Chapter 895

Chapter 895: Chapter 80- Shawn – Germany Part 4 (VOLUME 5)

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Shawn

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I can’t believe that nostalgia was enough to make Dietrich almost forget why we were here. I can’t believe that he was about to run off toward the house without me. We were here to see if this place was filled with a bunch of people that killed supernatural beings like us. We were here to see if these people that had worked so hard to conceal this place were responsible for nearly a hundred murders in our community. And considering that we weren’t getting regular reports about the vampires, it could be more, and we just didn’t know about it yet. This place was potentially very dangerous, and Dietrich almost forgot about that.

It made me wonder for a moment, was it really just the house bringing back old memories that caused that response? Or was there something else going on. Did someone try to spell him? Did someone in that house do whatever these people did to make the victims easier to control? Did they use a rune or something to try and control Dietrich? If that were the case, then we would need to be extra careful when we went inside. Then again, I already planned on us being extra careful.

With Dietrich’s hand in mine, I pulled him along behind me as I made my way out of the trees and onto the long drive that led to the front of the very large house. I can’t believe that yesterday we were walking where the house stood. That was one hell of a rune if it could do that. I mean, we were literally walking through the solid matter of a building. That should not have been possible.

I wanted to present us as non threatening to the people that were most likely inside. Then again, they would have just watched me destroy the runes that protected their home from the outside world. I would literally be seen as nothing but a threat by them. They were going to think that I was a giant brute and a massive asshole. And that was at the very least. They were probably going to hate me right off the bat at the very least.

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Thinking about all of these things, I pulled Dietrich along behind me until we got to the door. I could smell something that was off about the place. There was a distinctly human scent about the place, that typical underlying scent that all humans had. But there was more to it now. There was something that was off about it. Something that just didn’t make sense to me. There was an odd odor that was wafting up like it was something dead and musty. A moldy and mildew scent that just didn’t seem to sit right. I had smelled things like it in the past, but never associated with a human. Not with something that was supposed to be alive.

“Something is wrong about this place.” Dietrich whispered next to me. “Something is truly wrong, and I just don’t know how to describe it.” He turned to look at me and I could feel the worry that was lurking behind his eyes.

“I know what you mean. This place seems so alive, yet it feels dead inside. It is so pristine and clean that it feels like it’s lived in when you look at it, but the whole place seems evil, dead, and almost like it’s going to suck out my soul if I touch that doorknob.” I shook my head to clear the thoughts from my mind. “I don’t really want to go in there, but I know that we don’t have a choice.”

“You are right about that.” Dietrich nodded at me. “We need to go in there. We need to see this through. That is what we promised to do. And look on the bright side, at least we have each other. We won’t be alone in there. We won’t need to worry about where the other is at all times.”

“You’re damn right about that, Dietrich. You are not leaving my side. I swear, if you even think about wandering off, I will put a fucking leash on you like you’re some sort of runaway toddler. I am not playing around about this, Dietrich. I will do it. Just wait and see.” I saw the shocked look on his face that he initially wore at the mention of leash turned into laughter as I went on. He thought that I was joking. He really did. “Should I put the leash on you now? I can craft one from belts and your shirt, don’t tempt me.”

“OK, OK, OK, I am sorry Liebling. I will not run off. Would you like me to hold your hand while we are in there?” He took my hand. “I promise that we will not be separated from each other at all.” He was acting like this was nothing. Like this was some sort of joke that we were having with each other. I was being serious about this. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him while we were in here. I knew that this place had a history for him. I knew that he was going to be affected by what he saw in there, and I didn’t want to lose him to those memories. Whatever they were, whatever happened between him and Alaric and the others, it was in the past. He was a different person now, and he didn’t need to return to that life anymore.

For some reason, I was already feeling like he was pulling away from me. I felt like I was going to lose him if we went in this house together. But I also knew that if I didn’t come here with him, I would have lost him that way as well. No matter what Idid in this situation, I felt like I was going to lose him. I just knew that I was.

Finally, after a long pause and awkward conversations, I knocked on the door. Waiting for a reply was the longest feeling in the world. I knew that I needed to wait, to give whoever was in there a chance to respond to us, but I also just wanted to open the door and go in there already.

I knocked again. And again. And again. Each time I heard nothing at all coming from the other side of the door. There were no voices. There were no footsteps. There was nothing at all coming from the other side. And so, I decided that it was finally time for me to go through the door.

I took the knob and turned it. The door was unlocked. It opened easily, like it was an often used and well oiled door. It was in perfect condition and didn’t make a single sound as the door swung inward.

That scent, the one that was musty and dead, intensified the moment that the door was opened. I wanted to sneeze. I wanted to run away from the smell holding my hand over my mouth and nose so that whatever poison that was in it would not infect me. But I didn’t. I knew that it wasn’t a poison. I knew that it was just something that was stagnant about the air, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with it all. I knew it, but I still hated it.

“This used to be where Alaric welcomed us to the home.” Dietrich started to reminisce. I knew that this was going to happen as well, so I just accepted it and let him talk. I would learn what was different about the place as I heard the memories that Dietrich was recanting. “This hall leads to the parlor. That was how he wanted it. People needed to feel welcomed at all times in his home. Even his enemies would feel welcomed because he was not a man that hurt people without a cause. He cared for people, all kinds of people.”

As Dietrich spoke, we walked forward into the parlor that he mentioned. I saw that the house didn’t appear to have been modernized. There were no electrical outlets. There were no light switches. No lamps. No radios. Nothing at all that needed to be plugged in to work. It was all old and filled with antiques. But those antiques looked brand new. It was like we had walked into some sort of time warp and we were literally in the house as Dietrich remembered it.

What could have caused that? What could have made it so that we were in a house that had literally not changed? How had Alaric and his descendants kept this place from experiencing the passage of time like everything else in the world. The floorboards didn’t creak. The windows didn’t rattle in the wind that was outside. There was nothing at all about this place that suggested the true age of the home. It looked like it might have just been built earlier this year.

The only thing that made it seem like it wasn’t the newest and most up to date version of this house, was that smell. That was all that kept me from thinking that there was nothing at all wrong with this place. Didn’t Dietrich smell it? Couldn’t he pick up on that smell? Or was he too lost in his thoughts and reminiscing to even notice that there was something wrong? Was he too far gone for me to even reach him now? I hoped that he would be of use to me while we traversed this place, but at the moment, I wasn’t so sure.

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