[b]Kyle Foster[/b]

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I was surrounded by darkness after I entered the mansion. The light from the Crone’s lantern disappeared with the closing of the doors. I quickly turned my flashlight back on and beheld where I then stood.

Seemed to be… a cave. Hovels and indentations carved into the dirt walls. Skeletal remains, some human and others vastly alien to me, filled each spot. Cobwebs and stray bones littered the long hallway, and I knew very well where I walked into at that moment.

The burial vault.

The [i]Rat Man’s[/i] burial vault.

I braved myself for what I knew would be a dangerous path ahead. I knew from the story, which I read quite some time ago and remember to this day, what was to come. Strange though as it was, I heard none of the Rat Man’s little companions scurrying about the vault. Yet I knew they were watching, tucked in between the bones, hiding away when I shined my flashlight at them.

They knew why I was here. And they surely told their master of me.

I reached the end of the hallway, and I came to a large, circular chamber. Several stone coffins made a circle around the perimeter, with an unlit brazier standing at the center betwixt all of them. I stepped into more and more piles of bones as I walked, with only mere patches of dirt visible now. I looked at the peculiar, nonhuman remains mixed with those of my own kind and wondered what they were taken from. Other monsters, perhaps? The Rat Man could have sent his minions to devour them upon their intrusions. Or maybe this is where monsters of this world were laid to rest.

I didn’t know. The stories were unclear. But I was ready to learn many, many truths. Behold what could not possibly be, but in fact, is.

I proceeded through more hallways and chambers, up staircase after staircase. While I was between wanting to meet the Rat Man and escape the burial vault, I was intent on keeping my pace. Either he would find me, or I would leave, and return for him later.

I didn’t finish my story for the Crone. I simply began telling another one.

[i]Living[/i] another one.