The Holders - Part 2

Holder of Death

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself "The Holder of Death". The worker's face will turn white as if he just saw a ghost. He will then guide you to a wooden door and leave you afterwards. You will have to knock thrice.
Should you hear an old man saying "Come.", you may enter and will find yourself in a forest. If you hear a young man saying "No, thank you." run. Run and leave the city, the country as fast as you can, for unspoken evil will haunt you, should you stay.

Now that you are in a forest, look up to the sky. If it is day, follow the sun. If it is night, follow the moon. Follow them, and do not leave the path you have taken, no matter what kinds of beauty or horror you might see. Should you ever leave the path; your soul will be tormented for eternity after the body has died a horrible death. You will, after some time, notice that you are walking to a mansion. Ignore it; keep walking, for it is an illusion made to confuse you.

Finally, you will reach a small wooden hut. Enter the hut and immediately turn around, should you desire to over live the sheer horror you will experience by looking at the man who now is behind you. Ask him a question. "What will end them?" He will begin to talk with a voice that is gentle and kind as well as brutal and deadly. Listen carefully to what he says, as you might soon be the only one knowing their destiny.

As soon as the man finishes his small tale, he will ask you to turn around, as he wants to give you a gift.

Do not do this. Instead, walk backwards until you reach something hard, a desk. Close your eyes and partially turn your body so you can reach out to the man and take the gift. When it touched your hand, close it and walk back to the door you came from. As you open it, say the words "We will meet another day" and walk out. You will be back in the mental institution.

Now, open your hand and look at the gift. The bone-finger is object 12 of 538.


Holder of Darkness

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask with no hesitation to visit someone who calls himself "The Holder of Darkness." The worker will mock you but you have to stay as calm as possible. Keep asking him until he stops denying and withdraws from his counter to guide you through the corridors.

As his behavior changes radically, stay on guard, for if you start hearing one single tiny sinister hiss, you should turn around and flee as far as you can, covering your ears, because the time was bad. If you do not escape in time, the faint sound will turn into a dreadful growling, that will soon merge into a continuous shriek of sheer pain, until madness floods you and leaves you to die in a deafening agony.

If the warden remains silent, he will lead you to a closed door with neither handles nor lock. As he pushes it open effortless, you will see an ascending winding staircase which can't possibly lead to any upper floor of the establishment. The door will close behind you and you will not be able to push it back. Past this point, climb and do not turn back, or you will fall into a bottomless pit only waiting for a living prey to chew upon. Do not count the steps, for knowing how much there is will drive you into insanity. One will then creak, and so you should stop. Another door should appear on your left. If it is on your right, then pray for a swift passing.

Enter slowly into the room, and a total obscurity shall fall unto you. You will be required to walk straight forward, for slipping will only lead you to be devoured by the roaming and unknown creatures observing you with blinded purulent eyes. You will know you have arrived when coldness grips you. At that very moment, freeze, or you will die by the hands of the holder who is standing right in front of you.

In complete darkness, even closing your eyes will not prevent you from his horrid appearance. It will form into your mind as the most outrageous monster ever conceivable, and madness will try to creep into your brain as worms over a decayed corpse. His fulminating breath and constant mumblings would be enough to make you cry, but be advised to not utter anything louder than a weeping, for you might wake what must not be awaken. The only question you will be able to whisper without being torn apart should be "What do they fear?"

You will feel movements all around you, as shudders animate your opponents. You will hear what nameless and incurable diseases will strike the world if they were to be frightened, the countless terrors their own fright will unleash on those with a weaker mind than theirs. Amidst the atrocious enumeration of the endless sores the world will suffer, you might hear the simplest, almost ridiculous, yet, implacable and certain truth they all fear. Do not move again. And when your head is about to implode, it will stop. If you are still able to move, you will find a door in front of you which leads you outside of the ward. There, in the open, in the grass, a broken hourglass will wait for you.

You are free to pick it up. It is object 13 of 538. Your knowledge of theirs fears is up to you to share, but you might not want to use it as a weapon against them.


Holder of Dance

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. Reach for the reception and ask if you may visit someone who calls itself "The Holder of Dance." The clerk will shrug it off while telling you to go to the next theatre down the road. If you obey her, you'll then discover she has sent you to see "The Lord of the Dance", and that she hasn't understood properly your question. So ask for it twice. Her face will at last light up as she gets it right. "Silly me" she'll mutter, and then "fool of you, too" when she starts walking toward a long hall.

You'll pass through the garden, onto a small brick-built reserve, while being gazed upon by the mental patients around you. Heavy chains will be running athwart the rusty metal door. A key will be handed to you, and everyone will back up into the building, closing doors and windows and shutters. You'd be left in the silence of your own demise. You can still go away, but from the inside now raises an appealing sound. Calling you, tempting you. Your mind must not flicker, or it will be lost, forever swallowed in a false sense of bliss while you're left to be shredded alive.

As you control yourself and enter the place, a wide descending flight of stairs awaits to be taken. Echoes of commotions reach your ears in troubled moans, where you can't tell if they're from pains or pleasures. You'll come to an underground level, with fluttering or broken neon's lights. It would look like a corridor, with multiple doorless rooms.

Then, they'll start coming out. Shallows and diaphanous figures, slouching aimlessly. They'll be ghosts of different shapes and different ages and different sex and in different states of decay. On the other side of the room, far away – but it won't be far enough, you'll think in panic – stands a shape with a point of light. It will be your only chance to ask "What makes them dance?"

You'll then see the dead all around you shaking nervously, and the silhouette afar coming near. The naked body of a female will be walking for you, half-beheaded, her throat pumping and gurgling blood, while her head bended on the side start talking in a disembodied voice the mayhems she witnessed and accomplished. You will see slaughter and rotting battlefield full of corpses, as a rhythm grows in you. You'll want to dance with the dead all around, but you must not yield into it.

You'll have to suppress the beating of your foot. And to not let your heart goes in cadence, for when the dance will stop, so will it. The bare bloody lady will tell you more as she approaches you, tales of carnages and tortures that was theirs joys when they were one. In her left hand she'll be stroking her turgescent manhood at you, while in her right flagging hand will hang an old squared lantern shining a pale blue.

The Lantern is object 14 of 538. Its holder will not let it go easily.


Holder of the Past

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house in you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself "The Holder of the Past". At the last syllable of your sentence, his eyes should open wide and stare at you as if he was attempting to see past your skin into your soul. Don't ask any questions, because he won't speak to you, and in the case that he does, you will wish he hadn't. He will take you down a long hallway and you will walk with him for what will seem like hours.

Stare STRAIGHT AHEAD the entire time, for if you look at the floor, walls, or ceiling of the hallway, you will run into a dead end and the worker will pursue you with a hellish bloodlust until you are completely disemboweled.

After exactly 350 paces the worker will stop, turn around, and pull a watch out of his pocket. He will turn the dial backward one hour and at that point, you will have one hour to complete your task. If you don't, then there are no words to describe your fate at that point.

The lights will go out for exactly 3 seconds, and when they turn back on, you will be in a room with no doors and a red-tinted skylight shaped like a pentagram. This will cast a blood-red star in the middle of the room where a splintered cherry table with two seats will be. Sitting at the seat closest to you, look up. Look down again, and a man with long, dirty black hair will be face-down on the table. He will answer to one question: "Where did He once stand?"

The man will speak of a place that has no place on any map, but will describe the room in painfully grotesque detail. Pay very close attention, he will enumerate exactly how many of what horrible object hang from spears protruding from the walls. You have the rest of the hour to find the room and sit in His throne. If you fail, I suggest you become armed; heavily.

His Throne is object 15 of 358. If brought together, he may once again return.


Holder of the Future

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to see someone who calls himself the "Holder of the Future". If the attendant offers to show you the way do not follow him, for he is not the true guide and will only deliver you to madness. The true guide will fall silent and hand you a sheet of paper on which the way forward is written in lines of blood and fire.

Concentrate on this and walk forwards. As long as you do not waver you will pass through the desk and the man and find yourself in a long disused hallway. Once it was opulent with colors and promise, but the walls are now stained and the carpet black with filth. Images will flash at the windows as you pass, out of the corner of your eye you may see long dead friends beckoning or lovers far past offering themselves to you again.

Voices will whisper to you that through the windows are second chances to make things right. They will tell you that you can choose again and never set yourself against them. Do not look up from the paper in your hands, for if you do you will see what is just outside watching you. No god can help you then. It cannot be known how long this hallway is, some say that you have to pass all your possible futures, some say that it grows shorter as the time of the uniting comes closer. For all our sakes, may you find the hallway longer than you can bear.

Only once you reach the end may you lift your eyes, but never look behind you. Open the door in front of you into a ballroom, once bright and elegant, now covered in the same filth and despair. Move forwards into the gloom until the door is lost behind you and all chance of escape with it. Walk with care, the Holder watches you even now. Your path forward once stood in the center of this room, but the center has not held and the way has drifted.

If it has drifted too far then you may never find your way, you will spend the rest of your life wishing you had given yourself to the temptations offered before. You will spend a long, long time wishing that. If you are fortunate, you will find one point in the room where the little light remaining fades away completely. Find that place, close your eyes and wait, no matter what happens next. If you have pleased the Holder, your ears will be filled with the sound of a cats purr, and you will feel it twining around your feet.

You must keep your eyes closed until a voice asks you "What will you do with them?" Any answer will turn the purrs to snarls and set a thousand razored claws to your throat. The voice will ask again, insistent this time. Only after it has asked for a third and final time may you open your eyes. If your god has not yet abandoned you, you may still be able to.

In front of you will be a woman lying on a bed. Once, long ago she was beautiful, now she is naked and obese, her skin pockmarked with bedsores and blooms of syphilis. Around her cluster hundreds of cats, with one standing at your feet. Speak only to him; tell him "I will do what I must". He will then teach you the language of the cats; they will tell you a secret that was never meant for human ears. Never reveal it until the times comes when you have nothing else to give, for cats are jealous creatures and delight in the pain of their victims.

That secret is the 16th of 538, and I may speak no more of it.


Holder of the Present

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask with no hesitation to visit someone who calls himself "The Holder of the Present." The worker will look at you vaguely; you have to ask him again. Once the worker understands your question he will lead you through a door into a hallway that looks like it's an extension of Hell itself.
In this hallway you will find noting but darkness and the feeling of unim

aginable horror. If you should hear a shriek coming from the left of you, start running towards the door you just came from or you will be devoured by demons yelling incomprehensible babble from mouths awash with vile poison.

If you should hear a shriek coming from the right of you, start running towards the door that your path leads to. Ignore the worker and keep running until you reach the door. If you should hear another shriek coming from anywhere around you, close your eyes and pray to the gods that your death will be a swift one.

Should you not hear a shriek, just follow the worker until he unlocks the door at the other end of the hallway. He will now ask you to enter, and he will leave.
In this room you will only find two things: a naked girl whose left hand is a mangled stump, seemingly torn to shreds by an otherworldly maw, and the rusted key chain she is holding. You must look at the key chain and may not avert your eyes from it. You can say nothing, except ask her this one question: "Why do they belong together?"

Now move eyesight to the face of the girl. She will look at you and tell you the most gruesome story of the present, how this present has come to be, how it is now and eventually how it will be. The girl will slowly move towards you, do not move, and stay still until she is but one footstep away from you. She will put the shredded piece of rot that was once her left hand on your shoulder. She will then whisper into your ear, "The time has come, and now you must die." Do not react to this statement. Just keep staring into her eyes and eventually you will feel something being pushed into your hand.

The key chain is object 17 of 538. Only the keys that are meant for it can be put on it, and all other keys shall be repelled.


Holder of Passion

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask with no hesitation to visit someone who calls himself "The Holder of Passion." The worker will blush and daydream; you will have to ask two more times until he finally nods and gestures you to follow him.

He will lead you into a hallway. You will hear a muffled diesel engine, but for the moment, it does not matter. Ignore it for now. Instead, listen to any whispering you hear. If it stops, it is vital for your sanity that you shut your eyes, for a horrifying creature will emerge from the ground and after a short time leave through the ceiling.

Should you hear the whispers in unknown languages until you and the warden reach a door made from stone, you are safe. Now, listen to the engine. If it keeps running, proceed and open the door. Do not even try to imagine what happens when the engine stops; nobody has ever been able to tell after it has stopped.

Now, if the door has been opened, the worker will leave you alone. Enter the door and walk straight forward until it closes. Now, you have to say the words "Excuse me, I'd like to learn from you." If you did anything wrong, you will be dead before you even realize it, so do not worry much about this. Should nothing happen for several dozen seconds, you may resume walking.

Do this until you reach a heart that is as big as your head. Do not touch it, instead, turn around. You will see either the most beautiful woman or the most horrific creature your eyes have ever witnessed. The latter only appears if you have touched the still-beating heart. Its sight alone will almost drive you insane and haunt you for the rest of your life.

Should you see the woman, look at her eyes, nowhere else, even if she does not wear any clothes. The beauty will literally blind you and you will be forced to wander around in her realm until the end of your life. If you are able to keep looking at her eyes, you may ask one question: "Are they alive?" The woman will suddenly moan soundly and lay down on the ground, beginning to satisfy herself. You must now quickly close your eyes and hold your ears shut with your hands, as her moaning will slowly destroy your mind and body, should you hear it clearly.

After some time, you will feel someone touch your right shoulder. You may now open your eyes and lower your hands. Do not turn around to whoever touched you. Instead, look at where the woman was. She will now be gone, only ash is what is left of her. Search within the ash for her uterus. Take it and close your eyes. Open them again after you felt something cold touch your head. You will be back in the mental institute, behind the warden who guided you to the stone door.

The uterus is object 18 of 538. It has one child left to bear.


Holder of Innocence

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask with no hesitation to visit someone who calls himself "The Holder of Innocence." The worker will say nothing, but a single tear should fall from her eye.

She will guide you to a forgotten hallway in an abandoned wing of the run-down institution. She will not enter the hall with you, but will only look into your eyes with a cautious hope, her own expression seeming to beg for salvation. Should you enter the hall, you will not see much, save for the dirty, broken fragments of what were once beautifully carved ivory statuettes. Before long, you will hear a soft whimper from the other side. Pay close attention, for if the whimper stops, then all hope is already lost. There is no use in running away.

As you turn the handle of the simple wooden door on the other side, a warm and cozy light will greet your face. You will find yourself in the bedroom of a young girl of eight and a half years. The girl herself will be sitting cross-legged on the floor at the foot of the bed, her only garment an open night-robe, exposing the entirety of her pure body. She is the source of the tortured whimpers, and nothing you say to console her will end her torrent of stifled wails.

Only, if you ask her "What happened when it was first created?" she will become silent to glance up towards your face. Her beauty will render you breathless, and if you are still capable of any thought it will be only the realization that in her you see everything in this world that you truly love. Suddenly, you will realize that the girl is bleeding from her nether regions as a grotesque phallus emerges from the petit orifice between her legs. The object will pulsate with its own life, and you will find that it is hypnotizing you. Do not look away, for you do not wish to try its patience.

Soon, the room will disappear before your eyes, and you will be standing in the most serene clearing you have ever witnessed, and all of nature's fauna that you recognize will go about their lives around you, with no fear of anything, not even death. Suddenly, though, a shadow will fall over the meadow, and you will witness the forest all around burst into a pillar of flame. What happens next, no man can dwell on for long before going insane, but in the strength of the human mind you will endure.

In the end you will hear screams and moans and groans, but what will overcome you more than anything are the quiet whimpers, the stifled cries, of all the sullied innocents of the world that was. You realize that these cries will continue to be heard all across the globe until the world's end. None can endure those near-silent pleas and still maintain the slightest hope for the future.

The illusion will fade, and you will find yourself back in the room. You will find the girl lying dead on the floor, her face a mixture of agony and horror, her already decaying body feeding the now towering phallus and giving it a sinister glow.

That is object 19 of 538. If you touch it then it will be yours, but if you let it master you then it will use your body to seek and assemble all the pieces, no matter what the cost.