Part Three

*A scared child, a lost way, a powerful entity...*

### Content Warnings

Car accident, wraiths, being boarded up alive, animal death, children in peril and children, death, falling, corpses (including decomposition), mutilation (animal: crow).

## Summary

After surviving the car accident, Arthur and the entity are forced to go back into the woods with the baby. They come across an abandoned mansion and decide to shelter there for the night, but once inside they discover that the house is already occupied by a terrifying creature. When it takes the baby, Arthur and the entity need to figure out a way to trap the creature and rescue the child.

## Synopsis

Arthur wakes up, disoriented. Taking the baby, they manage to escape their car. The entity informs Arthur that the other car is destroyed and the other driver is dead. Arthur escapes to the woods.

Eventually, they come across an old three-story mansion in the middle of the clearing. The entity briefly thinks he sees a light in the attic, but afterwards is uncertain if he ever saw it. They approach, noting a long-neglected lawn and boarded-up windows.

They find a burnt pile of waist-high debris in front of the mansion: multiple broken mirrors and a baby crib. Together, they approach the house, and the entity notes the front door is open. They enter, locking the door behind them.

The entity directs Arthur to an office, where they set the baby down on a couch. Next, they move to the kitchen. As they peer through the window for the old woman, a crow flies into it, startling them both. They find matches and a candle in the kitchen. Arthur decides to shelter indoors until the morning. Returning to the office, they find the baby missing. They confirm the front door is still locked. Arthur suggests a vagrant in the mansion, but the entity disagrees, saying that something otherworldly is drawn to them. He cites the book, the child, and the strange old woman as evidence.

They start to look for the baby upstairs. In the decrepit hallway, they find a few bedrooms and a wheelchair. In the right doorway, they find rotten pieces of wood around the door. The entity suggests that the door was once boarded up, but either someone took the boards off, or something broke out. They enter.

Inside, the bedroom is in a much worse state than the rest of the house: a layer of mold on the floor, a bed sagging with water, rotted walls. They find a a long-dead woman's corpse on the bed. Next to her is a photo of a young girl, possibly her daughter. In the attic, they find a long-dead man's corpse, and a doorway in the back of the room. Entering through, they find the bedroom of a young girl. The entity informs him that there is a woman sitting on the bed, holding the baby.

Arthur demands she put down the child. The woman turns towards him, screams, and leaves. After, the entity says that she is a wraith, the trapped ghost of the dead woman on the bed. He explains that wraiths are bound to a location, and that wraiths are attracted to life -- hence why she took the baby.

Arthur asks the entity how to destroy a wraith. The entity instructs that they need to (a) find an object she had while alive, (b) burn her bones, and (c) lure her to a place where they can take the child from her, before she kills it. Arthur suggests they burn the bones in the office fireplace.

Together, they start to make a plan. With her humming to the baby, the entity suggests that she is caring for it. Arthur opts to search for more clues to the mansion and wraith's history. The entity requests they start with the attic.

In the attic, they find writing in another language and 'sad pictures' with the young girl's name, Anna, written on them. They head back downstairs. Arthur asks how the entity knows about wraiths. The entity doesn't know, but is certain it's true, and Arthur believes him. They examine the woman's corpse again, noting some sort of leg injury. The entity notices a faint line along the dead woman's neck, possibly from the chain of a necklace, though there isn’t one there anymore. Arthur theorizes that someone must have entered the house, broken into her room, and taken the necklace. Before they leave, the entity notices a small metal portrait of a baby boy. On it is inscribed a few words in another language, as well as 'Erik'. He recommends either the wheelchair or Erik portrait for the wraith's possession, and the debris pile or the office fireplace for the burning.

Arthur suggests that they learn more information first, and they search the basement. The stairs break under Arthur, and he plummets to the floor. Arthur strikes a match and finds glass on the floor and a large stone pillar with a wheel.

They turn the wheel, and something starts to click. Following the wires running from the wheel, they find a writing desk and a typewriter. In the typewriter lies a dead crow, sewed together with wire and metal. The wires run through its open, broken beak and into the device. From the wheel, the typewriter wrote a message: "The Black Goat Comes."

A shrill scream startles them, the basement door slams shut, and the candle is blown out. After relighting it, they search the desk and find Erik Stanczyk's birth certificate. Knowing the family name, Arthur feels more confident in the ritual.

They start to search for an exit route, but the typewriter starts to click without the wheel's input. Without investigating, they find an alcove that leads to a chimney. He climbs through it. In the office, they pull together a plan. Arthur decides to use the wheelchair as her tether, the fireplace to burn the bones, and the Stanczyk name to lure her in.

The entity also reveals that they have the option to kill her or free her. The entity explains that they'll need to take ash from her bones and spread it over her bound object, before giving a cost in exchange for her freedom. A cost, the entity continues, is a deal: a task for her to complete. Then they cut the object she's bound to, and she would complete her cost and be free. If Arthur wants to kill her, then he only needs to burn the object.

The entity seems to want Arthur to spare the wraith, and when Arthur presses him on it he says “I have to hope that any creature can be redeemed.” When Arthur asks why he explains that they still don't know who or what he is, and that it's possible he's something much worse than a wraith.

They retrieve the wheelchair and the bones (stored in a hat box) and brings them to the office. He puts the bones in the fireplace, using the hat box as kindling. The wheelchair is moved into the center of the room, and they bundle some cloth to give the appearance of a baby. The entity has him repeat 'May God bless this baby Stanczyk'.

The wraith arrives, holding the baby. Arthur sets the cloth down. The wraith picks up the cloth, and Arthur picks up the baby. Arthur moves to the fireplace to ignite her bones. The wraith becomes bound to the chair, and Arthur must decide what to do with her.

## Votes

* Chapter 11: **Search Upstairs First [4]** / Search Downstairs First [3]
* Chapter 12: **Find an item, move her bones and begin to look for a place to confront her [8]** / Head to the Basement [1]
* Chapter 13: **Head to the Basement** / ??? [vote lost]
* Chapter 14:
	+ a) Which object will you choose to bind the wraith? **The Wheelchair [4]** / The Picture [2]
	+ b) Where will you burn the bones? The Backyard [1] / **The Fireplace [6]**
* Chapter 15: **Spare the Wraith [6]** / Kill the Wraith [1]