Chapter 32: The void mansion

Chapter 32: The void mansion That night, Stephan returned to the apartment building with Yennefer and Anna Mary in tow. They had refused to head back to their own places, insisting it was too dangerous to be alone with so many enemies lurking, and with the identity of the third player still a mystery. In the dim hallway outside his door, they came upon Paulie the janitor, pushing Ms. Jackson’s wheelchair toward them. "Stop here, Charlie," Ms. Jackson said. "It’s Paulie," he snapped, irritation flashing across his face. "Is this Stephan?" Ms. Jackson asked, peering up from her wheelchair. "Yes, ma’am," Paulie replied. "Goddamn..." Ms. Jackson rasped. "How’d you go from scrub to blockbuster movie star overnight?" "I’ve been hitting the gym like a madman," Stephan said with a grin. "I see you’ve got the swagger now," she went on, eyeing Yennefer and Anna Mary. "Dragging along these two hotties... If I were your age, I’d fall for you too." "I’m not falling for him," Yennefer and Anna Mary blurted in unison, cheeks betraying them with a flush. "Bang them both, Stephan," Ms. Jackson said, baring crooked teeth in the laugh of a dying old woman. Stephan shook his head, unlocked his door, and stepped inside with the girls. The moment the door shut, Ms. Jackson turned to Paulie. "That’s a fine man, don’t you think?" "I don’t swing that way," Paulie said flatly. He started wheeling her forward, his voice dropping low. "Besides... we’ve got bigger problems than a boy’s love triangle." Ms. Jackson’s grin faded as his words hung in the air. ***** Inside the room, Stephan dropped onto the couch with a sigh. "Who was that old geezer?" Anna Mary asked, tossing her bag aside. "That’s Ms. Jackson. She’s my neighbor." "She looks scary," Yennefer said. "Scary? You mean ugly?" Anna Mary smirked. "That’s what happens when age catches you," Stephan said. "You’re headed down that road too." "I won’t. I’m going to be immortal, remember?" "You’ll have to kill me first." "Don’t worry," Anna Mary said sweetly. "When the time comes, I’ll make it quick." Stephan waved it off. "Anyway... we’ve got bigger things to focus on." "Gabuzar and Salimi?" Yennefer asked. "Yeah." "They’re dangerous," Anna Mary muttered. "They are," Stephan agreed. "But that’s not what worries me most. After what happened at the park... we can confirm there’s a third player we haven’t accounted for." "The guy with that overwhelming soul energy?" Yennefer said quietly. Stephan’s eyes narrowed. "Exactly. And he’s still out there." He rose and walked to the window, parting the curtains just enough to peer outside. A strange unease prickled at the back of his neck, like invisible eyes were locked on him. But the street was empty. Only his own reflection stared back at him from the glass, its gaze uncomfortably still. "Judging by soul energy, Gabuzar and Salimi don’t even come close to mystery man’s power," Stephan said. "They’re small league compared to that guy." "Do you think there’s any link between them and him?" Anna Mary asked. "I highly doubt it," Yennefer replied. "Gabuzar and Salimi feel more like a two-man gang than part of something bigger." Silence settled over the room, heavy and uneasy. "We’ll find out soon enough," Stephan said at last. "Find out? How?" Yennefer tilted her head. "At the players’ meeting," Stephan said. "I don’t know what Salimi meant by that, but... I’ve got a feeling that’s where we’ll pick up the trail." "Oh, Salimi did say something about a players’ meeting..." Anna Mary said. "I wonder what it could be." "Seems like we’ll all be invited to this meeting," Yennefer added. "The real question," Stephan said, "is when and where it will take place." Despite the promise of stronger and far more menacing players, Stephan burned with anticipation. Brutes like Gabuzar, players who could push him to his limits. And above all, he wanted to meet the one who had shown up at his door, trying to intimidate him. "If we ever find ourselves at this meeting, I suggest we stick close to each other," Stephan said. "Why? Because I’m your slave now?" Yennefer shot back. "You’re not a slave, Yennefer," Stephan said with a grin. "You’re my employee. Trust me, it’s for your own good." "If I’m your employee, then I’d like to get paid." "Too bad it’s not month-end yet," Stephan said, then his tone sharpened. "But seriously, there are going to be predators at this meeting. Guys like Gabuzar. And you can bet some of them already have alliances." Grief stepped in, a cup of tea balanced neatly in her hands. She stopped in front of Stephan and bowed. "A cup of tea, my Lord," she said. "Where’s mine?" Anna Mary asked. "I only serve Lord Stephan," Grief replied, her tone polite but firm. Stephan smiled at the exchange. He lifted the cup, ready to take his first sip. And then the atmosphere shifted. The air in the room grew heavier, colder, as if something unseen had just stepped inside. "Something’s wrong, my Lord," Grief said, her voice tight as if the air itself had grown heavier. Stephan felt it too, an alien force pressing in, neither soul energy nor magic. It was wrong. Unnatural. "Do you feel that?" Anna Mary asked, scanning the room. "Feel what?" Yennefer replied. Before she could answer, a faint blue pulse shimmered in Anna Mary’s eyes. Then her skin warped, her outline twisting like a reflection in shattered glass. Jagged cracks of light split across her body, each one crawling with static. "What the....?!" she gasped. Her voice splintered, playing at different pitches all at once. Then she tore out of existence, her body peeling away into shards of blue light that scattered into nothing. Yennefer jumped to her feet. "Where the hell did she go...?" The pressure hit her next. Her skin rippled, emerald-green energy boiling from within as if her veins had turned into lightning. She clutched her face, screaming, her voice distorting, before her body snapped apart into hundreds of writhing green fragments, vanishing mid-cry. Stephan didn’t move. He calmly took a sip of tea. "Guess I’m next." "My Lord, do..." Grief began. "Don’t panic," he said, placing the cup down. "I’ll summon you wherever this magic takes us." But instead of immediately glitching, a low, mechanical hum rattled in his skull. Ding! [System Notification: You’ve been summoned to the Void Mansion.] The hum became a roar. The walls around him twisted into spirals, bending inward as if reality itself was being crumpled like paper. A cold, ink-black darkness leaked through the cracks in the world, swallowing the light, swallowing the air, swallowing him. Stephan’s vision snapped back, cold, sharp, and wrong. He stood on black marble, smooth as glass, its surface reflecting twisted, stretched versions of himself. Beyond the edge of the platform was... nothing. No sky, no ground, just an infinite, crushing darkness. And there it was, a mansion. It floated in the void like a thing that had been torn from another world. Its sheer size was impossible to take in, walls like mountain faces, spires that vanished upward into the black, chains as thick as ancient trees vanishing into nowhere. Windows stared out, hundreds of them, each as black and depthless as the void itself. A faint creak echoed, impossibly far away, as though a door deep inside had opened just for them. "Stephan..." He turned. Anna Mary stood a few paces away, her posture tense, her eyes glowing faintly with blue static. Beside her, Yennefer’s emerald gaze never left the mansion, her expression tight, as if she were staring into the maw of something alive. "You feel it too?" Stephan asked quietly. Neither answered. They just kept staring, like if they blinked, the mansion might decide to move closer. "Where the fuck are we?" Yennefer muttered, her voice sharp in the stillness. "We’re at something called the VoidMansion," Stephan replied, his tone calm but weighted. "Void Mansion?" Anna Mary shot him a suspicious glance. "And how exactly do you know that?" "That’s not important right now," he said, eyes fixed on the looming structure. "What we should worry about... is whatever’s waiting for us inside." They stood at the edge of the mansion’s shadow, and all three froze. It hit them like a tide, soul energy, pouring from the mansion in slow, suffocating waves. It wasn’t one signature, but dozens... maybe hundreds. Some burned hot and sharp, like steel just pulled from the forge. Others felt cold and patient, coiled like predators in tall grass. A few pulsed erratically, unstable, as though their owners were barely in control. Stephan could almost picture them layered over one another, colors and textures clashing in the air. Wisps of crimson rage, threads of golden pride, pools of shadowy malice. Every kind of player was in there, their power bleeding into the void around the mansion, mixing into a storm that made his skin prickle. It was a gathering of killers, survivors, and monsters... and they were walking straight into it. "Could it be?" Anna Mary said, her voice low. "That we’ve been summoned to the Players Meeting?" Stephan’s lips curved into something between a smirk and a grimace. His eyes swept the looming mansion, the invisible storm of soul energy prickling against his skin. "So... I’m here," he murmured. "In the presence of my real competition." Then he started walking toward the door, each step echoing in the strange, soundless void. Yennefer and Anna Mary followed close behind, their eyes darting to the shifting shadows that seemed to curl and stretch around the mansion’s walls.