Diary of an Inventor

Twilight reaches the light, revealing what it was. From what she saw behind the grate was a clean bedroom with a large chandelier hanging in the center. No one was in it and time seemed to only affected the pictures that hung above a desk that was against the the north wall. The grate she was located in was above a simple bed. It was like out of a dream for Twilight because she saw no blood or any violence in this room. She pushed the grate as it hung from a single rivet on the corner. Twilight crawled out and landed on the bed without a noise. She pulled off her backpack and pulled out the diary she had found to see if she can find out more about this place:

My brother Benjamin had told me of an underground complex that this mansion held. At first I was skeptical about the very idea until he uncovered a hidden stairway directly across the stairs. It went on for quite a while until it opened up to a simple room. There was another door to the right which held a hallway filled with other doors, maybe it was some sort of holding cells for sick people? At the other end was yet again another empty room. It was the perfect place to conduct experiments on sicknesses and diseases without disturbance, but then again, we are in the middle of no where. We also expanded the first hallway, adding another door that lead to a storage area. There is also a staircase that leads to some lower levels in the first room, but we will explore that later. There are also vents that lead to different areas in the house, one is in my room right above my bed. This discovery of the underground complex brings a new hope for science and probably can help us cure some illness! I cannot contain my excitement for the future!!

Twilight closed the diary and put it back into her backpack. She looked up at the grate and saw she had left the lamp in it just sitting on the end. She stood up on the bed to try and reach it, but only managed to push it back farther into the vent. She let out a sigh and sat down to think about the mansions history. Maybe the notebook has answers about the owner's experiments in the complex. Twilight reached into the bag and pulled out the notebook. Within a better lighting, she saw it was stained with blood and had writing on the cover. It read Notes #3. Twilight opened it to the second entry to see what it held, but it was missing from the book itself. Twilight sighed and read the third entry:

From the experiments with hearts we came to the conclusion that if we replace the normal heart with a mechanical one, they will have a lower chance of dying during the procedures. We also found that creating a cast of metal or even completely replacing the limb will make the subjects more durable to pain and infections. We still have not found the reason for this, but we will continue to search for the answer. Maybe it has something to do with the loss of their very body and humanity, sacrificed to the metal and gears of science... maybe the metal is also alive and it is growing inside of the subjects body? This is what we are doing... For science!

She turned the page and saw no words, but diagrams of the procedures. Each one had to have something removed from the body such as the arm or even all the limbs. The diagrams also showed the surgery procedure which involved the opening of the subject's chest. The organs were to be completely replaced with mechanical versions and some were even removed permanently. The next diagram showed the brain and the frontal lobe being removed carefully. Next to it was a note saying Remove to keep them from being an individual.. Twilight shut the book and threw back into her bag. She put her head in her hands thinking about what happened to those poor people. They take their personality and individuality away from them and force them to do horrible things to others...

Minutes passed as Twilight sat on the bed with her head in her hands. 4 years of searching and investigating things like this yet she cannot get used to the sight and smell of blood. It makes her feel uneasy and sick to her stomach whenever it is mentioned. Even so, she pledged her young life to investigating disappearances, the paranormal, and strange occurrences. Sometimes I wish I still kept the library instead of leaving it. I miss my friends already and I might never see them again... Twilight put her head up and clenched her fists. No... I need to keep doing this, too many people fear the unknown and I must bring them the knowledge of the truth, even if it hurts. This will be my last case and after it I will return to my friends! She jumps up, grabs her backpack and leaves the room through the door to the left. It led to another hallway that had an elegant carpet going down the length of it. Twilight looked both ways and took the left direction. It led her to the mansion's main room where she had entered it from. I'm back here? She thought to herself, relieved that she didn't need to continue running from the creature.

Walking down the stairs, she noticed something different about the room. The boarded up section was gone, no traces of it anywhere. Twilight got to the bottom and peeked around the corner into the room. It was a simple room that held artistic supplies such as empty canvases, painting pallets, and a stretcher that the canvas would be put on. She walked towards one of the stretchers that sat in the corner of the room. It held a painting covered by a cloth, it smelled like it was just painted a moment ago. Strange... Very strange indeed. Twilight thought to herself. She had heard nothing while she sat in the bedroom and no one was around the house at all. She grabbed the cloth covering the painting. breathed in and out, then pulled it off. What she saw startled her and caused her heart to race. It was a painting of her sitting in an empty room, her head in her hands and her hair messed up. Blood was depicted all around her, but not touching her at all. Twilight put her hand to her mouth and cried, the painting was still drawing itself. In fresh blood, the painting wrote Hope is lost behind the painted wall Twilight sat in front of. The coppery smell was making Twilight sick, her vision was becoming darker. She fell to the floor, her breathing became slow. The moon's light shined through the windows, casting a spotlight on the unconscious body of Twilight.