The Room

Chapter Seven

Raven calmly walked over to the large platform and examined it. The strange table top appeared to be a map of space, with stars and constellations. Each of them overlapped golden circles and ovals, in mesmerizing patterns. She traced a pattern on one of the circles, astonished by its beauty and delicacy. Her eyes glazed over the platform until they landed on a gem on a stick of metal.

"What does it do?" She wondered. 

Raven push the gem with her finger till it glowed. A set of panels spun and opened. Inside the compartment, it displayed a wooden crank and a letter from A.S. She picked the item out and read the letter:

August 15th

Something is wrong. I followed the incarnation to the very letter. Astaroth did not appear. There are no answers to be had. More questions.

The visions have increased. They gather to me and I cannot stay in one place for long. I try to monitor them, but the lens hurts my eyes. I have mixed a solution for the pain.

For those that follow and find this journal: I lack the power to describe this. There is no concept within the human sphere with which to explain it.

The house is so much larger now.

There are rooms EVERYWHERE.

The last sentence made Raven shiver. What did the scientist mean by rooms everywhere? Sure, there were many rooms in the mansion, she thought. But did he mean it figuratively or mentally? 

Frightened, she decide to mask her dark thoughts with finding the socket for the wooden crank. She dragged her fingers on the platform, feeling around for hidden compartments. Her fingers sunk deep into a rectangle depression in the platform. Quickly, Raven pulled her hand away. It flipped over to reveal a socket fit for a crank. Smiling, she placed it inside and gave it several turns. Gears whirled with life from inside the mechanism and she went to check for any newly exposed buttons. She did not find any, and instead found an exposed gear, spinning. Raven saw a faded silver button and she pressed it. A second gear popped out and linked up with the small, spinning one. A cluster of stars above the two gears all shifted right and stopped at a 'dagger' constellation. She heard the sound of panels separating and looked to her left. A wooden wall rose from the platform. Raven went to take a look to see what was on it but found nothing. Although, she did notice a rainbow sheen to the boards. Of course, she knew what it meant.

"Eyepiece." She said, slipping the eyepiece over her eye. 

This time, the wooden wall displayed a 3-D image of the same platform turned to stone with a spinning dial in the center. Hovering over the dial was a clutter of lines and to the far left was a complete design.

"Wait," she wondered. "Can I actually-?" 

She reached out to try and touch the spinning dial. To her amazement, her hand passed through the wood and she could feel the cold metal of the dial. She twisted the dial and lined up the cluttered markings to the complete design. With just a couple turns, she aligned all the markings and created the null symbol. There was a bright flash, followed by a loud ping. The wooden panels melted into view as Raven eyes adjusted. There was now an ancient dagger hung on a hook on the panels and Raven plucked it off with ease. With dagger in hand, Raven grinned mischievously. She centered the blade in front of her face, her reflection hazy on the molted blade.

"Avast ye." She snarled, pointing the blade at the empty room. "Who dares to challenge me?" 

Her voice slurred like a drunken pirate as she slashed at the air with the blade. She twirled the dagger in her hands, the handle shifting from left palm to right. Raven maneuvered the dagger gracefully from each palm, spinning her body in time of the dagger. The shoelaces of her converse shoes were untied and stepped on. One false move and Raven could fall. Still, Raven spun, disregarding the white snakes of shoelaces slithering near her feet. She stopped suddenly and pointed the dagger at the room again. Her foot had stepped on one lace and her converse slid. The dagger slipped from her fingers, slicing at her palms. It fell down to her shoulder and pierced the skin. She screamed in agony and fell to the floor, the blade still stuck in her shoulder. Blood gushed from each wound, dripping slowly down her coat. She clutched her shoulder and collapsed to the floor. Hot tears streamed down her face. She sucked in short choppy breaths, trying desperately to calm herself. Raven grabbed onto the hand, wincing in pain.

"Okay." she said, her voice wobbling. Her bloody hand gripped the handle of the dagger tightly

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

She pulled the dagger out, biting back her cries and yowls of pain.Her bloody palms caused the dagger to slip again, this time landing with a ping onto the floor. The crimson liquid oozed from the wound,warm blood spilling onto the floor. She needed something to cover it up. Raven looked and saw a pile of old crates tucked away in a corner. She limped towards them and sifted through the crates to find an old rag, or something like that. She ended up finding one that was soiled with oil. Raven took it anyway. She slipped off her blood soaked coat and tied the rag onto the injury. As she turned to go, several photographs resting in a small box caught her attention. She knelt down and plucked a photograph from it. She saw a man with his face marked with large white marking obscuring his face, wearing a top hat. He was standing next to a woman in an elegant dress.

"Where had I seen her before?" Raven mumbled, her mind wandering to past events.

She pictured herself when she was younger, sifting through a stack of photos at her grandparent's house when she came across a similar picture of the same woman sitting in a chair.

******

"Grandma, who is this?" Raven remembered herself asking her grandmother when she walked into the room. In her mind, she saw the elderly woman pick up the brittle photo and examined it closely.

"It your great grandmother, darling." her grandmother said, giving the photo back to her. "She died before you were born so, you never really met her." 

Young Raven smiled at her grandmother and placed the photo on a nearby table.

"Did I ever have a grandfather?" She asked.

"Yes but like your great-grandmother, he sadly died." She replied calmly. Young Raven looked back at the photograph resting on the table.

"Come now," her grandmother said, taking her grand daughter's hand. "Let's start supper. You can help me peel the potatoes." Young Raven smiled and together they left the room.

******

Raven opened her eyes and found herself back in the attic, staring at the photo again.

"If that's my great-grandmother," she said, pointing to the woman. "then he must be my-."

 Raven covered her mouth and turned the photograph over. Scrawled in cursive were two initials:

E.C and A.S circa 18-

Raven's eyes teared up. She finally found a photograph of him after so many years. However his face was obscured by the white markings and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get them off. Raven held up the picture once more, the man and the woman merging into a grayish blob by her tears.

"I don't think you're dead, A.S" She whispered to the picture, then placed it into her pant pocket. "You can't be." 

She turned around and looked at the dagger resting on the floor. She picked it up with her injured hand, wincing in pain.

"I am going to find you." She said raising the dagger. "And if I die, then so be it.