The Curse of Taloncrest Manor

Chapter 29: Enveloping Darkness

The group reached the Breaker Room on the first floor. However, they found it to be locked, preventing Ricardo and his friends from getting through. None of the ghosts were able to enter the area either, thanks to Octavio's intervention. 

Dischord sighed. "This is exactly what I was worried about. I should have left this place under better protection....." 

"Argh! What do we do now?! If we can't restore the power, the elevator won't work!" Cooper exclaimed. "I can barely see my hand in front of my face.....oh wait, never mind, there it is!" 

"Cooper?" 

"Yes?" 

"That's my hand," Melody said indignantly. 

"....Oh. Sorry." 

"This 'Octavio' character, whom you have spoken of, likely caused this," Dischord muttered as he turned to the boys. "From what you four have told me, he seems to be quite the troublemaker." 

"My friends and I foiled his plans recently, in the basement of the manor," Ricardo explained. 

"He was trying to amass an army of zombie-like humanoids in order to lay waste to mankind. Claimed they were unworthy of living and that we're nothing but pests," Elijah continued. "But one thing led to another, and now almost all of his work was destroyed. I thought he was taken out as well, but.....he seems to have survived.....?" 

"If he's still around, there's no doubt he wants revenge for what happened down there. But....there's one thing I don't understand. He was the one who chose to destroy the lab in the first place. Why, presumably, would he blame it on us?" Cooper asked. 

Ricardo shrugged. "He has been around for a very long time, without anyone available to 'repair' him should anything go wrong....best guess is that his very programming has been deteriorating ever since." 

"From listening to you guys, it seems that he's not entirely wrong in the way he thinks," Melody added. "There are some bad people out there, no doubt about that. I should know because I was murdered by one." 

"It would appear his main motivation is to hit a metaphorical 'reset button' on humanity as we know it," Dischord piped up. "But mankind don't really need that; what we do need is an 'alarm clock' to wake us up." 

".....He's a rather complicated android, isn't he?" Elijah quipped. "But anyways, enough about that. If he did this to mess with us, he's likely holding the key. Does anyone have any idea where he could possibly be?" 

Cadence raised her hand. "When the girls and I encountered him in the Conservatory, he was huge; almost level with the elevated box seats in the room! He had both mechanical tentacles and long, fleshy, realistic-looking, shadowy ones which he used to eviscerate the souls of my friends...." she said sadly. "There were big growths all over his body.....it was really disgusting. He looked like some sort of mutant." 

"That's.....not how we remember him," Ricardo responded curiously. "Last time my friends and I saw him, he mostly looked like a standard human, save for the metallic skin texture and the four robotic limbs." 

"Looks like our android adversary has returned and gotten himself some upgrades....." Cooper groaned. "Guess we'd better be ready for a fight." 

"He likely wouldn't be able to fit in many of the manor's rooms due to his massive size," Dischord remarked. "The Conservatory is very big, with two levels of chair rows and several box seats, so him visiting that area isn't that surprising. Might I suggest rooms that are either outdoors or have a high ceiling?" 

"The only other very open area I can think of besides the Conservatory is.....the roof.....the one place we can't get to at the moment," James sighed. 

"Wait, what about the Balcony that we met each other on?" Melody suggested. "The area is very big, wide, and technically outdoors." 

"Good idea. Let's check there, everyone," Ricardo told the others. 

***********************************************************************************************

Meanwhile, at the Golden Altar on the roof, Thomas was setting the stage for his forbidden ritual, hoping to gain Abdiel's attention and have him amplify the curse further. His 'master' Bartholomew Taloncrest, as well as Rose, were both unresponsive, both floating in individual, round stasis chambers similar to the one Melody had previously imprisoned Rose inside of. 

"Oh, Master Taloncrest....." the butler began. "I had high hopes for you. During your time with Jane, I feigned loyalty to you while desperately wishing that you would eventually see the consequences of your actions yourself. You would throw your life away for that.....that miscreant? I will not allow it! Everything we've built.....everything we've ever owned....would have vanished in the blink of an eye, had you two tied the knot. Jane, as a middle-class woman, should have remained with a man of similar economic standing, not a wealthy individual such as yourself. You and her should have stayed around others of your type." 

"But no.....instead, it has come to this. Now I must take drastic measures to ensure that this manor remains ours until the end of time! I highly doubt that you will understand what I am doing now, Master, but one day.....you will see....this is my atonement for my greatest sin---that is, allowing you to sully the Taloncrest name!" 

***********************************************************************************************

The group arrived at the Balcony only to find it empty. Numerous gashes and uprooted stones in the cobblestone still remained, from the skirmishes with both Melody and the Triplets. "Darn it! He's not here," James said. 

"Are there any other large rooms we could check? Maybe an outdoor area?" Ricardo asked urgently. 

"What about the western Courtyard? It's an outdoor area!" Cadence suggested. 

"How come we've never seen that before....?" Elijah asked Ricardo. "I don't recall ever being there either. The Groundskeeper's bunker was in the backyard, located directly behind the manor.....I'm guessing that this is another section of the yard to the left of the manor that we've never been to." he replied. 

"Indeed," Dischord said. "Upon entering the lobby and heading to the left, there's a door on the western wall that takes visitors to the Courtyard. There's a lot of stuff to see---trellises with vines on them, hedges that line the paths, and a fountain in the center!" 

"I think this may be the last place on the first floor that we haven't seen yet," Cooper realized. 

"Come on, everyone!" Melody said, her hands flaring with lightning. "This fool needs to pay for what he's done to Cadence's companions." 

"You heard Her! Move out!" Dischord echoed.