<div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/EH6DSfC.jpg)</div><br/>"Foolish" townsfolk had said to her when they learned she planned to enter the manor at sunset.  Those were the kindest words leveled her way, "Suicidial" and "Mad" were whispered a bit too loudly as well.  The townsfolk were happy that help had been sent, but everyone in town knew that the bad things happened when the sun set.  But so too did Arisa know that to combat the darkness, one must face it.  It would be pointless to enter the manor while the sun's rays of light struck the ruined estate.  For that was when the darkness hid, when the evil slept.  She was not here to avoid it, but to confront it.<br/><br/>The key slid into the lock as if the two were lovers, a perfect fit, despite the state that the rusted gate appeared to be in.  The key turned with an unsettling silence, only the softest click heard when the lock disengaged.   No more loud was the sound of shutters in the town behind her closing against the night, as if the townsfolk would be safe behind the wooden slats and glass panes.  Faith and righteousness would see an end to this terror, not fear.  She pushed open the gate and found it's twin opening at the same rate, magic, engineering, or some other force she knew not.  She stepped into the grassy courtyard along the overgrown stone path that led to the front of the home.  Her steps crunching on the dried grass and weeds that had sprung between the stones before withering and dying off.<br/><br/>She almost didn't hear the click from behind her, but turned to find that the gates had closed silently behind her as she'd walked along the path.  There was no doubt in her mind now, not engineering.  She took her first step onto the porch and felt a chill run down her spine, as if the temperature had dropped several degrees.  Evil lay about this place.  As she reached for the doorknob to the front door, it moved on it's own, opening, the door swinging open as if to invite her in.  Very slowly, one could almost think that it had been a trick by the wind, if there had been any wind that night.  But she knew no fear and stepped into the gloomy interior, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness as she stood on the precipice of the home.  She could see an entry room, a foyer, twenty feet by forty feet, with stairs on the right hand side of the room, a door next to them, a door on the opposite wall, and straight in front of her, a dark hallway that the last rays of light from the day could not penetrate.<br/><br/>Arisa was human, and would need light to see the room better.  For all she could make out at the moment were vague dark shapes that looked to be covered in dust covered gray cloth and nothing more.