Day 574

The apartment block had once been a mansion, lavish and ornate, now it was crumbling in places and fallen to pieces in others. The residents were much the same - old money gone to rot. There was something about the old place that seemed to draw them all in where they festered until the day they died.

A couple were former Lords, disgraced and hiding from their reputations, others were new money who'd made one too many bets. There were a few genuine residents of course, living from paycheck to paycheck in its somewhat mouldy walls.  The apartments were well-suited for them all, tucked away in a labyrinth of downtown buildings almost as rundown as it. There were never any visitors besides the daily postman. It was one of those places you could easily walk past without even seeing.

Inside you could catch glimpses of the mansion it once was in the elaborate skirting boards and finely carved wooden panels that decorated entire floors, not smothered in dust and animal hair. Aside from the lack of care the building faced there were a few oddities. Any house of a reasonable age is bound to collect one or two. In this particular building it seemed to be staircases leading to floors that didn't actually exist.

One such set could be seen from the main entrance, just off to the left. It was as richly carved as the other wooden staircases and lead from the first floor onwards though it wasn't accessible from any floor. It wasn't that it was in an awkward place, it just didn't exist. Couldn't be seen in the slightest when you were on the upper floors and yet every resident has seen the same person walking up or down those stairs at some point.

Mr De'Ath he's known by the mansion's occupants as he's only ever been seen around the time a resident dies. If you rush to the entrance fast enough you catch a glimpse of him. He walks up the stairs holding a large grey bundle in his arms but walks down empty handed.

Old Lord Penkins says he saw Mr De'Ath sitting beside his bed when he was having his first heart murmur. He claimed the man didn't have a human face, only a mesh of something like bone with eyes as large as teacups, no nose and a thin mouth that stretched to either side of his head. The man didn't speak, just sat beside him as he struggled to breathe properly and gently put one hand on Lord Perkins' chest as if to say don't rush, I'm a patient man.