The man in the red suit raised his glass and drank the red tears. The congregation did the same. Ignas just stared at his glass. Then he brought his ring to his mouth. "Marcus, are you almost done?" He said urgently looking around. A woman's scream rent the air, coming from near the front of the stage. One man started to laugh maniacally. Soon, the whole ballroom was in a hysteria. The ballroom filled with laughter, screams, and nonsensical rambling. The man in front of Ignas crushed the wine glass in his hand and tried to tear the hair from his scalp. A woman beat another down and smashed her head against the floor. Both grinned wide as they fought.
“Ignas, I’m coming down, let’s get out of here!” Said Marcus through the earpiece. “Got you. I’ll meet you by the stairs.” Responded Ignas. He turned to Charlotte, “Charlotte, we-” An older man wearing a black bowtie grabbed Charlotte by the arm. His knuckles whitened around wrist. “HELP ME!” He howled. “HELP ME! PLEASE!” His eyes were a solid dark red. An sudden anger possessed him. His jaws opened and tried to bite her. Charlotte smashed her wine glass into his face. He let go, covering his lacerated face. Ignas shoved him away, and he stumbled onto the floor. “Stop! That tickles!” He said as he began to giggle like a little child and convulsed on the marble. “Let’s go, Let’s go.” Charlotte said quickly. Before they left the ballroom, Ignas glanced at the stage and saw that the bloody figure was looking at him through it's dark, bleeding sockets.
They made their way back to the front entrance, just as Marcus landed on the last step of the stairs. At the doors, a few others tried to escape. It seems we are not the only ones who didn’t drink, thought Ignas. One guest in a bloody dress shirt frantically yanked at the door handle, almost ready to take it off. “Open it! Hurry, he’s coming!” A terrified blond woman urged him. “I can’t! It’s like it’s stuck.” He said through gritted teeth. One of the large men they saw earlier marched in. The blond woman screamed at his approach. Ignas saw some of the other giants trying to gather up the rest and drag them back to the ballroom.
A voice coming from the west wing yelled, "Through here!" Marcus, Charlotte, Ignas, and several others ran and followed the voice. They went into what looked like a living room. Two sofas faced at a black flat-screen, a glass coffee table in between. On the table, a stack of leaflets lay on it, with the phrase "TRANSCEND WITH US" in big red letters. A strange, old family picture hung on the wall. They were all seated, and it looked like any other family picture, except their eyes were shut and their faces were emotionless. Are they dead? Ignas thought. He tried not to think of it and moved on. At the other end of the room was a doorway that led into a hall, and at the end of the hall, to the right, was an exit to the back of the mansion. Outside, they made their way through the garden. The concrete path was surrounded by red roses and shaded by arched trellises swallowed by vines. Nothing but the full moon lit their way. “What happened in there? What was that ‘thing’ we saw?” whispered the guy in the bloody dress shirt. “I don’t know, Justin. I just want to go home and forget this.” Responded the blond woman, quietly and miserably. Ignas got closer to Marcus. “What did you find?” he asked him. “Their leader, Blayson Dec. The guy in the red suit. He was into some weird stuff. Guy found a gold and silver casket in some old abandoned, religious building in the Middle-East." Marcus made a disgusted face. "Stuff is just sick... They found jars full of-” Before Marcus could finish, a buzz came from Ignas’s earpiece. What? Who would be trying to contact me? Thought Ignas. “What’s wrong?” asked Marcus, but he, too, looked like he got something through the earpiece. Through his earpiece, Ignas could hear the screaming and laughter in the ballroom. Though, through the chaos, a single voice could be heard faintly. “I am watching you...” It said. The transmission ended.
He looked back to the mansion and then to Charlotte. She stopped walking and looked pale, “Did you hear that, too?” she asked. She felt for her ring, and realized it was gone. “That guy who grabbed me, he must have pulled it off.” She shuddered. Marcus's eyes widened. “Isn’t there a locator on the rings that helps us find each other?” Added Marcus. Upon hearing that, Ignas slipped his ring off his finger and flung it in the rose bushes. Marcus did the same. The earpiece and contacts had no use now, so they took those off, as well. We’ve seen enough, and surely the footage is uploaded by now, concluded Ignas. At the end of the garden was a wrought iron fence. Sharp were the points on the pickets. The metal door that led out into the forest was open though, with a chain and an unlocked padlock sitting beneath it. The escaped guests went before them. Ignas was the last one out, and he saw that the handle to the door and padlock was smeared with blood. The woods beyond the mansion was dark and easy to get lost in, but they had no other choice.
The mansion was not too far from civilization, Ignas knew. Perhaps they would at least find a road or even a small town, if they were lucky. Getting as far from the mansion and doing it as quietly as possible was the main objective here, thought Ignas. Justin, as the lady had called him, used his lighter, but the little flame didn’t do much to light the way. Five, not including themselves, marched ahead of them. One of them had a really bad cough, but they tried to stifle it as much as they could. They came upon a cabin. It looked as if though no one had used in decades. Much of the red paint had chipped off, making the wooden walls look as if it was rusting. Dry, dead leaves on top of wet dead leaves layered over the creaky porch. The door open easily for Justin, and he strode in. “Justin!” The blond woman hissed. “Relax, Nina, it’s empty.” He responded, sticking his head out of the doorway. “I think we should get a move on.” Said Ignas, worried. “Yeah, I don’t think we can get too far from that place.” Charlotte agreed, continually looking over her shoulder. A violent coughing fit came again from one of the guests. This time he could barely hold it in. He fell to his knees. Marcus and Nina ran to him and held him up. “I can’t...I, I can’t walk anymore, I need to rest. I’m sorry.” In the light from Justin’s lighter, they saw his phlegm was bloody. “Come on, old man, I’ll help you inside.” muttered Justin. Charlotte and Ignas looked at each other, and they followed everyone else in.
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