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So, you want me to tell you a story. Well, my dear, a story you shall have then. Let me think of one first… Ah! I have just the one! And it’s a true story too. It happened just the other day, actually. Let’s begin…
It was a chilly October evening, the full moon sat high in the sky, glowing carelessly, ignorant to the events soon to take place.
A group of juveniles strolled across the lawn towards the known to be abandoned, and rumored to be haunted, Rainlyn Mansion. Their lighthearted chatter and overall cheery demeanors betrayed the fact they had just jumped a fence marked “private property” and were heading straight into the building where most of them will meet their end.
The group was comprised of two girls, Necole, age 14, and Dia, age 16; three boys, Moren, age 15, Vol, age 17, and Lucien, age 17; and one individual who falls into neither category and goes by the name of Ryder. Ryder, who at 18, was the shortest of the 6, but was unmistakably the leader.
When the group reached the front entrance, Ryder assigned partners. Lucien would be with them, Vol with Dia, and Moren with Necole. When asked why Ryder assigned them partners, they responded, “In the case of us getting separated, if we stick with our partner, we won’t be alone.” To finish off their statement, they grabbed Lucien’s hand. This prompted the other’s to do the same.
“Vol, Dia, check if the door is unlocked,” Ryder ordered.
The two did so with no hesitation, and as luck would have it, the door was unlocked. The six entered the dark foyer. Despite the moon glowing so brightly outside, it was quite difficult for them to see inside, what with all the windows having been boarded up ages ago.
“Necole, flashlights,” Ryder said, holding out their free hand in Necole’s direction. They were too busy trying to see all they could in what little light that was streaming in from the doorway.
Necole had to let go of Moren’s hand to get the three flashlights from the knapsack Ryder had entrusted her with at the beginning of the night. She handed one flashlight to Ryder and another to Dia before the door suddenly slammed shut behind them, cutting off their only source of light. Vol screamed as Dia and Ryder struggled to get the flashlights working.
When the flashlights were finally on and pointed at the door that seemingly shut on it’s own, they realized they were short one person.
“Necole, where’s Moren?” Ryder calmly questioned.
Necole, still shocked from the slamming door, looked to where Moren had been standing just a few moments before. “I don’t know…,” she said quietly. Tears started to well in her eyes as she felt something drip on her head. She reached up and touched the spot. Her fingers were red and smelled of iron. She slowly turned her own flashlight on and pointed it towards where the dripping came from. The others did the same.
There on the chandelier was Moren’s body. Though the teens couldn’t see his face from where they stood below, it was full of fear.
Now, normally you’d expect it to be one of the females that would run for the exit, but that was not the case, this dark evening. No, Necole and Dia stood stock still with their flashlights trained on the corpse above them, blood still dripping on Necole’s head. It was actually Vol who tried to leave, screaming like a newborn baby. Had he actually been able to make it to the door, he would have found it unbreachable. but Dia’s death grip on his hand didn’t allow him past her arm’s reach.
Ryder was the first to speak. “Would you quit your screaming, Vol, it’s giving me a headache.”
Vol stopped obediently and moved closer to where he heard Ryder’s voice.
Ryder focused their flashlight in Necole’s direction. “Necole, you have two options. One, you go with Dia and Scaredy Cat Vol, or two, you come with me and Lucien. It’s your decision.
Necole swiped her flashlight across the space to find Vol. When she found him she walked over and grabbed his free hand.
“Good,” Ryder said, “he’d probably benefit the most from that decision.” They then swiped their own flashlight across the room. “Alright! Where should we explore first?”
“We should explore the main floor before moving on to the upper levels,” Lucien said, speaking for the first time since entering the mansion.
“That’s an excellent idea, Lucien!” Ryder said, smiling brightly in the near darkness.
“I think that door might lead to a parlor or office,” Dia said pointing her flashlight at a door to the left of the entrance.
“An excellent place to start our adventure,” Ryder said, starting towards the door.
The others followed, as if forgetting that their friend’s corpse hung dripping blood from the chandelier onto the foyer floor.
~ v----v ~
Upon entering the room, they found that it was in fact a parlor. Fancy chairs, tables, and sofas sat collecting years- no, decades of dust. A baby grand piano sat in the corner, unplayed and unloved. A fireplace sat unlit on the outside wall. Above the mantel hung a painting of the last owner of the home, the handsome Earl Anton Rainlyn.
Without letting go of any hands, the five teens began looking around the room.
“Hey, Ryder, what are we supposed to be looking for?” Dia asked.
“Anything of value that’s small enough to carry.”
After around a half hour of searching the room, they determined that, other than the piano, maybe the painting, and all the furniture, there’s nothing of value in that room for them to steal. They leave the parlor and head across the foyer to the door opposite. None of them noticed that their friend’s body was missing.
Upon entering, they found that this room was an office. A large desk sat against the wall with bookshelves lining the remaining walls. A small sofa sat to one side of the desk with two glasses sitting on the small table next to the sofa.
“We should have more luck in here,” Ryder called back, them and Lucien having entered first. Ryder was met with silence and only the sound of theirs and Lucien’s breathing and Ryder’s increasing heart rate could be heard.
Ryder looked into the foyer with the flashlight but didn’t see any sign of the other three. Going back into the office, Ryder put on a brave face and said, “Well they have each other, they should be fine. Let’s look around.”
Lucien held the flashlight as Ryder rummaged through the desk.
“Do you hear that?” Lucien asked, looking towards the door to the foyer.
“What are you talking about. Stop being paranoid,” Ryder responded. But they heard it too. The sound of a piano being played…
Ryder ignored the playing and continued rummaging through the desk. They didn’t find anything they could sell but they did find a photo album. “Let’s look through this,” they suggested.
Lucien had still been staring at the door. A nudge to his arm released him from his daze.
“What?” Lucien asked, turning towards Ryder.
“I said let’s look at this photo album,” Ryder said, holding up said photo album.
“Yea… Okay…,” Lucien responded. He grabbed Ryder’s free hand and led them over to the sofa. Lucien’s grip was tight but neither said anything.
The two sat on the sofa with Lucien pointing the flashlight at the photo album, his other arm wrapped around Ryder, and Ryder flipping through the small book.
“Wait,” Lucien said suddenly, causing Ryder to cease their flipping. “Doesn’t that guy look a lot like Vol?”
Ryder was about to answer when there was a sudden slamming of piano keys. The shock of it caused Ryder to drop the album.
“Let’s go find the others,” Ryder said, hurriedly standing from the sofa and grabbing Lucien’s free hand.
The two left the room and Ryder called out to the others in the foyer. There was a frightened tremor to their voice.
“We’re up here,” they heard coming from the second floor. It sounded like Vol.
Ryder turned to Lucien and smiled. “Well let’s go meet them.”
They started advancing up the closer of the two sets of stairs in the foyer, Ryder leading with a tight grip on Lucien’s hand and Lucien lighting their way with the flashlight. About half way up the stairs, the flashlight dropped and started rolling down the stairs, casting in all sorts of directions.
“Lucien-” Ryder started, turning back to look at Lucien. But Lucien wasn’t there, save for his severed arm, hand still gripped tightly in Ryder’s own.
Ryder almost missed the figure moving at the edge of the now idle flashlight’s reach, too busy staring at the severed arm of their newly deceased friend in the dark. Dropping the arm and opting to abandon the flashlight, Ryder continued up the stairs. With the light coming from the foyer, their eyes were able to adjust well enough.
On the landing of the second floor, they paused and looked around. Down the hall to the left, Ryder noticed a flickering light. Walking towards it, they realized it was one of the other flashlights. Getting even closer, they noticed the body lying near it. Slumped over in a small pool of blood was Necole.
But Ryder ignored the flickering light and the body and proceeded on to the slightly ajar door and the faint sound of talking. Behind the door was a spiral staircase. Without thinking about it, the short teen climbed the stairs.
At the top of the stairs was a lavishly decorated bedroom. A large four poster bed sat at the room’s center and a coffin leaned against one of the walls. Flames lit the room in various locations. Dia’s body lay on the ground at the foot of the bed, the twin punctures on her neck slowly leaked blood onto the carpeted floor. Two figures sat in a clothed embrace on the bed.
Ryder hadn’t yet made themself known, kneeling on the stairs, trying to get their heart rate to slow down.
“You did well today, darling,” Ryder heard an unfamiliar voice say followed by the sound of a kiss. Ryder was curious but didn’t move.
“I think they honestly believed I was scared,” a more familiar voice answered. It was Vol’s voice…
Ryder couldn’t keep themself hidden anymore, and stood, a look of anger and betrayal on their face. You would have liked to see it.
Now able to see them clearly, Ryder saw that it was Vol sitting on the bed being loosely embraced from behind by the man in the painting in the parlor. Vol’s appearance was slightly different than when Ryder had last seen him. His eyes, same as the man behind him, had an orange tint to them and Ryder could almost see the fangs behind his bloody smirk.
“So she found us,” the man said.
“I would have expected them to run after what happened to Lucien,” Vol said, putting emphasis on the neutral pronoun. Smacking the hand of the man behind him lightly, he quietly added, “Don’t misgender them, Anton.”
Anton kissed Vol’s cheek lightly and whispered sorry.
Vol stood from the bed and leaned down to pick up Dia’s flashlight. He tossed the flashlight to Ryder before sitting back on the bed.
“Get out of here, Ryder,” Vol said with a deadpan face.
Ryder stood there with their look of betrayal before climbing back down the stairs and making their way out of the house.
Overall, I’d say it was a successful evening. Vol and I got enough blood to last us a few weeks and now there’s a few less teens to bother us.
Well, how was that for a story, my dear cousin? Did that satisfy your need for one? It did? Wonderful!