"Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane."
― H. P. Lovecraft
***
As his amusement faded with the passing of the time, he gradually began to prepare himself for what was to come.
He was dead... but alive at the same time.
He definitely remembered getting shot in the abdomen and then lunging forward, plunging his thumb into the hooligan's eye and nearly ripping it out.
It was the only thing his deranged mind came up with at that instant: kill or be killed.
All other things faded like fog in that brief moment. And then he lay beside the screaming man, who was clutching at his face and roaring out like a beast.
Well... that guy had it coming, if Adam were to be honest. That watch was the only possession he had from his deceased parents.
After that, the sirens came. An ambulance picked him up and rushed him to the nearest hospital, straight into the operating theatre. After that, he could only remember the sensation of being separated from his body and falling endlessly.
Following that, he woke up in this hellhole.
Shighing in tired frustration, he mused silently.
'Okay... the parchment implies that this isn't the realm of the living, what bulls*it... *haah* other than that, those things are out for me. I need to get out of here and see if this place really is as recorded.'
"If it is as such, how can I even leave this place? The scribbles were about sealing my fate with my own hands. That... implies ending myself... in short, I need to die by my own hands."
That wasn't even the most unsettling part of the scribbles; it was the part about fading in the ageless land.
'First... I need to verify the validity of the mumblings and determine if they are merely the ravings of a madman or an actual prophecy. Then I need to get out of the mansion, if nothing works... then drastic measures have to be taken.'
Being resolved and no longer muddle-headed, he opened the closet door and stepped out of it.
Adam turned on the flash and looked around the room. It was another one of the decimated rooms, probably a girl's. Evident from the torn dolls lying on the table in front.
The door to his right, from where he had entered, was still open, and moonlight continued to shine into the place.
It made the place look even more creepy. His breath came out in foggy white whisps, and his body shivered from head to toe.
But the one thing different was that his face was more placid than before, and he didn't look that scared anymore.
'I should check for the backdoor.'
His legs were tense and his muscles coiled tight, akin to a bowstring, ready to bolt at the sign of any movement.
He turned his flash off and took firm but quiet steps out through the door and moved right, back towards the stairway.
Reaching the stairway, he peered forward and couldn't see any signs of a back door in the ahead passage.
Turning to the stairway, he moved towards the space beside the stairs.
There was a door placed inconspicuously in the wall that the moonlight couldn't reach, which was the reason he didn't notice it earlier.
Adam heaved a relieved breath, opened the door and took a step outside.
The moon was at the same position as earlier, which was ridiculous in itself, and the conjecture about this being a timeless land was confirmed grimly.
The moon still shone brightly, and a plain filled with grass, weeds, and shrubs came into his view.
Stepping down a couple of steps and walking into the grass, he looked at the dilapidated stone boundary circling the estate a few meters away.
Taking a few steps forward and reaching the middle of the field, he looked back at the mansion, which was the most hateful place he'd ever been to.
"Bad location, broken furniture, inhospitable staff and no food facilities... I rate it zero out of ten."
He chuckled at his own bad joke, turned around and peered at the dark forest ahead of him.
'Fu*k my life... now I have to deal with this?'
His luck had always been shit*y like this; eventually, he had always hoped for the best while preparing for the worst in every situation.
Being a little apprehensive, he started pacing around, hesitating. Then decided to look around.
Walking around the place just made his head ache more and more. There was nothing but more and more grass in his view.
He reached the front of the manor, where a bunch of different flowers, along with jasmine, were blooming. There was a paved path leading from the main gate to a huge iron gate situated at the front of the residence.
It was huge, like really huge. About 5~6 meters long.
'Who even makes gates this big?!'
He tried climbing over the stone wall, but it was nearly the same height, and the rocks were slippery as hell.
His instincts had been going haywire for a while now, and a bad premonition was rearing its ugly head in his heart.
Feeling anxious, as if someone had been watching his movements for a while now. He cleared his mind and looked at the front doors of the manor; one of which was smashed into the other one sideways.
It was about half his hand's thickness across, and probably weighed substantially.
Just then, he noticed some faint scribbling noise, then saw words appearing on the metal door behind him.
His tense body was ready to bolt, but nothing happened. Looking at the words appearing, he read with vigilant eyes and a racing heart.
"Don't talk to them... don't talk to them... don't talk to them...don't talk...don't talk... don't talk ...don't ..... TALK TO US!!!..... TALK TO US!!!.... TALK TO US!!!!!."
Even his deadpan and aloof mask cracked when those words kept increasing at a maddening pace, and then suddenly switched as if someone wanted to reach out and brand them into his eyes.
Just then, he heard something that made his eyes bloodshot with fear, grief and agitation....
'Why won't you talk to me, Adam?!..... Why Adam?.. Why Adam?....why?... WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?'
It was a familiar voice, too familiar even. It was the voice of Anne. His little sister, one of the few people whom he could call family in this world.
The problem was that she had long since passed away....
When she left with his parents to visit a zoo fourteen years ago, the bastard who was drunk while driving a truck on the freeway had stolen her life along with his parents.
He was six then, and she had been just five.
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[A/N]
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