Mordrid Manor

CW: Themes and/or references to kidnapping, blood, gore, and murder.

So there I stood, bloodied and cold

I happened upon a house of old …

Upon my entry, I was greeted

By a woman so grimly dressed.

Behind a black desk, she was seated

Like a crow perched in a nest.

“Please … I’m in dire need of aid

For the woods have left me maimed,”

I told the woman, draped in shade

Whilst my ghastly wounds inflamed.

“Do not fear, we’re here to serve

Now let me show you to your room,”

The woman replied, with stoic nerve

While she led me through the gloom.

----1st NIGHT----

My bedchamber was lavish, yet dreary

With dusty portraits looming overhead.

I then bespoke in tongues of weary

While the woman laid me down in bed.

To my utter amazement and fright

The woman’s eyes locked onto mine,

While she stitched my wounds up tight

I felt a chill run down my spine.

“Remain here until you awaken

Your bodily wounds are of no importance,”

The woman told me, while I lie shaken

By her listless countenance.

Despite the woman’s dismal disposition

A wilting beauty was underlain.

I perceived her, as a premonition

Of which I feared to ascertain.

A dulcet melody then resonated

Perhaps from a piano being played?

“Help me,” a voice then advocated

To which I felt so quite dismayed.

A woman’s portrait began to smile

Just before my eyes did close.

With such a sinister profile

Within my heart, great fear arose.

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“Were you having a nightmare,”

A man inquired, while I awoke in pain.

He towered over me, with a glare

While holding a crimson cane.

“I do not have such dreams of deep,”

I replied, with an irksome sigh.

“I heard you call out in your sleep,”

The man told me, to nullify.

“I sincerely owe my life to you both,”

I told the man staring out the window.

“Your kind ordains our solemn oath,”

The man told me, in tones of low.

Upon his leave, the man’s eyes glowed

With such an eerie shade of garnet.

The image which the man forbode

Portrayed the devil incarnate.

I stared out the window at a gray dawn

A murder of crows silently stared back.

From jagged gates they perched upon

With eyes so abysmally black.

I turned the knob of my bedchamber door

In hopes to escape this dread I abide.

I then fell wretchedly to the floor

For the door was locked from the outside.

Slowly, but surely, the day had languished.

Yet my wounds were healing quite fast.

Although my mind remains anguished

I’ll soon take my leave, at long last.

----2nd NIGHT----

The woman held a macabre doll

While she entered in a puff of smoke.

Her shadow sprouted up the wall

She then leaned in and softly spoke -

“You still hold on to what is lost

I can feel your fear of unrest,”

The woman told me, while she embossed

A mystic symbol upon my chest.

“It burns, I don’t fully understand,”

I told the woman of pale stone.

The sudden touch of her icy hand

Invoked a feeling I’ve never known.

“Please tell me; what is your name?”

I inquired, while reaching out.

“I … don’t recall,” she replied in shame

Then lifted her veil with a shout -

“Now, awaken!” the woman shrieked.

I then recoiled, while my heart raced.

From her black eyes, blood doth leaked

I then tumbled off the bed in haste.

In a flash, the woman disappeared

Followed by such roaring thunder.

Her scourge, of which, I afeared

Sharply ripped my soul asunder.

The woman’s outcry wasn’t a dream

For she left her macabre doll behind.

To send me a message, so it would seem

What terrors did she have in mind?

Within a sudden flash of lightning

The doll turned into a girl of youth.

The transformation was quite frightening

Which rendered me awestruck in sooth.

“I didn’t do it … help me, please,”

The child told me, with tearful eyes.

“How can I help,” I inquired, to appease

The little girl’s plaintive cries.

A flash of lightning repeated

Which revealed a heart-wrenching vision.

The child hung from a noose, depleted

I then made an impulsive decision -

The little girl’s head hung askew.

“No,” I shouted in consternation.

With outstretched arms, I quickly flew

To prevent the child’s ruination.

Upon the floor, I heavily fell

I felt no sense of saving grace.

This was another fictive spell

For a doll had lain in my embrace.

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I awoke on the floor from a tapping

Which bored into my mind, like a drill.

The source of this incessant rapping

Was from a crow upon the windowsill.

“He says you must divulge your fear,”

The man told me, with a solemn nod.

‘Is that why you’re keeping me here,”

I inquired, while the crow cawed.

“Why am I having these hallucinations.

I’m healed, yet you keep me contained,”

I inquired, with such lamentations

From the torment I’ve sustained.

“Your kind is always foreseen.

Circumstances foretold your arrival.

You’re beginning to see the unseen

This stage is crucial to your revival,” -

The man replied, while pacing around -

My bed, like a minacious fiend.

His cryptic words, although profound

Had kept my spirit quarantined.

“Enough, step aside, I’m leaving now,”

I told the man, while I quickly sprung.

“You’re not ready, this, we cannot allow,”

The man told me, while he swiftly swung -

His crimson cane, sweeping me off my feet.

The man’s eyes burned, while he departed.

I swear by all, for the next time we meet

I won’t be so frail and faint-hearted.

----3rd NIGHT----

“Let me out,” I fervently screamed

While ramming the door with such force.

In this room of horrors, I felt unredeemed

For my keepers showed no remorse.

There was no solace to be had.

I stared drearily into the bureau mirror.

Are these visions real, or am I going mad?

I then sensed a presence draw nearer.

“I fear nothing,” I shouted furiously.

“You and I both know that’s untrue,”

A familiar voice resonated spuriously.

A startling vision then came into view.

I recoiled from my own reflection

Which sneered with wicked intent.

I knew this ruse of introspection

Would be hellbent on my torment.

“Just look at what we’ve become.

All because of your reckless choice

Of that night, you still run from,”

My reflection spoke, with devoice.

Staring sharply, I began to perceive.

My reflection stained in blood and soil.

This image of me will forever leave

A mental scar of past turmoil.

“All I can remember was running,”

I somberly told my manifestation.

“On that night, you lacked cunning,”

My reflection told me, with condemnation.

“On that night, another’s blood was spilt

My reflection told me, while I wept

From such an overwhelming guilt.

Closer towards the mirror, I crept.

Through the mirror, my reflection burst

With bloody hands that swiftly seized –

Upon my throat, with such a thirst

Then began to fiercely squeeze.

“You shan’t suppress me any longer”

My reflection shouted, while he choked -

Me with a force so much stronger -

Than anything I had evoked.

I then bashed my head against the glass

Until the mirror decisively shattered.

My reflection lain in a broken mass

His strength was irrevocably scattered.

“Alas, his awakening has transpired,”

The man and woman proclaimed, as one.

“Please … no more … I’m so very tired,”

I pleaded, unaware of what’s begun.

Within a flash, I was transported

To the manor’s mordant, main gates

Where a corpse lain before me, contorted

I then stood bewildered, from what awaits.

The man pointed down, with a somber expression

While the foreboding skies began to storm.

I hesitated momentarily, with such discretion

Before slowly kneeling over the exanimate form.

“It can’t be,” I uttered in shock, from what my eyes did see …

For the bloody corpse that lain upon the ground … was me!