The Curse of Arnford Manor

"Levinia?" he called again. It puzzled him why the witches would be heading to the right, because that was the direction they had come from. 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 right body type, but he soon realized that this was somebody 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 seconds, the woman would shine before him as she passed through another 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 way ahead of him. Somehow, she had skipped pass two whole 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 a nearby 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 drew an arrow from his quiver and readied his bow, leaving the useless candelabra on a nearby table. He proceeded cautiously down the stairs, ready 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 ass, 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 buttocks. Despite his best efforts to remain focused, his rod began to tingle and enlarge.

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 on. 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 her trail once again in the middle of another hallway. Just as he was about to double-back, he heard a door tapping gently against a doorstop, just a few feet ahead. He continued forward and soon came upon a set of wide-open double-doors. He passed through the doorway, into a medium-sized chamber. There were some 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 right towards him. He put 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 things. He soon realized that the magical woman was feeding the fine details of her appearance directly into his mind.

When she stepped within striking distance, Swift Coyote tried to raise his arrow so that it was aimed right between her eyes. But his arms would not obey; they just trembled in hesitation. The woman gently caressed his hand holding the bow, and pushed it out of her way. 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, grabbed his hand and guided it on to one of her tits. It was abnormally cold, but delightfully supple. As he began to lightly squeeze, she ran her fingers across his rock-hard pecks and purred approvingly.

He could simply tell that the woman was an extremely sinister presence. Inside, she was pure darkness, unafflicted by anything even 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 back and forth along his shaft, it sent mixed shivers of arousal and terror up his spine. He knew it was now or never! He had to prevent their 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 going flaccid, the woman slipped his cockhead between her inner lips. Before she could go any further, Swift Coyote summoned all his will, laid his hands upon the woman's shoulders and pushed her away. After staggering a few paces backwards, the woman regained her balance and stared at Swift Coyote with a pout of disappointment. She almost seemed hurt by his rejection of her.

From the chamber entrance 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 pour into the chamber and within seconds, Levinia raced through the doorway, candelabra in hand.

"Swift..." she began, before noticing the naked young woman standing before Swift Coyote, who was visibly distressed. Instantly recognizing the woman as a malevolent presence, Levinia extended her hand and cast wave after wave of offensive magic at her. The magic seemed to do little more than jostle the woman around. But regardless, it proved enough of a nuisance to make her leave.

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 the floor, 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 had 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.

Through tracing her fingers over Swift Coyote's body in seemingly random patterns, Nerine soon discovered the foreign fluid coating his manhood. Collecting a few drops of it on her fingertips, she bought the suspicious juices up 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 14^th, 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 alive and healthy. For this 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 around it, 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 had 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 of wills 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.

CHAPTER V: Archives

Holliston Public Park, Holliston, NC

July 15^th, 1931, 11:43am.

Demi opened her knapsack and began producing the picnic lunch she had prepared earlier. She had made the sandwiches personally from only fresh ingredients. Meanwhile, Nerine retrieved five bottles of fruit juice from her own knapsack and distributed them amongst her companions.

The five friends were seated at a rickety old picnic table, in the shade of a large oak tree. From where they sat, they could see the local townspeople going about their lives in the nearby town center. Some of them were glaring at the strangers with hostility or concern. But most saved their frosty looks for their fellow townspeople. Husbands and wives walked together, hand in hand, but otherwise there was not a single sign of friendship or trust to be seen.

"There's no sense of community here," Nina noted with pity. "The curse has consumed it. Now their hearts are filled with loneliness and suspicion. They still go about their daily rituals, but they do so in pain."

"Mmm," Nerine agreed. "This entire town is teetering on the brink of disaster. I doubt it would take much to get these people to turn on each other -- violently."

"How long do you think it's been this bad?" Swift Coyote asked.

"For a while, I suspect," Nina answered. "This place has probably been gradually decaying since the curse began. We know that that was at least 25 years ago."

Demi was quick to counter her sister's idea, "I disagree. I think they've only started treating each other like this quite recently -- within the past few days. I think that all the death and terror caused by the manifestation in Applebury was channelled into the curse back here. Seven days ago, this could've been a typical American town and then virtually overnight, it's been saturated in dark energy."

"You're probably right," Nina conceded with a nod. "So... Who wants to go first?" She asked a few seconds later, changing the subject in a lighthearted tone.

"Well, we got some interesting leads," Nerine answered as she began unwrapping the brown paper containing her sandwich. She had spent the morning with Demi in the archives at the town hall. "The building was originally named 'Arnford Manor' and it was completed in the early 1740s. The current holder of the deed is a man named Gerald Colby, who apparently owns half the town. Colby's grandfather was the one who bought the manor and turned it into a hotel."

"We couldn't get any specifics about that, but the people we talked to seem to think it happened around 1880," Demi elaborated.

"So the extensions probably happened around that time, too," Nerine continued. "Most of what we heard was pretty rudimentary... But something they told us might be significant.

"In the local cemetery there are three graves side-by-side, that belong to three priests. Apparently, these priests all died within two years of each other and they all died at Arnford Manor."

"Did they die after it became a hotel?" Levinia asked.

"No, Well before," said Nerine. "Just around the turn of the 19^th century, if I remember correctly." Demi nodded in agreement.

"Do you think they're the ones who cast the curse upon The Arnford?" Swift Coyote asked Nerine.

"It's possible," Nerine admitted, "The Christian church has some powerful artifacts in its possession. As priests, they would've been keenly aware of the power of ritual. But they would need to have an incredible amount of malice in their hearts to cast a curse like this deliberately."

"It sounds like these priests are worth looking into a bit further," said Nina.

"I agree," Nerine replied, "That's why I asked the clerk in the archives to let us look at their records for the local clergy, pre-1850, as well as all the documents they have about Arnford Manor itself. He wasn't very accommodating. But we twisted his arm, so to speak. He's agreed to track down all the records we need and have them ready by this afternoon,"

"Splendid!" Nina responded with a smile. "We made some interesting discoveries ourselves, at the county coroner's office."

Levinia swallowed a refreshing mouthful of juice before explaining what she, Nina and Swift Coyote had found, "Since 1896, there have been at least thirteen suspicious deaths in Holliston. When I say suspicious, I don't mean they had a knife in their back, either. They were all young men, no older than 32, they were all supposedly fit as a fiddle, but their causes of death we're all ruled as things like heart attacks, strokes or aneurisms."

"Also, they were all found unusually decomposed," Nina added.

"The current coroner has only investigated the last three deaths," Levinia continued, "We had to drag it out of him, but we got him to admit that he found evidence that all three men had been having sex just before they died. He told us the sheriff made some discreet inquiries, but they never learned the identity of the woman involved."

"Oh, I have a feeling we've met," Swift Coyote interrupted with sombre sarcasm. Levinia comforted him with an arm around his back. He had always held himself to a lofty standard of bravery in the face of his enemy. But last night, his encounter with the shadow lady (as the group had since nicknamed her), had utterly terrified him. He felt ashamed at his perceived failure, though his friends thought no less of him.

"By the way, his vision last night was right on the money, too," Nina said, knowing that her lover could do with a compliment right about now. "One of the men was named Ernest Skylar. He died in 1904, at The Arnford."

"1904? He must've been the one Mrs. Harrigan discovered," Demi concluded.

"Right," Nina agreed. "But here's the coup de grace: on a hunch, I compared the coroner's records to the list of Mr. & Mrs. Harrigan's 'deliveries,' that Mr. Nolan gave us yesterday. Every one of those babies appeared nine months after one of those men died."

"Wait... Nine months?" Demi replied. "You're suggesting that these dead men are the babies' fathers?"

"That's what we're thinking, yes," Levinia confirmed with a nod.

"But why kill them?" Swift Coyote asked.

"It might be essential to their ritual," Nerine replied in a somewhat distant manner, as if she were thinking out loud. "Perhaps they cast a spell on the child that requires the father to be sacrificed immediately after conception..."

"Lucky she wasn't your type," Nina whispered to Swift Coyote. He chuckled softly.

"You said that there was something disturbing about the child you met?" Nerine asked her sisters.

"There was some kind of dark aura surrounding him, that's for sure," Demi agreed.

"Well, that could explain it," Nerine said.

"But... Then, who are the mothers?" Levinia asked with a bemused expression. "The shadow lady we saw couldn't have been older than 24. She wasn't getting pregnant in 1896!"

"Don't be so sure," Nerine corrected. "She had some powerful magic encircling her. Some of that may have been a disguise spell."

"...Meaning she could've been older than she looked," Levinia reasoned.

"Exactly," replied Nerine. "The youthful appearance may just be a ruse she uses to attract potential mates. On the other hand, we might be dealing with a dynasty of the dark arts -- an order that passes their legacy on to younger acolytes... much like our own, I suppose."