Chapter Text
The old Byrd mansion a few miles outside of town has been empty for a hundred years. Maybe. Probably. It’s old and falling apart and that happens when it’s been abandoned for a long time, right? Well, all Patton knows is that it’s creepy as hell to look at and everyone seems to be of the opinion that it’s best to leave it alone.
Everyone except Roman. He’s convinced there’s something amazing hidden inside. He told them, “And even if there’s no treasures hidden in there, there’s at least an adventure waiting!” So he got it in his mind to go and not even Virgil could convince him to change his mind. And since Virgil couldn’t just let him charge in by himself, he talked Patton and Logan into coming along too.
Which brings them to here. To now. To Patton holding Logan’s hand as they stand outside the old Byrd mansion. To Roman vibrating with excitement next to Virgil clutching a backpack full of flashlights and batteries and a first aid kid and emergency snacks and bottled water.
“It feels bigger up close,” Patton says nervously, looking up at the smashed-out windows on the second floor.
“I’ve got no service out here,” Virgil grumbles, stabbing at the screen of his phone.
Logan checks his phone too. “Mine as well,” he says.
“That’s fine, we don’t need cell phone service!” Roman says.
“What if something happens?” Virgil says. “Like one of us falls and we need to call for the EMTs, or there’s a serial killer hiding inside and we need to call the police, or the car doesn’t work when we get out and we need to call a tow truck?”
“The car was working fine coming here,” Logan pointed out. “And it’s highly unlikely there’s anybody living here. And--”
“We’ll be fine!” Roman says, throwing an arm around Virgil’s shoulders. “Just stick close to each other and we’ll be safe.”
Patton is still frozen in place, staring up at the mansion. “There’s probably… bugs in there,” he says, his voice coming out more timid than he wants. “And spiders.”
Logan smiles kindly. He leans close to whisper, “Let Roman walk first. He’ll break all the spider webs for you.”
Patton manages a shaky smile. “Thanks,” he says.
“Alright, enough waiting!” Roman says. “It’s almost sunset! Time to explore!”
“Wait one second,” Virgil says. He reaches into his backpack, takes out four flashlights, and hands them out to each of them. “Here. Watch where you’re walking.”
Patton takes his flashlight and switches it on. The beam of light is bright and wide. Okay, that makes him feel a little better. He points the light at the ground and walks after Roman and Virgil, who are already leading the way up the crumbling grass-covered stone steps up to the house.
Roman pushes hard on the door. The hinges are almost completely rusted shut, but then there’s a jerk and it suddenly opens all the way. Roman stumbles a bit, and Virgil immediately rushes forward to grab him.
They walk inside. The dark entrance hall is huge as a cavern, and it seems to swallow up the light of their flashlights. Patton edges closer to Logan, keeping his flashlight pointed at the ground in front of him instead of pointing it around like Logan and Roman are doing.
“Look at this place!” Roman says. “I wonder where all these doors lead to!”
“Well, it was built in eighteen thirty-one,” Logan says. “Considering the style of the architecture, I would expect to find a library, a drawing room, a sitting room, a formal dining room, perhaps a morning room…”
“And a billiard room, and a conservatory, and a lounge, right?” Roman says.
“What?” Logan sputters.
“Come on, Clue?”
Logan groans. Patton giggles. Okay, he’s sort of enjoying this now. He lets go of Logan’s hand and walks over to one of the doors along the hall. With some effort, he forces it open. He points his flashlight inside.
“Oh, look,” Patton says. “This must have been the dining room.” The others walk past him into the room, pointing their flashlights at the sparse contents.
There’s a long table in the center of the room, split in half but still very recognizable as a table. Broken chairs are strewn everywhere. The windows are cracked and dirty, barely letting in any of the fading rays of orange light.
Wait. It’s already that dark outside? Patton knew that the sun wasn’t setting when they walked in. From the time they entered to now, not even five minutes have passed. Patton moves back, out of the doorway to the dining room, to look back at the door of the mansion. Which he knows he left open behind him.
It’s shut now.
Patton frowns. A chill runs through him. He points his flashlight at the door, and then slowly starts to move the beam across the length of the hallway.
Was it the wind? Or the old hinges?
“Patton!”
Patton nearly jumps out of his skin. He turns around and sees Virgil pointing his flashlight at him.
“What’s wrong?” Virgil says.
“Uh,” Patton looks from Virgil, standing on the opposite side of the broken table, to Roman, using his flashlight to look at a torn painting above the fireplace, to Logan, stooping down to pick up something off the ground. “It’s nothing,” Patton says. He walks back into the dining room and joins up with Logan.
“What’ve you got there?” he asks.
Logan holds it up to show Patton. “It’s a sword,” he says. “Probably from a suit of armor or something.”
“A sword?” Roman repeats, running over to them. “Let me see!”
Logan holds it out to him. “It’s not as great as you think.”
It’s still pretty impressive, Patton thinks. The binding on the handle is gone, and the blade is tarnished and rusting in places, but it looks really cool. Roman certainly thinks so, as he examines the blade with a huge smile on his face.
“It’s a French style sabre,” he says. “Yeah, it’s not in the best condition, but a bit of work, and it could look amazing! See, this is treasure!” He swings it around experimentally. Patton and Logan both flinch out of the way.
“Careful with that!” Virgil says.
“Sorry,” Roman says. He slides the sword through his belt loop. “Amazing, we’ve found something already.”
“Cool, so can we leave now?” Virgil asks.
“No!” Roman says. “There’s bound to be other things in other rooms! Besides, this is about having an adventure too! We’ve got to stay a while and see everything there is to see!”
Virgil sighs loudly, but he allows Roman to take him by the hand and drag him towards a door different from the one they came through. Logan chuckles and looks to Patton.
“It appears we’re moving on.”
Patton takes another glance at the window. Maybe it’s just that the window is really dirty. He knows it’s only been a short time since they entered. He also knows he’s nervous and his mind is probably playing tricks on him, making him panic over little things. He shakes himself and goes to follow Logan through the door.
They enter a narrow hallway, which leads to the kitchen. They look in all the cabinets and on the tables, but there’s nothing but some very rusted cooking ware and dirt. Next is the pantry, which is even more empty than the kitchen. And then there’s a tiny stairwell leading down into a dark…
“Wine cellar?” Logan suggests as they crowd around the top of the stairs and point their flashlights down. They can’t make out anything, since the rickety-looking wooden stairs go down in a spiral.
“One way to find out!” Roman says, and moves to go down the stairs. Virgil grabs him by the shirt and hauls him back. Roman falls onto the floor.
“Are you out of your mind?” Virgil says. “Look at those stairs! Some of them are broken!”
Are they really, Patton wonders. He looks back down. Sure enough, he can see two or three broken steps. Wow. Terrifying.
Virgil keeps going, “Clearly, someone’s been down them, whether that was yesterday or twenty years ago, and it didn’t go well! If the four of us--hell if even one of us goes down, we’re going to end up with a broken neck!”
Roman gets up and brushes the dust off his pants. “But Virgil,” he pleads. “There might be something cool down there.”
Virgil moves to stand in the way of the stairs. “There might be something cool in literally every room in this place,” he says. “More likely you’re going to find your treasure in the master bedroom than in the wine cellar, which probably only has old wine bottles from a hundred years ago.”
“Oh!” Roman says. “You’re right.”
“So does that mean we’re going upstairs?” Logan asks. “The bedrooms aren’t going to be on the first floor. This place has four floors, not counting the cellar.”
“What would be on each floor?” Patton asks.
“The ground floor probably has all the entertaining rooms,” Logan says. “Places you would take company, like the drawing room, sitting room, dining room, and… the library.” He pauses wistfully at that last one. “Bedrooms would be on the next two floors, along with more private rooms for the family’s use. Like… a gallery for art, a nursery, maybe a study.”
“What about the fourth floor?” Virgil asks.
Logan shrugs. “I would guess an attic. Storage, maybe servant rooms, unless those are in the basement. But it’s probably too dangerous to go all the way up there.”
Virgil throws a pointed glare in Roman’s direction.
“Alright,” Roman says. “I promise I won’t go up to the attic. But after we finish seeing everything there is to see on the ground floor, I want to look for the master bedroom.”
Virgil sighs. “As long as the stairs to the upper floors look safe?”
Rather than answer, Roman bounds out of the kitchen with a hearty “Let’s go!” Virgil follows him with another resigned sigh, and Logan follows them both with an amused smile.
Patton feels much more comfortable as they shut the kitchen door, leaving the creepy stairs behind. He sticks close to Logan as they return to the main hall and walk across to another door.
This one opens up to a room with some very old furniture scattered around. Logan explains it’s a drawing room, and then explains the difference between a drawing room and a lounge and a sitting room to Patton. Roman and Virgil (probably) ignore him while they shuffle through the drawers of a cabinet on the far side of the room.
As Logan pauses to examine the artwork that’s fallen off one of the walls, Patton moves his flashlight across the ground. He finds a lot of dirt, broken bits of wood and armchair and… a mirror?
Patton stops and stoops down to pick it up. It’s a little hand mirror, barely three inches across. The handle is in surprisingly good shape, shiny brass or something fashioned into an elaborate piece. Patton rubs his sleeve against the reflective surface, hoping to find it hasn’t been ruined by time.
Oh, it’s perfect. Even though it’s dark, he can still make out his reflection just fine. He opens his mouth to call Roman over, but stops. Something’s not right. Patton narrows his eyes and peers closer at the mirror.
His reflection isn’t right somehow. Patton reaches towards it to try and clean it again. But the reflection in the mirror--instead of following his movements--raises a finger to his lips. He smirks.
A cold voice whispers in Patton’s ear.
“Shh.”
And then the floor falls out from under Patton’s feet. He opens his mouth to scream, but the sensation stops, replaced by a twisting and cramped feeling, like he’s being pushed into a small space that he can barely fit in. He blinks and tries to move, but finds he can’t.
Then he blinks again and the horrified realization slowly sinks into him. He’s stuck somewhere, unable to look anywhere but out of a round window. A window to the room he just left. Patton looks out to see the reflection of himself, smiling with a wicked gleam in his eyes.
As Patton watches in horror, one of his reflection’s eyes turns yellow. It’s back to Patton’s normal brown a split second later, but it’s enough to make Patton reel in shock.
“What…” he says, his voice muffled in the small space he’s in. “What’s going on? Logan?”
His reflection looks away from the mirror, looking in Logan’s direction. “Oh, no, I haven’t found anything,” he says, in a perfect imitation of Patton’s voice.
“I think the next room is the library,” Patton hears Logan say. “Come on, there’s nothing in here.”
“I’m ready for the next room!” Roman says eagerly.
“Wait,” Patton says, lifting his arms and pushing against the window. The… the mirror. He’s trapped in the mirror. And whatever was in the mirror is outside of it now. And it looks exactly like Patton. “Wait!” he yells, panicking. “Guys! Logan! That’s not me!”
The thing holding the mirror grins, his eye flashing yellow again. He puts the mirror in his pocket, and Patton’s window goes dark.
“I’m ready too,” the thing says.
“Let’s go!” Roman says.
“Logan! Roman! Virgil!” Patton screams, pounding his fists against his window. “That’s not me!”