Energy Eater
145 – Abandone Mansion

I spent a few moments staring at the skeleton. No one was saying anything. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was worry, maybe it was a number of things, but the reality was that we were all shocked by what we saw. Either the owner of this skeleton had died standing up, or whoever they were, were killed and then propped up against the wall. And

I wasn't entirely sure which one sounded worse. The fact that even with the markings of animals in the area, the skeleton was still standing also meant that the animals didn't come here after it died. They ignored the fresh meat of its body, once it had been killed, or they came here much later when the skeleton was already a skeleton.

"We should leave," Michael finally said.

We all paused and looked at him, truly considering his words for a moment, but Rex stepped away into another room of this house. Leaving him behind wasn't an option, so everybody followed while Michael cursed under his breath.

We were now in the dining room connected to an open concept kitchen. And here it truly looked like a war zone. Cabinets were passed on the ground, open with large holes everywhere. Tables were broken, some made out of wood that was now rotting, others made of granite or some stone material. It wasn't a nice place for anyone to stay. And just like we had seen, there were more bodies. Not people. But skeletons of animals. From small birds to larger wolf-like creatures, from maybe some deer and something larger that could have been a bear, but its skeleton was a bit too destroyed and the skull was missing. Every single one of them was covered in vines as if nature had been growing on top of it.

The inside of the house was covered in vegetation. Coming from the edges of the walls, coming from the floor. And it didn't look like it was just a handful of months to a year of growth. Instead, here, it really looked like nature had been growing ever since the old world fell.

I stepped towards the staircase leading to the second floor, trying to see if there was anything above us that could explain the story of this place, anything at all. And Rex was by my side, inspecting the staircase to make sure it would be solid enough to withstand our weight. Just in case we decided to go up.

That's when we heard a strange rushing noise, as if something was being dragged across the floor. It was small, but it was enough to make Michael yelp. The Silkbound Archer stepped towards the Astrid and tried to hide behind her while the rest of us moved around, trying to see if they could find the source of that noise. Riley, on the other hand, was inspecting the plants.

As the rest of us continued to explore this first floor of the house, there were a few more closets and other doors leading to bathrooms and bedrooms and other various places. There was even a library. Although the books were still there, the moment I tried to touch one of them, they turned to dust in my hands.

Maybe it was because of the window that was left open, or maybe there was something else here destroying the place. But everywhere we looked, we found more vegetation, vines of a strange type of plants growing from everywhere, and more skeletons.

By the time we finished taking a look at this area of the main house, we had seen around 50 skeletons. And that is without mentioning the smaller bones. It was hard to tell if they came from small animals, or were just the missing pieces of the other bones tried to eat something else before they were themselves turned into prey.

"This is really weird," Riley spoke up after we finished looking around the first floor.

"What?" I turned to them.

"This plant, these vines. I can't really identify them. Like, they are not of any species that I know."

"I mean, I never expected you to know all the species of plants that are out there," Michael said, trying to be casual about it, but his voice was clearly nervous.

But they shook their head, "No. Usually, a plant always has the same type of leaf. Or the same pattern. Maybe there are two or three variations, and they always grow in a specific way. But these," they pointed at one of the vines growing on the walls.

"Every single leaf was different from one another. Some were big and sharp. Others had various tiny spikes curling upward, others were those very thin leaves filled with tiny grass-like hairs, flowers surrounded by some needles like a cactus."

We tried following the vines to see where they started, but they all vanished under the house, which made us start to worry about the basement. Maybe instead of a regular plant, it was something enhanced by the System. Or even worse, it was some sort of monster that had vines to grow from its body. That didn't sound all that possible. But maybe at tier two, it would be something that could happen. Likely at Tier 3, it was a certainty that a monster like that would exist.

We continued trying to figure out what was going on, making sure to keep an eye out just in case something were to happen. Or a creature was to appear, but that didn't seem to be the case. Eventually, we heard something. There was a noise coming from the second floor. A strange sound, almost like a moan.

But that didn't really make any sense since we were not in a place where people should be. Again, there really wasn't anything that would stop people from living here. By all accounts, this could be someone's house. As unlikely as that sounded.

We all glanced at each other and slowly moved towards the stairs.

"Are we really going towards the haunted upper floor?" the Archer gasped.

"Again, it's not haunted. It's probably just a monster or something," I replied.

Michael rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, because the monster is going to moan like a ghost."

"What's a ghost?" Rex asked.

"It's the spirit of someone who died long ago," Riley replied.

Rex stared at Michael. "But spirits live in ground."

We all turned to the Rodenti. "Do you mean that the people who die live in the ground?"

Rex nodded, "Part of land. Goes back to it."

I glanced towards him and gave a nod.

"You know, I was not expecting the Rodenti to be the type to say that we all go back to the land," Riley whispered to me.

"They are still full of surprises, aren't they?" I chuckled as we started climbing up the stairs. At the same time, Michael continued to say that we were all stupid and were going directly into the trap made by the ghost.

The moan happened again, this time sounding farther away than before. But Michael kept quiet instead of complaining about what he thought was about to happen. I mentally thanked him since if we were really dealing with a monster, arguing would only reveal our position to it.

Upstairs, we couldn't find any bones. There was a corridor going to an empty room with an open door, and another with a door closed. But the moan seemed to be coming from the one that was already open. We all hesitated for a moment before I took the first step forward, taking the lead in this situation and making sure that Astrid was in the back. Just in case something tried to sneak by and catch us by surprise.

I was still very paranoid about the idea that we were not alone here. And those moans only seemed to increase the likelihood of that being true. But then again, what was exactly making those noises? I couldn't identify if the moan was a specific monster's cry or just a random animal, yet it was clearly something unnatural. Something that couldn't be created just by the wind or something.

As much as I didn't want to agree with Michael, this was strange. We were not alone here. It just wouldn't be a ghost but something else. Moving towards the open bedroom, we passed through another open door. This one leading into a large bathroom with a tub on the side behind a glass door. It was kind of amazing that the door survived this long, but at the very least, the place was entirely exposed, so we wouldn't need to worry about anything coming out of it to attack us.

We passed by the bathroom and continued to move towards what I was assuming to be the bedroom down the hall. Our steps echoing through the corridor were the only things that we could hear coming from a living thing inside here. There was another loud moan, this one more intense and more human-like. In a way, it very much sounded like a person in pain. An older man on his deathbed, maybe.

We took a few more steps forward, and just as I was about to cross the threshold into this bedroom, a crash. Michael yelped and jumped on top of Riley, making them fall to the ground on top of Rex, who pushed me forward, making me step into the bedroom. At the same time, the door closed behind me, and I brandished my staff, waiting for something to attack. I could hear noises coming from outside, but my entire focus was on what was in front of me.

It was as I was expecting, a bedroom. A large place with the remnants of a bed, a walk-in closet, a wardrobe, and the carcass of a TV. It was already broken down, and the screen was gone, but the plastic was still there. For a few moments, I didn't move, just waiting for whatever was about to try to attack me here to make itself known.

But nothing happened.

I heard some pounding on the door and the voices of my companions calling for me until suddenly. Astrid launched the door open with a very aggressive kick. I was forced to duck to the side not be hurt by the projectile. They walked inside, weapons at the ready, and looked around, but just like me, they weren't able to see anything. Despite this being a room, despite the door closing behind me, it was empty. There was no one here aside from myself.

"Are you okay?" Riley asked.

I nodded. "I'm fine. What happened? What was that noise?"

Astrid, who was still holding something in her hand, looked towards it, and I recognized it was the doorknob in the glass door from the bathroom. The one that was separating us from the tub.

"Did you really break that?" I asked.

And Astrid gave a sheepish nod. "Never saw bath like that."

I chuckled. "That's fine. Did you get hurt?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Okay then. It happens. Just be careful. Okay?"

"What's the point of being careful if we are in the middle of a haunted house?" Michael protested.

"Dude, we're not in a haunted house. Stop saying that," I rolled my eyes.

"Of course we are. There's this moan that keeps happening, and we don't know where it's coming from. Everything is in ruins. It's full of skeletons. How is this not a haunted house?"

"We just didn't find where the moan is coming from. That doesn't mean it's coming from nowhere. And in case you didn't realize, the entire world is in ruins. This is no better or worse than anyplace else. Stop saying this is a haunted house. It's not even an old house. Not by the definitions of the old world, anyway. I mean, come on, there's not even a secret passage here. How can you say that this is a weird house without one?"

But just as I said that, Rex, who was trying to climb on a shelf, ended up pushing something on that wooden shelf that unlocked something behind it, causing it to open and reveal a staircase heading down.

"What was that you saying about secret passages?" Michael turned towards me with an annoyed expression.

"Well, I was wrong. But it still doesn't mean this place is haunted," I replied as we all got closer to this newly revealed passage.

"Please tell me we're not going down there," Michael asked.

"I mean, come on, you don't have to if you don't want to. You could stay here on your own. And wait. All by yourself."

The Archer gave me a dirty look and started to follow Astrid, Riley, and Rex, the three who were already going down those stairs to see what else was hiding in this house.