m******e Mansion

Chapter 5- Saturday Night: 7 p.m.

        The sudden noise took us all by surprise. We all jumped and turned only to find the door had closed. Everyone raced towards it, with the exception of Miranda who just stood wide-eyed with her mouth agape. Luke was the first to get there, and he immediately placed his hand on the elaborately designed, pinkish metal handle and pulled.

       "It's..not...opening," he said through gritted teeth as he was used all his might in attempts to pull it open. His muscles were straining, and if it was a normal door it would have given away to his strength.

         "Well pull harder! It can't have locked," Lidia replied while she crossed her arms and started tapping her toes on the marble flooring. Her posture gave off a strong look, but her eyes were showing a hint of fear.

        "Baby, I'm pulling this door as hard as possible, and it isn't budging," he said, finally giving up and stepping back.

         "Caspian, if this is one of your pranks, it isn't funny," I said in an authoritative tone while glaring at him. 

        "It wasn't me, Cherry, I swear," the blue-eyed male said, putting his hands up as if saying he was innocent.

        "Just cut it out already, Cas. We know it was you, you're always doing this stuff," Nathaniel said, not buying a word that came out of his mouth. But who could blame him? This was just the kind of thing Caspian would do.

        "I already said it! It wasn't me," Caspian replied picking up a defensive tone, "Maybe it was just the wind."

         "Yeah, the wind totally blew the door shut from the inside,"  Nathaniel sarcastically stated. All the while Miranda was still just staring at the door, she was so still she seemed to be a statue. There was no signs of her living.

          "Would you guys just cut it out? Caspian says it wasn't him, so maybe it wasn't him. Maybe there was a gust from inside that shut the door," Lewis stated.

          "I don't feel any draft in here. And how would that explain the door locking? It wasn't locked when Klarissa opened it!" Lidia pointed out. It was true, the door hadn't been locked and there was no draft anywhere. There didn't even appear to be any air vents.

AHHHHH!!!

    Miranda had screamed once again as what just happened finally had caught up with her.

      "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! WAS IT A GHOST?! PEOPLE ALWAYS SAID THIS PLACE WAS HAUNTED! We shouldn't have come here. I knew we....shouldn't...have come...here...WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!" Miranda kept screaming and rambling on and when she finally stopped she just basically threw herself at the ground and sat there mumbling incoherently.

       Kadince carefully walked over to the semi-unstable girl, knelt down, and hugged her. 

      "There, there," she said softly," it's gonna be okay. No one is going to die. There must be a logical explanation to this."

       "But what if there isn't? What if-" Miranda was cut off by a sob that escaped her throat.

       "Shh, enough with the 'what if's. Everything is fine. Now, how about we get up and go look around?" Kadince asked. She had always been a mother hen. She could always comfort someone, and it surprised me that she so easily took care of the situation when she was in Miranda's shoes not to long ago.

       Miranda nodded and slowly stood up from the marble floor, stumbling slightly. Lewis walked towards her and put his arm around her shoulders, helping her keep her balance so as to not fall over. He whispered something into her ear and she pointed towards a door on the left wall that had mahogany wood with a silver handle. They slowly but surely made their way over to that door and the rest of us followed behind.

      Kadince had once again found her way to me and she had a content look on her face.

      "I'm proud of what you did back there," I whispered to her. She had her feisty moments, but she was a good person at heart. I was glad that I was blessed with her as a sister.

      "Well, that's only what you would have done if it was me. I learned from the best," she beamed at me. Some of her red hair had begun to fall out of the clip she had used to pull part of it up. Somehow it gave her a more elegant look than she already had. She would grow up into a beautiful person, I could tell.

      The door had lead into what appeared to be a living room. Straight ahead was a fire place with what appeared to be fresh wood. The outer edge of it had white stones that encased the fire should one be lit. On the mantle there was a single match. In the middle of the room was a mosaic rug full of bright colors such as yellow, orange, white, etc. To the left of that rug was a lavender loveseat with a big white doily across the back. To the right were two lavender easy chairs in the same style as the loveseat. On the far end of the room to the right of the fireplace was a medium sized window that portrayed the dead woods outside, the one on the left did the same. A transparent light blue curtain hung in front of them, and if light were to come through the room would be showered in blue.

        The room had a calming atmosphere. All the bright coloring gave off a happy glow. The white walls gave it a feeling of serenity. Caspian immediately ran to the loveseat, jumped over the side, and landed laying on it. This caused dust to spring up into his face and onto his clothes making him sneeze multiple times. That made me laugh, and soon everyone else joined in. Even the normally emotionless Mark let out a small chuckle. It was times like these where I felt like we were a family. No one was making rude remarks and everyone seemed generally happy. 

     Caspian got up after his sneezing fit and "dusted" himself off. He looked mischievously at me before he brought his hand up and blew dust all over me as well causing everyone to laugh some more. 

      After we had all settled down, we left the room, and only then did we remember where we were. The happy atmosphere from before was gone, sucked out with all the dark walls and creepy atmosphere. It was hard to believe that the room we were just in was a part of this place. We pressed on and found a kitchen, a bathroom, a mini library, and a game room before we found the ballroom.

       The ballroom itself seemed to be bigger than the entire mansion. We all stared in amazement at just the sheer size of it. With the exception of Mark who acted as if he had seen better. He just continued to walk across the shiny, golden floor until he came to a grand piano. It was a pretty ivory color that went well with the color scheme of the room. There were white pillars on each side that held up the ceiling which was painted to show a beautiful mountain scene with Pegasi flying with angels at what appeared to be dawn. I had never seen such a beautiful place in my entire life.

       "Wow," I breathily sighed still looking around at every detail of the room. The size of the room was so great my voice echoed off the walls.

        "Hellooooo," called out Kadince, giggling at the echo. Soon everyone else joined in calling out random phrases to hear it echo in the grand room. After Mark had thoroughly investigated the piano he turned to us.

       "What's a ballroom with no dancing?" He questioned. "Why don't we enjoy ourselves while we still can?"

       "Yeah, I think we deserve some well earned comforts," Lewis said in a sweet voice while glancing at Miranda. 

       "How will we dance with no music?" Lidia questioned.

       "Just dance to the unheard sound," Mark replied. "Everyone, take a partner. Let's have fun while it lasts." 

       Everyone did what was told of them. Lidia and Luke got ready, again with Luke's hand trailing a little too low. I always wondered what happened to the sweet Lidia, Luke seemed to make her show a previously unseen side. Lewis got with Miranda, you could tell the poor girl was about to faint. Nathaniel came over and asked my little sister to dance surprisingly. I'd have to keep an eye on that boy. And that left Caspian and Mark. They both looked at each other and set off on a speed walk. It was kind of amusing really. One person would be left out, and I wasn't much of a dancer anyways. 

      My lips turned up into a smirk and my blue eyes held a mischievous glint in them. Once they arrived they both looked at me expectantly. There was no need for them to ask because I knew what they wanted.

      "Oh, I don't know if I'm up for it, boys. My poor feet are tired from all the walking today and I feel a little light headed. I guess you'll just have to dance together," I said with sugar dripping off my words and a sweet smile plastering my face. That caused them to both look at me, then each other, then me again. 

     "Princess, I don't think that's-" Caspian started to say.

     "Oh please," I said giving them puppy eyes," for me? I promise I'll dance with one of you if I can sit out for this one." That caused them both to start calculating my words.

      "Fine," they both grumbled in unison, to which I pulled them into a group hug. Once I backed away and let go they each had pink dusting their cheeks. I walked over to the sidelines and looked at them expectantly. They slowly put their arms around each other loosely and put as much space as possible between themselves. It had to be the funniest thing I had seen for awhile.

      "Is that how you'd dance with me, boys? That's truly upsetting. I'd want someone to hold me close," I said batting my long eyelashes with a dreamy look on my face. It was fun being the torturer for once. They slowly got closer and glared at each other, then me. After a few minutes of me calling out different things and giggling to myself they stopped, saying the music was over. Then they walked over to me once again.

     "My dear lady, would you humor me a dance?" Mark said, bowing with one hand out and his one visible green eye portraying hope.

     "Princess, you'd never want to dance with a commoner such as he. Dance with me instead?" Caspian said, mimicking Mark's action while speaking with a british prince kind of accent.

      "Well you are both such handsome men, how will I ever decide? How about...........you," I said, pointing at the green-eyed teen. His eye lit up with happiness while Caspian just glared and stomped to the sidelines sitting down because he had been beat.

      "Well then, shall we?" Mark asked. I placed my hand into his.

      "We shall," I said grinning. We then walked to the golden floor. He placed his large hand on my hip gently, and grasped my hand with his free one while I placed my opposite hand on his shoulder. Then he began to slowly guide me around the room in a slow waltz. I don't know if it was how we were talking earlier, the atmosphere, or the way Mark was treating me, but I really did feel like a princess. At some point in our dance I swear I started to hear an eerily beautiful song being played. Maybe it was just the unheard music. I looked up at Mark while he looked down into my eyes, the only problem being his hair was covering his gorgeous orbs. I carefully moved my hand from his shoulder to move his silky black hair out of his eyes. His eyes.....they're just so gorgeous. I got lost in them. I simply couldn't look away. The music picked up and we began spinning faster. Then the music dropped in key and he dipped me. I almost didn't notice how close our faces were until his lips almost brushed mine and then...

BANG!!

He quickly brought me back up and I came back down to Earth. We looked around the room searching for the disruption. Everyone else was as well, so I knew I wasn't imagining it. 

      "What was that?" Lidia asked the question we were all wondering.

      "I don't know, I was just listening to that music and then it sounded like something was slammed," I said.

     " You heard the music, too?" Miranda asked, confusion on her features.

     "Wait, how many people heard that tune?" Kadince asked, looking at us all as one-by-one we raised our hands. So it wasn't just in my head, I thought. 

       "So where did it come from?" Luke asked.

       " I thought you all would know by now," Caspian started," while all you lovebirds were dancing the piano started. At first I thought Mark had done something, but then I watched it. It was like the piano had a mind of its own. That's why the loud bang caught me off guard. Too many keys went down at once as if someone had slammed their fists on it."

       "I don't think we should stay in this room much longer. Like we've worn out our welcome," Lewis said, looking around as if paranoid.

        "I agree. The atmosphere is starting to feel heavy. We should go," I said walking over to Kadince. We all started walking towards the huge double doors that we had come through. Then we started our descent back to the place we felt the most safe, the living room. As we were walking, we tried making small talk, but it kept getting cut short. 

      "Have we seen any candles anywhere? It's too dark..." Miranda said, her voice getting higher the more she talked. I feel bad for her. She's always been a horror kind of girl, and that's probably making her imagination run wild.

      "Yeah, I think I saw one on a table back in the kitchen. I'll go get it for you," Lewis volunteered bravely. He wandered off alone towards the dark oak door that lead to the kitchen. We decided to wait for him so he could find us easily. Not more than five minutes later he came back running.

      "Guys......we need......to go....NOW!!" He shouted and panted. He immediately grabbed the two people closest to him and took off running to the living room. We all ran after him shouting question after question. 

      "I'll tell you when we're safe," he called back. Not too long later we were in front of the mahogany door that lead to "safety". Lewis fumbled with the doorknob looking over his shoulder as if something was following us. We all scrambled through the doorway once it was opened and Lewis then slammed the door shut. He immediately ran over to the small bookshelf on the left side of the room and pushed it in front of the door. When he turned back to face us he had a crazed look in his eyes.

        "Th-there was a .....a ....d-dead body in the k-kitchen. I-I just walked th-through the d-door and a c-corpse fell from the cei-ceiling. I-it looked li-like it has b-been dead for a-a while. It was h-hanging from a n-noose," he shakily explained. "Th-then I h-heard a v-voice.....it said....I-it said-"

       "Just tell us what it said already!" Lidia impatiently said.

       "It said...'keep close to your fire before your spark fades as well,'" Lewis said, looking at me.

        "So what do you think it means?" Miranda said, stepping closer to him.

         " Isn't is obvious? The fire represents the group, the spark is your life. Apparently whoever died wandered away from their group and was killed," Mark explained nonchalantly as if this didn't bother him.

        "So, stay together. Was there anything else?" I asked.

        "Y-yeah.......i-it also s-said...The Game Begins Now"