In the Dark of the Night

WARNING!!!!!! WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have warned you that the journal would get darker and more gory. Well, I warning you here and now that the entries from now to Kazuma's arrival will be very disturbing. If you have a weak stomach, do not eat during or right before reading this. If you have difficulty with horror stories at all, you should not be reading this story.

You may want to keep some tissues on one side and an empty bucket on another. I grossed myself out on this. While proofreading it, I made myself cry!

Good music to listen to is any instrumental from a good quality horror movie, or any instrumental eire music like the soundtrack for Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events ... that is what I listening to as I type this.

Any spelling/grammar mistakes in the entry forms are on purpose, and not an accident of the author.


Chapter 9

Entry 38 by Amanda
12:15 A.M. Monday 13, May

Everyone has been up for up for an hour now since a loud explosion awoke everyone up at eleven P.M.. It was so loud that we originally had trouble discerning it's location of origin. All three religious men felt something at that time, something evil. That in itself should come to no surprise after these past four months of vile hauntings. However, Father MacGavin said it was is if a great evil had arrived. Shino suggested that it may have been here the entire time and just now awakened. It was truly strange. For some sinister reason, the ghostly assault weakened and nearly stopped after that explosion. No one is relaxing though, we fear that something far more evil has come our way. We asked the ghostly monk if he would investigate the explosion. That was one hour ago.

There are few things to write about currently except the fear that is imbedded itself deep within our souls. Several of us are going to die in this house. I am certain of the fates for my eldest daughter and myself. According to Jun's dream, even when Misao is older, she will still be haunted by the hateful ghosts. In that dream, Misao is only 'a little older', does that mean she will survive this house only to die an another in a few scant years?

At least Shizuru, Yoshiko and my son will survive. My son. Even as sit here writing this, I rub my swollen belly. At least I know that my son will eventually have some mystical powers and obtain some magical swords to protect himself later in life.

12:55 A.M
The ghostly monk finally returned and he brought another ghost, no, more like a creature of death, to side with us. For he returned with a undead but very animated skeleton dressed in a brown robe with red pinpoints in the eye sockets. It is a crypt keeper. Ancestral crypt keepers are the raised spirits of the dead that have returned to guard the tombs of their descendants. It is said that it acts only to defend its crypt. If any seek to violate the sanctity of it's tomb, the crypt keeper becomes animated.

The ghost of the monk met the crypt keeper at the tombs, for that is where the explosion happened. The crypt keeper told us that the explosion actually was centered on my mother's tomb. On investigation, it found not only does it look like the explosion happened from the inside but my mother's corpse was missing!

After both the Irate Monk and the crypt keeper left, Shino went out to investigate the desecration of my mother's tomb. It was horrible enough that these vicious ghosts are tormenting my family, now they disturb the rest of the dead! Why would they attack my mother's tomb?

2:11 A.M.
It's been two hours since Shino left. I've only gotten snippets of sleep and it was mostly out of exhaustion. Dread has prevented most of us from having some quality sleep. Ever since that explosion earlier, the sense of a foreboding evil has grown. The fear in here is tangible. My daughters refuse to leave my side even as I write this horror down. My sweet little Misao is snug against my hip while Jun and Shizuru hug each other against my back. Dear gods! I wish some-how that I could get them out of here and to their father's side. For some time there has been a static interference that has prevented me from telepathically contacting Shoda. Since the explosion though, the resistance to whenever I try to use my telepathy is far worse. I tried to contact Shoda and my father at 1:30, searing agony shot through my head, and I fell unconscious. Not only was I out for an hour but I am told that I had a severe nose bleed. Both Kohaku and Father MacGavin demanded that I do not try to use my telepathy again. They both agree that if something is powerful enough to prevent the communication between two minds that it may be strong enough to possess a person! This means I will never get to say "I love you" one final time before I die.

Shoda, dearest husband, if this book survives this nightmare and I do not, know in your heart that I love you!


With shaking hands, Genkai put the journal down so she could pick the teacup up. Despite the presence of two hands, the cup still rattled ominously against the saucer. No one spoke for several minutes. The mood of the most recently read entry permeated the air, creating a dreary atmosphere.

"Genkai," Koenma spoke softly. "Do you know what is going to happen?"

"It's the beginning of the end, Koenma." She sadly sighed. "It's the beginning of the true terror that I know only a little about, and an end to the happy family." With that dark statement, the tired old master handed the journal to another. "Kurama, you read."


6 A.M.
Dear gods, these past few hours --- they have been far worse than what has transpired before! It is only at the
insistence of the others that I write the horror down. As Father MacGavin has said, this journal may be the only way for the outside world to know what transpired within these walls that are alive with unholy power.

Earlier, Kohaku finally returned but ...

Deep breaths, I need some deep breths, I must stay calm.


"Okay now that has me worried." Yusuke commented over Kurama's shoulder. "It's obvious from what all we've read that this lady like to write and speak proper-like and all. Now we can see that she's panicked all right."

From the other side of the room, Keiko spoke up. "Why do you say that Yusuke?"

"It was that last line,Kieko. Where she wrote 'I need some deep breaths', if she wasn't panicking then she would have written it grammatically correct 'I need to take some deep breaths'." Kurama explained.

"That and the fact that there's a spelling mistake." Keiko was about to speak up but Yusuke was quicker. "Remember Jun's first entry, she said that their mom was freaky on spelling correctly. I bet that all those entries that Genkai read didn't have a spelling mistake in them. So if bad grammar and spelling mistakes suddenly pop up, she must be scared out of her wits."


If this was some movie, I would say that there is no way that a mother could be in such a horrifying situation and write about it in a journal. I should not be able to keep my hand still enough to write as it shook with fear. I fear that although I am able to write at moment, I fear my handwriting may be so horrible that it's unreadable.

I cannot throw this book away and let my fears rule me. I must keep a hold on my emotions. I know that I will die, I have feared that for days now. However, I must be strong until the end, for my children. My husband, my father and one of my daughters are on the outside. Let this journal be a witness to the horrors we faced in our final moments, a means to let our loved ones know what we faced on the inside.

I am sorry, the horror that need to record to so great that I am having difficulty writing. At four it was after two hours have passed and Shino had yet to return, Father MacGavin decided to go out in order to search for him despite our pleas. He was correct, we need to know what we are facing but still ... Kohaku would stay behind with the children, my father-in-law Akira and mysself. However the good father did not get too far, just a couple of feet outside the door, when we heard his cry of "Good Lord protect us!" was heard and his footsteps ran back to our shelter. He tried to stop us from looking outside as he re-entered. However the children were short enough that their line of sight was not blocked.

At their screams, he rushed to shut the door as quickly as possible. All it took was a second to see what terrified my poor girls and my own scream echoed throughout the room, joined by Jun's repeated cries of denial. As I sat there, trying to console my daughters, Father MacGavin told Kohaku and Akira what he found only fifty feet from the door.

It was a corpse of a man! Since there was only one person under this roof that is not present, then that corpse must be what's left of Shino. One would think that we that we could identify the dead form of our friend easily. There was a good reason why had to resort to conjectures, to figure out whose body it was. We could not identify it by sight alone. To our horror, it was flayed!

The corpse had not an inch of skin left on it!

We tried to collect ourselves and figure out what to do, how to escape. I already know that for some of the people that were in this house will live, five others will die. Already three of the survivors are outside.

My beloved husband, Shoda.
My father, Adam.
And my third daughter, Yoshiko.

Despite my dark thoughts, I agree with the others on finding away out. For somehow the other survivors need to get out of here. If Jun's dream comes true then Shizuru, Misao, Kohaku and my soon-to-be born son, Kazuma, will survive. With those desparate thoughts, I remembered that my father has blueprints to the house and lands. I had looked over them with fascination when I was younger. I remember that there were secret passageways through the house and estate including some tunnels that lead out that start in the crypts! I told the others and asked that if the crypt keeper is truly driven to protect the tombs of my ancestors, then that would be the greatest chances of escape. They agreed, so now we have the smallest glimmer of hope.

Father MacGavin, Akira and I shared a knowing look. We may be fated to die, but we refuse to do so lying down! We will fight to survive to the very end! Who knows, fate may be foretold but it is not permanent. Perhaps we can cheat fate as some has cheated death.

First of all, we would have to reach my father's study on the second floor in order to find the blueprints From there, we will have to find a way from the second floor to the basement that has a tunnel to the Mausoleum and the crypts. Thankfully there is a spiral staircase hidden in the kitchens that goes to the upper floors we used. We did not not have to use that treacherous grand staircase that slowed us down before. We made it to the study with no incident about 4:30. We were searching for the blueprints when we heard something crash somewhere down the halls.
Father MacGavin and Kohaku immediately started to reinforce the protections they first set up. I finally found the small book behind a statue. The book has the floor plan and the secret passageways printed within. We we looking over it when one of the ofuda that was on the door burned to a crisp. Father MacGavin and Kohaku took ready to battle, while ordering me to look through the book to see if there was a hidden door we can use to get out.

For several seconds, nothing happened as the door never opened. It was Misao who screamed 'Look under the door! It's coming in under the door!" There we saw something slithering forward. It looked like a long tentacle of a yellowish-tan with five smaller ones at it's end. Shizuru screamed out that it looked "like a flat arm". In disbelief, I looked closer. Akira yelled for me to look in the book and find a way out as he ran to the west wall and took up the blood-stained bastard sword my father had hanging there. He stood between the door and myself, ordering the children to stay behind us. I looked through the book, only sparing quick glances at was happening. I yelled for Shizuru when she and Jun ran to the wall of books beside us to grab two books.

Soon more of the creature squeezed under the door and we saw a patch of black hair. As more of it oozed forth, it ignored the prayer recited by Father MacGavin and the ofuda thrown by Kohaku. The ofuda seemed to bounce of a barrier three, perhaps four inches from this vile thing. It raised up on two of the long tentacles and we could see what exactly we were facing.

The 'tentacles' were indeed flattened arms. What we saw was the empty skin of our dead friend, Shino! Whatever killed him and took his skin was able to the grisly deed while keeping Shino's shin intact. Now, this empty skin is moving with unholy force!

While they were unable to drive the thing back, they were able to keep it from advancing on us. We stood at an empasse for several minutes, until I finally found a hidden door that book showed in the north-western corner and twisted the neck on the statue of a Irish Wolfhound. When it finally opened we ran inside. The hidden door swung closed before Shino's skin could slither halfway across the room, slowed down by the ofuda.

The air was musty, Akira said that was a good sign that there was poor air circulation and hopefully that meant that there were very little openings for things to crawl under. Father MacGavin found a lantern that was left by the door for use and thankfully it still had oil to burn. When we finally reached the end of the hidden passageway there was a door, on going through it, we found ourselves in a small empty area and faced a second door. Each of the doors had strange symbols on them. There were several mandalas and other symbols. The only one I could recognize instantly was the Seal of Solomon. A circle with two triangles within, it is a protection against evil. As the blueprints showed, there were a series of three doors before reaching a little used small study. On entering, we saw it was sparsely furnished with only one desk and chair with two bookcases. I sat down to find the page that would, hopefully would show a hidden door, I really didn't want to go back the way we came!

Father MacGavin continued to recite prayers for protection. Kohaku began a mantra to ward off evil. Akira looked at the bookcases. He discovered some books recorded the better known ghosts of the estate. One book was titled 'The Secret History of the Shady Manor'. On the first page it stated that the manor has also been called the Bogy House and the House of Shades. With hearing those names, the current one becomes clear to me. I had always though the Shady Manor was referring to the vast amount of trees and the forest that surround the estate. No, it
refers to the hauntings that happen here. There were several other books that caught our attention such as a Monstrous Manual, the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Jun cried out that she found something. She had been looking though one of the books that she had grabbed. A cold chill ran through me at reading the title, Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead. At first I wanted to say that it was some gaming book for Dungeons & Dragons or the like. After all, look at the title, I may not be fluent in Greek or Latin, whichever the case may be, but I thought mortis means death or dead not undead. Whatever the origin of the Libris Mortis, the past events make me believe that at least some of the creatures described within are real. For what Jun had found was on page 100, a picture of something that looked exactly we just faced in my father's main study. The picture showed an empty skin moving on it's own. It's called a Forsaken Shell. This is what the book says=

"Forsaken shells are the empty skins of past victims, devoid of body fluids, tissue and bone. The loose skins are quite elastic and possess a surprising strength. They are driven by necromagic and a predatory nature that cannot be refused. ..... Creatures killed by a forsaken shell shed their skin within an hour of death. These new forsaken shells are under the influence of the spawner, until the original shell dies or the new one becomes strong enough to break free. .... Forsaken shells are aggressive, but prefer to surprise attacks against an single victim."

Does that mean that there is another out there, the one that killed Shino? If they prefer to attack single victims, why did Shino's shell attack all of us? Kohaku suggested that something else is influencing it. perhaps whatever evil creature that desecrated the crypts?

I found a hidden trap door on the floor that will take us back to the first floor, from there we have to use a hidden passageway that seems to be a series of steps surrounded by water that will lead us to the funroom where there is a hidden stairway on the carousal. That stair case will lead us to the basement levels.

We must be on our way so I must stop writing, hopefully my next entry will show that we reach the funroom with out another death.

~~TBC~~~
Disclaimer= The Libris Mortis: The book of Undead really is a Dungeons & Dragons game book and is owned by Wizards of the Coast.