Once upon a time, there was a young servant, named Lydia. She was about 20 years old and has been working for the dowager Duchess M--- for five, six years. She liked working for the old woman, because the duchess was always tired and slept most of the day. Therefore, Lydia didn't not need to work as often.

One day, Lydia entered the duchess' sitting room. It was a luxurious room decorated with the finest of everything in Europe. Along one wall, there was a big fire place and the wall surrounding the fireplace was made of intricate design of brick work.

It fascinated Lydia, but today, she just hurried by and went to the beckoning duchess. The duchess, looking very grand in her purple velvet gown, reclined on a settee. The duchess' tea was done and Lydia removed it.

"Your highness, will there be anything else you need?" Lydia asked.

The duchess turned her head and seemed startled to see Lydia there, and said,"When my son arrives, have him come in immediately."

That was always a bone of contention in the household. The dowager duchess wanted her son, the new duke to settle down and be more responsible, but the young duke liked to have fun too much to care to please the old woman.

Lydia went to the kitchen and stayed there contently waiting for the duchess to ring to go upstairs. Instead, she was summoned by the butler to tell the duchess that the young Lord E---- wanted to see her.

Lydia brought Lord E---- into the sitting room, where the duchess showed her obvious displeasure at seeing the young man again.

"Where is my son?" was the last thing Lydia heard the duchess utter before Lydia closed the heavy oak doors and returned to her sanctuary. She was surprised to learn much later that Lord E---- had left but no one had seen him. Furthermore, the duchess hadn't asked for her help and went to sleep on her own.

A few days later, the news hit the Gazette that the young Lord E---- the heir of Marquis H---- had died at the hands of some wild animal, presumably to be a rabid hunter dog, after leaving Duchess M----'s country residence. It was a shock to the English society.

Two days later, Lydia was surprised to see Duke M---- riding in as though the devil was chasing him. He rushed into the house and almost dragged Lydia to his mother's sitting room to announce him.

Before Lydia even said a word, the duke screamed, "What happened to my friend?"

"Now, son, calm down. I don't know what you are talking about. Why don't you sit down and have a chat with your old mother?"

Lydia decided to leave the room, and as she closed the doors, she heard Duchess M---- trying to convince an impatient Duke M--- that he should settle down more.

Lydia returned at the duchess' beckoning to take the duchess to bed. The duchess was quite agitated and the duchess claimed that her head ached because her son had taken off in the middle of a heated argument.

After soothing the duchess best she could, Lydia returned to the sitting room to tidy up. It was so dark, so Lydia took a match to the fire place to light another candle. As she stood up and the flame of her candel flickered and leaned away from the wall.

She thought it was rather strange, and put the candle nearer to the wall. The flame moved away from the holes in the wall. That meant there was a source of wind on the other side of the wall. What? She put the match closer to the little openings in the wall to see what was beyond.

A pair of luminous eyes stared back at Lydia through the openings. Lydia was terrified and dropped the match. She ran out of the room and ran straight home. At some point on her 20 minute run, she wondered if it was her imagination running wild.

Once home, Lydia reluctantly told her mother about her discovery. She thought her mother would laugh at her foolishness, but instead, her mother patted her hand and said, "Lydia, there are many strange things in M---- Mansion. The dowager duchess... Well, let me tell you a tale of many years ago."

Thirty years earlier, the daughter of Count F----, Marionne, only 18 married the Duke M----- who was already in his late 30's. Marionne was disappointed to find out that though her husband was quite pleasant to her, he was in love with another woman. She was left in the country and she was very bored.

Marionne had many pets, and her father send her an exotic bird to add to her collection. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to feed the bird, and she was worried that it would wither away and die.

She asked the housekeeper about it, and the housekeeper suggested that Marionne visit an old woman living in the area. This old woman was the granddaughter of the gameskeeper when the area was still fruitful for hunt, and she was probably the only one who would know anything about keeping animals other than dogs and cats.

Marionne set out on horse back one day, and returned many, many days later. Everyone was worried sick, but Marionne returned healthy but a different woman. She insisted to Duke M--- that a special sitting room should be built for her. She had her own design and she took control of the project. The duke obliged and a few months later, she found herself settling into a new and luxurious sitting room. Sadly, the builders all died mysteriously.

Strangely, Marionne's pets started to disappear and die as well. Yet, she wasn't really sad. She claimed that she was leaving that part of her life behind. The fact that the pets' bodies were often discovered torn to pieces didn't seem to phase her at all. She put it all behind her.

Meanwhile, the rumor of a mystical creature of the forest developed in the area. People guarded their livestock and their children well, for fear of ending up like Marionne's pets.

At sometime during those months, Marionne told her husband that she wanted to meet his lover because she was curious who was keeping him away from her. She was quite adamant on this point, and her husband agreed reluctantly.

Surprisingly, her husband's lover disappeared after their meeting, and was later found in the forest. The lover's body was torn to pieces and everyone presumed the forest creature caught her. Officially, it was declared some wild wolf had attacted her.

In his grief, the duke turned to Marionne for comfort. Soon after the episode faded into the background and once Marionne gave birth to a male heir, the entire story was no longer mentioned.

The strangeness in the area had also stopped.

Lydia was quite surprised by the story, and fascinated to learn about the duchess's beginning. She stayed at home that night for fear of the forest creature. The next morning she returned to Mansion. She worked during the day as though nothing usual had occured.

After the duchess had gone to sleep, Lydia went down to the sitting room. Again, she picked up a candle and held it near the holes in the wall. She looked in and was shocked to see a grotesque monster (looks like Jabba the Hutt) sitting in what appeared to be a dungeon. It was chewing on the remains of someone's body, and Lydia recognized the walking cane to be that of the young dukes.

She let out a little scream, and took a step back. But instead, she found that the walls in front of her was opening up and a fleshy hand pushed her back and she stumbled into the dungeon.

She had enough time to turn back to see the dowager duchess's evil smile as the duchess pulled some hidden handle and the doors began to close. Before Lydia had a chance to move, doors closed. She was in the dundgeon with a man-eating monster.

Lydia was frozen in fear as she felt the smelly breath of the forest creature on the back of her neck.