Haunting of the Devil's Mansion (closed)

[SeraphNocturne]

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66 Winter Island Rd
Salem, MA 01970
6:00PM

This was a regular routine of the D'Amico family. and it had been for many years now--moving into some ancient, unsettling house, documenting life there among the spirits and spooks for the entertainment of a very dedicated internet following as well as the attention of national and international paranormal researchers. Emmeline D'Amico had long felt as she grew older her calling was elsewhere. What growing teenager blossomed into a gorgeous young woman and wanted to spend her life tiptoeing around cemeteries, across battlegrounds, and marching into the bowels of historically tormented structures trying to commune with the spirits of the world in-between?

Her father needed her... that was the only reason she was here. Her twin seemed to have some kind of natural instinct to remain close to her, and he had forsaken quite a few scholarships for athletics in order to remain supportive of his family... even if he didn't believe in anything they were doing. When the cameras were rolling, Mathias D'Amico offered a much needed element of dry sarcastic humor to the 'Paranormal Entity' web-series.

If anyone truly believed his theories that he may find what hew as looking for, Emmeline was the one. Her father, once a well respected journalist, often drew awkward silences from previous colleagues and questions on his mental well-being. Emme dearly hoped that finally seeing that the love of his life had moved on from this world entirely would bring her father the much needed solace and peace of mind.

It so happened that Emmeline was quite sensitive to the energies of entities unseen. She had always been that way, ever since she was a child, and so his work relied very much upon his daughter. As she grew older, the spirits around had a habit of flocking to her. To the otherworldly plane, she was a lighthouse, and they were drawn to her like a beacon in the darkness. It was a nuisance at best, but she had gotten used to it, and had even learned a few tips from spiritual people through her life to help block them out and keep her protected from the less savory beings that might be drawn to her. Perhaps once they'd chased the shadows of Axel D'Amico's hope of contacting his wife to their limits, he could finally move on with his life, maybe even return to the world of journalism.

This was by far the largest and certainly most secluded of estates. The main building was flanked by two smaller additions, in all of its gothic architexture looked like something of a elegantly eerie castle. The mansion had two wings, an east and west, perhaps more rooms than Emmeline would ever care to count, a ballroom, a massive library, kitchen and staff quarters, and a maze of hidden passageways and rooms... it was breathtaking in the detail to it's design. Obsidian angels perched at the stairs, cherubs painted onto the ceiling illuminated by grand chandeliers. It's theme was just as dark outside as in, dressed in crimson and black from the drapes to the carpet.

They set up quickly, but it was almost a month or two before Emme became comfortable. Having her brother in the room right beside her's certainly helped. Their father had taken the entire opposite wing in order to maximize human occupancy of the grounds.

Cleaners came and went. The groundskeepers had convinced restoration crews with much coaxing and heavy incentive to come out, and landscapers as well... but it did little to take away the heavy aura here. Having people occupying the well known haunted mansion did make it a little less intimidating, but slightly so. The locals had no comment in the slightest on the place, they refused to even acknowledge it's existence. Lovell Mansion might as well have been in another country, rather than miles from Salem on Winter Island, not far from the cliffs overlooking Cat Cove.

That heaviness in the air... it was unusual, but not yet threatening to Emmeline. She sometimes had to take into consideration the changing seasons... fall was upon them in full swing now, making the gardens in the massive three acres of land behind the Mansion magnificent. In fact, despite how much activity this place seemed to have she was a little surprised that they had captured nearly no sort of disturbances in their time there.

She found herself out on the grounds today, enjoying the cool air, her camera nestled around her neck. The maze behind the mansion was well tended, and she had lately found herself poking about it in the pursuit of a few orbs she'd noticed appearing in her photographs. Matt had a habit of disturbing her more often than not by babbling nonsense over the walkie-talkies they kept in order to stay in touch with one another at constant.

"EMME!" The sudden burst of her twins voice over the walkie-talkie tucked into the back pocket of her dark jeans caused her to jump, scowling and rolling her eyes.

"God, Matt, what?! What is it?!"

"I... I see... dead peopleeee..." The laughter from the other side of the walkie-talkie caused her to roll her eyes, and shut it off quickly, settling just outside the maze at the marvelous angel-accented fountain. The water when they had arrived was dark, and stagnant, and now ran fresh and clear. Despite the dreary essence of this place, it was quite beautiful on the right day. She brought the camera up and snapped a photo of the entrance of the maze, looking down to see an unusual blur across the hedges.

"Awww, damn it. How'd I manage to smudge the lens?" She turned the camera over to inspect it, neatly groomed brows furrowing a bit to find no such blemish on the shiny surface. She brought the camera up, and snapped another photo, to find that little hiccup now missing, and several discolored glowing white balls now consuming half of the photo. <i>Should probably let Matt know... but I swear him not taking this even a little seriously isn't doing me any favors.</i>

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Emmeline D'Amico

She'd grown up like this, and so it wasn't something that readily bothered her--being alone, with spirits around. They came and went through her life as she traveled from different places--some dead-zones, some ripe with the essence of wandering souls. She remembered the first times, hearing every voice whispering on the wind beyond her window, the melancholy wails and weeping of the dead.

As she got older Emmeline learned to put blocks within her mind, to keep out things like that... still, as she got older, she began to see them. And some of them were not so friendly. She recalls distinctly, the widowed woman on a bus ride home, while living in Philadelphia. The woman stood in a gap of bodies on the train, staring out the window, dressed in black... motionless. Completely still on a bus that jostled through the streets. She observed the woman for a full ten minutes until the woman snapped her head back, to stare at her. The distortion was all but burned into her memory.

Emme gripped the camera as she wove her way deeper into the maze, smiling gently to herself, the whimsicle fragments of dust and dandelion seeds twisting through the wide corridors with the breeze. She gripped her camera a little tighter, feeling a shift in the temperature--a sharp, sudden chill. Her mind leap back to the feeling of the first of them, the way the old woman's eyes pooled like black holes in her head and her face seemed twisted between reality, tugging and pulling beneath the black veil. She stalked over to her, and stood but inches away, staring into her face. The feeling of being strangled had taken hold of her, and stole the breath from the ten year old girl's lungs at that time. The woman stared until the bus jerked to a stop and Emmeline bolted off... the window did not follow. But that feeling of absolute dread as she suffocated, paralyzed by the dark spirits bewilderment and rage, would linger with her forever.

She neared the heart of the maze and slowed to a stop, feeling the sudden impulse that she had seen these hedges before. Some unsettling feeling in her stomach. She turned and headed the other way, playing off her sudden uncertainty as a mere stroke of coincidence... she was thinking of old things and just happened to draw back emotion. Empathy was not uncommon of sensitives and clairvoyants alike. The teen sucked in a deep breath and hurried on. "I came this way, so... if I just head back taking all rights I'll be... out of..." The air had taken a ghastly chill again, causing goose bumps to errupt over the soft pallet of Emmeline's slender arms--what was exposed from the graphic t-shirt she wore today. She stopped dead still, and stared ahead, ddrawing the camera up to snap a picture while telling herself that capturing the magical looking balls of fluff and wishes in the maze would do well in her photo journal and take her mind off of the memory flashing through her mind.

She swallowed hard, and looked down to see her handiwork, trying to ignore the temperature... oh, but something made that made admiring the photo instantly impossible. The dark smudge on the photo, the menacing figure standing up ahead, a great man made of shadows caused her breath to catch in her throat and her blood to run cold in her veins. She snatched her eyes up to look ahead, seeing nothing to the naked eye... and then down to the screen of her camera, to find that black figure now missing from the photo.

She reached for her back pocket instantly, wanting to contact her father and brother at seeing something so significant, and most of all wanting someone here with her, right this moment! She fumbled with the walkie-talkie, turning on her heel and rushing back the other way in a power walk as she flicked the walkie-talkie on, and it rang sharply for a moment. She was still on Matty's channel! She pressed the button and brought it to her mouth.

"Matty! Get out back please, I'm in the maze, I need you now!" She let the button go, hearing static on the other end, blinking several times as she observed the battery rapidly beginning to drain. She mashed her finger on the button, her heartbeat beginning to accelerate. "Matt! Matt, I need your help, I'm lost and there's most definitely a shadow man in here with me! Matt!"

The walkie-talkie chimed twice, and went silent. She threw the thing ahead of her, darting around the hedges quickly, and finally dipping into a tiny groove between the main paths. As she tried catching her breath, she grasped her camera tight, her long hair freeing from the pony tail in her attempt to gain space between this entity playing a very cruel game with her in the maze. The strength of this being was quite remarkable, and that alone was enough to have her on the edge of panic. Each time she ran smack into it, the air felt as if ice... she could see her breath, it was so cold! She could snap photographs of the dark blotch on her camera. Her heart was racing, not wanting to chance staying too long less she draw the spirit and be trapped in this tiny space with it.

She bolted out and around the hedges, a soft tapping jerking her attention. As she sprinted down the hedges she heard it again, and again, with the feeling of dread rising in her throat. Every fiber of her being told her to run faster, to push harder and no matter what she did, do not turn to look behind you! She gasped for breath, winding toward the sound of tapping that she was almost certain had to be coming from the house... it took nearly ten minutes but she burst from the way she came, stumbling down to the ground and sobbing into her hands gently. Almost the very moment she broke free from the maze, that looming dread had departed and she no longer felt as if she was being pursued. She didn't dare linger, wiping the tears angrily from her cheeks as she rushed into the back door and into the kitchen, screaming for her father and brother the entire way.

---------------
The Spirit: Emma du Bois

She quickly withdrew from the window, feeling the thunderous heartbeat of the girl below. She could almost hear it. She watched desperately as long as she could as Emmeline tore through the maze, with the darkness lurking behind her... playing with her. Tears streamed down her porcelain cheeks. She hurried across the way, lifting her dress as she did, wiping the tears from her cheeks hurriedly. It was idiotic to anger him... she knew this better than anyone. The attic was the safest place for her, but if he was angry enough he wouldn't hestitate to come for her. She couldn't simply watch as the poor girl was terrorized, and so she put every bit of her strength into slamming her dainty palms into the glass... it emitted a loud thump. It seemed to have caught Emmeline's attention. She had ran toward it to get out of the maze.

What would she do if he came? What could she do? There was nothing he could do to frighten her anymore... little left of her to provide him any sustenance. She could feel the burning of the ever open wounds beneath the modest dark gown, an agonizing and pranging reminder like the Devil himself stroking his fingers between her thighs and along her back. The pain of it caused tears to swell in her vibrant eyes, and she curled into a ball at the farthest corner from the entrance of the attic, a choked sob finally escaping her lips. "Dear God! It hurts.. it hurts! Please... p-please, Father, make it stop.. please, it hurts!" The soft echo of her sweet, sorrowful voice weeping echoed through the halls and reverberated through the very walls it seemed.

She felt as if she had startled someone. She jerked her head, dreading the thunderous sound of his approach, praying that perhaps her deeds had gotten lost among the bustle and chaos of the many souls trapped within the corridors of the Mansion. How boring she would be to him, weeping and cowering... but how suspicious it would be how weak she was to fight him. She had put everything into alerting that poor girl. And she intended to do so much more to try and convince her to flee far, far away from this terrible place.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

The Spirit: Emma du Bois

She hadn't the strength to fight him... she stayed coiled in the corner of the attic, clutching the rosary within' her pale, dainty fist while praying silently to herself as she wept. He grew near. "No... Master, please.."

She could hear the sorrow-filled wails and terror in the voices of the spirits as he disturbed their existence and they scrambled from his path as he moved in his pursuit of this particular rebellious, captive soul. The aura of the Attic that had been once purified and safe, a place of worship and repent, darkened. He made his presence known almost instantly, dragging her into the air, and forcing her gaze to his. Emma could not move or tear away from the entity, feeling as if she were being strangled of air, her eyes wide in terror as the icy lash of his tongue teased her flesh. Her eyes shut tight, and she began to recite the Hail Mary prayer in a shaken whisper knowing it did nothing to dispel the evil that gripped her now with a hand coiled tightly into her long ashen hair.

"P-please... please don't! I'm sorry--n-no, NO!--" The terrified pleas for mercy were cut short as a shriek of pain escaped the tormented girl's lips, her body alight with pain. She struggled against the unseen restraints vigorously for only a few precious moments. Her entire being felt as if it were burning from the force of a non-existent being violently penetrating her, the raking of claws against her slender hips and thighs, the feeling of teeth tearing at her neck... his hands claiming every inch of her. Tears streamed down her cheeks from eyes now strained and reddened as she lived those horrors once again and felt the poisonous streams of lust beginning to grasp hold of her, forcing pleasure to twist in the most heinous way with pain, dragging her down into the darkness as her memories transformed from the nightmarish creature ravaging her to that of her own older brother within' his possession.

"STOP! PLEASE, I BEG YOU--LET ME GO! LET ME GO!"

---------------
Emmeline D'Amico

"Where the fuck where you?! Why didn't you answer?!"

The air in the entire mansion had gone like ice, the lights flickering ever so gently as Emmeline located her brother and damn near chewed him a new asshole for not having his walkie-talkie on, or in his hand knowing she was working on the grounds. She had all but threw herself into his arms, sobbing gently from the sheer terror of having been trapped in that maze with something strong enough to manifest itself in such a terrifying way. It hadn't happened in years, not since the vengeful widow on the bus when she was a girl... but even that had been human. This disturbing mass was dangerous, and unreadable. It's jerky, unpredictable pattern, it's size and visual manifestation and the way it had toyed with her unnerved her to her very core.

"I-I went in because I'd gotten some shots of orbs--I thought it might've been something simple like maybe an unusual EMF, recording, or maybe a mild apparition... but once I got far inside though it started to cut off my path. It waited for me around the corners! I took photos of it, and when I checked them back the thing was gone but it would show up in the shot, at first!--it's not a human spirit Matt it's something else... I think... I really think we need to find Dad, he needs to know that whatever is here isn't safe to be around!"

"It's okay sis. It's fine. I would say let's take this to dad, but ... I can't find him."

"W... what?" Her brow furrowed gently as he relayed the information to her, but all at once a shriek snapped her attention toward the hall, a jolt of panic shooting through her. "No, it's NOT fucking fine--d-did you hear that?! Someone's screaming! This place is way more than we bargained for Matt!"

Again, another viciously pained scream seemed to reverberate down the halls, distant yet piercing. Emmeline's cerulean gaze was wide, staring her twin square in the face with the most serious of expression.

"Help me find him... but don't leave me! He was on the west side last, come on!" She dropped her small hand down to her brothers, curling her finger's gently around her twins and leading him down the hall. She felt goosebumps prickling over her skin, but the temperature had began to return to normal. The lights returned to full strength no longer seeming strained and drained of energy. Still, the fine hairs covering her body stood erect and she felt a heavy essence of dread as she hurried along, noting the set up of recording cameras and EMF detectors. Her father had gone far with setting them up here, for a reason... he anticipated a live stream, sort of like a reality show, which would bring in much needed revenue rather than filming and airing a pre-shot series.

"Dad! Where are you?!" She called anxiously as she rushed down the hall, and headed to the library... it made sense to start there. It was at the end of the hall and connected the bottom floor to the second at least saving them some time of having to backtrack and climb the main stairwell. The library however was found to be all but barren... she hesitantly released her twin's hand, and gathered her long, thick tawny locks into both hands. She secured it in a snug pony tail, debating inward on splitting up to find their father... it was a massive place. There were more rooms and the longer she stayed, secret corridors than she had ever anticipated.

"Matt... I don't know... I think... I think we might have to split up." She turned her head to glance back to him, tugging her bottom lip into her mouth to nibble it anxiously for a second. "There's no telling where he is, he could be out on the grounds too, by now... look." She grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and placed it into his hand. "I'm going to have you on my line at all times. Once we find him we need to get outside... we'll meet at the camper. See if we can get into town and rent a motel for the night."

Knowing her father he would be more excited than terrified to hear about activity, despite the fact that it was not in any way friendly. Convincing him to give this place up might be nearly impossible, but she had to try. She wasn't easily spooked. She had an advantage over her twin and her father, her skin had always been a little thicker, but this was so much and so sudden she didn't feel comfortable remaining here... if she bothered him about it she figured they could be gone by the end of the week at least.

"Can you hear me?" She called her brother in the library where they stood, making sure their signal was strong and batteries charged. "Alright. I'm going up to the second floor... you take the lift to the third? If we haven't found him yet we'll both check the attic. If he STILL doesn't turn up we'll lay on the horn outside for ten minutes and if nothing, then... we're calling the police." Though, the groundskeeper who was long gone by now had told them repeatedly, it was all but useless calling anyone for help out here. No one would come any nearer to the Mansion than the far service station... a five mile walk down the main road off the property.