Enchantropy
Chapter One
The Evocation of False Beauty
“I last saw her, near the poet's tomb, where she raped me with impunitive violence... blinding me in the end... and burying my bones in a pile of blood and semen.
I was but a child, not older than the Angel of Florence when he lost his wings and fate to the madness and rage of the minotaur.
I was defeated in my existence... and therefore, I became a sinner for the fleeting and dignifying grace of others...”
The narration ends with a silence grave pause.
-...Ridiculously spooky, don't you think?
-Quite, Duchess. My bones are in poetic stone.
-What a devious and macabre speech... even for a graveyard of this sort...
-Alas, but an inch of moral decency or reason wouldn't hurt...
-...or kill!
They both started to laugh, while someone approached in silence.
-Smiling in a graveyard will attract the ghouls of the buried, strange and mad people they were...
Years ago, they used to burn sick horses here you know. Tied them up, body to pole, and ignite them, just for the fun of it.
-And who might you be? Addressing her Ladyship without permission or presentation.
-But a servant, my lady. A million excuses... from this sad clown in the cage of the wild...
-...I presume you to be the town's gravedigger...
-No, your grace. He fled long ago, from the plague.
-...A mystical plague you say? (visibly enthusiastic)
-Not quite. He impregnated the butcher's wife!
-Oh!
-...and the baker's daughter... twice...
-Quite a plague...!
-Five children my lord, enough to spook a soul out of his responsibilities.
(Pauses for a second)
-But, if what you look for is an unholy phantasmagoria – a strange occurrence, unexplained and mysterious – the Painless Road Manor should clearly be your destiny.
-A mirror to the incorporeal? A sighting of the ethereal realm? A manifestation?
-No one knows, it comes and goes recurrently, defying knowledge. It began the night the old noblemen' family coffins were violated by silver thieves...
-Did you hear that Forrester? We have a phantasmata disturbance. Exploration is at hand.
-Yes, so it seems. (unexcited) Another stumbling theater of useless lies, I imagine...
-Please silence your boring disbelief...
-Forgive me, but it has been a decade on the road of travellers, only to find skeletons of pyrite...
-I am sure this one is real...
-Again...? Oh well, then I am also sure! Sure beyond criticism!
-Good man, tell me where this strange manor is located? It is summer calendar, and the night will be here soon... I am sure the owner will receive my presence with pleasure, if not just for a few days of rest...
-Right behind you, my lady.
Instants before, the fog had lifted to embrace the forming clouds, choosing them instead of the manor and its severely dry out pond, of swamp fumes.
-Oh! (slightly spooked) How did the mist hide such a building right above our sight?
-It seems deserted my Lady, we should head back to town.
-Nonsense. Send the carriage back. And order them to pick us tomorrow morning, upon daylight.
-...Yes, my Lady. As you desire.
-A manor near a graveyard? Undoubtedly a most exquisite and interesting night...