The mutilated shadow stares you down from behind a mask devoid of expression. Its unseeing gaze, coupled with Mariko's stark realization, makes you feel uncomfortably naked without your guitar to defend yourself.

"We need to get back to our rooms - now."

Hayate considers you as if you'd just asked him to light himself on fire.

"You think I'm gonna be able to go back to sleep now that I know we've got a buncha monsters running around in here? We need to get out!"

"Calm down. We're not going back to bed, idiot, we're getting our weapons. You don't have yours on you, do you Mariko?"

She shakes her head, and Nisekao whimpers.

"Hey, we're not completely unprotected," you say, trying to your best to be reassuring despite your own anxiety crawling its way up your throat, "Mariko and I still have our Personas."

"Oh yeah!" Hayate's body instantly untenses. "Almost forgot about those guys. I can use one of those, too, right? I mean, you guys told me you fought him in Cloud Two."

"You should," says Mariko, "but I don't think it's that simple. I wasn't able to use mine right away. What about you, Tetsuo?"

You shake your head. "Pretty sure they only awaken in response to mortal danger. Or at least, that was case with both of ours. I wouldn't sweat it, I'm sure you'll have your fair share of opportunities in here."

"Oh thanks, bro, I feel tons better."

"No problem. Just stick close to me and Mariko for now. Same for you, Nisekao." A thought occurs to you. "Mmm! Now that I think about it, we've gotta get back to our rooms anyways - your laptop's in there, isn't it?"

His eyes go wide and he nods.

"All right, it's settled, then. Nisekao and I will head back to our room to grab our things. Hayate, you go with Mariko and help her retrieve her weapon."

Unsurprisingly, Hayate has an objection to that. "Hold up, isn't splitting up the last thing we oughta be doing in a situation like this? C'mon, bro, you've seen movies."

Mariko steps in to back you up. "Ordinarily, I'd agree - in all my mystery novels it's the last thing you want to do. But, our rooms are on completely opposite wings of the manor. As two groups we can meet back here faster and work on our plan from there. As long as we've got a Persona user in each group, we should be okay."

That seems to placate Hayate enough for the two groups to climb the stairs and head their separate ways through the now eerily vacant hallways of the manor. Along the way, you now begin to notice the changes to the manor's interior that you'd missed before. Everything has adopted a decidedly European feel, making it appear to be more the abode of some western lord than an eastern daimyo. The furniture, lighting fixtures, and even the suits of armor guarding the halls have transformed. It's not the sort of jarring shift you're used to when exploring a Cloud, which ironically, is only making you more uneasy.

The worst part, however, is easily the complete and utter absence of any sound save the tapping of your shoes and the whisper of Nisekao's wheels against the carpeted floor. The thought of the Shadow responsible for the scene on the staircase is still fresh in your mind, so it's not so much the silence itself that bothers you - it's what it implies.

You're no more than a few meters from your room when those anxieties manifest themselves. It begins as a tingling at the back of your neck and a tightness in your throat. A light breeze blows through the hall at your backs, and the candles flicker in their sconces before extinguishing themselves.

"T-Testuo..." Nisekao hisses, and pulls at the sleeve of your jacket.

For a moment, your muscles lock up, and your body feels rooted to the spot. Then, there comes a sound like the swishing of drapes being drawn aside from down the hall behind you, and you remember how to move.

"Quiet!" you whisper, pulling Nisekao from his wheelchair. The two of you squeeze into a tight nook behind one of the suits of armor and go deathly still.

In the seconds that pass, your sight registers nothing, but the swishing grows nearer and nearer to your hiding place until it stops right where Nisekao's abandoned wheelchair sits in the middle of the hall.

From your vantage point behind the armor, you can peer between its legs to make out the wheelchair as the moonlight streaming through a window at the end of the hall glints off the steel. Although the sound seemed to have halted right in front of your hiding place, there's nothing else out there. Several seconds pregnant with silence come and go. You begin to relax your muscles and breathe a sigh of relief when you hear it: a faint tink tink tink, like nails on metal. In the air just above the wheelchair, there's a flickering of movement. For no more than a fraction of a second, the rays of moonlight catch the shimmering outline of a skull mask turned in your direction, the hole in the center seemingly boring into your eyes with cyclopian intensity. Your windpipe catches as you prepare to cry out for Launcelot.

And then, the vision vanishes, and the sound of swishing can be heard fading into the distance. As if on cue, the candles on the walls flicker back to life, the tingling on your neck fades, and your lungs begin to greedily suck in air again.

Clambering out from behind the suit of armor, you help Nisekao situate himself back in his chair again before setting off towards your room again, this time at a much brisker pace.

"Th-That was it, wasn't it? The thing that killed that Shadow downstairs..." Nisekao says, turning towards you.

"I'd rather not think about it. Let's move a bit faster."

The two of you waste no time in grabbing your belongings and returning to the entrance hall before any more invisible terrors cross your path. Mariko and Hayate are already there when you get back, both of them wearing concerned expressions.

"Hey, what's up?" you ask. "You guys didn't see it, too, did you?"

Hayate's head snaps towards yours. "Wait, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nisekao and I think we might have run into the Enforcer already."

"What?"

The two of you give Mariko and Hayate a brief description of what happened and what you saw.

Mariko steps forward before Hayate can launch into another round of hysterics. "That makes sense, I guess. Look," she says, gesturing towards the landing.

Where only a few minutes before lay the corpse of the mangled Shadow, only a blotchy red stain remains.

"Shit...it could've killed us at any time...it's messing with us," you breathe.

"Or it was waiting until we weren't clustered together. Ugh, I knew it was a bad idea!" says Mariko, kicking at the carpet.

"It's okay, M-Mariko-chan. I th-think we need to worry about what we need to do next," says Nisekao as he boots up his laptop.

"Well, what we need to do is find this Cloud's Dreamweaver, same as the others," you say. Hayate's mouth curls up into a morose grimace.

"Five hundred yen."

"Huh?"

"Five hundred yen says that-" he begins to say, but he's swiftly interrupted by a soft, cultured voice calling from the bottom of the stairs.

"Erm, begging your pardon, sirs and madam."

The four of you turn to face the source of the voice. Standing at the foot of the stairs is an unnaturally tall Shadow (at least eight feet by your estimation) clad in formal pants and a vest and bearing the Cloud's ubiquitous orange mask.

"Uhh, yeah?" says Hayate.

"Might you be members of the party in the drawing room?"

Confused glances flit about. The Shadow makes a noise approximating clearing one's throat.

"No? My apologies, then. Your harried expressions were so similar that I just assumed..."

"Wait!" interrupts Mariko. "You mean there are more people in here like us?"

"If by that, you mean dreadfully frightened and lost looking fellows, I most certainly do. But if you are unrelated, then pay it no mind. I'm certain the Lady would be most cross as it is if she were to witness my concern for a group of humans."

"No, no, no, you have it wrong! I...I just wasn't sure what you meant at first! We are looking for the others, as a matter of fact. Could you please take us to them?" says Mariko.

The Shadow emits the throat-clearing noise once more and tilts its head as if in thought. It turns its back to you, and Hayate leans in close to Mariko.

"You sure we really oughtta be that quick to trust this guy, Mariko-chan? Dude just pops out of nowhere and happens to mention a buncha other humans hanging around?"

"And if there are?" she hisses back as the Shadow spins about to face you again.

"After some careful deliberation, I appear to have no recollection of the Lady forbidding me to show humans where the drawing room is. So long as that is all I am doing, I see no harm in it."

"Ah! Thank you, thank you!" Mariko squeals. "You're awfully polite for a Shadow."

The Shadow recoils slightly. "No offense, madam, but perhaps those sort of remarks are best kept to oneself. Now, this way, please. Quickly! If you become lost, I'll not feel responsible for you."

True to its word, the Shadow glides off at a brisk pace, leading your group down a series of moonlit hallways. Every now and then, you'll pass by an open doorway, and the hairs on the back of your neck prickle in alarm. But when you turn your head, there's nothing there but a gaping, black maw into the room beyond.

"Please stay focused, if you would, sir, " says the Shadow the second time this happens, and you increase your pace to keep up with its.

Within a few minutes, you turn one last corner to see a square of warm, orange light spilling from a room just ahead. The murmur of low, hurried voices and the prospect of additional human interaction relaxes the tension in your shoulders almost instantly.

"After you," says the Shadow, bowing and sweeping his arm aside to let you pass.

The room beyond is lavish, amply furnished, warm, and packed with other Shadows. Their masked faces snap towards you the instant you set foot inside.

The four of you freeze instantly in the doorway, the scene wrapped in stillness only punctuated by the fading footsteps of the butler. You feel as if even so much as twitching your finger would shatter the delicate truce at play here. Then, surprisingly, the Shadows turn back to each other and resume their conversation as if you weren't even there.

"Holy hell," breathes Hayate. "Thought I was gonna piss myself. See, I knew we shouldn't have trusted that thing, he just tried to get us killed!"

"I d-dunno," says Nisekao, dabbing at his own forehead with the collar of his shirt, "but didn't that butler Shadow call them 'frightened and lost'? They don't seem interested in k-killing anyone...I th-think."

You're about to suggest talking to one of them to find out what's going on, but two of them separate from the group and approach you instead. Like the others, these Shadows are remarkably humanesque in shape, and appear to be dressed for a formal dinner.

"Hello, hello!" says the one in a suit, peering intently at you from beneath a mask shaped like a ram's skull. "Another handful of poor wretches to add to the party, it seems."

Its partner, a taller Shadow in a ruffled blouse, bears a deep blue mask chiseled into the likeness of a stoic-faced woman. "What're you doin' here?" it asks, drawing itself uncomfortably close to you.

The skull-faced Shadow places a hand on the other's shoulder and draws it back.

"Now, now, no need to let our emotions get the better of us. After all, we're all in the same boat, aren't we? You'll have to excuse my friend, the idea of being trapped has rather set her on edge," it adds as an aside.

"Trapped? How can you be trapped? Isn't this where you li-oof!" begins Hayate before you cut him short with an elbow to the ribs.

"Never mind him, he's, um, a bit nervous, too. What he's trying to say is that we're wondering why there's so many Sh-er, so many of us, here right now," you say.

The blue-faced Shadow makes an exasperated noise that suggests that your question was a stupid one, but its partner indulges you nevertheless.

"Well, for the reception, of course. The Lady of the house hosts fantastic get-togethers, or so I've been told. Which is why you can only imagine our confusion when we get here to discover the manor dead quiet, all the lights out, and worst of all, the doors locked tight as soon as we set foot inside! Not at all the sort of welcome I was expecting - we're fortunate her manservant found us so quickly and guided us to the others."

"Dunno what part of this you consider 'fortunate'," huffs the blue-faced Shadow. "This ain't how this was supposed to be."

You open your mouth to ask what exactly she means by that, but the skull-faced Shadow pre-empts you.

"Of course, of course. It's all a bit strange, yes. But with any luck, these four were the last of the guests, which means the Lady should be arriving any moment now...at least, I should hope."

"About that-" you begin, meaning to tell them about the invisible creature stalking the halls, when the fire in the hearth snuffs itself out with a whoosh and robs you of your voice and sight.

An audible gasp sweeps through the blackness, and your feet freeze to the spot without your eyes to guide them. Someone clutches at your arm, and you can hear Hayate nearby muttering curses under his breath. And then, just as you were dreading, the temperature in the room drops several degrees, and from somewhere not so very far from you, comes the sound of swishing fabric.

Although you could run anytime you wished, in any direction you wanted (and you want to so very badly), your blindness makes escape impossible. Here, in this dark room, the Enforcer has you trapped. Almost automatically, your lungs start drawing in only miniscule amounts of air, as if your intake of breath would betray your position. The only other thing you can think of to do is to stand as still as possible, and pray it doesn't find you. You only hope that the others are doing the same.

As each excruciating second ticks by, your body begins starving for deeper breaths, and waves of panic begin to crawl through your tightening chest. Something brushes against your nose, and it takes all of your strength not to burst into hysterics.

Then, from nearby there comes a painfully audible, wet noise, like the sound of boots treading through fresh mud. For the few seconds that it lasts, your mind is filled with vision after wretched vision of what might be unfolding mere meters from where you stand paralyzed. When it finally ceases, the swishing sound begins again, this time fading away until it can no longer be heard. And as if the two things were connected (and you strongly suspect that they are), the fire in hearth springs back to life, bathing the drawing room in light.

You're relieved to see that all of your friends are safe. Beside you, Mariko releases her grip on your sleeve, and starts trying to convince Hayate that it's okay to open his eyes again. Nisekao's eyes are locked in a thousand yard stare at nothing, but apart from that, he's unhurt as well. The two Shadows you had been talking to also appear to be fine.

The feeling of relief doesn't last for long, however, as a screech erupts from one of the other Shadows near the hearth. Immediately, all those present race to the front of the room to investigate the cause.

At one point, it had been one of the neatly-dressed Shadows milling about the drawing room. Now, it's been reduced to pile of shredded gore viscera, some of it still pulsing in its freshness. You've defeated a number of Shadows yourself by now, yet the sight of this one's mangled, humanoid body sends bile churning up your throat. Mariko clutches at your shoulder.

"Tetsuo, look!" she says, and points up to the wall above the mantle.

There, written with the blackish-blue fluids of the newly killed Shadow, is one, solitary word:

FIRST