March 19th, 1921, part II
After the grisly discovery of grad student Trinidad Rizo's emaciated corpse in the storeroom beneath the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, the investigatorseasily followed a set of bloody footprints out of the basement and to the main floor of the university. As the group pursued their mysterious quarry up the steps and into the hallway, it became apparent the tracks were headed toward the office of Prof. Sánchez. Now worried that the killer may have struck again, they quickened their pace.
Upon rounding the corner toward their destination, a pained scream filled the air, along with the ominous smell of smoke. The scream, however, did not emanate from anyone familiar to the group and apparently belonged to a woman who was bleeding from the arm and being helped by Jackson Elias. The smoke came from a stuffed armchair that had been lit on fire.
Elias then testified that he had been in the professor’s office when he heard a commotion in the hallway. When he investigated, he found the woman bleeding and rambling about a man with a sword. After the fire was extinguished by Ford and tending to the injured woman, the group, now including Elias, followed the bloody footprints, which grew fainter with each step, right up to the door of Prof. Sánchez’s office.
Just as the door was forcefully breached by Brochet, the sound of breaking glass was heard from within, and a figure was seen exiting through the window. In addition, Prof. Sánchez was lying on the floor behind his now completely disheveled desk. He was alive, but clearly in shock. With eyes wide, Prof. Sánchez then blurted out through a fit of coughs and gasps, “He kissed me! Larkin’s lunatic de Mendoza was all over me!”
After wiping his face and mouth with a handkerchief, the professor reeled at the site of a thin layer of strange and foul-smelling ooze left behind by de Mendoza, something he attributed to the man’s obvious lunacy.
Having lost his trail, the group then headed to the Hotel España in the hopes of catching up with and confronting the seemingly crazed de Mendoza. Upon arrival, they were greeted by Petronila Cupitina, the hotel owner. After a brief exchange of unwanted small talk and pleasantries, Mrs. Cupitina eventually granted the room numbers of de Mendoza and Larkin, which were located on the second floor.
Once upstairs, the doors to both rooms were found to be locked, and there was no answer to repeated knocking. Determining the lock on Larkin’s door to be one of an unsophisticated build, Holder found it no trouble to pick, allowing entry into the dim room. Inside was a scene of dishevelment and stale odors. Soiled clothing was strewn about, as were half-eaten foodstuffs and other paraphernalia. Larkin, asleep in the bed, was covered with perspiration that had soaked through the sheets, which he lay on top of.
At this point, Holder and Elias decided to attempt access to de Mendoza’s room, while Ford and Brochet remained and searched Larkin’s. On the nightstand, Brochet turned up a cache of hypodermic needles and a stoppered bottle labeled “heroína.”
To their surprise, they also noticed a large tattoo on Larkin’s chest. This odd piece of human art radiated out from the center of Larkin’s sternum in a ragged spiral formation, ending above his diaphragm. From there, it connected to a stylized, misshapen humanoid figure with large, outstretched clawed hands.
Next door in de Mendoza’s room, Holder and Elias discovered an antiseptically neat dwelling, with no personal effects, toiletries, or changes of clothes. The bed was neatly made and appeared not to have been slept in.
Now joined by Ford and Brochet, a thorough search of the room was launched but was soon interrupted by the hotel owner, Mrs. Cupitina, who mentioned the cleanliness of the room and how she only needed to move the souvenir de Mendoza kept under the bed when doing her sweeping and dusting.
With this information, the group then located what appeared to be an artifact of some kind hidden in the bed. On the outside, the object resembled a mask made from gold and featured elaborate raised geometric carvings. The inside was plain but polished to a mirror-like shine. Although unable to discern the origin or purpose of the mask, Holder nonetheless felt queasy in its presence and was unable to pull his gaze from it. Passing the mask to his companions, each in turn felt a sense of unease wash over them.
Brochet, in particular, was affected. When looking through the mask’s eyes, his psyche was bombarded with horrifying visions and cruel scenes, which included an ancient stepped pyramid on a plateau that broke apart as greasy white tendrils dripping with huge maggots reached upwards from its remains.
As quickly as this vision appeared, it gave way to another. Brochet’s mind quickly moved to witness a small man huddled in a corner of a dingy room feverishly painting something.
Intrigued by Brochet’s change of expression after interacting with the mask and the apparent unnerving condition it left him in, Ford then donned the mask and received visions of his own. First, he was transported to Africa, where he found himself looking out of a train window at the sweeping vistas passing by. This vision was accompanied by the strong smell of smoke and then the sound of screaming.
Ford’s second vision found him amidst thousands of people, men and women of every race, performing bloody and orgiastic rites atop a great mountain. Shaken but not overly so, Ford removed the mask and handed it to Elias, who immediately held it to his face.
The visions given to Elias included a series of endless, dark tunnels filled with the roars and cries of wild beasts. He then saw his own hand, reaching out and touching a large red rock that was warm to the touch. Everything was brightly lit, except for a black pit that descended into the depths of the earth.
With the visions now subsided, the group headed back to Larkin’s room to wake him from his stupor. At first non-responsive, Larkin soon rolled over and reached for his vial and syringe. He claimed to need his “medicine,” which was now in the hands of Ford.
Larkin, still asking for his “medicine,” asserted he knew nothing of de Mendoza’s murderous activity and began to insist the group drop this line of questioning and focus on the dangerous trek that lay ahead. Now unsure of Larkin’s ability to lead such an expedition and unconvinced of his claims of ignorance of de Mendoza’s actions, the group attempted to coax him into accompanying them back to the university.
After admitting that he intentionally ignored Prof. Sánchez’s repeated attempts at communication about his planned journey and that there was likely a strong animosity between them because of it, Larkin declined to follow the party to the university, saying that instead he would begin working on final arrangements for the expedition. Larkin then suggested that de Mendoza had some sort of psychotic break and that perhaps he killed the young woman out of some misplaced sense of Larkin’s best interest.
The sick man then began to detail the gold and riches they were likely to find there and that the professor, who had in the past accused Larkin of grave robbing, would only impede on the glory they were sure to discover. Unimpressed and certain Larkin wasn’t completely forthcoming, Brochet grabbed the man by his dirty shirt collar and demanded to know what he was holding back.
Now looking genuinely scared, Larkin repeatedly insisted that he had been nothing but straightforward with them and that his true intentions were as stated. To placate the situation, Larkin assured that there would be no further involvement from de Mendoza in the expedition, but stated clearly that he would not have the professor in his party.
“I’m the one who’s done the research,” he exclaimed. “I’m the one who found the pyramid. Why shouldn’t what lies within be mine and yours?”
Larkin suggested that de Mendoza may be after the gold for himself and that he was likely already on his way to the pyramid.
“If de Mendoza is in fact a murderer, as you say, shouldn’t we stop him if we can?”
Satisfied for now with Larkin’s explanation, the group left the man in his darkened room. Ford, in a moment of sympathy, tossed Larkin his “medicine” before exiting.
The Friends of Prospero
Peru: Episode VIII • Peru: Episode VII • Peru: Episode VI • Peru: Episode V • Peru: Episode IV • Peru: Episode III • Peru: Episode II • Peru: Episode I
The Two-Headed Serpent
Coming soon…
