by Ghostrider93 » Sun Nov 25, 2018 9:04 pm
Chapter 2: Rebirth of the Countess
The corpses of John and the unknown young woman, having been later revealed as the daughter of a count invited to the ceremony, were found by the servants of the manor. The sight of John's corpse unleashed the folly of his parents, whose mother finally fainted. As Awa remained untraceable, intensive research took place throughout the estate and its surroundings. The corpse of Awa will be found, several hours after her death, by her father and two servants.
A few days after her death, Awa was placed in an oak coffin and buried in the family vault, alongside her mother Elizabeth. The young woman being very much loved for her kindness and open-mindedness, a large number of servants will choose to give up their work and leave the mansion, their pain being too great. Richard having now lost his daughter and heiress, and now alone, sank gradually into melancholy, no longer eating, no longer sleeping, and spending his days vegetating in his chair. Richard de Paysant died a month after Awa's death, his grief being so painful that it eventually killed him. He was discovered by one of the few remaining servants, in his chair, as if he had fallen asleep and never woken up. Richard, being the last of the Paysant family, was buried beside his wife and daughter. Over the years, several large families bought the mansion, but no family stayed more than a year before deciding to leave, saying that there was a morbid atmosphere in the mansion, that the gardens were slowly dying without explanation. Finally, finding no more buyers, the manor was abandoned and access was forbidden after that several little satanic sects tried to make it their place of worship. Years and years passed, during which the manor slowly fell into ruins, nature gradually regaining its rights on the field of de Paysant. In 1852, fifty years after Awa's death, a sudden and violent storm ravaged the city of Wormwell, causing the death of its entire population in one night and leaving behind only a field of ruins. Located on the heights of the hills, the mansion was spared by the flood.
October 2018
The Manor of de Paysant, as well as the town of Wormwell, were nothing but the shadow of what they had been. Whereas once a prosperous and flourishing city was standing, a ghost town was now standing in the middle of the sleeping hills, dominated by the ruined manor house overlooking the valley, which had become cold and desolate.
Over the years, nature had regained its rights, covering the cemetery with roots and other invading plants that had torn open most graves, exploding skeletal skeletons and other putrefied remains in the open air. A silence of death reigned over the estate ..... Or almost.
One of the disemboweled tombs made a noise of friction, as if something was trying to get out of it. A hand emerged from the grave, followed by a body. Awakening like a bad dream, looking stunned and breathing heavily, Awa pulled herself out of her grave, kneeling on the damp earth of the cemetery. How .... How could she be here? everything was blurred in her mind. Eyes round and looking around her, she did not understand anything that was happening and tilting her head, could see her reflection in a puddle. What she saw almost made her scream in fear. Her skin had turned gray, and her dark hair was dusty. His eyes looked like those of cats and deep black. Her teeth had become sharp, like that of a vampire. She was still wearing her wedding dress, which had become dirty and ragged in some places. She also noticed the small tear in her chest, caused by the blade of the dagger when she ..... Petrified, Awa remembered everything, the images of a past now distant marching in her bruised spirit .. ... Her innocent childhood with her father .... Her meeting with John ..... The day of the wedding and ...... Her own death .... the pain of the blade slashing her flesh.... Everything came back to him in memory. Feeling a past pain return to her putrefied heart, Awa shed tears and uttered a cry of desperation that echoed through the valley. While crying, Awa was horrified to see what had become of her family's estate. The mansion, once majestic, was nothing more than an empty and abandoned pile of rubble.
In wanting to get up, Awa's eyes were attracted by two graves, lying next to hers. It was with even more suffering that she stared helplessly at the graves of Richard and Elizabeth de Paysant, her parents, as her own grave: here lies Awa de Paysant, 1779 - 1802, loving and beloved daughter. Awa came to her parents' graves, and with tears in her eyes, fell on her knees before her, her hands trembling.
(Awa): "Mother ..... Father ..... I am ..... So sorry ....."
She could not talk anymore because the pain was so great. Was this his punishment for committing two murders and his suicide? Did the Almighty himself condemn her to eternal wandering as an undead? The wind finally brought with him what looked like an old newspaper, which seemed to have been bouncing around for days. Awa glanced at the main page, and the date she saw horrified her. October 17 .... 2009?! Awa could not believe it and crushed the newspaper in her hands. Two centuries had passed?! No, she could not believe it.... Raising her eyes towards the cloud-filled sky, the young countess seemed to resign herself to her sad fate.
(Awa): "If this is to be my chastisement, lord, then so be it ...." she said with sadness.
A sudden croaking surprised her and made her turn around. Perched on one of the headstones, a raven with red eyes stood, impassive, and seemed to observe the young woman returned from the dead. Awa thought she dreamed by seeing him, and although it seemed impossible .... yes .... It was the same raven she had saved on her balcony. Awa got up without a sudden gesture and wanted to get closer to the black bird. When she was close enough, the raven flew away and headed north. But after several seconds, noticing that she was not following him and that she was just watching him go, the raven turned and circling over Awa, uttered several croaks. Awa watched him closely.
(Awa): "What do you want from me?" she asked, not expecting an answer from a bird, strange as it was. The raven landed on the ground and with its beak, picked up a few twigs of wood to form, under Awa's amazed eye, an arrow pointing to the north. Awa would have thought she would go mad if she had not even come back from the death.
(Awa): "Do you want ..... I follow you?"
And amazing, the raven seemed to nod and flew back to the north. More than intrigued and not seeing what else she could do, Awa, after a few seconds of hesitation and a last look at the manor, decided to follow the raven and left the cemetery, leaving behind the place where she was born, died, and came back to life.
The red-eyed raven was flying in the wind, croaking, and several tens of meters below, Awa was running after him, regularly glancing at him so as not to lose sight of him. She ran through the hills, like Alice following the white rabbit, wondering why she was doing this, but after all, what else could she do? A light icy rain began and Awa found herself running in the rain, following the raven that was not at all bothered by the rain and continued its flight. After almost half an hour, the raven finally led Awa to what appeared to be a circle of megaliths lost in the middle of the hills. The stones each measured several meters in height, and the surface eroded by the rain and the weather showed an obvious antiquity. Awa recognized this place, having already visited it several times with her father or friends. Named Gu Math Anam, meaning "Well of Souls" in Gaelic, this place was reputed, in ancient legends, to be a passage for the souls of the deceased and leading to the other world. Awa approached the megaliths and touched the surface of one of her with her palm, feeling the cold rock on her pale skin. The raven landed on top of one of the rocks, and with head gestures and croaking, seemed to encourage Awa come to the center of the circle.
Awa was suspicious. Was this raven a messenger of the devil, seeking to trap her poor wandering carcass in a trap leading straight to hell to punish her for her sins? The young woman refused to move forward.
(Awa): "Now that's enough, you'll tell me who you are and who sends you!" she almost threatened the bird, which did not seem frightened, but merely pushed another croaking.
The wind suddenly began to blow harder and harder, as if a storm was coming. In the wind, Awa thought she could hear a deep, unknown voice, a sinister, resonant laugh in the air. Horrified, she suddenly saw blood flowing over the surface of the megaliths, almost forming symbols of blood. The storm strengthened, and the ground in the center of the stone circle began to shake, then cracked to collapse on itself, revealing a kind of gaping hole and spinning on itself in the opposite direction of the needles of a watch. Awa wanted to move away, but she felt attracted by an invisible and very powerful force, impossible to resist. The sinister laugh was heard again. The raven remained unmoved by this.
(Awa): "Nooo! Nooo!" she screamed, trying desperately to cling to one of the megaliths, but nothing was done, she was swept into the vortex, in which the crow plunged right after Awa. The hole closed immediately, the ground reforming and the stones stopping bleeding, as if nothing had happened.
***********
Awa felt more than bad. She could vaguely feel a hard floor, like stone, beneath her. Opening her eyes with difficulty, her eyes a little troubled, she straightened up. Once her sight returned to normal, she found that she was no longer in the hills of England, nor in the circle of megaliths. What she saw around her had no meaning to her. She was sitting on a floor of old stone slabs, in what appeared to be once a large cemetery, but no resemblance to that of her family's estate. This cemetery was very sinister, the majority of the tombs being empty, or having been disemboweled, overthrown or destroyed by the tall, leafless trees that had grown on it. Some of the trees seemed to show screaming faces on their bark, which added to the gloomy atmosphere. There was an odor and a deathly silence on this place, and the sky was as strange, covered with black clouds but showing a slight reddish hue.
(Awa): "But ..... where am I?!" she sighed, putting herself on her feet. Worried and lost, the young countess decided to find a way out of here and took a direction, without really knowing where she was going. Disturbing noises could be heard, and sometimes Awa felt as though she perceived from the corner of her eye a furtive form moving behind graves. Where was she? In purgatory, or any ancestral place where souls wait to be judged?
Awa saw several other crows, the latter not having red eyes, and devouring the decomposed remains of a corpse half emerged from his grave. Awa swallowed and continued on her way.
At a bend in the cemetery, Awa stopped suddenly. Several meters in front of her, stood what looked like a person, wearing a ragged coat. The person was standing, his back face to her, and did not seem to have noticed her presence. Suspicious, Awa advanced several discrete footsteps, except one, because she walked unintentionally on a dead branch. The person raised his head slightly and turned to Awa. The countess opened eyes filled with terror.
The person was no longer really one, sporting a rotting face, blackened teeth and emaciated feet and hands. Worms gesticulated in his filthy jaw and he emitted inhuman, brutal growls at the sight of the countess. A black and sticky liquid flowed from his nostrils, eyes, mouth and rotten skin.
(Awa) "My god ..." she sighed in horror and backed down several steps. The creature uttered a bestial roar, and rushed to Awa like a rabid animal.
(Awa): "No!" the Countess tried to protect herself, stretching out her hand, and unintentionally unleashed a telekinetic wave, which hit the creature with full force and threw him backwards, violently. Awa was amazed at how powerful her power seemed to have grown. Although his legs were broken and half of his torso was broken during the shock, the creature crawled hard towards Awa. One of his legs was unhooked, but the monster did not pay much attention. Disgusted, Awa decided to finish this thing, and used her telekinesis to tear off the head and throw it away. Deprived of head, the body fell motionless, while black liquid flowed on the ground.
(Awa): "But damn it, what is this nightmare spot ?!" Awa wondered as she continued on her way, and now more worried knowing that this place was potentially inhabited by other creatures.
After several minutes that seemed an eternity to her, Awa finally arrived at what appeared to be the exit of the cemetery, a large open space similar to a ruined monastery. Awa crossed what was once to be one of the buildings of the monastery, and soon after arrived in a kind of large rectangular courtyard composed of stone slabs, and fortunately she didn't met other creatures. In the middle of this court stood, on his knees, a kind of large statue measuring three meters and having the appearance of a warrior in armor, holding in his hand a huge spear. The details of this statue impressed Awa a lot, but she did not have time to admire and walked to the big doors behind. Awa grabbed the handles, but discovered with astonishment that the doors seemed closed from the outside, by chains. Damn it! she thought. I am stuck.
A cold wind rose again and the grim laughter, the same as in the megalith circles, was heard in the horizon, surprising Awa. Then a dull and strange sound was heard behind her. Turning around, she found, again with surprise, that the statue was starting to move. Standing on his feet and shaking the ground with each step, the giant warrior statue picked up his spear and turned to Awa. The empty eyes of the statue began to glow with a disturbing red glow.
Without warning or even uttering a word, the statue leaped towards Awa. The countess, at first surprised, jumped on the side, narrowly avoiding the devastating spear blow, which blew up the slabs on which she stood. Awa had rolled to the side, half blinded by the dust from the impact, as the statue turned toward her, impassive and determined to kill her.
(Awa): "Wait, I did not do anything to you... What ..." she did not have time to finish her sentence and avoid a new blow that would have beheaded her if she had not been pretty fast. The living statue seemed to completely ignore the Countess's words and was trying to slash her.
Awa found herself running in the yard, pursued by the monstrous golem, and avoiding, sometimes barely, its powerful blows. Unfortunately, Awa did not succeed in avoiding the kick that the statue inflicted on her, after she managed to dodge a side spear thrust. Awa was thrown back and her back hit one of the standing pillars of the yard. Although be an undead, she could still feel the pain and got up with difficulty. Seeing her on the ground, the statue began to run towards her, to inflict the blow of grace. But Awa decided not to let herself being killed without resistance. Concentrating her power, she lifted several slabs of stone by telekinesis, and threw them towards the golem, who was struck in the head and body by the projectiles of stone, and although the damage was minimal on him, he was stopped in his run and destroyed several projectiles with his spear. Taking advantage of him being busy, Awa used her power to lift an old, long-broken pillar. Blinded by the slabs raining down on him, the statue could not avoid the pillar having struck him violently on the chest and throwing him several meters back. But it was not enough, the golem spreading the pillar of his body and getting up. This thing is tough, Awa thought, wondering if she could beat him.
The statue then threw its spear with all its might towards Awa. The weapon going too fast, Awa would not have time to avoid it and would end up impaled. Feeling the fear grow in her, Awa saw, with astonishment, her whole body becoming transparent like a ghost, and witnessed the spear passing through her immaterial body. The spear hit the wall behind Awa, who became visible and touchable again. How could she do that? She surprised herself ... Was it the fear that had awakened this new power in her? No idea, but it saved her life, so to speak. Having no spear, the giant statue had struck Awa, who being too disconcerted by what she had done, could not avoid the punch that threw her against another pillar. Suffering a lot, Awa coughed and spat a little blood. Despite her blurred vision, she could see the statue picking up its spear and preparing to come to her to finish her. Getting up with great difficulty, Awa could have confessed to being defeated, but this newly discovered power gave her an idea, very risky but that could work.
Awa got back on her feet and faced the statue, which began running towards her. Awa also ran to the statue, and without warning, became transparent and plunged into the body of the golem, which seemed perplexed, and finding that the countess was inside his body, sought to kill her by impaling his own body. The statue inflicted itself heavy damage with its own spear, trying to touch Awa, without success. Once the golem was badly damaged, Awa pulled herself out of its stone body and became visible again. The golem seeing her again, walked towards her even more slowly and hard, her body and her limbs being very damaged by the blows he himself inflicted. Fortunately, this thing was only a puppet without a brain. Again, Awa used her telekinesis to throw another pillar on the golem, which was thrown into the ruins of the monastery. Then, using more concentration until have a headache, Awa made collapsed the rest of the building on the golem, which was crushed by tons of debris falling on him, reducing it to pieces.
Noting the destruction of the golem, Awa sighed with relief and fatigue, recovering rather badly from the blows she had received. A croaking made her raise her head and she saw the red-eyed raven, resting on a pillar rest and looking her in the eyes.
(Awa): "You!" she said, recognizing this damned bird.
But the doors of the monastery suddenly opened, to the astonishment of Awa who turned around. A tall dark form stood behind the doors, and once they opened, he walked nonchalantly into the courtyard towards Awa, who could see, split between terror and fascination, the appearance of the newcomer.
He was nearly two meters tall, with a stocky body in a fierce-looking metal armor. Metal boots. Armor of shoulders adorned with points. Clawed hands with black mittens. A long black cape floating on his back. A leather belt decorated with a screaming face. He was dressed like a demonic warrior coming from the deepest hell, but it was his face that marked Awa the most. He looked almost human, a demonic face with little horns, long black hair and a mustache and a black beard around his chin. His red eyes showed extraordinary strength and ferocity, like if the devil himself was watching you. Dominating Awa by a head and a half, he advanced and stopped a few meters in front of her, watching with interest the young countess. Suspicious, however, Awa faced him, ready to defend herself again.
(Awa): "Who are you?"
The monster made a small carnivorous smile and almost seemed to admire Awa's determination to face him. He spoke in a deep, powerful voice.
(Mr. Lordi): "My name is Mr. Lordi, and I know who you are ...... Awa."
Be yourself! Do not be ashamed to show what you like, and do not be ashamed to admit that you are different.