Trapped in an Iron Grip

I'm Stuck With a Straight, White Man in a Horror Movie

The inside of House Beneviento had a warm, rustic feel to it. You were pretty surprised at the warmth of the home. You and Ethan carefully stepped forward and looked around. 

There was a small staircase going up to the second floor on the right wall. In the middle of the room was a rocking chair behind a circular table. On the table was a basket filled with threat, yarn, and ribbons. You spotted a grandfather clock next to a deer skull mounted on the wall. Hung up on the wall above the stairs was a portrait of a beautiful woman holding that talking doll you saw back at the church.

You turned away from the portrait and helped Ethan look around the main floor for anything that might help you. 

But you couldn't find anything.

You went down hallway after hallway you even went upstairs. You went into room after room and didn't find anything but a single page of paper that was written in Romanian, a language neither you nor Ethan could read. This fact did little to ease your nerves about this place. Eventually, you and Ethan did find an elevator at the end of a hall with peeling wallpaper.

Giving up on finding anything on the main or second floor, you and Ethan stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to take you down. You and Ethan sat in silence, holding your weapons instead of each other's hands, wanting to be ready for anything.

The room the elevator dropped you off in was a fairly large room with an entrance to a hallway on the other side of the room. There was an orange loveseat on the right wall next to a small table with a lamp and a few photos on it. There was a green, leather chair next to one of those cabinets that you would find at your grandmother's house on the left wall. To the right of the chair was a door.

You decided that you wanted to look inside and pulled Ethan with you. You checked the door and found it unlocked.

Ethan went ahead of you and looked around the room. "Hey, what do you see?" He asked.

"A large room with an old projector facing a projecting screen." You followed Ethan inside. "It kind of looks like a private study and library in one."

You looked around the small mess of books on the floor around a desk. You walked over to the side of the room that had multiple bookshelves and pulled Ethan with. You picked up one and read the title.

"Alkaloids of Mountainous Plants," you read out loud. "Light reading?"

"Maybe, or the illusions might have something to do with mountainous plants." Ethan offered, taking the book from your hands and putting it back in its spot. "Let's keep going, hopefully, we'll find the second flask soon."

You nodded and followed Ethan out of the room and through the next hallway. You and Ethan walked past multiple areas that should have had items to use but you had no such luck. You couldn't find anything that could help either of you. You did, however, find multiple small vases with little plants inside. 

You thought back to the paper you saw with the Romanian writing on it. On that paper was a picture of a flower similar to those. When you found another vase with a flower in it, you stepped up to it and took a sniff.

"Yep, flowers and metal," you huffed, stepping away from the flower. "Those things are the source."

Ethan raised a brow and picked up the vase. "You think we should destroy it?" 

"Maybe, but with what?" You shrugged. "I think it might just do more harm than good."

Ethan nodded and set the vase back where he found it. Ethan turned to the end of the hall when he heard some music start to play. You turned with him and looked around, you couldn't see or hear anything that made Ethan jump like that. All that was at the end of the hall was a set of double doors.