Last time, we left Dr. Josephine Ashcroft inside Harrowfell’s haunted halls where she’d spotted an unexpected hint of red pigment beneath the River Styx mural.
Let’s see what she discovered next.
August 27, 1926 — Harrowfell Hall
At last! I was granted permission to conduct a closer examination of the mural in the innermost circular hall. I arrived just after sunrise, setting up two portable lamps at oblique angles against the plaster. The raking light revealed what my eyes had suspected: faint textures beneath the painted surface, inconsistent with the visible composition.
The ridges suggested outlines—figures or forms, though indistinct, blurred by the thickness of the upper layer. I laid translucent paper against the wall and made several tracings, following the raised edges where the brushstrokes caught the light. The result was fragmentary, yet clear enough to convince me there is an underdrawing beneath the Styx.
I also lifted the smallest possible sample from the broken edge. Under magnification, the layers were unmistakable: the black, indigo, and Prussian blue of the river above, and beneath them, the deep vermilion ground I noted earlier.
And here lies my frustration. With present means, I can confirm only the existence of this hidden image, not its precise content. My tracings hint at two figures, one of them cloaked—though it may equally be some sort of water feature, the lines too faint to distinguish with certainty. Whatever Thorne buried beneath the surface remains beyond my grasp.
It is a bitter thing to know the secret is there, and not be able to see it.
September 2, 1926 — Harrowfell Hall
In my frustration I attempted to push further into what appears to be the innermost of the circular halls. Fitting, I suppose, that this passage is guarded by the River Styx mural. I was grateful for my dust mask—the air was choked, and a mass of fallen beams barred my way—but through a narrow gap I glimpsed what appeared to be rough stone.
I could not determine whether the stone was crumbled masonry from a structural collapse or whether the very heart of Harrowfell conceals something more primal, a cave at its core.
It would not be without precedent. I have read of wealthy families in the last century commissioning grottoes and “natural chambers” within their estates, ornamented as fashionable curiosities. But here, amidst these labyrinthine murals and the ruin of Harrowfell pressing in on all sides, I’ll admit the effect is rather disquieting.
That’s where the trail might have gone cold, if not for Dr. Mira Halstead.
Nearly a century later, Dr. Halstead revisited Ashcroft’s journals and obtained permission to examine the mural with modern techniques Josephine could only dream of. High-resolution imaging and scanning techniques were able to “peel back” paint layers without disturbing a single brushstroke.
What she discovered brought Dr. Ashcroft’s suspicions into unsettling focus.
See you next week.
