Bereft: Demise

7 | Of Guilt and Sin

The stairs rose upward in never-ending succession. When one staircase ended, we simply crossed through a hallway and found another. I couldn't reconcile the image of the outer building with the one I was walking inside. They were two different places.

Darius and I never passed a window. Not a single one. The nagging sense of claustrophobia prickled the hair at the base of my neck. Aggravated, I continually rubbed the spot, wishing we could find just one opening to alleviate the horrid sensation. Wandering the corridors of Crow's End felt like traipsing through the various chambers of a heart. The air was muggy and a distant thrum of a heartbeat reached my ears, as if the manor truly was breathing.

Every so often the Sin would step into one of the adjoining halls and open a door. Behind every door was the same plain, unadorned bedroom. Each time the bedroom was revealed, Darius would slam the door with increased ferocity. He finally stomped his foot and shouted at the ceiling. "Dammit, Peroth! Stop jerking me around!" 

We climbed another flight of stairs and entered a final windowless corridor. Darius opened a door and I fully expected to see the same bedroom—but I was wrong.

"Finally," the Sin muttered as we crossed into a dark parlor. I saw the vague outline of a blackened hearth and a winged armchair before Darius shut the door, sealing us inside. Unable to see, the cloying feeling of being trapped intensified. I reached out to grip the hem of his jacket as Darius moved deeper into the room.

"Darius—."

"A moment." The Sin sucked a breath through his teeth as light blossomed. He cradled a small flame in the palm of his upheld hand, letting the fire roll over his fingertips. I wrinkled my nose against the smell of burning flesh as the demon reached the mantle and lit several of the squat candles waiting there.

The parlor was small, equipped with the solitary armchair, an unadorned table beneath a shuttered window, and a mid-century end table. As the demon went to the window, I gazed around the cozy space, taking in the bookshelves, the faded wallpaper, and lack of electrical outlets. There weren't any lamps or fixtures, only the sparse handful of candles on the mantle and a rusty oil lamp on the table. 

There was one chipped door connected to the parlor. The floorboards creaked underfoot.

The window screamed on its ungreased tracks as Darius shoved it open and moonlight spilled inside, illuminating lazy dust motes spiraling through the air. Relief washed over me at the sight of the simple, single-paned window. I rushed to it and, inhaling, stuck my head into the cool night.

Fog encompassed the manor, creeping about the graveyard's edges in a thick blanket of obscurity. I could barely see twenty yards into the mire before the shapes of the crooked tombstones were consumed by the clawing mists. The hedge I had noted earlier served as a boundary between the rows of gray markers and the wild bogs of the moor. We were only four stories above ground level.

"I could have sworn we were higher," I mumbled as I ducked back inside. Darius said nothing. He dropped the bag by the table and sank into the armchair, disappearing into the oblique shadows thrown by its exaggerated edges. 

I stood at the windowsill, my fingers curling over the pitted, ancient wood. The breeze was cold against the back of my damp shirt while the manor's heat continued to thrum against my pink face. "Why isn't there any fixtures in this room?" I asked, tilting my chin toward the wax candles. "I saw a television in Peroth's office, and I'm fairly certain the chandelier in the foyer was electric." 

The Sin stretched himself, propping the heels of his muddy sneakers on the wide lip of the hearth. His arms fell over the chair's sides, long fingers almost grazing the dirty floor. The sound of his breathing grew deeper as the creature relaxed. "The manor doesn't update areas of disuse, though lighting may or may not appear in the next few days. The bedroom is through there." Darius tossed a hand toward the single door. "You may use it."