Deathly Power

I stood in front of the mansion, shaking. I didn't want to enter it, but I had to. I had to understand. My pursuit of knowledge would not let me give up. I had travelled to England for this.

I was an investigator, trying to understand the activities of the paranormal. I also held the only weapon that could deal with a spiritual being, whether in human form or not. I had developed it myself and had sacrificed my gift of magic to do so. I spent years looking at various sites, many of them falsely considered haunted. 

Whoever tried to unravel its secrets had been driven mad. Many still in mental asylums, after hat they had witnessed. Legend said that an old royal family line lived in it.

Everybody, including the children and housemaids, had been murdered. The killer had never been brought to justice. Their ghosts were rumoured to be walking around in the mansion, still awaiting revenge.

I shouldered my pack and gripped my torch. I opened the huge doors and stepped inside. They opened with a loud creaking sound and fell off their hinges, which caused a giant boom. Dust flew up and was scattered by the wind.

There was a giant stairwell in front of me. Two corridors branched out from the entrance, surrounding the stairwell. There were a bunch of doors with small windows along the corridors.

I walked down the one on the left and checked behind the doors. Many of them were small dungeons, with dead people behind the bars. Others were a kitchen and a small living room, presumably for the house staff. There were dead people there too.

 The rooms on the right corridor were quite similar to the one on the left. It also contained the dungeons, the kitchen and the living area. The bodies had decayed beyond recognition, only bones and rotten bits of flesh clung to them.

Many wore olden style clothes. The ones in the dungeons wore more varied clothes. One was wearing the clothes of a soldier, while another wore a modern shirt and jacket.

It was nearly impossible to recognize the cause of death. Everyone in the dungeons sported broken bones and dislocated joints. I paid my respects and let them be.

When I walked back to the stairwell, the doors were back up again, closed and sealed. I heard a small chittering sound. I looked around and saw a rat scampering away.

I tried the doors but they didn't budge. Damn, I thought. I would have to find another way out. I walked up the stairwell and onto the next floor. Cobwebs clung to the walls and ceiling.

The second floor was a long hall, with a giant room at the end of it. Two doors were on either side of the hallway. behind each of them was a giant kitchen, with pots and pans still containing rotten food.

The giant room at the end was a great dining table, made of rosewood. Dead people sat on carved chairs. At the head of the table was a person wearing kingly robes, likely the owner of the mansion. 

He had a small crown and wore many rings studded with precious stones. He also had several broken bones and his neck was facing the opposite direction. 

I flicked a few of the rings he wore and carried on. I hadn't come across any paranormal activity yet and hopefully, I wouldn't have to. I continued walking up the stairwell to the third floor.

I had just climbed on to the floor when something gripped my ankle and pulled my leg through the floor. I screamed and pulled my leg up. Attached to it was a blue hand. 

It didn't seem physical. I tried to touch it but my hand went right through it. "Don't go", whispered a voice. I jumped and turned around to see the ghost of a young woman.

She was mostly see-through and had a bluish tint, like the hand. She wore a blue dress and had her hair in a ponytail. I couldn't make out her features very well. I had encountered ghosts before, and all of them had either tried to kill me or possess me, not her.

"Don't go", she whispered again. I was paralysed for a good minute before I could answer her. "Why?" I asked. "He'll kill you," she said. 

"Who?"

"The Necromancer"

"What?"

"He has slain my family and captured their souls."

"What about you?"

"He has let the younger people be. We scare off the people, so they don't meet the same fate."

"Why did you close the door then?"

"That wasn't me, that was him."

"I see. But why has he done this to you?"

"My father made a deal with him. Half his wealth for the exchange of being able to talk to his wife again. My father broke the deal, so the necromancer cursed us all, enslaving us."

"Is there a way to undo all of this?"

"Yes, but you must kill him. No one has before. He's been alive for hundreds of years, stealing from other people."

"Right. I have the perfect tool, don't worry." I said and took out the gun from my bag. It wasn't any normal gun. It was specifically designed to deal with spirit beings, like the necromancer.

A necromancer is essentially a person that controls ghosts and dead people. But, sometimes they are themselves spirits inhabiting a human body, so they can interact with the physical world and to access magic.

She looked at the gun and back at me again. Then she simply vanished, fading away till there was no one. I started exploring the third floor. This one contained a bunch of bedrooms. A few dead people still in their beds.

I climbed to the fourth and last floor, presumably where the necromancer was. I saw a few more ghosts on the way, each pleading me not to go. I forged on anyway.

When I reached the top and saw the same woman from before. "Are you sure about this?" she asked, voice low. "It'll be fine," I told her. "What's your name?" I asked her. "Lily," she said. "Well Lily, I'll free you don't worry."

"You don't have to do this."

"I have the only weapon that can deal with him. It's fine."

She bit her lip and nodded. She then faded away and I waltzed through. It was only a large room but instead of furniture, there were skeletons. Many of them covered the floor.

A guy in black robes sat on a throne of bones on the far wall. He held a long staff in his hand and pointed it at me. "State your business," he said. "I'm here to kill you," I said. He started laughing and said, "I cannot be killed, boy. The bones of your predecessors lie around you." 

"Don't worry, I have just the tool," I said and shot him with my gun. The ethereal bullet sank into his flesh. He gave out a pained groan but otherwise showed no signs of pain.

I was shocked. It had never failed me before. I shot him again in the chest as he was rising and he sat back down. He lifted his hood back and stared at me with pure black eyes.

His hand started glowing and he shot a lance of blue energy at me. I jumped out of the way and landed in a pile of skeletons. He shot another blast at me and I narrowly avoided it.

We did this for quite a while. I was trying to get closer to him, hoping that my gun would do more damage. He seemed to get weaker every time I shot him, but I didn't have enough ammo to kill him. I would have to target more vulnerable areas.

I shot him in the crotch next and he fell to the ground. I quickly closed the distance and shot him in the right between his eyes. He still didn't die. He tried to shoot at me again but couldn't get enough energy behind it.

"Fool," he said, "You cannot release them.". "Yes I can," I said. "They owe me. They are rightfully mine." he spat. "You aren't the judge of that," I said and shot him three times in the same spot and he finally stopped moving. 

I backed away as a blue light rose from him, all the spirits he had captured. Most of them flew off into the distance, back into their old bodies, from which they had been wrongfully taken.

Some of the more malicious spirits tried to attack me. They tried to invade my thoughts and possess my body but I fought and killed them off.

The remaining spirits flew down, through the floor, and to the bodies in the mansion. I walked down the stairs to the second floor where the dining table was.

As soon as I reached down, the woman from earlier came and hugged me, now in physical form. "Thank you," she said. "You're welcome," I said. She stepped away from me.

She looked about my age and was a bit shorter than me. Her blue eyes swam with tears and then she hugged me again as if I were a teddy bear.

The king came from the dining hall and smiled. He was quite old and his crown fit him better, now that he was alive. "We are in your debt, good sir. What do you need?"

"Nothing, sir. I am quite happy with what I have." I said.

"But you must take something."

I smiled and told him and left. A transfer of two million dollars was made to my account. Lily came and visited me regularly thereafter. We quickly fell in love and we lived our lives together.