Rancid Soil

THIS, THE DARKEST of UNHOLY PLACES

There is a place more dark and evil than any other place in the known universe. Long ago in this place, the most dramatic event of all time changed the course of human history forever. What happened as a result was the tragic unearned punishment of humanity as a whole, by an act of treason that's magnitude is unimaginable. The evil that spoils the ground there is the source from which all evil on Earth emanates from. The moment this consequence collided with our reality it took refuge in the center of our Earth, rotting it with evil from the inside out. Leaving a path carved like the hole left by a worm in a rotting summer apple. Though not a path of traditional means, it cannot be seen, mapped or walked. The path hemorrhages darkness into our world like a severed artery as the concentration of evil builds like a volcano in the Earth. In its purest form the darkness tempts kings and weakens the nations. It serves as a gate between worlds. A place that houses an eternal darkness, an evil banished for eternity, ruthless and committed to the torment and destruction of all things. It is not bound by any physical means, nor can it be.

For millennia the location of this place would remained undisturbed. That remained until the early 1900's when the United States would experienced an explosion in industry. This would lead a young and well respected oil tycoon to unknowingly build his estate atop this, the darkest of unholy places. In search of solitude he'd settle some miles from the nearest town, which just happened to be Fredericksburg, VA. In search for his slice of the American dream, William B. Linsington would discover a nightmare so horrific it would haunt the rancid soil under his feet to this very day. Construction of the Linsington estate was plagued from the beginning, six of the workers who labored in the building of this mammoth estate died in very unusual ways. Even so ultimately they were dismissed as the common collateral damage a project of this size can sustain. Construction of the estate also endured major setbacks due to material and man power shortages as well as bouts of bizarrely severe weather, much of it seemingly out of nowhere. One such event left a worker petrified like a roman statue made of coal. His pose one of sheer terror as multiple lightning bolts struck the brick mason at once. Sickness and outbreaks of unidentifiable illnesses also became common place. Though in spite of the many setbacks, progress continued and it was eventually finished in the winter of 1906.

The estate was a marvel for its day. So big in fact that a town of workers was quickly required to keep a steady pace. When the estate was finally finished Mr. Linsington hosted an open house celebration in which most of the town was present, as many of them helped build the estate in one fashion or another over the many years of its construction. The mansion itself had seven rooms. four downstairs, two upstairs and one room that was only accessible from a beautifully ornate dual wooden stair case that went up from the second floor, this was the seventh and biggest room of the mansion. There was an offsite maids and butlers quarters. The estate sat on twenty acres and was equipped with a full pub, ball room, swimming pool, fishing pond, greenhouse, garden, horse corral and a courtyard with a mesmerizingly beautiful  Multi tiered angelic fountain. Though purposefully set back into the woods some distance, it was still clearly visible from anywhere in the town.

Though the estate was magnificently radiant, a true marvel of modern architecture. life there was anything but. It seemed everything that could go wrong with the estate, did. Almost as if the land itself was cursed. Over the next twenty years William went through four wives trying desperately to build a family. One after another they would mysteriously become too ill to leave the mansion. Often complaining of voices and visions. they were all convinced there was something in the mansion. They despised the room atop the dual staircase. At first William wrote it off. Often thinking to himself, "there must be some explanation, such claims are be preposterous, Baseless! After all they're ill, possibly mad." In the end all but one killed themselves. Though away on business a good amount of the time. While at his estate Mr. Linsington never witnessed a single odd or out of place event that correlated in anyway with what his past wives had claimed so vehemently. This became quite strange to Mr. Linsington after his third wife would follow in the footsteps of the first two.

After some time he remarried again, determined to build the family he'd always dreamed of. Meryl Linsington, his fourth and most beloved wife would slide down into much of the same darkness the others did. Convinced the mansion itself was evil and alive. She was often observed talking to no one in the room at the top of the dual stair case. She became distant, refusing to eat or socialize. She would lock herself in that room for days on end. Coming out seemingly only on a whim, to which any interaction of any kind was random and disturbing at best as she'd become almost feral.

   At one point it had been more than two weeks and William had become gravely concerned as she had not answered him in days, the room was locked and silent, the stench of death was starting to waft from under the door. Panicked, he had the butlers bust down the door only to find a completely empty room. Almost as if no one had ever been in there. Nothing in the room was disturbed or out of place. She had just simply vanished. When questioned none of the maids or butlers, nor the surrounding towns people had reported seeing Meryl within the last few weeks. Deeply frighten William wondered, "Could they have all been onto something?" As he thought to himself, staring at the empty mansion from the drive way after weeks of searching for Meryl. "Could something be wrong with this place? How.. how..., I built it from the ground up, From scratch!"

William spent a small fortune and almost every second of the rest of his life looking for her. The estate and its grounds were all searched meticulously over and over. Door to door searches of the town were conducted.  Search parties combed the surrounding woods and everywhere in between, only to turn up empty handed with not one shred of evidence as to Meryl's whereabouts. Posters and signs were posted all over the surrounding towns. That familiar twenty thousand dollar reward, with a beautiful picture of her by the angelic fountain, asking for any information leading to the recovery or whereabouts of Meryl Linsington could be seen almost everywhere for just over six years after her disappearance. Some say that his love for Meryl drove his endless determination and seemingly ruthless search. A search that would eventually lead William to completely lose his mind. He become hostile and reclusive, refusing to leave the estate. He fired the butlers, maids and all other hired help. He was convinced she was still in the house somewhere. He often thought to himself , "She must be here, she never left the room... There was no way out! It was Locked from the INSIDE!" He slowly dismantled the estate from the inside for over a decade, desperately looking for a love he'd never find.  In 1942 William died alone at his estate at the age of seventy two.

He was found in his bed, his blanket and sheets where tightly but neatly rolled all the way down to his ankles and his shirt was rolled the same way up to the middle of his chest. There were holes, about the size of the end of a pencil eraser covering his body. It looked as if before his death he had been infected with something dreadful. It looked like some kind of worm or larva bored in and out of his skin endlessly by the thousands. His spooked face and shriveled rotting eye sockets starring out at whoever... or whatever he saw last. His hands desperately grasping the bed sheet on either side of him. His body drained of every drop of moisture. He had been there so long he was completely petrified. He was buried in the Stunford town cemetery, next to His three previous wives. Neither he, nor anyone else ever did find Meryl or a shred of evidence as to her whereabouts and She remains a missing person to this day.