The Curse of Arnford Manor - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Arnford

"The Arnford" (Abandoned Resort Hotel), Holliston, NC
July 14th, 1931, 9:16pm.

The Arnford stood near the edge of a wide plateau and overlooked most of Holliston below. From the town center, a quiet asphalt road offered easy passage up the gentle slope to the hotel.

As the witches made their way to the Arnford property with Swift Coyote, they began to notice their surroundings were plagued with death. The multitude of towering fir trees had lost all their leafs, leaving only their crooked branches to cast eerie shadows in the moonlight. The grass cover beside the road became sparse and eventually non-existent. Perched in the trees were dozens of owls, oddly shirking their natural tendency not to flock. They stared at Swift Coyote and the witches with their piercing eyes, as if considering whether they could take prey so large.

Not knowing what secrets lay hidden within the Arnford's walls, the party had dressed for any eventuality. The witches had re-donned their hooded casting robes, as there was no need to dress inconspicuously. Swift Coyote had discarded the stuffy garments of the western man and replaced them only with his traditional breechcloth and leggings. His toned, naked chest bore the same battle marks that his ancestors had painted upon themselves before great hunts.

They carried with them their entire luggage, hoping that the empty hotel would provide a hospitable shelter for the night. Each of the witches wore a backpack containing their few personal belongings. Nerine also carried a small suitcase that contained her potions and reagents. Levinia carried a suitcase containing some of the coven's precious magical relics. Swift Coyote carried nothing but his bow, quiver and hunting knife.

A short brick wall by the roadside, engraved with the words, "Welcome To The Arnford" indicated that the five companions were nearing their destination. Shortly afterwards, the Arnford itself rose up from the horizon, into their line of sight. It was a large building that varied between two and three stories in height. The bright white exterior stood out against the dark of night.

As the party drew closer to the building they realized that it was far older than they initially assumed. The outer wings of the hotel may have been recent additions, but for the most part, it seemed that the building had originally been built as a plantation manor, not a hotel. Judging from the style of the architecture, it may have been as old as the mid-18th century.

The heavy doors of the main entrance, which had been conveniently left unlocked, groaned in protest as the witches pushed them open. Cautiously, they ventured into the darkness. The grand lobby they immediately found themselves in suggested that a thorough search of the hotel could well take them all night.

They found an adjoining pair of guestrooms on the ground floor and left their bags at the feet of the beds within. Then they began their explorations.

The entire building seemed like it had been frozen in time. Throughout the communal areas were fancy vases, filled with wilted and dried flowers. On the front desk, lonely pens layed beside dry inkwells. Most of the larger pieces of furniture were shrouded beneath ghostly white sheets, waiting patiently for the day when they could be of service to the hotel's numerous guests, once more. Nothing seemed to be missing – save for the lively banter of its residents and the shine of the lavish chandeliers.

The witches and their warrior friend moved from room to room, keeping their minds open for anything that felt unusual. Before long, they found themselves standing before a set of panelled double doors. On one door was a plaque, "Functions Room B." This was where the Harrigans had discovered all those babies.

Nerine, whose sharp intuition had unconsciously guided the party to this place, drew a deep breath to calm herself. Then she reached for the brass door handle and turned...

The doors swung inward with absolute silence to reveal an unremarkable room beyond. Fifteen feet wide, thirty feet long, with a well-polished hardwood floor. It was an unusually lofty chamber, with a lancet-arched ceiling that peaked about three stories off the ground. A long, solid-looking banquet table, lined with about 16 matching chairs was the focus of the chamber. At the far end was a short stage, elevated about three feet above the rest of the floor. On the wall behind it were three huge stained-glass windows, which let in the faint glow of the moonlit sky outside.

Nerine stepped inside the room, followed by Levinia and Nina, then Demi and finally, Swift Coyote. Each witch shuddered fiercely as she passed through the doorway.

"The curse is strong here," Demi remarked in a sorrowful tone.

"What makes you think that?" Swift Coyote asked.

"Are you cold?" She inquired.

"No," he answered.

"Are the hairs on your arms standing on end?" She countered.

Swift Coyote ran his fingers over his forearm and indeed felt the fine brushing of many erect hairs.

Demi didn't need him to respond – she already knew what his answer would be. "It's the body's way of telling you that the room is cursed. Witches are especially in tune to such things."

As if pulled by some unseen tether, Nerine paced rapidly along the side of the table, then stopped abruptly at the far end. Her companions followed, at a less urgent pace.

"This is it!" She declared, pointing at a very specific point on the floor. "This is the epicenter of the entire curse. The source of all that ill will we saw amongst the townsfolk today... and the dark energy that created the manifestation in Applebury."

"So... This place is the source of the curse?" Swift Coyote repeated, "What does that mean? Do we have to destroy the hotel?"

"No, The ground here would remain cursed, no matter what happened to the building. In fact, the curse would probably feed off the mindless destruction," Nerine explained. "The damage can only be mended with ritual magic."

"Wait..." Swift Coyote almost chuckled, hardly believing how simple Nerine was making it sound. "You mean that all you girls need to do to fix this is cast a spell?"

"Not that simple," Nina lamented, shaking her head.

"Think of a curse as a disease upon the spiritual veil that binds the world together," Levinia began. "Just like with any physical disease, you can't pick out the right medicine until you know what you're dealing with. We need to understand the nature of the curse... how it was cast and the motivation behind it, before we can tailor a ritual to undo the sickness."

"I'm willing to bet that there are answers elsewhere in this building," Nina remarked.

"Yes... There is something else here... Something... hidden... waiting," Nerine agreed. She seemed to be mesmerized by the floorboards at the curse's center in a way that concerned her four companions.

After a moment of awkward silence, Nina suggested, "Let's keep searching."

"Something... cold..." Nerine continued muttering to herself. "Something... dangerous..." She shook her head gently as she broke free from a telepathic trance.

Nina marched over to the massive table and waved a hand through the air in a single, brisk motion. Small flames flared to life upon each of the three silver candelabras on the table.

"Here," she said, passing a candelabra each to Levinia, Demi and Swift Coyote. "Use these for light."

"What are we looking for?" Swift Coyote asked.

"We'll know it when we see it," Nina replied, immediately realizing how unhelpful the answer was. "Look for something that seems like its keeping a dreadful secret. Trust your instincts," she advised with a smile.

Her lover returned her smile and nodded.

The five companions left the functions room in single file. As they proceeded down the adjoining hallway, towards the accommodation wings, a current of frosty air spilled from the open doorway of the functions room and snaked through the shadows, following the intruders at a distance.

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"The Arnford" (Abandoned Resort Hotel), Holliston, NC
July 14th, 1931, 9:59pm.

After carefully inspecting the umpteenth guest suite in a row, the four hooded witches filed out of the room. Swift Coyote followed, only a few steps behind Levinia. He was at the doorway of the fully furnished suite, just about to leave, when he felt a cold breeze rush across the backs of his ankles. He whirled around with speed that did credit to his name, causing the flames on his candelabra to flicker violently. But he saw nothing... at least, not until his candlelight was steady once more.

In his peripheral vision, he noticed something out-of-place. Beneath the large white sheet draped over the suite's lone double bed was a bulge. Resting right in the center of the bed, it ran almost all the way from the headboard to the foot of the frame.

The general shape of the mound looked an awful lot like a covered human body.

Swift Coyote could scarcely believe his eyes. He had just inspected the room with the witches and he could've sworn that bulge hadn't been there a second ago.

Slowly, cautiously, he approached the mysterious mound. Like an expert hunter, his footsteps didn't make a sound. As he stopped beside the unsettling form on the bed, the warrior reached for the edge of the white sheet. He slowly peeled the cover back to reveal what layed beneath...

A blanket.

A blanket that had been rolled up and left lying in the middle of the mattress by the hotel staff.

Or had it?

He was certain the bulge hadn't been there earlier. In fact, when he thought about it, he distinctly recalled the rolled-up blanket lying horizontally across the foot of the bed, just like in every other room they had examined.

Trust your instincts, Nina had advised him earlier. Well, right now Swift Coyote's instincts were telling him that there was something unnatural here – in this very room! After eyeballing the exposed section of the blanket and deciding that there was nothing special about it, Swift Coyote slipped his hand beneath it and lightly pressed against the mattress.

His grandfather had taught him ways to listen to the spirits of the departed. Swift Coyote couldn't sense any spirits inhabiting the room. But when he touched the mattress he tapped into an ‘impression' – an event so powerful that it burned a memory into the objects around it.

In his mind's eye, Swift Coyote saw a young white man, surrounded by darkness. He called himself Ernest Skylar; he was a merchant who had come here for hospitality. He was dying... No! He was being killed! Swift Coyote could feel the terror of the man's final seconds. He couldn't breathe... he was cold... so very cold... the blood in his veins turned to stagnant sludge. The man's lifeforce was wrenched out of his body – violently.

When the vision ended, Swift Coyote removed his hand from beneath the blanket... to find his fingers covered with maggots! He could see now that there was a large infestation of them squirming beneath the rolled-up blanket!

Surprised, but not alarmed, Swift Coyote gently brushed the tiny creatures off his fingers and onto the blanket. They were, after all, fellow children of the earth, no less than himself or the mighty trees.

The vision he'd experienced revealed that a man had died in this room, under traumatic circumstances. Odds were that he was one of the suspicious deaths that Mrs. Harrigan had mentioned earlier.

Nina and the others would want to know about this discovery. Swift Coyote went looking for his friends – they'd only just left the suite so they couldn't have gone far. He stuck his head out into the hallway and looked to the left.

"Nina! Levinia!" he called, in a regular speaking volume, assuming that the witches were still close by. No answer. A barely audible sound, like a gust of wind, came from the opposite direction. Swift Coyote turned just in time to see a slender, feminine leg disappearing behind a corner.

"Levinia?" he called again. It puzzled him why the witches would be heading to the right, because that was the direction they had already searched. Nonetheless, he followed.

As he rounded the corner into another hallway, he heard another gust of wind. Then he felt it – chilly air blowing across his skin, making his nipples tighten. It played havoc with his candlelight, before extinguishing it all together. The warrior huffed in frustration. He slowed down to give his eyes time to adjust to the sudden darkness. After a few seconds he could make out a faint white glow, like moonlight, emanating from around the next corner. He quickened his pace, while remaining mindful of possible obstacles in his path.

Beyond the next corner was yet another long hallway. This one was lined by wide windows, all along the left side, that reached from the floor to the ceiling. No sooner had Swift Coyote turned the corner than he stopped suddenly in his tracks. About twenty feet ahead of him, a young woman was dancing, stark naked, under the sheer curtains of one of the windows. The pale moonlight swept across her skin like waves on a beach as she swayed back and forth. Only small portions of her body were illuminated at any one time, but her silhouette resolved many of her details. She seemed to be reasonably young - slender, curvaceous, with ample, pert breasts. Her hair was long and didn't reflect the moonlight, suggesting it was dark in color. The snippets of skin that she slipped into the moonbeams seemed smooth and flawless.

At first, Swift Coyote thought it was Levinia, for she certainly had the same body type, but he soon realized that this was someone he'd never seen before. Something about this mystery woman perturbed him... something he couldn't quite put his finger on. He suddenly realized that the hairs on his arms were standing on end.

The woman stopped dancing and looked at the Native American as if she'd only just noticed him. Her face remained shrouded in shadow. Without a word, the woman turned her back to Swift Coyote and wandered off in the opposite direction, walking at a relaxed pace.

"Hey! Wait!" Swift Coyote pleaded, to no avail. He began to pursue her. He had no idea who this woman was, but he was sure that he needed to find out.

Every few steps, the woman would shine as she passed through another window and a beam of the pale moonlight. Swift Coyote was rapidly closing the distance between them. But the instant he came within an arm's reach of where she was supposed to be, she seemed to disappear. He hadn't bumped into her or passed her, but she ceased crossing the moonbeams shining through the windows.

Suddenly, he caught sight of her in the distance ahead of him. Somehow, she had skipped pass two windows unseen. Startled, but undeterred, the warrior continued to give chase. He lost her again for a moment at the end of the hall, but he quickly noticed her turning the corner.

The corner, as it turned out, led down a stairwell. He watched her over the railing as she leisurely padded down the steps. By now, his vision had adjusted to the darkness. He could make out the shapes of every object in the room. Yet there were moments when he completely lost sight of the woman. She was literally disappearing into one shadow and reappearing from another!

Now realizing that this creature had magical powers, Swift Coyote placed the useless candelabra on a nearby table, then drew an arrow from his quiver and readied his bow. He proceeded cautiously down the stairs, his body coiled like a spring to defend himself, if necessary.

By the time he reached the bottom, the woman had eluded him again. But he soon caught sight of her naked buttocks, sashaying from yet another shaft of moonlight, into the shadows, on his left-hand-side. He felt his manhood reacting to the sight of her firm, swaying flanks. Despite his best efforts to remain focused, his rod began to tingle and twitch.

Something that had been troubling Swift Coyote was the fact that her footsteps didn't make a sound. It was not uncommon for women to have a dainty stride, but this lady was absolutely silent. She had virtually rendered his tracking expertise useless. On the other hand, it seemed obvious that she was deliberately leading him somewhere. It was a way of asserting control over the warrior by getting him to follow her, on her own terms. It was working.

He lost sight of her again in the middle of another hallway. Just as he was about to double-back, he heard a door thump against a doorstop, just a few feet ahead. He continued forward and came upon a set of double-doors that were wide-open. He passed through the doorway, into a medium-sized chamber. There were four large windows, but they were on the wrong side of the building to receive the moonlight, leaving the room reasonably dark. Swift Coyote made his way around the edge of the room, unable to see anything more than a few feet away.

Suddenly, he noticed movement. A long haired-silhouette stepping out of a shadowy corner. It was the mysterious woman, and this time she was walking towards him. He pulled some tension on his bowstring, preparing to fire. The woman wasn't deterred by his wary stance.

When she came within a few feet of him, Swift Coyote could clearly make out her entire body. Her erect nipples, the short field of dark hair cupped in the vee of her womanhood, even her youthful, pretty face and the conniving smirk upon it. But it was far too dark for him to actually see such details so clearly. He realized that the woman was magically feeding the naked details of her appearance directly into his mind.

When she stepped closer, Swift Coyote wanted to raise his bow so that the arrow was aimed right between her eyes. But his arms would not obey; they trembled in hesitation. The woman gently caressed his hand holding the bow, and pushed it to the side. In a flash of weakness, the seasoned warrior released both his bow and the arrow, letting them both clatter to the hardwood floor.

The woman smiled at him, clasped his hand and guided it on to one of her breasts. The flesh was abnormally cold, but delightfully supple. As he began to lightly squeeze, she ran her fingers across his firm chest and purred approvingly.

He could sense that the woman was an extremely sinister presence. Inside her was pure darkness, unafflicted by anything resembling virtue. But her comely facade overpowered his reason with the basest notions. He was a red-blooded man! He was supposed to spill his wild oats in her pliant flesh! Beneath his breechcloth, the warrior's lance stood at full attention.

With the lightest touch, the woman loosened his belt and let the fabric covering his maleness fall away. Swift Coyote knew that if he succumbed to her wiles, it would condemn his spirit. He tried to back away from her, but she matched him step-for-step, until eventually she had him pinned against a wall with nowhere left to run. She embraced him loosely around the neck and pressed her lips against his in a joyless kiss. He reached for his hunting knife, but couldn't bring himself to draw it from its sheath – her hold over him was just too great.

When Swift Coyote felt her tepid, moist labia sliding up and down his shaft, it sent mixed shivers of arousal and terror up his spine. He knew it was now or never! He had to prevent this abhorrent union at all costs! He focussed on thoughts of Nina. Nina was warm. Nina was loving, kind, clever, passionate, true, exciting, brave and beautiful - everything that this... thing was not. Nina was a bringer of new life. Nina could fill his heart with joy by her simple presence. He loved Nina – too much to consort with this affront to everything she believed in. He loved Nina.

He loved Nina…

He loved Nina…

Just as his manhood started to diminish, the woman slipped his cockhead between her nether lips. Feeling the head of his cock sheathed in the unnatural woman, Swift Coyote summoned all his will, laid his hands upon the woman's shoulders and pushed her away. After staggering a two paces backwards, the woman regained her balance and stared at Swift Coyote with a pout of disappointment. She almost seemed genuinely hurt by his rejection.

From the hallway outside the chamber doorway came the sound of racing footsteps, growing louder by the second.

"Swift Coyote!?" a familiar voice called, with a hint of concern. "Swift Coyote!?" A comforting yellow glow began to bloom in the hallway and in another second, Levinia raced through the doorway, candelabra in hand.

"Swift..." she started, before noticing the naked young woman standing in front of a visibly distressed Swift Coyote. Instantly recognizing the woman as a malevolent presence, Levinia extended her hand and cast a wave of offensive magic at her.

The magic seemed to do little more than jostle the woman around. But regardless, it proved enough a nuisance to make her retreat.

Nerine, Nina and Demi arrived just in time to see the woman slink into a shadowy corner with a vindictive sneer and then disappear altogether.

Swift Coyote fell to his knees, breathing raggedly. Nerine and Nina rushed to his side while Levinia and Demi kept watch for any further dangers. Though he had scarcely moved a muscle, Swift Coyote just fought an intense battle and he was exhausted, both physically and spiritually.

"I don't sense any physical harm... No dark magic upon him," Nerine reported as she ran her hands across his skin. "It seems he managed to keep her at bay."

"Swift Coyote... Honey, are you okay?" Nina asked him directly. In his weary state, the warrior was only able to look her in the eye and languidly nod his head. Nina smiled and embraced him.

Tracing her fingers over Swift Coyote's body searching for any marks, Nerine soon discovered his exposed manhood  and the foreign fluid coating his cockhead. Collecting the suspicious wetness on her fingertips, she bought her fingers to her nose and immediately cringed in disgust.

"It smells of death," she remarked. "We should cleanse his organ as soon as possible."

"Who was she?" Nina asked, to no one in particular.

"I don't know," Levinia answered. "But she's very powerful. I was hitting her with my most powerful offensive spells and they only seemed to tickle her."

"Uhh... has anyone else noticed where we are?" Demi asked with a sense of alarm. The others looked around and soon realized that they had been led right back to where they'd started – ‘Functions Room B,' the heart of the curse.

"We can't spend the night in this place," Nerine said after a brief silence. "It's much too dangerous. Can you walk?" She asked Swift Coyote, who was already looking much healthier.

"Yes," he replied.

"Then we should move."

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Woods near "The Arnford", Holliston, NC
July 14th, 1931, 11:23pm.

After collecting their belongings, the witches and Swift Coyote left the hotel and ventured deep into the woods nearby. They kept walking until they reached an area of the forest where the trees were still living and healthy. This sign meant that they had left the area where the curse was at its most dangerous.

It was far too late for them to think about searching for accommodation in Holliston proper. The town was hostile enough in broad daylight. The local innkeepers would probably shoot at them if they came knocking on their doors at this hour. So the party agreed to spend the night in the forest. They were accustomed to sleeping outdoors, anyway.

They found a reasonably flat patch of ground and created a sacred circle, using large stones from the immediate vicinity. Then the witches cast several enchantments of protection upon the circle, just in case the mysterious woman from The Arnford decided to pay them a visit in the middle of the night. Though the witches had doubts that the basic spells they used would hold her off if she truly wished to harm them.

Swift Coyote insisted on staying awake all night to keep watch. Nerine advised against it, as he needed to rest following his battle with the seductress. But he would not be dissuaded. Nina volunteered to sit up with him.

Nerine, Demi and Levinia layed down to sleep within the sacred circle, while Swift Coyote and Nina sat upon a long, flat rock that formed part of the circle's edge and watched over them. Before an hour had passed, Nina had fallen asleep, with her head resting on her lover's shoulder and her fingers entwined with his. The warrior smiled and gently kissed his beloved on her forehead. Without meaning to, he joined her in slumber shortly after.

Continued in Chapter 5

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