The Curse of Taloncrest Manor

Chapter 25: Hide and Eek

The highly mutated and empowered Dr. Octavio shuffled across the east wing of the third floor; his steps being audible from several rooms over. However, once he had forced the door to the balcony open, he found no one there. Angered at being misled, he retreated back to the ballroom---the place where the ghost that led him to the balcony in the first place resided---only to find that area empty as well. 

However, he soon located a piece of fabric on the ground that bore a familiar symbol: two eighth notes joined by a beam. ".....Hmmm....." Octavio thought. There was one place in the mansion that perhaps had the greatest amount of musical significance to it; the Conservatory. With the cloth in hand, he proceeded to the auditorium. 

The doctor burst through the double doors of the theater quite abruptly, causing many of the Songsworn cultists to flinch. The worshippers began muttering amongst themselves. 

"Who is this.....?" "Why does he look like that.....?" "What does he want.....?" 

Octavio stood at the entrance and held the cloth in the air for the cultists to see. "Are any of you missing this, by chance?" he asked. One of the attendees stepped forward. "My insignia! Yes, I did lose it earlier, in the ballroom. How did you come across it?" 

"Oh, you know.....I just thought I'd drop by for a visit.....after one of your own deceived me!" the doctor angrily exclaimed. 

"What are you talking about? What do you want from us?" the cultist asked. 

"All I ask, my friend, is to tell me the location of that flesh-bound parasite and his companions. Clearly my last informant led me astray, so I suppose I will have to be a little more forceful." With that, one of Octavio's void tentacles lunged forward and quickly wrapped itself around the cultist, bringing him in close. Another one of his appendages positioned itself near the specter's chest. 

"Either you tell me where they are right now, or I will devour the souls of half the congregation in this chamber. If you disclose a location to me and I find that you tricked me as well, I shall return and consume the other half, too." the doctor said. 

The cultists whispered to each other for a few moments before another one stepped up. "No." 

"No?  You dare defy me?" 

"We are beholden only to the Grand Magistrix and Her vizier; no one else." said another. "She has now decreed that the living humans within this house are to be kept safe from all harm." 

"Their whereabouts will not be disclosed to a monstrous psychopath such as yourself."

Octavio was furious with the congregation's rebellion, but he managed to keep his cool. "Very well." His tentacle abruptly plunged itself into the chest of the ghostly cultist he had held captive, before tearing out their soul. Within seconds, their spectral form began to dissipate. "FOR THE SONGSWORN!" the cultist cried out one final time before fading from existence entirely. 

The doctor then inserted the soul orb into his chest cavity, causing several parts of his body to glow an even darker shade of purple. "Mmm.....that.....was very pleasing....." he said. "I know I promised to only 'eat' half of you, but.....I'm feeling hungry....." 

Octavio managed to consume the life essence of almost every single cultist in the auditorium in about fifteen seconds flat, their ghost forms all dissolving into white particles as their very being ceased to exist. Before long, the final member of the Songsworn cult was in his grasp. "Any last words.....?" the monstrosity asked. 

The cultist was struggling to even get them out; the doctor's tentacle was constricted around their throat and it was becoming tighter by the second.