Prologue: I was at a couple’s therapy hotel. It was a creepy place that had some kind of supernatural power, to turn back time on the couples so that they could relive some of there youth and remember why they cared about each other. Still, there was definitely something sinister about it.


When me and my lady companion first arrived at the compound She didn’t seem to notice anything strange or eerie so I tried my best not to act panicked of scared as I notice little things that didn’t seem right. Walking by the side of the building heading for the front door we saw a group of children no older than 10, but the way they were speaking said otherwise.

“My lord Boo, look at you. You are so young. Is this really possible,” said a small black girl in pig tails leaning a bike against a chain length fence.

“It is me girl, I’m back, I don’t know how but I never stopped loving you child,” Said a boy of equal size standing in front of her.

The two smiled and laughed at each other before setting there things aside and scampering off together as there laughter faded into the distance I swear I saw them, too fade away; as if they were an illusion the entire time or something else… Like I said before I did not want to frighten the woman I was with so I thought it best to assume my eyes were playing tricks on me. We came to the front door, I noticed a few couples in the lawn area each group talking some more seriously then others. I tried my best to pay them no attention as we walked past them into the building. We were greeted by The Countess Scarletta, which I noted. She was a fair but pale skinned woman that wore clothes that were very popular around the time I assume other Countesses roamed about more frequently, bordering on Elizabethan and the time that shortly followed. She began to give us a brief history of the world travels that the many owners of the place had been. As we stood in the grand front room that was oddly open and but confided.

The architected that designed it was order to make an extremely large house but to give each room a small or cozy feel to them, so that the owner could be encouraged to free roam but not feel uneasy about the emptiness. The house had been passed through the family for more than 500 years; and over those years the family members had done many travels seeing some of the strange and bazaar things this world had to offer. They incorporated many of those things from the trips into the home so that it could be remember and shared for the years to come.
Standing there and taking this all in from what could have easily been an early member of the family waiting to drain my life force I turned to my companion and smiled

“This should be fun, don’t you think?” I said in the most comforting manner masking my momentary paranoia.

I ask if we could look around for a bit, thinking I could come up with a reason that we needed to leave so abruptly when sudden a man was standing in front of me he came to about 6’1”, he was a large fellow at least bigger than I about 300lbs, but cared it well enough that he could be a problem if thing went south and he had a look on his face that told me he had checked out mentally a long time ago, like when you have been in a place that you don’t want to be for too long.. He was to guide us around the complex and so us our quarters as a kind of tour. His name was Bret. As Bret lead us on he began to talk about the things that were in the building and the kinds of personalities the family that had owned or lived there had. I realize I should have paid more attention but my focus was ultimately getting out of here, so I was constantly looking for an exit or a weapon near by if need be. I made a few weak pleas to get out of staying in the place but they were batted away kindly, but firm. That was very off putting…
Finally we came to a safari room that he seemed way too at home in. He became about as enthusiastic as a circle Ring master as he talked and showed us some of nature’s oddities that were frankly terrifying. The one that shook me to my core was a sound I herd that was of a rare breed of monkey pest they don’t allow on the grounds. It sounded primal and like cackling. Bret walked up to a bamboo curtain that was against one of the walls and leaned into it peering through a hole with binoculars saying he could see them out there. Bret hung the pair of binoculars on a hook and marched off into the next room waving for us to follow. I knew I had to get a peek, so I rushed and grab them off the hook and looked through the hole. There was an area that looked like it was from the plains of Africa itself, I could see the golden grass a tree and the sun coming through it and in the tree was a large birdlike cage and in it I could see 2 furry creatures that looked kind of like strange monkeys but when I focused the lenses better to my dismay they were the bodies of two child not to unlike the ones I saw at the gates. There bodies were dried out as if let in the scorching sun for weeks, frozen in poses that showed them screaming for help or mercy. As fast and calming as I could I placed the binoculars back on the hook and hurried my lady to the other room were Bret was now behind a counter.
“Welcome! This is the gift shop. Mind you this is the first one on the tour there are a couple more coming but this one is the best.”
Had I not just see the room prier to this one the shop might have been comforting it had everything a normal sporting goods store would have. There was food for animals, Bret commenting saying, “Those could save your life one day.” As I encouraged her to look around Bret called me over. He began to show me his guns for sale, at that moment I knew I really wanted a gun but at the same time I noticed that he was not afraid to help put a gun in my possession. I notice an 8 gauge double barrel shotgun. Even as best I tried to hide it he saw my eyes light up.

“Ah, good taste it is very efficient for most things but let my show you this one.”

He reached under the table and pulled out a different one it was clearly the same gauge but the barrel was shorter with something on the end and the stock was oddly reinforced.

“It looks strange I’d love to try it out, though.”

Bet placing to shells into the gun pulled me aside to a room behind the counter. This whole place seemed to be built for optical illusions. This new room was long and its lighting made it look and feel like we were in the back of some field. The back half of the room was dry dirt floor and a few sparse weeds growing in places. There was wooden a fence that was low to the ground and behind it were three targets made out of board wired to hay bails. We walked up and he encouraged me to fire it a couple times. I fired once and realized that any hope of getting actually rounds was asking the cosmos too much, apparently. The gun design that looked odd at first glance did make more sense after firing though. It had almost no recoil and was more compact with out loosing any power. I fired off the other shell and we walked back to the other shop room and he told me the prices, naturally much higher than I could pay.