Apparitions

Stepping into the manor is like stepping into another world. The inside is not the dilapidated ruin we saw from the outside. The foyer is pristine and beautiful. A large T-shaped staircase stands proudly in the room’s center, and there are nine doors to choose from between the two floors. My footsteps echo against the hardwood floors as I inspect the candle sconces on the walls. Despite the candles burning, they generate no melted wax. 

“Hey, Seath, remember how you were skeptical about coming here?” Lorelei asks. 

I turn to see her fiddling with the front doors. “Why do you ask?” 

“The thing is, I didn’t close this door… and I certainly didn’t lock it. But it is now closed and locked, and I can’t open it.” 

I walk over, palming my face. “Step aside.” 

Sure enough, the door is sealed shut. I try to pull on the handle, but it won’t budge. I kick it with all of my might, but it’s like kicking granite. 

“Well that’s not a good sign,” I mutter. I press my sigil hand against the door and focus. I can feel powerful spiritual energy locking us inside. Just to test my theory, I take one of the ornate wood chairs in the foyer and smash it against one of the gothic windows flanking the door, but the glass doesn’t even get a crack or scratch. 

Just like I thought, the mansion is a trap meant to lock victims inside. The magic binding this place is strong enough that even with all my strength, I probably can’t break out. That leaves us with just one option – exorcising the spirit haunting these grounds. 

“Since we can’t leave, we might as well explore!” Lorelei says, skipping off to the double doors on the right. She pushes them open and we come out into a large, elegant ballroom with a stage on one end and a bar. Several round tables are all pushed up against the walls, and the chairs are stacked in neat little towers. 

I notice something strange, though, as I look through the windows. The front of the manor faces west, yet when I look out one of the front-side windows, I can see the northern side of the property. The next window over shows a view that couldn’t be possible from the first floor. In fact, every window in the room shows a completely different scene, at completely different times of day. 

Suddenly, all of the candles go out, and a fog fills the ballroom. Lorelei shrieks, and when I rush over to her I can see ghostly faces appearing in the fog. 

“Wolf of the Full Moon,” a disembodied voice echoes, each word causing the entire room to shake. “You have entered the domain of the dead, and the dead welcome you among their ranks.” 

Something stirs within the fog, but it is not a wraith. No, this is the main event – the source of the power within these walls approaches. 

“You are in the company of liars, murderers, and betrayers now. They embrace you as one of their own.” 

“What’s going on?” Lorelei asks, looking around wildly. 

“You think I know?” I shout back. 

“Die.” 

The room stops shaking for a minute, then all of the walls, the ceiling, and the floorboards burst at once, and a spectral creature appears at the edge of the stage. It is a man, but he’s tall and thin, with unnaturally long arms, sickly pale skin, and bloodshot eyes with piercing, blue irises. His hands have razor-sharp claws, and his feet are warped into a strange bestial shape. 

The curse marks all over my body begin to burn horribly, the excruciating agony almost brings me to my knees. Lorelei howls and claws at her arm, as if trying to scratch the curse out of her. 

The spirit walks across the room. He pushes the debris out of his way as it floats through the air as if unaffected by gravity. Lorelei looks up as he towers over her and raises his claw. 

Without thinking I fire a bolt of compressed air at the monster that explodes against his body, launching him back and freezing him. I grab Lorelei by the arm and drag her back to the foyer, up the stairs, and through one of the second-story doors. The halls form an impossible maze, with forked paths and impossible turns that make no sense. 

As the pain from the curse marks starts to wear off, I slow to a stop and release Lorelei so we can catch our breath. 

“What was that?” She asks between gasps. 

“You keep asking me questions like I would know,” I fire back. 

Taking a look in either direction, the hall seems to stretch on forever into oblivion. Doors are lining the hall, though there’s no telling where each of them leads. The candles lighting the hall flicker, going out and reigniting at random, casting parts of the hall in darkness. 

Lorelei taps my arm, distracting me from my thoughts. “How did you do it?” She asks. 

I return a quizzical look. “Do what?” 

“You made that ghost thing go away from me,” she says. “How?” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I just saw it coming at you and grabbed your arm to run,” I lie. 

Lorelei shakes her head. “I think you know more than you’re letting on about this place, and that ghost. Who are you, really? An exorcist? Ghost hunter? Shaman? Priest?” 

“Okay, we don’t have time to play this game right now,” I reply. “Our lives are in danger, and it’s not just us. If we don’t get back soon, the townspeople will come to look for us, and they will get stuck in here too.” 

Lorelei nods, then she opens one of the random doors in the hall, leading into a music room with a grand piano in the corner, and several string instruments on stands by the windows. The room is dark, with only the light of the moon coming in from the windows illuminating it. 

“What do you think that ghost meant when he said ‘Wolf of the Full Moon?’ Who do you think he was talking to? You, or me?” 

I walk over to the piano and run my fingertips along the glossy finish. “I’m not sure. Maybe he’s confused about who we are. Maybe he thinks anyone who comes here is a person who wronged him? I don’t think it does us much good to theorize.” 

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was talking to you.” 

Lorelei picks up the violin from its stand, turning it over in her hands. 

“Did you ever play an instrument?” I ask. 

“Yeah, my father made me learn; he thought it would make me more ‘cultured,’ whatever that means. My family is pretty wealthy, and all he ever cared about was impressing his high-class friends. Imagine his shame when he learned I’d rather hide away in dark little corners looking for ghosts and ghouls.” 

“I never knew my parents. I never learned an instrument, but my wife could play. She was… very talented.” 

“How did she die?” She asks, bringing back somber memories. 

“She was sick,” I reply. Another lie, of course. “She died in front of me, in our home up north. One minute she was there, and the next… it was like she drifted off to sleep, only she wouldn’t wake up. That was over five years ago now.” 

A tear slides down my cheek and soaks into my beard. 

“I’m sorry you lost her. She must have been a very special woman, for you to feel this way even after all this time,” She says softly. “Would it be rude to say I’m a little jealous? In a way.” 

“Jealous of what?” I ask, wiping my face and turning to face her. 

“One day, I hope I meet someone who loves me half as much as you love her. It’s such a beautiful thing.” 

I look out at the full moon outside the window, and a slight smile comes to my face. “She earned it, believe me.”

Lorelei sets the violin down and approaches the door on the far end of the room. As she turns the knob I suddenly feel an intense sense of foreboding. 

“Lorelei, wait–”

The door bursts open and an invisible force rushes in. I rely on my senses to guide me as I leap to the side to avoid being shredded along with the piano, and I run to Lorelei, but another invisible creature blocks my path. 

Lorelei’s eyes bulge, and she grips her throat as little bloody marks and bruises appear around her neck. 

“With the moon’s authority I command you; step into the light!” I shout, revealing three dog-wraiths – two surround me, and the last one has one of its tails wrapped around Lorelei’s throat. 

I swing my sigil hand out, creating an arc of light that fires at the wraith attacking Lorelei, freezing its tail. The frozen section shatters, severing the tail and causing it to fade into dust. 

Anticipating the two lunging beasts, I summon my ice claws and slash at them both as they pounce, destroying them. The third beast jumps at me, knocking me flat on my back and raising its two remaining tails to stab me, but my grimoire appears in my right hand, open, and a triangular array with chains in the center appears on the ceiling. From each point on the triangle, a spectral chain appears to bind the wraith and drag it off of me, allowing me to cut it to pieces in a second. 

The chains disappear with my claws, and I drag myself to my feet, taking notice of Lorelei, who is staring at me wide-eyed. Her lips start to curl into a joyous smirk despite the beads of blood decorating her neck. “I knew it!” 

“Right, the thing about this is–” 

“I knew you were some kind of exorcist or something! From the moment I met you, you’ve seemed weirdly spiritual, like a monk or something! I knew there was something supernatural about you! What are you? How did you do that? Did you train or were you born with the ability to do that? Where did that book come from? What was with that magic thingy on the ceiling? Did you do that with the chains and stuff? What happened to your claws?” 

“Okay, I realize this is a shock to you, but slow down. I can’t keep up with all of these questions,” I interrupt. 

“Try answering ONE! Who are you really? What are you? Did you come here to exorcise that ghost?”

A deep sigh escapes my lips. “Alright, fine. Truth time. I’m not an exorcist. My wife… was the Witch of the Full Moon, and as her consort, I can use some of her magic. I am known as the Wolf of the Full Moon, among other titles. Everything else I told you about myself is true. My wife passed away, and I couldn’t deal with the grief, so I started travelling. I didn’t come here looking for this spirit, I found it by chance.” 

“WITCHES ARE REAL?!” Lorelei squeals in delight. “First I find a real ghost, then I meet a Witch’s husband, this is the best day of my life! I have so many more questions!” 

“Okay, you understand that you nearly had your throat cut by a wraith, right?”

“That’s another question!” She says, blowing right past the subject of her recent peril. “What are those monsters? Ghosts of like dogs or something?” 

“There is only the one ghost here, the creature we met in the ballroom. These monsters… they are created by the spirit to hunt on his behalf. They’re called wraiths.” 

Lorelei nods excitedly. “I want to know so much more. Please teach me everything you know! Is the ghost a Witch too? Is that why he can make stuff like this? How come he didn’t… pass on?” 

I offer my hand to Lorelei, helping her up. “He did. Ghosts are not really the soul of the person who died, they’re more like an imprint they leave behind. Ghosts are born sometimes when people leave behind particularly strong emotions after they die. Any emotion can create a ghost: love, passion, fear, envy. And most of them are completely harmless. But this one was born from the worst possible emotion a person can leave behind in this world, and that is why he is so dangerous.” 

“What emotion is that?” 

“Anger.”