The cards were “obvious plastic surgery” and “person with a very limited vocabulary”
This was hastily done in 30 minutes and not expounded upon because Baldur’s Gate 3 released a month earlier than I was expecting and that is just my life now. (Or that’s the excuse, anyway)
At first, it had seemed like something out of Dracula. Philip had been hired to help notarize a whole slew of legal documents for a wealthy individual, and because he was a traveling notary and the process would take several days, he was offered a place to stay within the man’s mansion. Dr. Grady had insisted – the house was remote and far from the nearest town, which was so small it didn’t even have a proper hotel. Considering the prospect of making a daily two hour drive along the twisting mountain roads he had come in on, Philip had been grateful for the offer.
He had somewhat reconsidered when he had met the woman that was assisting them. Celeste didn’t speak at all – only gestured with her hands. And she was wearing what looked to be a porcelain mask – smooth and pale and inexpressive. It was strange and slightly off putting, but he made no comments. Because she said nothing to him, he avoided making eye contact and didn’t speak much to her. She made him nervous.
By the second day, Philip realized that the mansion seemed mysteriously absent of people besides Celeste and Dr. Grady. He didn’t think Celeste was the one cooking the meals that she brought to him, but when he had wandered into the kitchen the previous evening, there had been no one present. His room had been tidied while he had been working, and the towels had been refreshed. But he saw no staff. The grounds were meticulously cared for outside, but he saw no gardeners. The place was expansive enough that he knew for a fact that there had to be people that took care of these things, but they seemed to stay out of sight.
The house was large and beautiful, and everything was bright – the exact opposite of a gothic nightmare. The documentation he was working on was very normal, except for the volume of work – which made sense, as Dr. Grady owned and managed quite a number of assets, all inherited from a family whose wealth stretched back generations. Philip did his best to put it from his mind, and very quickly the work came to an end.
It was his last day. Celeste was showing him out to his car – which had already been pulled around to the front entrance and parked to wait for him. He could see that there was someone sitting in the front seat of the car. After tossing his overnight bag into the backseat, he turned around and looked up at Celeste. “It has been a pleasure,” he mumbled politely, finally looking her in the face.
He froze in horror as he studied her, really seeing for the first time that it wasn’t a mask at all. Her face was so still and placid, her skin so smooth that it appeared like porcelain – but it was her actual skin, so frozen that it looked like glass. He had expected to see the edge of the mask, detached and floating above her eyes, but there was no space between because it wasn’t a mask – her eyes, the only expressive part of her, shifted swiftly, studying his face. He heard his car door slam, and turned to see another woman, walking around to bring him his keys. He stared in horror as he realized her face was also similarly frozen, her eyes staring at him warily as he swiveled his head back and forth, his mouth agape.
He snatched his keys from the lifted hand, perhaps a little harder than was necessary, and snapped his mouth shut. Forcing a strained smile, he thanked them again, several times, perhaps a touch too profusely. Before he knew it, he was in his car, driving away.
He glanced into his rearview mirror, watching the two women stare silently at his departing vehicle. He could see others appearing – stepping out of hedges, standing at windows. And though he couldn’t make out their details, he felt certain that they all stared from underneath similarly plasticized faces, all silently watching him drive away.
mehryment 