In the main hall were two Maquettes, a Gobbler and three Lifters. Another Lifter was crawling out of the basement door. Olivia must’ve realised there was something spewing inside just as I did because when she came running in from the front door and gave me an annoyed look. I shot one back as I told her, “I need to go get another sword.”

“Get me one too.”

That was all she said before she went for the Lifter that came out the basement door. The others tried reaching for her, but I went running after her and probably threw a punch at the Gobbler that tried to use one of its many mouths to vacuum Olivia. She hacked at the Lifter at the door. It was a monstrous thing that stood on two very long arms that lifted its body from the ground. The Lifter’s mouth was on the bottom of the body and as I slid below it I saw horrors I wish I could forget.

Our weaponry was kept in a room in the basement. It had to be the most well kept and organised room besides our bedrooms. From swords to guns, we had any weapon that could be used in a battle against the nightmares.

Climbing down the cobble stairs and into the horror called the basement, I was met with a miasma that any ordinary person would throw up to. The rotting corpses that Olivia and I had killed earlier today were on my way to the Weaponry room, laying a manner that I can only assume Olivia put them at.

“Why did you have to go and do this?” I yelled. Though I couldn’t hear her full response because of the nightmares, a few nasty words still reached me.

Climbing on the Gobbler—a nightmare that had more than one mouth all over its drunk-uncle bod—to be able to get past the barricade with a dull knife that I stabbed into it so I could haul myself up. A few moments later, I was at the metal door.

The bulb had stopped working here a long time ago and neither Olivia and I remembered to replace and the door squeaked as I shoved it open. Behind the foreboding door, in perfect arrangement, were the last two swords left. We had 4 in total. Olivia lost one to a Gobbler two nights ago, and she has been using mine since (we didn't want to use new swords yet).

Grabbing the two swords, I turned to go back the way I came when I noticed the formation of a Lifter.

Nightmares were damned to form in the basement. They had been trapped here so a group of Valiente's hunters could kill them, however, because it’s just Olivia and I we can’t always keep them down here, hence them escaping to the manor. Now, Olivia was already dealing with more nightmares than she could handle and I’d do well to go upstairs without having a Lifter right at my tail.

With a spear and the remaining tendrils of adrenaline, I launched at the Lifter—head high, energy low. It was a quick finish, not much of a struggle since it shocked the Lifter to death. It wasn’t prepared, and that was what I needed.

Now left with two swords and a spear, I raced back upstairs only to have another Lifter thrown at me. I ducked as it went screeching above me and threw my spear after it. The jade spear slashed through its mouth and punctured its heart or whatever lies in the centre of that beast.

As nimble as a mouse, I leaped on top of the Lifter, pulled my spear back and aimed it at the Gobbler right behind Olivia. I charged forth, mighty spear in hand, into the heart of the Gobbler with a loud cry. It struck and the Gobbler let out a thunderous roar as it turned to face me. Luckily for me, Olivia still had a lot more zest left within her and stabbed the Gobbler with her broken sword in its very centre.

And behind her came a Maquette. It latched on to Olivia’s legs and arms swiftly and immediately began trying to pull her limbs apart. Her panicked cries filled the hall.

Although it was Olivia who was going through the gruesome pain, it was my eyes that blacked out. It was me who screamed in a shrill voice. It was my legs that stomped like a beast exhausting a small fibre of a magic which caused a clamorous clap against the ground. And it was me who probably passed out.