As I lie here, awaiting my impending doom, I pondered the events that led me here. I do recall the day it started, the sun was on its rise, sending its warm rays over the mining township of Elgis Pass. I was meandering through town, headed for the general store, of which I was the proprietor. It was soon shift change in the mines, so I had to prepare the shop for opening. As I was making my way to my shop, I met a couple of the miners, who were on their way to work, Barton and Drury. Both of them were of normal build, but they were physically quite strong. Barton had red, curly hair, while Drury had brown hair, cut short. We exchanged pleasantries, and I continued on my way. Soon after, I met with mr. Charleston, owner of the mine and town and we had a little chat. Mr. Charleston was always well dressed, had a short, black hair, always combed meticulously, and he had an aura of superiority around him, both in his powerful stride and graceful movement. He inquired if I had procured the items for him, he had put in a request earlier for some liquor and deer meat, because of a dinner party he intended to throw for some investors. I informed him that his items had indeed arrived. “How wonderful!”, he exclaimed, and then proceeded to add something, which I couldn’t quite hear, as my attention had been diverted to another event. Something had caught my eye, so I looked around, trying to locate whatever it was. Suddenly, I heard Edmund exclaim:”Look!”, while he pointed at the sky. Edmund was a mountain of a man, strong as an ox. Unfortunately, he was about as clever as one, too. But he was a gentle giant, never heard him give any trouble. All of us looked, and we saw a cloud. A cloud that was falling – nay, gliding, downwards, towards us. We all looked in stunned silence, and eventually the cloud landed in the midst of the street. Edmund ran up to it, smiling. “a fluffy, fluffy friend for me.”, he said. I just stood there, dumbfounded as to what was going on. Mr. Charleston had walked up to Edmund and the cloud. “Would you look at that”, he said. “A gift from the heavens.” Edmund looked at him, smiling. “Yes indeed, I will take precious care of this heavenly friend.” Mr. Charleston shot an icy glance at him. “And why do you think this is yours to take? As much as I’m informed, this land belongs to me. Everything that happens here belongs to me. So, you just go on and do your duty in the mines. I shall take this gift and I will take good care of it. Of that you can be sure.” Edmund’s smile faded away. He wasn’t the smartest, but he knew better than to fight Mr. Charleston over such a thing. “As you say”, Edmund almost whispered. I was certain I saw tears forming in his eyes. As much as I enjoyed Edmund and his wonderful attitude towards life, I knew that this wasn’t going to be my battle. I just kept on going to my store, and to make it ready for the coming customers.

An hour into my shift at the store, Mr. Charleston came in, for picking up the items he had ordered. He looked…wrong, somehow. He was rather red in the face, and he was sweating unnaturally, even for our warm climate. I asked him if everything was OK. He laughed and said that he felt great. I felt as if I shouldn’t push it any further, and gave him his items. He thanked me, and went off on his way. There was something…odd about his movement. There was some…stiffness to it. I brushed it off and continued my shift. Later that day, Barton and Drury, the two miners I saw earlier, entered my store. Just picking up some supplies, food and such. As they came to the counter, Drury said:”Oi, you saw Edmund this morning? Boy’s been going on and on about some fluffy friend who Mr. Charleston stole from him. He’s been unusually dreary to be perfectly honest. Moaning about this loss.” I said:”As a matter of fact, yes I did. I was there when the cloud fell from the sky, landing in front of Edmund. And Mr. Charleston claimed it as his own, since it landed on his property. I didn’t feel like meddling in their quarrel, since I do like it here and Mr. Charleston can easily replace me. But he might have been a bit harsh on the boy.” Drury took the bag with his items. “Aye, he was harsh. Me and Barton might pay him a visit one of the days. Just to have a talk.” I sighed. “Do you think that is a good idea? You know that Mr. Charleston can simply replace you. He did it to old Fredric, and they were supposedly old friends. Please tread carefully, as I do enjoy your company.” As Drury finished packing his items, Barton put his up to the counter and said:”it’s not about going up to him just to harass him. It’s about explaining to him that he needs to treat us properly. And that he needs to treat Edmund much better. He often makes fun of him, if you hadn’t noticed. It stops now.” As I rang his wares up, I said:”Just be careful, it’s all I’m saying. You guys are good people.” They both looked at me and nodded, took their wares and left. I was getting a bad feeling about this ‘gift from the heavens’. I was also worried that the cleft between the workers and Mr. Charleston was getting larger, perhaps too large to mend. But Mr. Charleston always had the solution he so often used, if a worker annoyed him in any way, they would simply be replaced. Everyone knew that, and therefore people rarely stood up to him. I felt a slight sense of apprehension as they left my store.

A couple of days came and went, and life went on. I hadn’t seen Drury or Barton, but that wasn’t unusual, as they had stocked up last time I saw them. I just kept on doing my job, assisting the miners who came in and needed food, and in most cases, alcohol. One cloudy afternoon, I was re-stocking my shelves when the door opened and someone entered. I had my back to the person, and so I couldn’t see who it was. I said “hello”. “hey”, replied Edmund sheepishly. “Sorry, I have not been in the best of moods lately. Do you perhaps have something to lighten my mood?” I smiled, and told him:”of course. Let me check the back.” As I made my way to the storage area, I asked him:”have you seen Barton or Drury lately? They intended to confront Mr. Charleston a couple of days ago. I just wanted to hear how it went.” Edmund almost whispered now. “Oh no. He’s a bad man. They shouldn’t test him. Who knows what he might do?” I sighed, as I grabbed a bottle of cheap rum. “Well, he is not bad per say, he’s just…not good at communicating with his workers. And a tad territorial. But he does own the mines and this town. He just wants it to go smoothly I guess.” I went to the counter, put the bottle down and said to Edmund:”here, a bottle of the finest rum of the Caribbean. It will surely put a smile on your face.” Edmund smiled. “I like rum”, he said and paid for it. As he left, he muttered:”I will keep an eye out for Barton and Drury.” “You do that”, I replied. “Just don’t do anything rash.” “No sir”, he replied. After he left, I sighed, and continued my work, as I silently prayed that things would get better.

The next day, I was sitting at my desk, going through a catalog, ordering some items home which I felt the miners would enjoy. Mostly alcohol and assorted biscuits. I heard the door creak open, and instinctively I called out:”hello.” No reply. “hmm”, I thought to myself, as I stood up and went to see who had entered. As I stepped inside, I heard shuffling from the shelves in my front, as well as someone rummaging through some items. “Hello”, I said again, a bit more sternly this time. Still, no reply. But I heard a low voice saying:”is this it? What does it want? Show me what it wants.” I felt chill running down my spine, as I couldn’t quite put a face to the voice. I hurried along the shelves, turned the corner and looked down the isle. What I saw baffled me. A person, most likely a man, with white, scraggly hair was searching my selection of condiments, picking one up after another, looking at them, then putting them down again. The head kept twitching to the right side every few seconds. I was at a loss as to who it could be, and said rather loudly:”excuse me sir, can I help you?” The person slowly turned his head towards me, and I gasped as I realized it was Mr. Charleston. And yet, it wasn’t. It had his physique. And yet, the face was full of blisters, as if he had been in a fire. His hair was no longer well groomed, but instead white and scraggly. How could this be? I had seen him not two days ago, and everything had been fine. I gasped and called to him:”my god. Are you all right, Mr. Charleston?” His mouth began to form a smile as he looked at me, and he said:”oh yes. Quite all right, Adam. We were just looking for some salt…and some bay leaves.” I stared at him for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what I was seeing. Finally, he said:”Adam?” I quickly excused myself, and found the items for him. As I handed them to him, I asked:”have Barton and Drury visited you at the mansion?” He looked at me, silent, for a moment, his head always twitching to his right every few seconds. Then he finally spoke. “No, they have not. Why do you ask?” I didn’t press the matter, even though I knew he was lying. I simply said:”No matter. They had mentioned they intended to pay you a visit. I asked them not to. Seems they decided to follow my advice.” I was on my way to the counter, when I heard the door to the store open. I turned around and saw that Mr. Charleston was leaving. I cleared my throat loudly, and said:”aren’t you forgetting something, Mr. Charleston?” He was halfway out of the store, turned around slowly, and looked perplexed. I pointed at his wares, and said:”they don’t pay for themselves, you know. Come on up here, let’s wrap this up.” I beckoned him to follow me up to the counter, and finish the transaction. He slowly started to make his way back into the store, when suddenly he stopped. His face turned even redder, and he started shouting:”we need it. Now. We need to hurry.” I just stood there, mouth agape, looking at him with a puzzled expression on my face. He then turned and stormed out of the store. I wrote down on a ticket what he had taken, and intended to ask about the payment next time he would be at the store.

A few days after the odd visit of Mr. Charleston, I was sweeping the store, as to make it presentable for the costumers. I had had a few slow days, nothing unusual, but I had a creeping feeling at the back of my head. Why hadn’t I seen Barton, Drury or Edmund for a while? Had they been fired? And what was going on with Mr. Charleston? His odd behavior was quite unusual for him. And if Barton and Drury had paid him a visit, how had he reacted? So many unanswered questions. And that’s when I made probably the worst decision of my life. I decided I had to see Mr. Charleston. In his mansion. I took a deep breath, and continued cleaning the store, and entertaining the customers that came by. At 18.30 I decided to close shop, and headed towards Mr. Charleston’s mansion. I slowly meandered through town, contemplating what I would say to Mr. Charleston, as I did not want to provoke him in any way. His demeanor the other day had been…weird, to say the least. I also wondered about Barton, Drury and Edmund, since I hadn’t seen them for a while. Usually they visited to chat from time to time, but since that day they had talked about visiting him, it was as if they had disappeared, perhaps moved on to pastures new. It wasn’t quite unlike Mr. Charleston to fire people who gave him any sort of slight. But, if he had been so aggressive to me just for asking for payment, how would he have reacted if they had told him to treat Edmund better, to be kinder to him? All of this was making me concerned, both for the miners and for whatever had happened to Mr. Charleston. Eventually I stood in front of the gates to Mr. Charleston’s mansion. The massive, black steel gates were quite impressive, and on the top of the wall connecting to them were a couple of gargoyles. Mr. Charleston called them the watchers of his estate. The gates creaked as I slowly opened them, making a loud noise in the early evening darkness. My heart was racing as I had no idea as to how Mr. Charleston would react to a trespasser, especially after hours. But I didn’t feel like I had any choice. I had to find out what had happened to the miners. As I came closer to the doors of the mansion, I started feeling sweat break out on me. The night air was cool, but there was something about the…mansion, that was warming him. When I reached the doors, I was drenched in sweat. It was clear that the source of the heat came from the mansion. But there was no smoke. So it couldn’t be fire. I knocked on the door. I nervously waited for several seconds, the heat making me really uncomfortable. After there was no reply, I knocked again, and tried the handle. Surprisingly, it was not locked. The door creaked as I opened it and I was hit with a wave of unbelievable heat. When I recovered, I shouted:”hello?” Again, without a reply. I carefully made my way to Mr. Charleston’s favorite room, the study. He spent many hours in there, reading and writing, as well as contemplating worldly things. As I made my way through the dark hallway, I noticed the lack of lighting. Usually Mr. Charleston had all the lights on, as he felt it was more comfortable. The door to the study was closed. I knocked, and slowly opened it. “Mr. Charleston?”, I said weakly. I felt fear growing inside of me. There was no answer. I turned the lights on. The study was empty. I sighed, both in relief and despair. As I turned around to leave, I thought I heard a creak coming from the stairs to the basement. “Mr. Charleston”, I shouted. Still no answer. I hurried towards the kitchen, as it was the fastest way to the basement. Upon entering the kitchen I noticed two things. First, the lights were on in the kitchen. Second, something was cooking in the oven. I couldn’t get a proper look, it simply looked like an oversized turkey. But the smell was somehow…different. I thought no more of it, as I heard another sound, coming from underneath. I quickly made my way to the stairs to the basement. I soon realized that the basement itself was not lit, but there was some sort of…glow coming from it, purplish in hue. I heard some sort of muffled sound coming from the dark recesses of the basement. I gave a weak:”hello?” to whoever or whatever was down there. I was not really keen on meeting whatever was making that sound. As I slowly crept down the stairs, one of the boards in the middle creaked. I stopped and held my breath. The muffled sound also stopped, if only for a few seconds. Then it started again, more intense. My heart was racing, my breath was heavy and the heat was becoming unbearable. I again tried calling out:”hello?” but again, no answer, save for that muffled sound. As I came to the bottom of the stairs, I realized that the purple hue was pulsating somehow. I fumbled as I tried to find the lamp I knew was down here, but eventually I found it. As I turned it on, the weak light illuminated the basement somewhat. Now, I have to explain how his basement was built. At the end of the stairs, you come to a corridor, with a door on the right side and a door on the left side, and at the end of the corridor there is also a door. The room to the left was a room in which he kept his collection of wine, and the room to the right was a room where he did some woodworking – he was quite skilled at it, creating fantastic images on pieces of wood. The last room was an empty room, save for one chair, where he sometimes went to contemplate things, when he had rough times. When the light illuminated the corridor, I could see that the door to the room on the right was open. It also seemed to be where the muffled sound came from. And I was sure that the source of the heat was somewhere down here, as it felt as if my skin was being cooked. And my hand had a reddish color now. Which reminded me of Mr. Charleston, when he stopped by the store, after the encounter with Edmund, and that accursed cloud, or whatever it had been. I was getting an uneasy feeling in the back of my head. Then I realized. He had been red in the face, sweating profusely. I tried to control my breathing as I made my way slowly towards the open door. The muffled sound started to sound somehow…familiar, although I could not explain why it did. Right before I was in front of the door, I stopped. If I turned and ran, maybe I could just pack my things and leave for good. There was as if something…otherworldly was going on in this town. I took a deep breath, tried to calm my nerves by whispering “it’s all in your head” quietly to myself, and then I turned and looked in Mr. Charleston’s woodworking room. But what I saw chilled me to the core, and I had to turn away, retching. In the room, Edmund lay bound and gagged. And the table on which Mr. Charleston had often worked on his fantastic creations, it now had been turned red with blood, as I saw limbs from either Barton or Drury in the corner. And what I had thought had been an oversized turkey in the oven, probably was a torso belonging to one of them. When I was done retching, I sprinted for the stairs, but as I was halfway, I saw a figure coming down the stairs. I froze. The figure was robed, so I could not see any facial features. I noticed the elongated, gnarly fingers, with long, sharp nails. Whoever this was, he was not from town. The figure was talking to itself. I thought I recognized the raspy voice. As I strained my ears, I could discern a few random sentences. “We want food…we have a visitor…hungry…hungry…” Hearing that gave me the chills. As the figure came to the end of the stairs, it took its hood down. A few, long, white, scraggly hairs stood on the head of an emaciated face. But I recognized the features of Mr. Charleston. He gave a wry smile as he said:”why hello, Adam. Are you here to join?” and then he turned the light off. I gasped as my eyes tried to adjust to the darkness. I impulsively backed away a bit, but it was too late. Soon I felt a heavy blow on my head, and I was knocked out. When I came to, I was tied up and gagged. I tried to scream, but all I could make was a muffled sound. The true horror of the situation washed over me, as I realized two things, first was that Mr. Charleston had gone insane and had started eating some of the miners. Second, was that I was one of the next to be dismembered and devoured by a cannibal. I felt a tear start to run down my cheek. Then, something really weird happened. I saw the light in the corridor turn on. Then I heard a weak voice call:”hello?”. My voice. I tried to call out, but all that came out was a muffled sound. I heard the stairs creak, followed by another “hello?”. My fear was absolute now, tears running down my cheek. I tried hard to tell the person outside – me – to just run away and never come back. I heard the footsteps stop right outside the room. I held my breath. And I screamed both inside and out in true horror, as I saw myself look into the room. I heard myself retching outside. Then I heard the sprinting…and then Mr. Charleston’s raspy voice. Then the lights turned out, and I heard a loud thud, as Mr. Charleston knocked me out – the other me. Then I heard him outside the room, talking to me. He said:”thank you so much for joining us. It – we – feed on fear. And the fear you emitted during your stay here is…exquisite. Enjoy your stay, you are going to be here for a long time.”