The House Of Pain

By the time I got home up on the Ponywood Hills I was having a lot of mixed emotions yet anxious to know what was haunting me every damn night.

"Big question, Mamma," I said. "If you were aware of the paranormal activity here why didn´t you come directly instead of hiding underground?"

"Well, I remember my manners!" she cried, "they apply anywhere even in the realm of the dead. I had to be invited by you. Besides I had other things to take care of; my little shop was messy. "

The clairvoyant was happy to know once she found herself inside the mansion that most of the architecture remained untouched.

"You have a great deal of respect for the past," she said.

"I do," I continued, "though some aspects needed restoration and others could definitely not be saved."

When Rosie May appeared to greet us Mamma was very amazed and puzzled.

"A unicorn in a house of unicorns! How very proper," she said as she removed her hood.

"Oh, I didn´t know about that!" said Rosie gleefully. "We are still getting used to living here, it has a lot of history!"

"It does, actually."

"And may I ask what brings you here, miss?" asked Rosie.

"Mamma Lyon; it appears that my little friend has a sort of illness, you see. He hasn´t been able to sleep properly."

"It´s true!" said the pink unicorn, "he claims that there is something rather strange lurking about, probably ghosts?"

"Yes, something like that..."

"The fact is we have grown confused over time. His old girlfriend was asked to inspect the place one night and we ended up more confused."

"I´m sure she tried her best."

"Oh, now, don´t make me remember Evie," I said covering my face. "I have enough things to worry about."

"Please, come this way; it is getting cold after all; would you like a nice cup of tea?"

"If you don´t mind," said Mamma. "I absolutely adore what you did with the place."

"Really? Well, you would have to blame Marelyn for that. I honestly wish there wasn´t too much black involved."

"What?! It´s my thing," I replied.

"You sound like you´re familiar with this manor," said Rosie in a conspicuous way.

"It is the main reason that brought me here. Do you know what it was called originally?"

"Aside from Goldenhooves? No."

"No, no, no! I am not talking about her..."

"Were you friends with Madeleine?" I asked. "Because I´m dying to know."

"Sure."

We settled down in the living room.The day light coming from the window was very dim so we lit the chandelier as well.

"Back in the Golden Age I had a great reputation! I was invited to a lot of parties because of my abilities. Animals came from far and wide to consult me."

"You read their fortune?" I asked.

"In a way, yes. In fact, Madeleine, among others came to me for advice about important decisions in life to be highly successful. She said I was always right in my predictions."

"Did she ever marry?"

"Yes! Three times. She was very insecure it´s no wonder why she came to see me on a regular basis. It became an addiction."

"Really? How can your thing become addictive?" I said.

"Are you familiar with the term auto-suggestion?"

"I believe so."

"She convinced herself that someone wanted to ruin her career so badly. She claimed to have heard voices in the house telling her all the time that she was a self-centered witch. I came once to see what was the matter and agreed to make a séance."

"Beg pardon?" said Rosie May.

"A session where we contact the spirits. We held hands and summoned the original owners of the manor. They weren´t very polite."

"But who were they?" I asked desperately.

"Unicorns, of course!" At the same time she said that I heard a loud thunder-clap. "There is a very good chance you may have felt them, Miss May.

"But how?"

"Wait a minute," I interrupted, "the other night when I felt sick; they must have warned you about it and you said it was "intuition".

Rosie fell silent for a while and laughed nervously, "They told me that? How incredible."

"It´s no coincidence," said Mamma. "That´s why I can guarantee that they will not hurt you, Marelyn."

"So what happened to Madeleine, how did she die, really?" I said.

"That´s the sad part. She was taken away to an asylum where she spent the rest of her days. The media, however created this whole other story that she became a hermit after her last divorce and failed to appear in the spotlight. The house drove her crazy!"

"So she didn´t die inside these walls!" I cried, "And I thought that her ghost was around and why no one else wanted to buy this place."

"Yes, it´s all part of the Ponywood urban legends. After that I went back to my headquarters in New Horseleans."

"What do "they" want from me?" I asked.

"Oh, they won´t talk this old buzzard, I´m afraid," said Mamma.

"What was this called then?" I said.

"The House Of Pain. Long before I was born, about two centuries ago a sect of unicorns gathered here. They were known as healers and created all sorts of great remedies for when everything else failed."

"Wow!" yelped Rosie.

I showed Mamma the way to the library in search for answers.

"It was a good place, very much like a hospital. It would have lasted for ages but if you know your history, Miss May, unicorns faced great danger."

We pulled out a copy of a book entitled, "Pray for the Decay". It had an illustration of some unicorns bottled up like they were poison.

"As you can see, this is a very subversive title. It was given as a text-book but it carried hatred."

"Those were really dark ages, I´m afraid," said Rosie. "We were deprived of our talents."

"It was a witch hunt, that´s what it was," said Mamma.

"I´m lost here," I continued, "if these particular unicorns were healers why were they considered evil?"

"Ah!" cried the hipogriff as she closed the book, "Hand me over that green one, Miss May, will you? I took the liberty of reading them but the Healers wouldn´t let me take them away without permission."

This one was called "The Origin Of The Void." Mamma had put a bookmark on it.

"The horned ones played a very important role in the existence of this world. Their talents grew as long as others kept believing in them. For every force there is a light and dark side so the same applies for the unicorn magic. There is a golden rule;

Use it always for the greater good and not for selfishness if not...

"...You´ll face the consequence," said Rosie May. "Every single one of us knows that."

"And what´s the consequence?" I asked.

"Punishment determined by each country. The lighter side of unicorn magic is the "greater good" while the dark side creates a void. It is a black hole which devours everything, an emptiness."

"I´m not very good at history; that´s why I preferred music," I said out of boredom.

"It is up to you to find out what happened to the Healers, my boy. It remains a mystery."

"Me? How am I supposed to contact them?"

"The same way I did with Madeleine; there will be a séance tonight!" cried the hipogriff.

"Right; talking with the dead, yeah, no problem!" I said nervously.

There was no turning back this time for I earned a new talent; a channel of the dead.

(continued)...