Act 3

It took a creature a while to respond, “You have something in you, I will say that much but there are things that go bump in the night you never know what lurks behind every corner. Monsters are real, you just have to know who they are.” then it turned around and started gliding away from her. “Wait! At least tell me what you are?” she yelled softly. It stopped and turned its hooded visage towards her and simply said “Learn the history of this Mansion we’ll discuss what you find afterwards. And also, if you don’t want to vomit, do not open that door” it pointed at door she hid in then the creature burst into a cloud of smoke and went through the several cracks in the walls and floor. Lily covered her eyes until the creature has fully disappeared after that she heard the front door opened on its own but she knew the creature urge her to leave. By that time, it was already passed noon and she still have the afternoon to spend so she ran to her apartment, grabbed the key to the library to do what the creature told her to do. She arrived at the library no less that fifteen minutes, she unlocked the backdoors and quickly went inside. Being a librarian there comes with perks like being able to access the old archival room filled with the history of the town up until its founding on the 18th century. She knew the date of what she was looking for because of the style of the mansion. It was an 18th century mansion and was one of the last remaining buildings still standing from that time. As she scoured the various documents and old newspapers, she stumbled upon an old book with a symbol on the cover. It was the same symbol she saw at the top of the door frame. The symbol were two lions holding a shield in the middle, that symbol belonged to the Livingston Family who were one of the founding families that lived here during the town early years. She took the old book and continued reading in her apartment, most of the books content was on the history and the contribution of the family to the town and was well-known throughout the town. Lily was almost finished with a book and to her it was pretty generic and plain until she arrived on the last few pages of it. The tone became dark, the book stated that the family had many admirers but had if fair-share of doubters. Some of the residents thought that the family was practicing witchcraft, and to the dismay of the people they did. Some of the doubters persuaded and rallied against the family, they tried to explain their motives but the people were either too afraid or untrusting, the family were charged with witchcraft and were executed by hanging. Lily was dumbfounded by what she read. “Well that somehow explain the creature” she thought “But why did it save me”. She had more questions than answers and couldn’t sleep well because of that but she eventually did. She woke up and got ready to return to the place, she packed her thing along with the book. With curiosity fueling her, she walked to the mansion once more.

At this point, she wasn’t afraid of the mansion much less the thing leaving in it. When she arrived, she opened the door and went inside calling the creature as few walked in and after a few seconds it fell from the ceiling and landing as a blob of black goop on the floor. She looked at the blob as it materialized into the creature and slowly headed towards her. It looked at her and she wasn’t disturbed nor afraid of it anymore but she could see the annoyance in its eyes. “You are persistence, I didn’t expect you to return.” it said. “Well, you told me you were going to tell me everything once I learned the history of this place” Lily said confidently. “That’s correct but the history of this place from a long time ago and it take your years to” the creature was cut off when Lily held up the book. “w-where did you find that book?” ask with a surprised tone. “Well, being a librarian those have its perks” she said with a smirk. The thing eyed it like it was reliving a moment in time long ago. “I found this in the archrival room and saw this symbol on it and your door had the same symbol on in. Assuming this is the history you wanted me to search, I believe it’s time for you to upheld your part of the deal.” There was brief moment of silence before the creature could reply. “Follow me” it said a proceeded to climb the stairs, Lily smiled and ran after the creature. They walked into a short hallway, the walls frame that were covered up by an old cloth. The creature proceeded to walk towards one of the frames and removed the cover, Lily stood beside it and they looked at image. It was a portrait of the whole Livingston Family, she saw the father the mother and three children (two boys, one girl). “So, this was the Livingston Family, but they don’t seem like they practice witchcraft” she said jokingly. The creature did react, it just looked at the portrait like how it looked at the book. She didn’t expect to see it distraught. Even with that monstrous look, she recognized that had look before she had that when she missed her parents or some of her dear friends. An awkward silence filled the hallway and it finally spoke “Would you like to know why they did witchcraft?” it said without looking any from the portrait.

Lily leaned her back against the wall and crossed her arms “I’m all ears” she said matter-of-factly. Its glazed at Lily for a short second and then back to the portrait. It formed an arm and pointed at the youngest child of the siblings and said “This boy was named Xavier; he was a cheerful and energetic child in his time. He would play with the other kids and always come home with dirty clothes but he was happy. But one faithful day that little boy became ill, the doctors of their time didn’t know how treat it nor the they didn’t have the knowledge how to do so. His parents were running out of options and they fear that he wouldn’t make it when all hope seemed to be lost, the mother resorted to her old ways. Her ancestors were ancient healers and their treatments were passed down from generation to generation. Her husband initially protested on her proposal but the boy was getting ill by the minute so he eventually agreed. She still had her old family book of potions and incantations; one of which can heal any illness known and unknown but it must be performed as the book inscribed or else something else will happened, something horrible.