eiahmon | Inheritance Chapter 7

Title: Inheritance
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its settings and characters belong to Frictional Games. I’m only borrowing them for a while.
Summary: AU When Alexander Kesler gets a letter, which claims that she is the only descendant of Alexander of Brennenburg, she is compelled to go investigate. She soon wishes that she hadn’t.

7.
Another Side

I huddled against the stone support jutting out from the wall, and listened with a racing heart as the same kind of thing that had killed Walther walked closer to my hiding spot. I tried to control my panicked breathing as I stopped only a few feet away and stood there for a moment. It then turned and began to walk away. I peeked out from behind my hiding place to see something that may at once have been human. It's head was bald, and it had a sword of some kind grafted on just below its elbow instead of a forearm. Its right arm was normal. Its skin was kind of a greenish hue, and it was dressed in the weirdest looking outfit I had ever seen; it looked a some kind of weird roman style armor. It was colored green and hung off the creature's left shoulder and hung down to just above its knees. The lower legs, like on the other creature that I had seen, were gashed and torn, and they had pins and metal bars sticking out of them.

It walked down the passageway that I was in, and out into what looked like a large open room with a water wheel at the other end. The water wheel wasn't moving, and I noticed that there was enough spaces between the blades for me to slip through if I needed to. Right then the creature turned around, so I ducked back into my hiding spot and hoped it hadn't seen me. I heard it walking closer again, and again, it stopped only a few feet away from me, before it slowly turned and walked back out into the large room. It did this a few more times before the realization sank it; it wasn't leaving the area. I could either go back the way I came and hope that I could run up the ladder faster than it could run down the corridor (and hope that it couldn't climb the ladder as well) or I could try and get past it. Staying in place was not an option. Eventually, I would be seen or do something to accidentally give myself away, or the frigid water would send me into hypothermia. I had to move.

As I was wondering what to do, I heard a creaking sound, followed by the sound of wood snapping, and I turned back the way I came just in time to see the ladder I had come down, collapse into the water with a loud splash. The creature heard the noise and came running back towards me to investigate. I held my breath as it ran right past me to the broken ladder, and I was given a brief glimpse of a horribly malformed head before I decided to run while it was facing away from me. If I could make it to the water wheel, it's height would slow it down, since it would have to duck lower to get under it. Seizing my chance, I leapt to my feet and began running. Almost immediately, I heard the thing turn towards me and give chase.

I cursed the knee deep water as it slowed me down considerably, but the fear of being impaled by the blade that that thing used for a left arm lent me spend. I heard it gaining on me, and just as I ducked under the water wheel, it put on a burst of speed behind me. I ran through the center of the wheel, and ducked down under the other side, and couldn't help turning around to get a good look at what had been chasing me. It was slashing fruitlessly at the waterwheel, and missing it completely, and I screamed in horror when I saw it's face. Or rather, what it had instead of a face.

Instead of eyes, nose, and a mouth, it instead had only a gaping slit, which started at the very top of the back of its head (Why had I not noticed that before?) and continued over the top of the head and down to just above the chin. The maw was lined with teeth, and a single eye sat on the (creature's) right edge of the gaping hole. I could easily imagine the moaning I had heard earlier coming out of that thing. As I stared in horror, it landed a hit on the metal of the water wheel, and it began to bend under the assault. I took that as my cue to stop staring and run for my life, which I did. I ran straight across yet another open room to the only exit on the opposite side, which led into a hallway that went a ways ahead and then turned right. About halfway down was a staircase leading up and to the right, and just as I heard the water wheel give way, I ran up the stairs and through a door at the top. I closed the door as quickly and as quietly as I could as I heard the thing running through the water towards me. I then ran through the room, and into a smaller room that had another door at the end. I ran through this door and closed it as well, and turned to find only a ladder leading up. Hoping that it was in better shape than the one that I had taken down into this area, I practically ran up it and into a small room that was fill with stuff. I then jumped into a corner and huddled down behind a stack of crates. Even through four rooms, two closed doors, and up a ladder, I could hear the thing moaning as it searched for me, but I didn't hear it attempt to break any doors down, so hopefully I was safe for the moment.

After several minutes, it's moaning stopped, so I peered out of my hiding place and hoped it was gone. I stepped out into the room and took a moment to refill my lamp's reservoir, and then I lit it to take a look around. The room was full with books and clothes, and everything appeared to be someone’s personal effects that had been stuffed into this room and forgotten. I started browsing shelves and peeking in trunks, and I found some more oil, which I took, and a couple more tinderboxes, which I left. I had enough of them to last me a while.

There were several books, though most were in either German or Latin, though there was one that was in the oddest language I had ever seen. I recognized neither the words, nor the alphabet that it was written in. I couldn’t hope to decipher it, but some strange compulsion made me stuff it in a pocket instead of putting it back on the shelf. I continued to browse the shelves, and I found one handwritten book that seemed to be in French, though water and humidity had rendered it illegible. As I went to put it back on the shelve, I noticed another crumbling piece of paper. I carefully picked it up and found that it was in English, and it was written, if the atrocious handwriting was anything to go by, by that Daniel character.

12th of August, 1839

Today, Alexander introduced me to his new assistant, a man that is simply known as Walter. I did not like the man on sight, but I remembered my manners and shook his hand in greeting. He did not return the greeting and walked away as soon as the introductions were done. Later after dinner, which he refused to join me and Alexander for, he found me in the archives and began to question me earnestly about the orb and where I had found it. He seemed simply curious, but under his curiosity, I detected a hint of something else. I cannot name what else was there, but I have the strangest feeling that his intentions are more than they seem.

Alexander shares my suspicions about Walter’s intentions, but he believes that he does not mean any harm. Walter apparently knows a great deal about the orbs and their power, and he wishes to continue his research into them while here at Brennenburg.

Tomorrow we will conduct another warding ritual to hold the Shadow back long enough for us to use the orb to its fullest. I do not like what I have to do, but Alexander has assured me that the monsters in the prisons deserve no less for their crimes. Walter will observe, while I complete the ritual myself. Alexander will be nearby to collect the vitae that he needs.

I frowned in puzzlement as I put the note back, and I wondered if this Walter character was the same assistant mentioned in that letter from Daniel to Alexander that I had read in the guest room earlier. As for the rest of the note: warding rituals, prisoners, vitae? What the hell was vitae, and what did Alexander need it for? I thought about asking him, but I was still pissed beyond belief at what had happened to Walther and so did not.

I poked around for a bit more, and I came across the strangest looking object. I was a small cylinder, with a small blue sphere embedded in the top. I reached out to touch it, and the room vanished as the vision filled with nothing but bright white light. I baritone voice - Alexander’s - began speaking, and though the language was unlike any I have ever heard, before or since, I still could understand what he was saying.

My love,

It has been three days since Daniel and Agrippa entered the portal and left this world behind. I patiently wait my turn, when we will open it again so that you may come over and join me here. I fear though, that such a thing will never come to pass. The King’s men are watching me closely, and I know that they hold me responsible for the recent rash of disappearances, including the Zimmerman family. Herr Zimmerman, his wife, and their three children vanished overnight, and their farm hands were slaughtered where they slept two nights ago, and I know that everyone in the region suspects me.

Daniel has warned me repeatedly about Walter, but I did not listen to his concerns. Now I fear it may be too late. Walter had always told me that he had the prison cells in the lowest levels under control, and I had no need to go down there. Now with Daniel gone, I fear that he may have been right all along, and that Walter intentions will bring ruin down on us all.

Tomorrow, when Walter is otherwise occupied, I will go down to the Nave, in the lowest level of the castle. Then I will see for myself what he has done.

I shook my head and pulled my hand away from the cylinder, and the whiteness vanished, and the room returned. I stumbled back a few steps away from the cylinder as I tried to clear my head. What the hell? That had to be the strangest diary I had ever seen.

Deciding that I wanted as far away from it as possible, I descended the ladder and crept back out into the main area to find the monster long gone. I could have stayed in that little room, but something compelled me to keep moving. I walked back into the water, turned right, and walked through a large metal grate that looked as if some kind of giant had torn their way through the bars. The passage turned right, and led to another three way. I went left and followed it as it turned right, and I soon came across a set of steps leading up out of the water. I went up them and walked into a hallway that took a few turns through doorways that had no doors, though I could see markings on the stone where hinges had once been. The hallway ended in with a ladder going up, so I climbed on up, and after a long climb, I emerged from a well in a small room with four doors.

Two of the doors appeared to be jammed shut when I tried them, one led to a short hall and a small room with two levers. I didn't know what the levels did, so I opted to leave them alone for now. The fourth door led down a hallway and to a large stone spiral staircase. I took the stairs and at the bottom, I walked through a door into a hallway that had three doors. Two of the doors, the one directly in front of me and the one to the right, were boarded up. The third door, at the left end of the hall, was open, so I took it. It led to a set of wooden steps that led down into a dark room that had only a few candles for light. I lit my lamp and proceeded down the stairs.

The stairs ended at one end of the room. There was a doorway a bit to my left, and at the opposite end of the room were two large open doorways on either side of a short hall with another, smaller door. The door on my left led into what looked like a small storeroom, and it had another door on its opposite wall, but it was nailed shut. I stepped away from the stairs and spotted an alcove just ahead of me that was lined with rusted metal spikes in the front, and it had rusted chains hanging down from the ceiling. The floor of the alcove had a few pieces of straw, but what was lying on that straw made me feel a little queasy.

Bones. Human bones. Lots of them. Despite my nausea at the sight (and the knowledge that someone had likely been hung there and left to die) I stepped closer and looked at the bones. They were clean, with no sign of the flesh and muscle that once covered them, though the stone floor underneath was stained and discolored. It appeared to be a nearly complete skeleton, but there was no sigh of the skull. So either the poor bastard (or bitch) had been beheaded, or something or someone had carted the head off after the person had died. Either way, I'm sure it hadn't been a pleasant existence.

Seeing nothing worth looking at at that end of the room, I walked down to the doors at the other end. I approached the smaller door at the end of the short hallway first, but when I put my hand on the handle to open it, I was hit the strongest sense of unwelcome. Whatever was in the room on the other side of the door did not want me in there. I took my hand off the handle and backed away back into the main room. The worst part was I had the strangest feeling that sooner or later, I was going to have to go in there, but there was no harm in putting it off as long as possible.

I instead went through the large door on the right, and I went through a dark hallway with a small private study (In which I didn’t find anything of note.) and a metal door at the end. The door opened into a long descending staircase, with two small rooms on either side about halfway down. I peeked into the one on the right and found a stone table with shackles for restraining a person’s arms and legs. The table and the floor around it were covered in blood stains, and a nearby work table was covered with saws, scalpels, and knives. I shivered and turned to walk back out when a dripping sound caught my attention. I slowly looked over my shoulder just in time to see a single drop of blood run off the stone table and fall to land in a puddle on the floor.

“My god,” I whispered in horror, and I ran across the stairs to the room on the other side.

This room also had the stone table and table covered with tools, and like the other room, there was fresh blood on the table, the floor, and the tools.

Paint the man, cut the lines...

I shivered at the voice, a tenor with a noticeable British accent, that seemed to come from everywhere. I started to back out of the room, but before I could reach the door, a person appeared on the table! It was a man, and his battered body was dressed only in what looked like a pair of shorts, and his face was covered by a burlap sack that was tired around his neck. He was moaning and squirming a little, and I heard the shink! of a knife being drawn. A pattern in some kind of glowing green paint appeared on the man’s chest and stomach, and his struggles to escape and his moans and cries, which were muffled by the sack, became more frantic.

Paint the man, cut the lines! Cut the flesh, watch the blood spill - let it come.

I heard the sound of flesh being cut into, and deep wounds began appearing along the lines drawn by the paint. The man’s moans turned into tortured cries as he writhed on the stone table.

Please, I didn’t do anything. Mya, mya, mya.

The voice sounded mocking as more wounds appeared on the body on the table.

Paint the man, cut the lines, Paint the man, cut the lines!

The prisoner’s cries turned into agonized screams for a few seconds, and then the body stilled and fell silent.

Hush, hush, now you sleep.

The body vanished from the slab, yet the speaking voice continued.

I did well. One life for another. You hear me, Guardian of the Orb, I did all this for you. Now, once more, withdraw your shadow from my domain.

Alexander, there isn’t much time. I can feel it. We must act swiftly. I will do whatever it takes.

The room flared with white light for a second, and the voice vanished. I stumbled out of the room, and felt something bump against my head and shoulder. I turned around -

- and screamed in horror to see a bloodied corpse hanging from the ceiling where none had been before. I fled down the staircase, screaming, paying no mind to where I was going. I just had to get away from that gruesome scene. I ran through a door at the bottom of the stairs, and into an enormous open room with only tall pillars supporting the ceiling somewhere far above. I ran across, still screaming in panic, not paying an attention to where I was going, and collided with another one of those things that I had seen in front of the water wheel earlier. My screams cut off abruptly as we stared at each other for a second - it seemed every bit as surprised to see me as I was to see it - and then it snarled at me and raised its blade. I scrambled back to my feet and bolted. I didn’t pay attention to where I was going, I honestly didn’t care, I just wanted to get away from thing that was right on my heels.

The room was lit with a foggy red light, and I could only see a few feet in either direction. Thankfully, this also applied to Splitface behind me, and I was able to duck behind a pillar and lose him after a short while. I could hear him walking around a short distance away and moaning and growling as he looked for me, and I oh so quietly crept from pillar to pillar to put more distance between us. I eventually spotted a cell door and crawled over to it and opened it as quietly as I could. I slipped in through the open door and shut it behind me. I then scurried down a hallway to a room at the end and stared in surprise.

A murmuring voice fell on my ears, along with the whimpers and cries of a child. I ducked just inside the doorway to the larger room and peered around it to see a man kneeling on the floor in front of an open iron maiden. A bloodied child wearing a blood soaked blue dress was lying on the floor in front of him, crying in pain as he gently dressed her wounds. I crept closer and couldn’t contain a surprised gasp when I realized that the man was Alexander. He and the child paid me no mind as he gently gathered her into his arms and stood up. She clung to him as he carried her out of the room right past me, and the two faded from existence just past the door.

My head whipped back and forth from where they had vanished to the iron maiden on its raised dais. Had I really seen that? I felt an intense sadness then, and I realized that it was coming from Alexander, who was still hovering around me.

“Alexander,” I asked quietly “what happened to that little girl?”

She died. I was too late to save her.

“Wasn’t it you that put her there in the first place?”

He growled angrily and said nothing else. I stood up and walked towards the iron maiden, and I was sickened to see signs that it was still in use. Blood, some dried, some fresh, caked the spikes inside, and there was a sizable puddle on the floor in front of it.

I shook my head in confusion and began to walk away; just staying in the room was making my head hurt. I walked back out into the large open area and decided to try and find my way out. There was just one huge problem; I had no idea where in the hell I was. I really needed to stop running in a panic and getting myself lost.

Just to the left of door to the torture chamber was a large seemingly bottomless chasm, but on the other side, I could just barely see a floor and more columns on the other side. I decided to follow the chasm, and it would hopefully take me to where I needed to go. I crouched down and began creeping along the floor, hoping to avoid being spotted by Splitface. I crawled along the edge of the chasm, and I eventually came to a bridge leading across, but Splitface was there, thankfully facing the other way, so I hurriedly snuck past him and kept going. I soon reached the wall and another bridge, and this one I took. I clung to the wall on the opposite side, and I eventually came to another door. This one led to a large wheel and yet another vision of Alexander assisting the victim that was tied to it. It seemed like he had been too late to save this one, for he simply closed the eyes and walked away with his head bowed. He vanished before he reached me.

I left that room and continued on, clinging to the wall as I went, and I came to a third room. This one had screaming emanating from it, and I carefully snuck in to see a brazen bull with a fire going under it. Someone was inside, screaming and banging on the sides, and smell of burning flesh of was overpowering. I ran towards it and yanked the hatch open, and a person that was burned beyond all recognition scrambled out and ran out of the room, screaming. I followed him, though I was at a loss at what I was going to do if I caught him, and I ran out into the main area just in time to see him being impaled on Splitface’s blade. His screaming gurgled to a stop, and, though the site made me feel ill, I darted behind a pillar in the hopes that I wouldn’t be seen.

It was clear to me that the torture rooms were still in use, which heavily eroded the story that Alexander had been responsible for all of those disappearances. A dead man couldn’t go out and kidnap people, much less torture and kill them.

I waited for a while until I was sure that the monster was gone, and then I crept out of my hiding place and began to follow a wall, looking for a way out. I had to climb across a makeshift bridge, which wobbled and shook under my weight, and I was very happy once I was safely across. I followed a wall for a bit more and soon I spotted a bridge, and despite the horrible visibility, I was able to see the exit door beyond that. Throwing stealth and caution to the side, I jumped to my feet and ran for the bridge. I heard a snarling moan as I was spotted, but I paid it no mind as I crossed the bridge and ran for the door. I reached the door, yanked it open, ran through, and slammed it behind me just as my pursuer slammed into it. I sprinted up the steps and ducked into one of the rooms that I had gone into earlier. I shut the door and hid in a dark corner, under a tool table and waited for Splitface to disappear. Thankfully, he apparently decided that I wasn’t worth going after, and he didn’t hit the door again.

After a few minutes, I figured it was safe, and I came out of my hiding place and climbed the stairs back up. I went through the door at the top and walked down the short hall to the larger room with the three doors. I still felt uneasy about going through the one door, so I went straight across through the second large door and down a dark hallway. I soon came across another metal door, and I went through it to find myself in an large room, lit only by faint light coming in through windows nearly the three story high ceiling. There were three doors along the walls, and a spiral staircase in the center of the floor. I walked up to the staircase and carefully began to climb. The rusted metal groaned and shook under my feet, and I feared that the entire thing was going to collapse, sending me plummeting to the stone floor below, but I made it safely to the top, and found myself in a small square room with a portrait of Alexander on the wall, and a door on the other side. I went through the door to find another private study. I poked through the desk and shelves and found another one of those cylinders. I swallowed heavily and reached out to touch it, and I again saw the bright light and heard Alexander speaking.

Oh my love, it is as I feared.

Daniel and I restricted our rituals to those that deserved such punishment, the rapists and murderers of the region. Walter, I learned last night, has not done the same. He targeted anyone that crossed his path, including the members of the Zimmerman family. I found the youngest child, a girl, locked in the iron maiden, but she died before I was able to get her to a doctor. It is too late for the rest of her family, Walter has tortured and killed them all, to what purpose I do not know.

Worse still, I suspect that he knows that I know of his actions, and I fear what he may do to keep his secret. I has written a letter to King Fredrick, and I asked that it be delivered to Gabriel, the outrider, so that he may deliver it with all haste to the king. The human body that I am forced to inhabit is too old and frail for me to confront him myself, so the murder of innocents must go on until the king’s men arrive. Not even regular infusions of vitae have been able to stop the aging that has plagued me since my arrive in this world nearly 300 years ago.

Daniel is gone, and without him, I have no hope of stopping Walter. As much as it pains me, I have to let him continue and wait until the king’s men arrive to stop him.

My son lies in his cradle, barely a week old, and his mother has vanished. I fear that she was one of Walter’s victims, though I have found no sign of her body anywhere in the castle. I fear for his safety. Walter would have no reservations about killing an infant, so I must find a place for my son to go before it is too late. Tomorrow I will speak with the Bauer family in Altstadt; it is well known that they have been unable to have a child of their own and they wish to leave this region. Maybe I can help them with both of those.

My love, I hope to see you again, but I fear that it will never come to pass. If Walter does not kill me, the king’s men certainly will, for everyone believes that I am the murderer that has been stalking the innocents for all the years. If I perish here, know that my heart is always with you and that, even though I have lain with another woman, you and you only have my love.

I took my hand off the cylinder and, once I could see my surroundings again, I walked to the door and closed it firmly. I then dragged a bookshelf over in front of it to hopefully make it difficult for anything to get in. I then sat down in the chair in front of the desk.

“Alexander,’ I said “I’m ready to listen to what you have to say. I need to know what happened here? Please, tell me everything.”

And then the room disappeared into the bright whiteness again as Alexander took me back.

Chapter 6 -- Chapter 8
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Inheritance Chapter 7

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