Page 10 - The Devil's Arsonist

ease in so short a time, all that they knew and, in a manner, greater than their own execution
of them.

I for my part was not so dumbfounded for I had come to the only conclusion possible as to
why this was. I had lived before, in times, centuries before my own present birth, when such
trades and crafts were more commonplace and practiced in each and every town and village
of this land. This truth was most manifested in a way that the sane and logical would deny, as
not only impossible but entirely unbelievable. Yet, when proved to be the case before their
very eyes, they could only stare in awe and disbelief. For I could see into the living being of a
house and declare whether evil or good was to be found within its walls. It was if I were privy
to all that it had seen or heard or felt from the very earliest days of its existence; the terrible
events that had befallen it, the intimate secrets of those who lived there and of their eventual
tragic fate. All that I witnessed and experienced in these visions was recounted to my clients
in such detail that none could argue with the truth of that which I told. I was now William
Gilderiche - Architectural Historian; one who alone in this world could enter into a building
and read its very soul!

I must after much preamble and distractions, at last begin my real story and tell of my visit to
the ‘house that ran out of luck’.

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