw at me, bitch?" He asked, his voice sounded tired, but he needed to act brave when he was nervous, he didn't need to be viewed as a coward.
"No…I…"
Donna couldn't continue speaking when Ryan snapped at her, he knew that she was to blame for that thing in the basement, everything that he had been put through was by her hands.
"You sent that unholy beast after me, for what?! I'm here to fucking help you, to prevent you from getting attacked by the Man in Black! I came here to discuss with you on said matter, but you just had to scare the hell out of me with something from my past, all my stress balled into one demonic monster!? This is how you fucking repay me?!"
If you could see through the dark veil that hid away Donna's face, you could tell that she wore a sorrowful expression of regret.
"Ryan, I'm sorry." Donna said.
It would be hard to forgive her, this was evident as Ryan's head was seen slightly tilting to one side with a mixture of confusion and wrath on his face, shaking his head in disbelief at the fact that she was apologizing just now.
"You could have stopped that thing down there at any given time, but you kept playing these games with me…" Ryan growled as he slowly aimed his shotgun up towards her head, his finger hovering near the trigger, ready to end the life of this woman.
"Ryan, please! Lady Dimitrescu called and told me about you, I didn't know that you were here to help me. I thought you were one of them, one of the assassins!"
Ryan's eyes widened as Donna revealed to him that the matriarch of Castle Dimitrescu had called her earlier, his shotgun lowered again.
"You had all this time to stop that thing…" Ryan replied, thinking about raising up his shotgun again, not only did Donna damn near give him a heart attack, but the hallucination that attacked him in the basement was personal as well.
"Please, take solace in the fact that it wasn't real." Donna continued to plead with Ryan, trying to get him to calm down, but he was too angry and antsy now to truly settle down.
"It sure as hell felt real!" Ryan barked.
Suddenly, the Angie doll emerged from behind Donna, floating towards him while holding something in her tiny hands.
"Take anything I can offer; will this get you to shut up?!" Angie squeaked as she outstretched her arms, the thing in her hands was the cross necklace of Ryan Miles.
As Ryan looked at the cross necklace, he lowered his shotgun and held it against his hip with one arm while accepting the offer, gently taking it from the hand of Angie reluctantly, hoping to himself that this wasn't some trick that they were pulling.
Forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us
Ryan fastened the necklace around his neck again with a deep breath before pulling a chair out from the table to have a seat, ready to discuss matters with Donna and Angie about the Man in Black.
"I thank you," Ryan said, appreciating the offer that Angie had given him as Donna removed pulled a chair out from the table and took a seat herself, the doll coming to land in her lap.
"Now to business about this Man in Black." The ex-marine continued, Angie suddenly giggled, causing him to raise an eyebrow.
"You sound just like The Duke!" The crazy doll teased.
Oh yeah, I haven't seen that man in a while! Ryan thought to himself as he returned to the topic in which was at hand.
"I have figured out the location of the man that has been causing the village problems, has been causing you and your fellow lords' problems, and problems with me as well. Problems that date back to the times when I was not even an adult yet." Ryan explained, Donna (through Angie) listened patiently, her head tilting from side to side.
"He's taken refuge in a church in another portion of the village, I must be taking my leave soon. An old friend told me that I would need your assistance at some point, he didn't give me any crucial details. He just told me to trust him that I would be needing you."
"Ooooo it's getting intense!" Angie cackled.
"I guess you can say that." Ryan chuckled as he looked down at his shotgun with a grin.
"Hopefully, I don't need any assistance. The Man in Black has made things personal with me, it's been a personal thing since the beginning, to be honest." He replied to the doll.
"Are you sure you can do this alone?" Angie asked, the tiny voice of hers sounding worried for him now, a sweet smile came to the face of the former soldier.
"I know I can do it alone." He said as he stood up.
"Best of luck to you, Ryan. If you need me for anything, call me…if you can." Donna replied sweetly, not talking through Angie anymore.
"I will, thanks for giving this back to me." Ryan replied as he jangled the cross necklace around some before heading for the foyer and out of the mansion.
His hallucination hell, was finally over, but now the hunt for Bill Blake continued…