Kisah Masyitah Rukyah

Chapter 12 - 99 Door Mansion, Part 2

We approach the grand front door of the 99 Door Mansion. When I say grand, I mean during its time when it was still in use. Termites have taken some parts of it now. Makira tries to push and pull at the door handle, but it doesn't budge.

"Of course the lock still works. Stand back everyone." 

She opens up a small compartment from the thigh part of her prosthetic leg and retrieves, from what I can see, a talisman to hang around her neck. With a run up, she forces the door open with a kick. I use my telekinesis to push away all the debris and dust to one side. That leaves us with our first impressions of the mansion.

Magnificent, if aged chandeliers hang from the ceiling. There's a sort of beauty in such a decorative piece surviving for this long in a place so ill-fitting. In every corner and crevice of the mansion's hall exists a cobweb or two complete with their resident spiders. Even more dust fills the air and my lungs. I let out a cough as I push away the particles.

"I don't know what I expected this haunted mansion to look like. I just didn't expect it to look not like shit," comments Ramya.

"Fuiyo, check out the paintings on the wall." Harmony points to our right, where the wall in question stands behind some cushioned wooden furniture. The paintings are of the still-life variety, I think is what they're called. The three art pieces from left to right depict a vase full of colourful flowers, a skull resting on a table and a fruit basket. "A lot better than Zakwan's ones, ah Kiah? What are these from, the 16th century or something? They look old."

Makira shines her flashlight at it briefly and looks back. She's preoccupied with something, I can tell. What are you hiding, Makira?

"Correct. 1599 by Jan Brueghel the Elder. All three." As she says that, she takes out her revolver and exposes the cylinder by pushing the barrel down. The revolver appears to 'break' into two, like those double-barrel shotguns at farms. The cylinder is empty, but it somehow sucks in a purple luminescent light for a few seconds. Once its capacity is full, Makira folds the barrel back up and holsters it.

"Harmony, Casey and Ramya. You three go the hall on the left and clear out the rooms there. Xiao, Kiah and I'll go to the right. Any creatures you see, you neutralise them and exorcise them. After that, we'll sweep the top floor."

Harmony and Casey stare at her. They must be confused just like me. 

"We've never exorcised spirits."

"Yeah, we were hoping you'd tell us how to. Or something."

Ramya pats them both on the back with a cheeky grin. 

"Don't worry, mates. Big sis'll teach ya. Let's get cracking."

While they walk off across the mouldy carpet to do their task, we go off to do ours. 

Xiao flips his butterfly knife around, Makira readies Hanto and her revolver while I make sure my sacks are fitted tight. I'll have to keep my hand hovering around the red one.

Our one-eyed leader stops before the first door. She attaches her flashlight to her shoulder.

"There's a reason they call this place the 99 Door Mansion. Every room has five to six doors in it, all leading to other rooms. We'll breach through them all and clear them out."

She doesn't immediately turn the doorknob. Instead, she presses the barrel of her revolver against the door. She adjusts the barrel's positioning to the left, then to the right, then a bit up before settling right around head-height. She pulls the trigger, causing a bang that pierces the wooden door before she kicks it down.

Upon entering, the first thing I see on the ground is the body of a familiar mythological creature.

A pocong.