<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="color: #FF4040">Odd House</span></span></div><br/><br/><a class="postlink" href="https://creativefreedomrpg.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&amp;t=51186">OOC Here</a><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 200%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="color: #BF40FF">Season 1</span><br/><span style="color: #BF80FF">Episode 1</span></span></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #00BFFF">David</span></div><br/><br/>David felt like he was being watched. It was a very odd sensation. It wasn’t the normal staring he got when he would be allowed to skip a line or when he would get the best treatment of anyone in the room. Those were stares of envy or anger. This sensation, it was more calculating. Of course, all of this was superstition. He had no real way to know if someone was watching him short of asking John to scope out the place. But John, despite being the same age as him, should know if they were being followed or tracked. That should have reassured David that he was just being paranoid, but nevertheless the feeling would persist as he walked the halls of the museum.<br/><br/>The museum itself was actually quite small. Maison de Notre Dame, the House of Our Lady. This museum was very out of the way and very underwhelming in its architecture and staff. Someone of David’s name and stature would never lower themselves to come to such a place, except for the fact that David didn’t care where this was concerned; he loved museums. Maison de Notre Dame had a very specific taste and interest. It housed paintings and sketches that seemed to come from every significant era in art history, and some styles that he couldn’t place. What’s more, every single piece was of a cathedral. Many of them he knew; Nidaros Cathedral in Norway, Notre Dame de Paris in - well, Paris, Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, in Barcelona, Spain. But many of them, he did not know. This of course was strange since he should know most of these cathedrals as any cathedral that would warrant creating a piece in the first place would have already garnered his attention. But there it was, these paintings were mostly alien to him and that was fascinating.<br/><br/>To make things stranger, the cathedrals were becoming increasingly otherworldly. Odd color choices were made by the artist, and in some there were missing walls or towers floating in the air. One painting seemed to be distorted, as if the cathedral was bloated.<br/><br/>“Weird,” John said.<br/><br/>They were staring at another bloated cathedral.<br/><br/>“It’s like it just ate some people,” David said, pensively. His eyes flicked to John, who let a small smile slip. David felt himself give a small smile. They stood there for a moment, until a loud pop jolted them and John moved to block David from any incoming threat.<br/><br/>A girl started crying and she held a limp string with a red exploded ballon dangling from her hand.<br/><br/>There it was again, that feeling that he was being watched.<br/><br/>David moved on, with John following behind. He entered a stairwell and headed down. The outside of the building was pretty small, but apparently it went a ways underground. He made his way down to the third floor underground. A couple whispering to each other passed them. The man’s eyes shifted to David for a second as he whispered into the girl’s ear. For a second, David thought he saw sharp teeth and the flick of a snakelike tongue. But it was gone and the man wasn’t looking at him at all - the couple was simply kissing and making their way up.<br/><br/>David stopped at the landing and watched the couple disappear through the door of the floor he had just been in.<br/><br/>“Matthieu? ça va bien Matthieu?” John’s voice was soft.<br/><br/>“What?” David glanced at John.<br/><br/>“I was just saying how this place reminds me of that Resident Evil movie, the first one, where they have this place called The Hive and wouldn’t it be funny if we found zombies.”<br/><br/>“Non,” the no came out in French, nasalized. He would always revert to French when he was thinking.<br/><br/>John looked concerned. He touched David’s cheek and gently guided his face back so they could see eye to eye, “A quoi penses-tu?”<br/><br/>David gently, but firmly, removed John’s hand, “Nothing, not thinking about anything.” He looked away, “let’s go.”<br/><br/>This floor was mostly empty. The walls were lined with more cathedral paintings with various colors and styles. Each painting seem to be trying to outdo the previous one. One of the painting felt odd. It felt like it was looking at him. It was a painting of a cathedral, but it was very far off in the distance and it looked small. All round there was greenery and trees. In the sky, he could see strange creatures that looked like snakes with moth-like wings. He couldn’t really make out their detail as they were surrounding the cathedral and seemed small on the painting to give the illusion that they too were far away. The phrase, It’s looking at me, floated into his head again. It felt like one of those paintings where the eyes followed you no matter where you stood. But this was a cathedral, not a person. And yet, it felt like the painting was looking at him no matter where he stood. Somewhere inside the painting, halfway to the cathedral, he noticed a man in a bowler hat standing near a tree. Only half of him was visible. David couldn’t remember if he’d seen it before. Maybe he missed it.<br/><br/>Not for the first time, he shook off the strange feeling and moved on to the painting across from it. This painting was of a door and only part of the cathedral was visible. He realized then that all of the paintings were actually different versions of the exact same cathedral.<br/><br/>“Why is there a random guy in a hat standing in the middle of the road?” John asked, chuckling. “Gotta tell you man, this place is weird.”<br/><br/>David felt chills run up and down his spine. He didn’t want to turn. It was stupid, why was he forcing himself to stare at the door? He steeled himself and turned. The man in the bowler hat was no longer half behind the tree. In fact, he was in the middle of the paved road. He seemed bigger and closer and he obscured part of the cathedral. It watched him.