The Demon of Mansfeld Manor Read online

  Finally, I exited the overgrowth and got a view of the house. In the light of the moon, it looked foreboding. The half-completed work made it truly look abandoned. I made my way toward the front of the house. I silently cursed the fact that I parked with the crew on the opposite side making my walk even further.

  As I got closer to the front of the house, I heard a mumbled voice that stopped me in my tracks. I dropped to the ground, turning off my flashlight. I sat listening. It sounded like Kat. As I sat listening though, I only heard silence. After a few seconds I had convinced myself that I was hearing things and decided to proceed.

  I stood up and stalked over to the front corner of the house. My body ached, but I was acting on pure adrenaline. I peeked around the corner, only to see a car drive off. The car’s tires spun, kicking up gravel as she sped away. As soon as the taillights faded out of sight, I collapsed onto the ground.

  I laid there for a few minutes. I didn’t know if what I was seeing was real, yet something made me believe it was Kat. Slowly, a feeling of rage overtook me. I couldn’t think of one possible reason Kat would’ve been there yet I believed completely that she was. That rage soon got me to my feet and to my truck. It was painful to step up into the truck, but I made it. I turned on the truck, and the heater started blasting out hot air. I plugged my phone in and reached over to the glove box. I pulled out a silver flask and opened it. The whiskey burned as it went down my throat. It helped.

  A couple swallows later, I put the flask back and opened the mirror behind the visor. I looked horrible. There was a swollen gash on the top of my forehead. The right side of my face was covered with remnants of dried, cracked blood. I licked my fingertips and tried to rub some of the blood off, smearing it and making more of a mess.

  The screen of my phone lit up as it finally got enough charge to power on. As I started looking at my phone, there was a list of missed calls and texts from Kat asking where I was. My finger hovered over the call button, but I resisted. I threw my phone into the passenger seat and closed my eyes.

  For a moment, I could hear a voice yelling at me. It was a man. I couldn’t make out anything he was saying, but it was loud. There were bright lights, and then it all faded to black again. Black peacefulness. I floated in the darkness. It was just an endless open space. There were the desk and the chairs. They were floating in front of me, and I swam over to them. I pulled a chair to me and sat down. It felt as though I was spinning, but I couldn’t tell because I was just floating in darkness.

  Then I felt a warmth. A kiss on my forehead.

  “Dearest James,” a woman's voice said.

  “Who is this?” I asked into the darkness.

  “I have you. You’re safe now,” she said.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “James, listen to me. We are running out of time before he takes over. He is getting stronger every day, and if you don’t stop him, he will end us all.”

  I felt another kiss on my forehead and smelled perfume. I felt arms wrap around me and then everything drifted away.

  Part III

  Reprise

  20

  April 22, 1905 - Cloudland Hotel

  Samuel Freidrich Muller sat in a large leather chair in the empty private library of the Cloudland Hotel. The evening was cool there in the mountains. The room was silent aside from the constant ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner. Samuel gently raised his glass of whiskey and took a swallow. As he set the glass down on the small table in front of him, he retrieved his gold pocket watch and compared the time to the clock. It was 6:59 p.m.

  A moment later, the silence was broken by a gentle knock at the door.

  “Master Muller, your visitor has arrived,” a young female voice called.

  Samuel rose from his seat and put the watch back into his vest just as the Grandfather clock started to make the mechanical grinding it did just before it chimed.

  “Please send him in at once.”

  The door creaked as it opened. A young woman dressed in a maid’s uniform walked inside, accompanied by a short portly man. He was dressed in a fine suit and carried a leather satchel.

  “Master Muller, shall I get you anything, sir?” she asked.

  “No, please give us some privacy!” he shot back.

  Upon those words the maid left, gently shutting the door behind her, leaving the two men in the room alone.

  “Sir, I have your order,” the man said.

  “Please lay it out on the table for me to inspect.”

  The man opened his satchel, removed a piece of velvet, and laid it on the table. Then he retrieved a small ornate wooden box. He opened the box and gently withdrew a beautiful necklace. He laid the necklace on the fabric and stood at attention waiting for Samuel.

  The necklace was truly a masterpiece of jewelry. A large green emerald pendant hung in the center surrounded by white gold. The chain was heavily laden with diamonds and accentuated on both sides by a pair of spectacular sapphires.

  Samuel approached the table and looked at the necklace suspiciously.

  “I trust the engravings are done precisely to my instruction?”

  “But of course. Here, inspect them for yourself.” The man handed him a loupe.

  Samuel set the loupe on the table with the necklace. “You understand, of course, a piece such as this must be properly examined before you are to receive payment. Please exit to the study and wait for me to call.”

  “But of course sir.” The man walked towards the door.

  “On your way out, please send for the maid,” Samuel said.

  “As you wish.”

  A few moments later, the maid arrived in the library.

  “Miss, please call upon John, William, George, and Robert,” Samuel instructed. “Instruct them to meet me here as soon as possible.”

  As the maid left, Samuel retrieved a folded piece of paper from his jacket pocket. He unfolded it, setting it on the table with the necklace. On the paper was a map with several points marked. A small stream was drawn through the center of it. Samuel laid the necklace on top of the map and gently aligned the emerald and sapphires to some of the points on the map.

  A few minutes later, the four men arrived at the library. Samuel stood to greet them.

  “My brothers, please come see my work.” He gestured toward the table. “Never again shall our efforts be thwarted by a paper map, which can easily be destroyed or fall into the wrong hands. Our vault is now secured, with this being the key.”

  He held up the necklace for them to see.

  “To the layman, it is a piece of the finest jewelry the world has ever seen,” he continued. “But to those in our circle, it is the key to our funds, now secure for generations until the Knights are called into action.”

  Samuel picked up his glass of whiskey as the men inspected the necklace. George used the loupe to check the engravings while the other men looked on.

  “Samuel, is it not risky to leave the entirety of our fortunes in the hands of your wife?” John asked.

  Samuel slammed his glass down on the table. “Are you accusing me of not being able to control my spouse?” He glared at the man.

  “Of course not! I am simply asking is it not possible that this too could fall into the wrong hands?”

  “John, listen to me, please. This necklace is a work of art. I have invested a fortune in having it made. It will be renowned worldwide. A necklace such as that does not go missing. Long after I am gone, the necklace will be out there and its whereabouts known. I cannot say that it will never fall into the wrong hands, but I will say we will always be able to retrieve it. People are expendable and when the Knights are called, it will be retrieved. George, is every inscription correct and the necklace completely aligned?” Samuel held his breath waiting for George to respond.

  “It is. The alignment is perfect!” George smiled, his eyes wide with amazement.

  “Then brothers, join me in a toast to the future of our knights being sec
ured,” Samuel said.

  As the others raised their glasses, Samuel took the map from the table. He crumpled the paper and tossed it into the large fireplace.

  21

  I opened my eyes and saw a stark white ceiling. It only took a second to realize I was in a hospital bed. I brought my hands up to my head and saw that there were a couple tubes in my arm with tape holding them in place. I reached for the gash on my head and could feel the roughness of a bandage.

  “Jim, you’re awake!” Kat blurted out while jumping out of a chair.

  I looked over at her. She walked up to me and kissed me. She then sat on the side of the bed, holding my hand.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay. You had me worried sick? What did you get yourself into?”

  “How did I get here?” I asked.

  “The foreman at the house saw you sleeping in your truck. But the truck was running, so he went to wake you up. That is when he saw the blood. He called an ambulance and then grabbed your phone. Seeing all my missed calls, he contacted me. You have been unconscious for two days. What happened?”

  Her blue eyes were swollen and wet. She looked as if she hadn’t slept in days.

  “Two days? But I saw you last night, at the house.”

  “Tell me what you remember,” she said.

  “It was Sam. He hit me, and I must’ve hit my head on the bench.”

  “Sam? Are you sure this isn’t the painkillers you are on talking?”

  “The fuck?” I snapped back. “I know exactly what I am talking about. And you! You were there! You were talking to someone at the house. What were you doing there?”

  “Jim. Stop. I’m sorry. I get it. There is something with Sam going on, and I believe you. But hear me out for a second. There are nurses, doctors, and even the police are following up on you being found like this. If you start telling them a guy who died a hundred years ago did this, they are gonna lock your ass up.”

  I sat silent for a moment. Despite everything I felt, I knew she made a good point.

  “But you?” I asked. “Were you there?”

  “Of course I was there! You were supposed to meet me. You didn’t show up, didn’t text, didn’t answer the phone. What else was I supposed to do but look for you? Jeez, Jim, I was worried about you. I went to your apartment. I went to the house. Hell, I called David. I couldn’t find any trace of you anywhere. I even called the cops asking about any car accidents.”

  “I’m sorry, I… I don’t even know,” I said.

  Just then, a crew of nurses barged into the room. Kat was ushered out, and I was subjected to questions I didn’t know how to answer. The story I told them was that I headed out to the pond and must have slipped, hitting my head, eventually making it back to the truck.

  After changing a bunch of bags of stuff, they left me alone to rest. A nurse even returned my cell phone. The first thing I realized looking at my phone was that it really was two days later. I started going through the texts from Kat. First playful, then annoyed, then pissed. Then they were straight up worried. I started replaying the night in my head.

  I went to the photos on my phone and found the picture of the book. I quickly sent that off to David simply saying: “This mean anything to you?”

  Then Kat came back to the room.

  “You okay baby?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I am just trying to piece everything together. I’m really not crazy.”

  “I know. I called David and told him about what you said. That guy is flipping out. He wants to be included in any conversation about it all, obviously.”

  “What about you?” I asked. “You gonna grill me about all of it now?”

  “Jim, right now I am just glad you are here. We can sort all that out later. But right now I just want to be thankful you are here and getting better.”

  She slid the chair across the room next to the bed and sat down holding my hands.

  “I was really worried about you. I love you, Jim! I was so scared I was losing you.”

  Her eyes were wet holding back a river of tears. But these tears were different than what I had seen in her before. Her eyes were filled with nothing but sincerity.

  “I love you, Kat,” I replied as I kissed her hand. “But Sam is a real sonuvabitch, and we are gonna have to do something about it.”

  Just then, my phone started vibrating incessantly. There were a series of quick texts from David.

  “Where did you get that????”

  “Was that in the house?”

  “Do you know what that is?”

  “My god, that isn’t supposed to even exist!”

  “Legendary level shit!”

  “CALL ME!”

  Just reading his texts made my head hurt again. I looked over at Kat and decided David and the house could wait. I powered off my phone and laid it on the table next to the bed.

  Kat moved to lean her head down on my chest. In a matter of moments, my eyes closed, and I fell asleep.

  It wasn’t until about eleven am the next day that I turned my phone back on. I had convinced Kat that she could indeed get back to work and life. I had been through a bunch of tests with a lot of initials I didn’t understand. I ate some horrible excuse for a meal. Then, I was there alone with nothing to do but sleep or watch day-time TV.

  I decided I had let David suffer enough and called him up. He answered on the first ring.

  “Jim, what is going on?” he asked in a frenzy.

  “Well, your man Sam kicked the fuck out of me,” I replied.

  “He made contact? This is amazing! I need to know everything!”

  “Easy David. One step at a time. After all, I’m not getting out of the hospital for a couple days. Tell me about the book.”

  “Oh my god, the book!” he blurted out.

  “Yeah, I take it you know something about it,” I replied.

  “Of course! Who doesn’t? Well, I mean not really, because at this point we all believed it was a myth, an urban legend.”

  “What do you mean a myth?” I questioned.

  “Okay, you ever hear of the Forbidden Rights?” he asked.

  “David… pretend for just a second I am a normal guy with no knowledge of the paranormal,” I replied sarcastically.

  “Got it. Okay. The Forbidden Rights is one of the foundational grimoires. Consider it the Kelley Blue Book of witchcraft.”

  “Grimoire?” I asked.

  “Yes, spell book. Do your homework! Anyway, the Forbidden Rights has been around forever but was not an original work. It is an edited incomplete translation of the original Munich Manual. Or Münchner Handbuch der Nekromantie as it was cited. Thing is, no one has ever seen the original manual. For decades everyone claimed that it was archived in some national library in Hamburg, but aside from claiming they had it, no one has ever seen it. After an audit of the library in 2009, it couldn’t be located. Most assumed that the Forbidden Rights now was an original work crediting the Munich Manual only to alleviate the scrutiny of the author. But here you have sent me a photo of it.”

  “Okay, so in the world of witchcraft, I essentially uncovered a Dunlap Broadside, right?” I replied.

  “Wait! You know what a Dunlap Broadside is? Kudos to you for knowing your history, but no! A Dunlap Broadside is the first printing of The Declaration of Independence. While incredibly rare, it is a printing. You found the actual original Declaration of Independence!”

  “Okay, fine, but to that point, it’s just an old book.”

  “Fuck Jim, when will you listen! No! I’ll continue with your little analogy there. Say the Dunlap Broadside is the closest thing to the original Declaration that anyone knows or has ever seen. And here you find the original the Dunlap was pressed from, but there is a reverse side, a side no one has ever seen? Like I said, Forbidden Rights never claimed to be the entire manual, only a small portion. Yet, it’s still powerful enough to serve as a foundation for all the spells we know and use. This is the holy grail and could quite possibly contain spells
and magic more powerful than any modern-day witch has ever even dreamed of.”

  “Well, it’s tucked away in the house,” I replied. “So, I guess that’s good…. but does that change anything? I don’t suppose there is some sort of spell to get rid of Sam in there.”

  “There certainly could be. At the very least we can use that to help identify what spells may be at play and thus how to clean this mess up. But Jim…I need to understand what happened. Tell me everything starting with the last time I talked to you.”

  I told everything as best as I could remember. David let me talk without interjecting every five seconds. When I finished I really only had one question for him.

  “Is Kat in danger?” I held my breath, waiting for the answer.

  “You are both in more danger than I think any of us realized. You don’t want to mess with this kinda shit. Full physical contact with a demon is not exactly common, but it is a very real thing and can be very dangerous. In this case, you are being contacted in your dreams which extend beyond when you are physically at the house. Then there is the part Ida mentioned to you about time running out. Spells like this do often have limitations including time. If she was only able to bind Samuel for a certain amount of time then I fear this could be catastrophic.”

  “Uh huh.” I nodded along pretending I understood what he was saying despite the fact that I knew he couldn’t see me.

  “What I am saying is that this curse is locked onto you. Once this time frame is exceeded, you could move to Australia and this thing will follow you!”

  This declaration made my heart sink into my stomach. “What about Kat?”

  “As I said in the very beginning, she needs to choose a side. The better question is, do you trust her?”

  “Of course I trust her!” I replied.

  “Well your word is all I have to go on. If you trust her then I trust her. More important than that though, what is it Sam wants?”