Jake's Cousin

Deep in the night, in the heart of the Dark Races district, Fourth Plateau.

The cobblestone alleys were pitch black and empty, the stores closed, the shutters and doors of the residences long since shut. The streetlights flickered ominously, until they died out entirely in the vicinity of an old mansion that looked like some kind of haunted house.

The house was built like a medieval fortress, it stood stone-still and motionless on a small artificial hill. Each window was shut, curtains drawn. The balconies were empty like ghastly open mouths, or perhaps the house was merely biding its time.

The windows were boarded up with rotting wood and painted with graffiti and the door was ajar.

The mansion was three stories high with a half-circle balcony. A black light used to glow through its walls, the paint peeling off, exposing the ancient brick beneath, the iron fence rusted over the years and the iron gates torn out at the bottom.