31 Days of Hell... The Evil Within (Our Annual Story)

There is a place hidden deep within the swamps of Louisiana, a place built by men but as ancient as the Earth itself. It is like a wound that will not heal upon the face of our world and it is to this place that a man named Leopold Charbonneau with plans drawn by the Devil's own hand. he had made a deal with the Devil to build a house, a manor that would serve as the beating heart of some enormous beast as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It would come to be known as Kravenwood and from it came hidden doorways into the world beyond leading back into Kravenwood and from which there is no escape.

How you came to be in this place is a mystery as your GPS system said that this was the way. What wrong turn did you take to become so completely lost? Or perhaps, what wrongs did you commit as your journey into darkness leads you to believe you've perished and made your way into Hell itself. From one unique nightmarish reality to the next, all roads draw you deeper into madness as time itself seems to unravel before you. But soon, you realize that this is still the world you were born into but it is not the world you knew as it seems more like Hell on Earth... a dimension perhaps or maybe a Purgatory of some sort.

You drive up to what looks like a 1950s diner and where the people within look as if you've journeyed back in time. Soon, you are in flight fleeing into the night with a pack of bloodthirsty werewolves hot on your trail. Without your car, you find yourself on the outskirts of what looks to be a 17th-century village where you witness a young woman screaming as she is set alight being burned as a witch. She then stops her screams of agony and looks your way with a sadistic grin on her face as if she's been through all this before and now, it's your turn!

Even when you think you're safe and a family has taken you in, you encounter a two-headed girl with empty blood-filled eyes baring razor-sharp teeth hungry to feast upon your flesh. Your travels begin revealing greater secrets as some whom you encounter are from other places in the world and from times far more ancient. A settlement where you have concealed yourself is suddenly shattered as a tyrannosaurus rex smashes through it in pursuit of a herd of wild horses.

Other creatures appear that seem torn from mythology as you encounter your first dragon and then the first demons all of which convince you of what Kravenwood is. Then there is how you often wake from your slumber to find yourself in a place where you could not remember the night before when you remember falling into slumber. Worse, you wake with a start screaming with memories of tremendous suffering or a brutal death which must have been a nightmare regardless of how real it may have seemed.

Many whom you meet during your travels seem to understand what you do not and it is from them that you learned so much including the name of these lands into which you have fallen. Through all of your wanderings, it seemed as if all roads were leading you somewhere that you were meant to be. Then, you find yourself before a magnificent manor that seems to have emerged out of the nothingness and you feel that this is where all of these roads were taking you. You approach it seeking sanctuary because the lands surrounding it have become far more dangerous with few options for escape.

There is a sense of calm and safety here but there is also an eeriness, a sense of foreboding and unease... and then, the front door opens before you, and a little boy emerges stroking the hair of his soot-colored cat. Behind him now stands his Governess, a stern but beautiful older woman who silently bids you enter and, like the fool that you are, you accept! Only now, in the passing, do you notice that the boy has the blackest eyes... the Devil's eyes, and you have entered his unholy temple.

Once inside this place where only darkness dwells, you realize that your hosts have departed leaving you alone to find your way. As you wander in this grand palatial estate, you find that there are many doors that lay before you and when your wanderings take you through them, you find that your nightmares have only just begun. You weren't the first to enter the manor as there are many lost souls trapped within and each room seems tailored to its own personal nightmarish Hell. Behind some doors, there is sanctuary and even a sense of security as servants greet you providing for your needs.

Sometimes, those trapped within these rooms want only your companionship. But, there are some souls within Kravenwood Manor that are evolving into a perversion of the soul becoming twisted in nature into "death demons" called Sineaters. While offering pleasures, what they desire is suffering and they often work with fully evolved Sineaters whose forms are even more tormented in appearance and whose sole desire is to inflict as much suffering as they can.

While escape from Kravenwood isn't possible, you might find yourself once more within the towns and villages that lay beyond forever within the shadowy menace of Kravenwood Manor by stepping through one of the Manor's many doors. You might even find yourself standing by what appears to be an ocean only to find it is more an illusion but the ancient life within it is all too real. Death itself cannot offer you escape from Kravenwood because you are not a living being but more a wraith and all you can hope for are illusions of the life you once knew that sometimes are a reward for some heroic act.

Even if you could escape from Kravenwood, the everpresent "hounds" within Kravenwood would be released to seek you out and return with you. Over the course of time, you become part of the lives of those around you and you no longer seek escape from Kravenwood. You will accept your fate and end your wanderings to find your place among those around you, a semblance of life where you await the new arrivals still seeking escape that will never come.

Even this will prove a lie, just another illusion to help you cope with the suffering that is now your reality. For you see, Kravenwood is more than stone, soil, and trees... it is a mockery of death, it is evil within a greater evil, and Hell on Earth. Those trapped within can only wait for the Devil to reveal his plans as the child is but one form he might take and it is by his hand that all the plans for Kravenwood were created! Kravenwood Manor likewise may take other forms as it can appear as a typical old withered house, a castle, or a manor... or reveal itself as something much bigger than anyone might imagine.