Chapter 16

An awkward silence prevailed over the room. None of us seemed particularly enthusiastic to address what just happened.

Finally Andrei broke the silence, saying,"I suppose I'll be leaving now, I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome. Nikolai, if he tries to retaliate, you have my support." 

With these terse words, Andrei left the room. 

I was beginning to get up and go to my room when Nikolai kneeled down next to me and looked at me with concern in his eyes. 

"Don't move, I'll send for a doctor. In the meantime, you've had such a long day, please allow me to carry you to your room," he requested earnestly.

"No need for a doctor, I'm probably fine. I can walk to my room too, it's not far," I answered.

Despite the fact I declined, I still found myself in his arms again.

"Are your ears filled with cotton? I just said you don't have to carry me," I protested.

"I would be remiss to allow an opportunity to carry my fiance to her room slip through my fingers. I don't want you to be alone either, today has been hard on you. Plus it's so late your maid is probably asleep, you can't get out of these clothes by yourself, right?"

My mind flitted back to the conversation I had with Katarina about what the church considers proper before I said, somewhat angrily," I was just assaulted and you're already thinking about such things? Put me down this instant; I'd rather sleep in these clothes than sleep with a man who has such little tact."

Nikolai looked genuinely hurt that I would think him so improper, his voice betrayed this as he said," Ah. I would never. I was just thinking it would be more convenient for you instead of having to wait for your maid to wake up and come and help you."

I immediately felt bad for my accusation. 

"Err. Um, sorry. I should know you enough by now to know that you wouldn't do such a thing," I apologized. 

"It's okay Kitty. I could see how what I said could be taken in such a way. Certainly a more base man than I would do such things."

We walked the rest of the short way to my room in silence. I could already feel myself falling asleep again despite the shock I had just been through. I stumbled a little bit as he set me down, still in that haze between awake and asleep.

I turned my back to him, expecting him to start disrobing me. Instead he asked,"how exactly do I get this off?"

"I don't know. Katarina usually handles all this. Well it looks like we need to call her anyway."

"Ah, wait I think I got it," as he said this he fiddled around with the back of my dress. 

He very meticulously worked his way through the dense layers of clothing I was wearing. Stopping to take a moment to consider exactly how certain pieces worked before getting to work again. It felt like the process took an hour but in reality it was maybe fifteen minutes at most, still that was simply too long. I missed the world of clothing that took twenty seconds to put on and take off.

I turned to face him, jokingly saying,"do you have any straps I can help you loosen before you head out?"

I noticed he was staring at me in my underwear. I had been so used to Katarina dressing and undressing me that I had completely forgotten that I was being undressed by a man. I felt my face go bright red, even if I was now close to being physically perfect I still felt unbearably embarrassed.

In light of this I quickly said,"I'll take that as a no. Well thank you for your help but I can do everything from here on out by myself."

"Are you certain you don't need a doctor," he asked me unexpectedly.

"Yes, yes quite sure," I answered hastily.

"Your neck is bruising quite quickly. And what's with that cut on your arm? It looks deep and quite recent."

"Well if it'll make you feel better, call for one tomorrow. I'm really too tired for one right now."

"Very well, I'll get one for you tomorrow. If you feel any sort of discomfort during the night please don't hesitate to call for me. I shan't pester you any longer, sleep well Kitty," saying this, he left the room.

I sighed, happy he didn't grill me any further on the cut on my arm. Now that I was finally alone in my own room the stress that had built up from the day quickly left me. I felt like a bowl of jelly with a few toothpicks in it now that all my muscles weren't tensed up. I weakly slipped into my nightgown and slipped underneath the covers. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out.

When I woke up the manor was completely silent. I got out of bed, creeping out of my room on tiptoe. I was scared that ruining the perfect quiet would cause something terrible to happen. I snuck around the manor for quite some time and there was truly no one in sight. Even more unsettling was the fact that the layout of the manor made no sense to me, rooms had moved, hallways moved in impossible directions, rooms that didn't exist popped into existence. I spent some time wandering around the impossible manor before I stopped outside of a set of doors to the ballroom. At some point I had become unconsciously aware that this was a dream. The same terrible feeling I had felt upon finding the blurry human shaped anomalies was radiating from the doors in front of me. 

For some reason the same feeling of being unable to control my actions was absent from this dream. It seems I was finally being given a choice, and it was up to me not to waste it. I turned away from the doors and continued wandering the manor. I had been hoping there was some other way to exit the dream but no matter how much I looked around I couldn't find anything. In addition to this the mansion kept on looping around and dumping me out in front of the doors.

Since I was unable to find a proper exit, I decided I would try going through the windows. They opened thankfully but I quickly discovered that the scenic winter day outside was nothing more than a very realistic painting.

Well if it was a painting there must be something behind it or at least that's what I figured. I grabbed the heaviest thing I could muster and threw it at the painting. It simply bounced off the painting harmlessly. I ransacked the sitting room I was in looking for a tool that could be used to chip away at the painting or the wall around it. I found a letter opener and mentally prepared myself to get to work.

Despite the hollow thunk the painting made when I had thrown something at it, the painting was not a rigid item. It had the same consistency that I imagined dried oil paint had. I had an easy time taking slivers out of it but it could regenerate itself faster than I could take chunks out of it. I watched as bits of outside fell to the ground and were quickly absorbed into the floor.

Fine, if I couldn't break through the painting maybe I could try the wall. I went up to the wall and tried stabbing it with the letter opener. It bounced off the rock hard wall harmlessly and the force of impact caused me to drop it. I listened dejectedly as it clattered on the floor. Seeing as this was not a viable escape option, I continued to roam the mansion. 

The longer I stayed here, the more warped the manor became. The architecture of individual rooms became so bizarre that they were starting to make me motion sick. Shadows gathered in the corners of rooms and whispered faintly. I couldn't stay in any one room for too long or the whispering would drive me insane. There was no longer any scenery outside, instead all that was painted outside the windows was black voids. 

After enough time had passed the mansion was starting to break down. The intervals between encountering the ballroom door became shorter and shorter until eventually I was in a black void with nowhere to go. I still refused. Unsure of when I picked it up and not caring, I brandished the letter opener. If I was going to be forced to take drastic action I would take it. I stabbed myself in the stomach, hoping the shock of committing suicide would wake me. Nothing happened, I could see myself bleeding but I felt no different. I pulled the blade out and watched my flesh seal together and heal without so much as a scar. It seemed as if my only option was to go into the doors. 

I was still very persistent on not going in, the illusion of choice just pissed off the contrarian in me. Fine if I had to, I would sit here in this timeless void in front of this door for the rest of eternity. I sat down on the void, it was just cold enough to be uncomfortable.

Immediately the whispering started, I knew this would happen and I knew eventually I would have to go through the doors but I would fight to my last vestige of sanity to not do it. As the whispering grew louder I could feel it slip into the cracks of my mind. I could feel it start to force the cracks to be larger and larger and as it did so more and more thoughts that weren't my own slinked in. I could feel my mind slowly being drowned, if I didn't go in there right this instant I would lose myself. Using the last gasping breath of my mind, I threw open the doors.

Immediately the whispering subsided and I was the only one in my head. The relief from this didn't last long, the first thing that indicated something was wrong was the smell. It smelled like copper tinged with a slight bit of rot. The ballroom floor was covered in a two inch layer of blood which I walked through with bare feet. It was still warm.

Scattered around the ballroom were the corpses of the guests of the party laying face down, I quickly identified Nikolai, Andrei, Natasha, Leo and even Anna. In the center of all this carnage was the human shaped anomaly, even though it wasn't holding a weapon I still got the sense that this was its handiwork. 

For the first time of my own volition, I walked towards it. Even though it didn't have a face I could sense that it was facing away from me. All of my past dreams had ended when I gazed upon this thing's face and I was sure this time would be no different. I grabbed it's shoulder and wrenched it towards me. Before I could look at its face, I woke up in a cold sweat.