Chương 159: 150. Inside the silent city

We were gathered on a small square beyond the entrance, still unsure what to do, our eyes on the corpse lying on the gate's threshold.

"W-what?" asked one of the nobles.

"Lara, she—she…" The man couldn't comprehend what was happening as his face slowly morphed into a look of horror. Before it could escalate, one of the Riswalt nobles moved to knock the man out.

"Why did you do that?" asked another.

"We don't know what triggered the guard," I broke in before a fight could break out.

"If it were something like a fresh loss, it could get us killed. Good thinking," I finished, looking at the other noble. The man nodded back.

"So do we still explore?" asked the D'Arc woman.

"Any other choice?" Leo asked, his eyes still glued to the body.

"Let's move to the side." The larger building by the gate I saw when looking at the city was now right by us, and I could see the dark silhouettes staring at us from each window, unmoving and silent. We moved one street deeper and stopped where we couldn't see the guard or the dead woman.

"Okay, we should split—" Leo started, but Helga cut in.

"Before that, we should set this spot as a meeting place. Or do you wanna cross that gate again?"

"We could go over the walls," suggested someone from the Third Chamber, but everyone just looked at them like they were crazy, myself included.

"Okay, then it's decided—we meet here," Leo said and took out a watch, only to freeze. I frowned and looked to William, who fished a pocket watch from his coat. I rolled my eyes at the golden antique with his and Luna's initials, but he, too, froze, looking at the clock's face.

"Mana messes with electronics," a priest shrugged, gazing over Leo's shoulder.

"Mine's fully mechanical," William whispered, not taking his eyes off the watch, before he turned it over and tried winding it up—only to stare at it again.

"Mine just says 8: 08," said Leo.

"Mine too," William replied.

"Okay. We meet here when… um… in about an hour? Give or take?" Leo proposed.

"And if someone finds a safe spot, we'll relocate there." It wasn't much of a plan, but I didn't have any brighter ideas, so it was decided. Our group was me, William, Darius, Ophelia, and Luna, while the other one that was supposed to stay close was Astrid, the oracle, Aiko, and Bolo. We set out, my group going first and Astrid's right behind us. We had a few city blocks in the eastern part of the city to check.

We moved forward in the pale yellow light, slowly, making sure not to disturb even one rock unnecessarily. The other group moved up behind, checking the houses on the left while we were at the front, checking the right. Any movement from inside the building would immediately disqualify the location—any feeling of wrongness. Or really… anything that wasn't stillness. We approached the first building. The curtains were closed, and the place was silent. After listening for a few seconds, we came closer.

It was built like any other here—a two-story home in a line of small but tall houses. Even though it was simple, it was nicely decorated in a Gothic-like style. Despite its age, it looked fresh and well cared for. We drew closer to the door.

"I can see you," a whisper came, followed by a flicker of movement through the keyhole. And just like that, we moved away, sour expressions on our faces. The agreed hour quickly proved nowhere near enough, as each house took around fifteen minutes. Anything and everything could be dangerous. At one point, we had to yank William back because a massive, black, withered hand slipped from under the curtains and tried to drag him inside one of the buildings.

The third house we simply circled in as wide an arc as possible, as just approaching it gave us a sensation of wrongness and danger so strong even I was uncomfortable. It was when we were approaching the fourth house that movement came from the end of the street. We all looked up as a strange procession turned the corner.

"Fuck," I hissed. Looking back, I saw that the other group was retreating to the beginning of the street. We had the house giving a dangerous aura behind us. I was torn between a quick retreat and going deeper into a side street. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. But then Luna spoke up.

"I think it's a safe house," she said, pointing at the house near us on the other side of the street. I looked at it, not sure how she got that, but then I understood—it was safe. The rest turned toward where we were gazing, confused, but then agreed as we quickly moved off the street and into the nice house, closing the door behind us. It was a nicely decorated place, with a small office to our right and a living room to our left.

In front, we had stairs going up and a part of the kitchen visible at the end of the small corridor. We went into the office and toward the window to look at the procession. It was a good chance to get a look, since we were safe and no one could get to us here. We gazed as a group of people dressed in white robes walked the street. They all wore hoods, completely obscuring their features. Or was it that they had no features? I couldn't tell. I could walk out to see them, but why leave the comfort of this home?

They also had symbols on their robes, but I was bored by them. I looked to the side and noticed that the rest of those with me had also stopped watching the procession and turned to see more of the house. The office was nicely decorated but also boring, with just a desk and a chair, really. We walked into the living room to do some sightseeing. It had a small table, a sofa, and family photos decorating the nice, warm-red wall.

The people in the pictures were very nicely dead, their corpses positioned on clearly prepared sets. I picked up a small photo depicting the family's youngest child, stabbed multiple times, her corpse sitting by a piano with her head resting on the keys—once white, now covered in the girl's blood. I turned to the rest and pointed at the picture.

"Hey, so she played the piano," I shared in earnest. They all nodded, happy. It was good for the young to practice, after all. It was so nice. And once I thought about it, I realised everything really was nice. The table was nice, the chairs were nice, the paintings were nice—and the man standing in the living room doorway, bleeding all over, he was nice too. He was. He— Something screamed at me. Why would anything scream at me? We were in the safe spot we'd been looking for all that time.

What would be the problem? Maybe I should have asked the nice man once he came closer. Another wave of discomfort washed over me. I looked at the rest of the people here, but they seemed fine. Wait—not all of them. I noticed Ophelia looked rather strange. I went closer to her and gazed over her shoulder. She was holding a family picture. It was another "nice" warm scene: the mother, father, and two children hanging together from a tree. No wonder they looked so happy.

The father must have been a priest, judging by his robes—a god's man would be a good man. Something bothered me about that statement. For some reason, Ophelia didn't think it was nice, as she looked with a growing frown at the scene. I looked up and saw that the nice, bleeding man was now in the room. Maybe he could explain something about the picture to us.

"What's wrong?" I asked, concern clear in my voice.

"Well… I… I…" She clearly had trouble expressing her feelings about the matter.

"I don't like the priest as a father," she finally spat, with considerable struggle.

"Well, he's a priest, of course…"

'A priest of what god?' A thought rushed into my head like a wild beast freed from a hunter's snare. It finally burst into the safety of my mind. I was a priest. I was a man of god—oh, but I was far from anything described as nice. The emptiness, the abyss inside me, beckoned. It seemed like a safe space, and I fell into it. The moment I arrived, my thoughts finally burst into my head, previously held down by something—by something that clearly couldn't follow here.

As quickly as I arrived, I left, before the entropy behind my back could further injure my already strained mind. I awoke in the room and let my staff unravel into my hand. A quick look over the place, and I fired the stored Pierce. But not at the strange silhouette now standing in the middle of the room. No, instead I attacked the clock. It fell to the floor with a crash, its face, which had shown 12: 12: 12, now shattered.

As the numbers disappeared, the blanket over our sensations lifted ever so slightly, but a crack was enough to widen into an opening. The first to wake was Ophelia, who looked around in horror, her hand going to the empty scabbard, only to change trajectory for the knife behind her belt. Then Darius, William, and Luna came to. I stepped back to stand close to Ophelia and readied for battle. But the room was empty. No man in the middle, no silhouette in the doorway.

The strange dulling sensation was still present and had to be fought off—straining our minds—but now it was much easier. It was like nothing I had ever encountered. It wasn't an attack to protect against but a change in the very rules around us. An unexpected danger we clearly weren't prepared for. I took another look over the room. With the feeling of "nice" gone, it was a horrible scene—enough for me to wince. All of the family photos were scenes of murder, one more brutal than the other.

All showing positioned dead people. The room also wasn't painted red. It was covered in blood. There was no rotting smell, but the iron in the air was so strong we all had to cover our noses. We all went out of the room and looked around. The house was silent.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Luna said, the only one not covering her mouth against the smell of blood.

"Wait," I said, and they looked at me like I was an idiot.

"This house draws people in and is very close to the entrance, closest to the church. There's a good chance someone from a previous expedition died here." Everyone stood looking at me with grimaces, but my logic was sound. There was a good chance we could find someone here. We'd broken the illusion, and it was silent and calm for now. We needed to take a quick look. Sighing unhappily, we started moving deeper into the place.

There were doors to the basement on the side of the stairs, but Luna just used some blood and made it coagulate into a crystal around the handle. If anything moved the door, we should hear it. We walked the corridor, leaving the stairs on our left, and finally reached the kitchen. Stopping before the threshold, we took a second to get ourselves ready and walked in. The house was still silent, aside from the strange pressure telling us to calm down. I looked to the left.

There were typical cooking utensils and cupboards, all open and thrown about, reminiscent of a battle scene. But it was what I saw to the right that caught my attention.

"Holy shit," William whispered. There, we could see a dining room connected to the kitchen, where a massive table was set with a feast. We could see six chairs by the table, with five of them conveniently left open in a clear invitation. But what put us on edge was that the sixth seat was taken.