From its perch atop a broad and grassy hill, the Chateau de Etygien overlooks a beautiful drive paved with colorful brickwork. Those less than socially and financially elite never come close enough to see the engraved warning above the entry: "Nigrum Lunam Agnus Terrore Erit."
Every day, the owner of the countryside palace rented rooms to those who could pay, with the promise of strange happenings that never actually came to pass, brilliant entertainment, epicurean meals, and beautiful lodgings.
With so much wealth in one place, thieves were bound to seek entrance. Con artists were most common. Nobody expected three local farmer youths to hop the wall and break in through a window under the cover of the new moon's darkness.
A waking patron's inability to sleep trapped the would-be thieves within, and when day came with an eclipse, they fled toward the darkness outside. Their feet stopped at the door as beings from the imaginations of a thousand madmen appeared. They returned inside and slammed the door behind them, and discovered the chateau's owner watching them, mere meters away, surrounded by the patrons of the house.
The owner urged everyone to look alive—if the monsters gained entrance, they would devour everyone inside. The patrons boasted that the farmers should cower in a closet, and let them handle the monsters because the farmers weren't armed with 'anything substantial'.
The bolder of the trio of farmers insisted they weren't weak and grabbed their friend. The farmer volunteered their group to fortify part of the home, to the surprise of the patrons, who laughed and jeered, then told them they could protect the kitchen, and they'd check on them.
The farmers secured the kitchen with ease, and then move on to the dining room. There, they discovered metal blinds already pulled over to protect the windows. The rest of the nearby rooms appeared similarly protected. They reached a comfortable lounge, where the patrons and owner laughed and sipped champagne.
This discovery led to an argument, which led to the farmers learning that this was a regular and predictable event, and the house was well-secured early in its history.
In a show of anger, one of the farmers smashed something, and the noises from outside ceased immediately. A shriek followed, and a small child screamed—in a room where there were no small children present, derisive laughter emerged to mock the screamer.
The laughter stopped abruptly when a thick and pock-marked tendril burst through a window and its metal shuttering. It grabbed one of the farmers and pulled them out the window so quickly and forcibly that the inhabitants of the chateau heard bones break as head and legs hit the edges of the portal to the outside of the house.
Screams burned themselves into the others, and one of the patrons grabbed a gun and declared the farmers 'friend-killers' before he leaped from the window.
"Alas," said the owner as he raised his glass.
Remaining farmers and patrons swarmed to peek out the window as the gun-toting man stood over the prone form of the third farmer. The muzzle flash of his gun illuminated the dark forms outside of the house only briefly, and the roar of his gun was punctuated by his shouts of "Get up!" and groans from below.
"Someone get this idiot inside before I mercy-kill the little swamp rat!"
"I'll cover you if you carry it." A woman pushed her way through the throng and stepped outside. She held an assault rifle, and used it liberally for the defense as the gun-toting man slung the farmer over his shoulder and carried them back to the window. Once the farmer was passed through, he shouted to the woman to get in, and they covered each other. Once inside, they shoved heavy furniture over the window.
The owner mentioned replacement shutters for the window, but they were in the attic.
A team was assembled and sent to fetch it, and a patron who happened to be a doctor tended to the bleeding head wound and broken and torn legs on the farmer who was taken. However, the doctor warned that it was unlikely the farmer would survive the night. The doctor pointed out small wounds in lines that trailed around and around the injured farmer's body and stated that it was likely there was some form of toxin.
The other two farmers asked if there was a cure, and the doctor said without knowing the toxin, a cure couldn't be found, but if they somehow banished the creatures outside before the end of the Hour, which was halfway gone, the toxins might he pulled away with the banishment. Chances would still be low, because that was wishful thinking.
Still, it fuels the two farmers to start asking questions. The gun-toting man joins the asking, though he's less obvious about it.
At the 50th minute, when the farmers have been sent on a wild goose chase through the house, the woman with the rifle looked to the owner.
"So, when was it you wanted to tell them?"
The last ten minutes passed, and several minutes beyond the deadline, the farmers returned with the items they were sent to fetch.
The two were greeted by a sun-warmed lounge, filled entirely with people.
Confused, the farmers sought their friend.
Instead, the owner approached them, then stopped short as he stared at them, and the patrons of the house grew silent.
When the owner spoke, it was with a strange voice that echoed through the minds of everyone present. "So, there are now three new people who know about what happens here. What shall we do with them?" The colors of his eyes blended together, then grew black and solid. Green mist rose from them, and his mouth stretched into a blade-filled grin.
Plot Twist:
The owner is one of the creatures outside.
And I DID NOT WRITE THE FINAL END AHAHAHA!
