Have fun storming the mansion

Picture the scene.  Colorado, full of mountains and trees.  We're focusing on one mountain particular, not too far from a nearby town.  And some ways up that mountain is an old mansion.  They say it's haunted, the ghosts of an unjustly slain family torment whoever stays within.

Granted, I didn't really care about that shit.  What lived in there was worse than any ghost.

I spent a full day staking the place out.  I couldn't get too close- Who knows what'd he do if he saw me hanging around?  From what I could see, it was a big place.  Three floors, kinda run down, decrepit.  Paint flaking off the walls, couple broken windows, etc.  More importantly, a front door and two side doors.  No back door.  It was up to me to make that one.

Nick suggested getting the police.  I checked out the local police station- small.  They wouldn't be too much help.  I was on my own for this one.  Like that was new to me.

I had a lot to think about.  How do I outsmart Rhodes?  He's faster, more clever, and has had a lot of time to prepare for me.  What's the answer?  An even more complicated scheme, weaving my own web around his?  I spent a lot of the past few days trying to think of a plan, incorporate what plan his might be...

Then I realized I'm an idiot.  And I should act like one.  Do the unexpected.  Rhodes wouldn't expect me coming in through the back.  Who would?  There's a solid wall.  It's just common sense you couldn't go through there.

Right.  Fuck common sense, you guys hear me?  We're dealing with the fucking Slender Man.  Fuck common sense square up the ass with a ten foot long halberd.

THAT colorful train of thought led to a construction contractor's warehouse, a knocked out employee, and a stolen piece of hardware.  Yeah, pretty illegal ain't it.  They've almost certainly retrieved it by now, though, so no harm done.  At least to them.

It's early in the morning, the sun is just rising over the hills.  The birds are singing, the old mansion proudly welcomes the sunlight...

And a tree in the lawn bursts into flames, and falls over.  Lots of noise, light, and smoke.  The perfect distraction.  I start the bulldozer and accelerate straight down the hill.  That old wall never had a chance, and I was in the foyer before I knew it.  I could hear someone yelling outside, but I didn't care.  I jumped out and ran upstairs.  Fancy-ass staircase, like everything else.  I heard typing.  Kicking open a door I see a scrawny little guy typing desperately at a computer.  Presumably this hacker, Shift.

Hacker he may be, fighter he is not.  I drew my gun on him and yelled at him to spill the beans.  He tried to lie and say there'd never been a prisoner.  It was easily enough to see through that lie, and I gave him a whack on the head for his trouble.

That was when he told me the truth.  Nessa had been here.  And she's dead now.  That freak..he raped her.  And burnt her body.  Shift said he...kept the ashes in an urn in his bedroom on the third floor.  Even he sounded disgusted talking about it.

More on...how I feel about that some other time.  I tried to get more out of him, like on who else he has helping him, but that question was unfortunately answered as a huge burly hand grabbed me from behind and slammed me into the doorframe.  This guy was HUGE.  I mean, he looked about six and a half feet, and he was wide and muscled as all hell.  He threw me against the staircase's railing.  Luckily and unluckily for me, it didn't break.  But it did hurt like fuck.  I tried to grab my gun but he kicked it aside.

I stabbed his foot and heard him growl- yeah, GROWL- with pain.  I took off running towards the corner, but suddenly a pale blue outline of a person appeared out of the wall next to me.  Then it formed into Shift.  I think he's like Hylo somehow- he can phase through solid matter.  I ran straight into him and stumbled back, right into the big guy's grasp.  This time I got slammed against the far wall.  Those bruises are gonna hurt for a while.

He pulled me back to do it again.  I looked up and saw one of those fancy lamps, like, with the squiggly metal bases, hanging out of the wall.  I kicked off of the burly guy and wrapped my legs around it, and twisted to avoid getting smashed a second time.  That surprised him enough to get him to lessen his grip, so reached up, grabbed the lightbulb out of the lamp, and smashed it into his face.  Not that it did much, but it gave me another second.

I jumped down, and ran past him, scooping up my gun (making sure to clock Shift on my way over!).  I turned around and shoot the big guy in the arm and shoulder.  He fell over, swearing in pain.  I turned to Shift, but he was already gone through the wall.  Pointing the gun back at the big guy, I asked him where Rhodes was.

Naturally, he pointed up.

Up the stairs.  At the grand bedroom I paused and reloaded before kicking the door down.  Empty.  Grand bed, several photos of himself, and...a red urn.  With that drawing of him she did besides it.  I...I'll admit, I spend about ten seconds just staring at it.  I managed to get that under control, though.

For his room, it was pretty bare bones.  Guess he kept the evil plans and shit somewhere else.  Or got rid of it before I showed up.  I went through his stuff and there was nothing.

Back out into the hallway, and I almost lost my life right then and there.  I just barely avoided the bullet that came at me from the side.  And that laugh.

"Oooh!  Close one, close one!  Come on, to the roof!  That's the best way to have a final climactic battle!  Oh, this is EXCITING, June, you have just no idea!"

I heard him scrambling up some more stairs.  Looking around the corner, I saw another staircase leading up into the sunlight.  As I ran forward, I threw a knife through the opening.  Good thing I did, too.  It was like a glass wall shattering, only the glass vanished the moment it hit the ground.  Who knows what that thing would have done.

Running up onto the roof, I immediately rolled forward to avoid the next shot- but it never came.  I looked up, at the figure silhouetted in the sunrise.  He laughed again.

"Come on, all this way for an anticlimax with guns?  That isn't how a final battle works at all, Konaa!  We fight man to man.  Come on, how does it sound?  Great, right?"

I didn't even bother dignifying this with a response and emptied my clip at him.  To no avail.  Every last bullet fell short of him in midair and hit the ground.  His laughter grew deranged.  Like, even for him.

"So sorry, but bullets won't work on this rooftop.  Mine too, as it happens.  You see, that wall you broke was the entrance to this Territory."

I can take a hint, I didn't try with the gun again.  Putting it back in the holster, I drew a couple knives instead and walked forward, the two of us circling each other.

"A Territory is normal space, twisted by the one who calls it, in this case, yours truly.  It's the sort of thing those in my profession can employ, and it's useful for keeping people trapped.  I set a Rule.  In this case...The Rule is rather potent, since I'm quite proficient in them.  The Rule is...No anticlimactic finish to this battle.  We fight it out, and to the winner goes the spoils!  Which...in this case is a mansion with very lowered property values.  A bulldozer?  Really?  Please tell me you don't want to be Cifer when you grow up."

I'd had enough of his smug face.  "Are you quite done babbling?  If we have to gut each other, so be it.  I just want you to die, so do us all a favor and get with the program!"

With that, we charged each other.  Lots of slashing, lots of hacking.  He was...inhumanly fast.  Before long I'd received several gashes without even dealing one.  Until I remembered that little note.  Do the unexpected.  I dropped my knives.  He blinked, and I sliced him across the chest with Zerosword in that instant.  Rhodes managed to jump back, though, so I didn't have my split psychopath.  That was a pretty nasty cut, though.  He looked shocked, and in pain.  And then...he laughed again.

It was sick.  It made me feel sick just hearing that noise.  There was nothing sane behind it.  It was a laugh that only the most twisted sense of humor could bring out.  "That's it that's it that's it!  Hurt me more.  You can actually hurt me!  This is great.  Fantastic!  I haven't felt pain in such a long time...I forgot how great it is!  Aaah...it's nothing to the great suffering I put poor dear Nessy through though."

I paused in spite of me.  I wanted to hear what he had to say.

His smile widened.  "Oh yeah, I took her in that way, alright.   I don't usually do that, but I tailor the torture to the victim, y'dig?  She was so fragile, so easily broken...psychologically and physically.  The most fun I've had in a looooong time.  Her crying face was like a work of art.  The sight of someone crushed beyond hope is truly beautiful!  And I have YOU to thank for it!"

I sputtered.  "Me!?  You're the monster who-"

"Ap ap ap.  You had your hand in this.  If you hadn't drawn her back into the community, I'd've never found her.  And never taken her, certainly, if she hadn't made that drawing, and you hadn't foolishly assumed she was safe.  So thanks for that, June!  Thanks a-"

I cut his arm off.  He staggered backwards, face white as a ghost.  Then...I got a horrible confirmation about his status as nonhuman.

Scaley, thick ropes, shot out of his wound.  They wrapped around themselves, and formed...into a snake.  He stood there, covered in blood, with a fucking snake with its own head for an arm.  I could only stare.  And I vocally wondered just what the hell he was.

"Oh, I'm still quite human.  Just because I happen to have a little friend in here with me doesn't change that!  Don't discriminate now."  And with that, he lunged.  The snake struck out of its own free will and he stabbed in a different direction.  I chose to roll again, slashing at his side as I got up, catching him.  I got a view of inside his body- more snakes.  Blood, organs, and more of those snakey ropes.  He began to laugh, again.

"This is PURE GOLD!  The Hero finds out, to his horror, the Evil Lord is more monster than man!  But he fights on regardless, to avenge the damsel who died valiantly!  What a story!  This cracks me up!  And yeah, you heard me.  Hero."

I had scowled at that mention of that word.  His eyes narrowed.  He smelled blood, metaphorically.  I'm sure literally he had plenty of blood to smell.

"Yeah, that's right...Whine about how no one should rely on you all you want.  Get as mad about being called a hero, about being compared to Juno, to something akin to a savior- it doesn't change the fact that you want to be one.  You want to save everyone!  That way you can convince yourself your parents didn't die in vain.  That way it can be worth it!"

I was shivering.  I should have kept attacking, but...he was getting to me.

"Cause you think you CAN be!  You always think, don't they treat me too much like a kid?  Haven't I saved people before?  I deserve respect!"  He stepped forward.

"Well Juney boy.  Here we are.  Come on.  Kill me.  Be the big hero.  Save the world, June!  Save the WORLD!"  He spread his arms (well, arm and snake) wide.  "Stab!  Right in the heart!  No way I could survive that, right!?  Make it worth it, boy!  MAKE IT WORTH IT!"

The sword dropped from my hand.  I felt tears running down my face.  It was too much.  He was right.  I really am a glory hound, no matter how much I try to deny it.  Do I really want to help people for the sake of it, or do I want to be seen as The Hero, that one missing part of Core Theory, the one who dies to save the world from the Slender Man?  He laughed again.

"Just as I thought.  You really don't have the guts.  Aaah well, if you'd tried it I would have gutted you anyway.  You really don't have the brains to deal with me, kid.  Always charging forward, never noticing the traps I set...Well, you did pretty well just now, but it's mainly cause you pussied out.  Oh well...We can't all be heroes, you know?" He reached up and started brushing hair out of his face.

And I looked up...and grinned.  "If you ask me, the real Hero...has already gone to ground."

He blinked.  "What?"

And I ran forward, and gave him a ramming blow with my shoulder.  Over the edge he went.  I looked over, saw him hit the ground, roll down the hill...and over the mountain edge.  It's...a long way down.  I could see the body, barely.  It wasn't moving.

I heard police sirens.  I gathered up my stuff and got out of the house, which was devoid of people, now.  Before I left, I smashed Nessa's vase.  I didn't...want what was left of her to be a memory of what he did to her.

And I made good my escape.  On the way down, I checked the body.  It had no pulse.  He wasn't breathing.  The snakes were gone.  It was...kind of disgusting.  Let's just say that between that fall and my cuts, he wasn't exactly winning the Miss Proxy Pageant anymore.

He's dead.  She's dead.  I'm not.

Not sure how to feel.  What about you guys?