Knight Casefiles Book 1: Revelations

Revelations [Chapter 21]

Chapter 21

As it turned out, Whistler Lodge was far larger than it looked. That was saying something considering how large it looked to begin with. Back in New York, my sister had been considerate enough of the staff put those “You Are Here” maps you see all around malls in key points in the mansion. The Lodge didn’t have any of those and in my hungry and delirious state; I’d forgotten to ask for directions from Alfred before he left. As I appeared to have time to kill, I’d decided to do a bit of dick-working which, offended ladies and giggling gentlemen, is not what it sounds like.

The first person on my list was Margaret; entirely because she was the only one I was sure I knew the location of.  Alfred had told me she was still recuperating from the excitement last night in her room so that was where I went. Okay, I didn’t know exactly where her room was but like the talented detective I am, I managed to deduce that any room that didn’t sound like it was being violated by a chainsaw was hers. I found her five rooms down from mine, snoring away as she did in the car. The door was unlocked, making me question the security of the place, so I let myself in.

As a precaution, I recalled my lessons with her just yesterday, and felt around the room, just to be sure. Aside from the dim chiming of Margaret’s own aura, the room seemed to be clean.

Deciding that waking up a person who appeared to have been psychically attacked just to question her was beneath me, I allowed myself to take a seat in a nearby chair and wait. Theoretically, I could have just left to come back later after checking out the other people who had remained but I didn’t know where they were. Sigrun was wandering the grounds, and Elaine, David and Robert were…somewhere. It would’ve been a waste of my time.

So, instead, I made good use of the waiting time by going through the events of the past two days. Everyone had been so intent on keeping me asleep when they weren’t trying to kill me that I hadn’t had the time yet. But now I did.

I started by laying down the facts.

The case Sigrun and I have been working on should’ve been simple. Townspeople have gone missing because of something from our side of things and Huginn and Muninn had enlisted us to investigate it and bring the culprit to justice. Sure enough, the second I tailed one of the probable victims, said victim turned into a wolf monster and tried to eat me, leaving the question as to whether the kid had been alive to begin with or whether it really was a kid. I fought down the bile rising in my throat as I remembered the event. It’s also noteworthy that Gram had reacted so angrily to the kid.

Afterwards, there was the matter of what had happened last night here at the Lodge. After Margaret’s séance, there was a power outage, and then an old woman who, for the moment, I was assuming to be the kid’s peer had tried to…do something to me. It wasn’t clear, really, but all those “mines” she said was a great tip-off. After she somehow managed to break through a Valkyrie’s barrier, Huginn and Muninn flew in to take her on.

I didn’t know yet if there was some kind of connection between what was happening in the town and what had happened in the Lodge. It seemed likely given the twin’s involvement. Maybe the old woman was just out for revenge. Can ghosts hold grudges? No, let me rephrase that lest horror fanatics everywhere rain their Poe, King, and Lovecraftian fury on me. Can ghosts develop grudges?  

The one thing that stuck out in all this was Huginn and Muninn. Not only were their names really difficult to say without breaking out into yodeling, but this wasn’t like them. At least, if I was going to take Sigrun’s opinion as a basis. Twice, they’d directly involved themselves with me. First, by leading me into the forest, and two, by saving my sorry ass from a ghost that had a thing for molesting barriers. Then, there was the matter of them having some kind of interest in what was happening in the town. Why involve themselves? The only reason I could think of was both vague and worrying. It meant they had some kind of stake in all this and were getting impatient. As to what that stake was, I didn’t have a clue. But I was damned well going to find out.