The mansion has always had its secrets. It always has and always will.  My secrets, my grandparents secrets, my grandchildrens secrets, all of them are the mansion's. No one knows all the secrets, there are too many. I can tell you some of them, but there is no way I could ever know them all.

I know how my granddaughter's father murdered her on her child's first birthday. I know how she screamed as he stabbed her and stabbed her and stabbed her. I know how they never found the body. I know how it was hidden in one of the little corners or crevices the mansion holds secret. I know how sometimes, the smell would get strong, and someone would tell the maids to go deal with it, and they'd disappear too. I know how my son, my granddaughters father, died in the attic, and I know how he was never found.

I know how my great-great-great nephew-in-law had an affair in the kitchen. I know how the girl moaned. I know how she died soon after of mysterious causes. I know how my great-great-great niece had no alibi. I know how she was killed by my nephew-in-law. I know how she begged for her life, how she claimed she didn't do it, how she wasn't lying. I know how my nephew-in-law drowned her in the little pond out back, how the ducks left soon after. I know how the boy was discovered hanging from the big oak out front. I know how the rope was slipped around his neck and I know how he went over. 

I know how the senator married into the family. I know how he raped my granddaughter of many generations. I know how he forced her to marry him, how he held their unborn child over her, I know it all. I know how he took control of the mansion when he moved in. I know how he made the place his, no longer my family's. I know how he was seen a day after their wedding going into town. I know how he never returned. I know how his body was found three years later in a pit in the basement.

I know how my grandson of twice as many generations was kidnapped. I know how the men snuck into the mansion. I know how they shoved him in a bag. I know they didn't mean to, but I know how they suffocated him in their attempt to gain some ransom money. I know how their heads were found in the river a hundred miles down, torn straight from their necks.

I know all the mansion's secrets. I know generations of whispers and don't-tells. I know years and years of things people wanted kept hidden. I know everything everyone ever did. I know how I killed my son, how I took revenge for my granddaughter. I know how I pushed my nephew-in-law off the tree, how I tied the little deadly knot. I know how the senator died as his heart and gravity pulled every last drop of blood out through the cuts in his skin, how he gasped like a fish in the pit while I stood over him with a knife. I know how the kidnapper's heads were torn from their necks when they realized the boy had ran out of air, when I realized the boy had run out of air.

I know all the mansion's secrets.  I know the line between human and monster is quite thin, and I know which side I fall on. I know how I died as my lover took my money, leaving my brother in charge of the mansion. I know how that same lover was never seen again, how he was cut up into tiny little pieces and fed to the wolves in the countryside. I know that whoever touches my family, I know they will die. The mansion will always know what they did, and the mansion will kill them. And I know I'm no longer human.

I know the mansion. I know myself, and I know they are one and the same.

Word count is 686. Prompt is in bold. This is my story for the last challenge in Nyhteride's  Art of Madness Contest. Hope you enjoy!!