Paranormal Investigators’ Club: Mysterious Blackwell Mansion 6q603e

PARANORMAL INVESTIGATORS’

CLUB

MYSTERIOUS BLACKWELL MANSION

JD BROYHILL

Copyright © 2019 Jd Broyhill. Author of the Alexis Snipperdoom Series

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Archway Publishing 1663 Liberty Drive Bloomington, IN 47403 www.archwaypublishing.com 1 (888) 242-5904

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-8405-2 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-4808-8406-9 (hc) ISBN: 978-1-4808-8404-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019919510

Archway Publishing rev. date: 12/4/2019

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Adventure Begins

Chapter 2 Blackwell Mansion

Chapter 3 New Encounters

Chapter 4 New Discoveries

Chapter 5 New Findings

Chapter 6 A Club Is Formed

Chapter 7 Could be Trouble

Chapter 8 A New Beginning

Chapter 9 One is Returned

Chapter 10 Unexplained

Chapter 11 New Hope

Chapter 12 In Trouble

Chapter 13 Unforeseen Events

To my wonderful children, who loved the story when they were young. I love you with all my heart.

To Rick – You are my rock, always.

To Mom and Jerry – Thank you for allowing me to live my dream!

INTRODUCTION

Fog hung over the small town of Pineville like a blanket. It was so thick that you could barely see. Sometimes, you could catch a glimpse of the moon trying to peek through the fog. It gave the town an eerie, bluish glow. It was Friday, the 31st of October, Halloween. It was late in the afternoon and children were at home eating dinner. Some of them dressed as vampires, monsters, or other scary characters as they went trickor-treating. Soon, these little ghouls and goblins would invade the town of Pineville. Everyone was excited. The moon and the fog made for the perfect, spooky evening. It was a great night for trick-or-treating. The town had a legend – the Legend of Blackwell Mansion. People believed the mansion was haunted by something dreadful. The huge and ugly mansion sat on top of a hill, at the end of town, next to Dragonhead Lake. Crooked and spooky trees surrounded the house. Prickly thorn bushes grew along the path to the house. No one had lived in the house for over twenty years. Yet, you could see strange lights and figures moving behind the windows. It was a mysterious house with many unsolved secrets. Jeremy, Stephen, and James thought it was a perfect place to go on Halloween. The three brothers were certain, there was something weird and unusual going on inside the house. They were eager to explore Blackwell Mansion.

CHAPTER ONE

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Jeremy, Stephen, and James finished eating dinner and headed to their rooms. They were eager to change into their Halloween outfits quickly. It was a long walk to Blackwell Mansion. They hurried, knowing that it was getting late. It was already six o’clock, and they promised their parents that they would be back home by nine o’clock. The boys couldn’t imagine anything better than spending Halloween night inside Blackwell Mansion, though it had been declared offlimits by their parents. “Why do we have to wear costumes? They’re for babies,” whined Jeremy. “You know why. We cannot go to the mansion without a good excuse. We have to tell our parents we are heading out to trick-or-treat.” “Maybe so, but I am not in the mood to go trick-or-treating,” responded James, clearly not happy. “It’s the last year we dress up, okay? Mom will not make us costumes after this year. There is no way I am going to put myself through this again next year.” “Where is Stephen? Is he getting ready?” asked James, still upset and looking at his costume. “I believe he is still upstairs changing into his costume,” replied Jeremy. “Stephen, will you hurry up and get down here! We have to go,” he yelled, hoping they could leave soon to explore the mansion. Stephen was upstairs putting on his costume. He had chosen a devil costume. His mom sewed the costume out of bright-red material. It featured orange and red flames coming off the cape, making it look as if he was on fire. It had a stand-up collar shaped like mini flames too. Stephen had large, gnarled horns

coming out of his hair which made him look frightful. He was certain he would look extra scary, especially if there were fog outside. He also hoped he did not have to wear a costume next year, believing dres for Halloween was for little kids. He felt awkward wearing his costume but did not want to hurt his mom’s feelings. She spent a lot of time working on costumes this year, which she did every year. In her mind, she probably still thought they were little kids. She meant well. Stephen, the youngest of the three brothers. He was nine years old. He was about to turn ten and was very proud of that fact. He was shorter than the other two and very smart. He had sandy-brown hair and a noticeable dimple on the left side of his cheek. When he smiled mischievously, his big, brown eyes sparkled. His favorite pastime was playing golf. Baseball came in a close second. He enjoyed the outdoors and loved to swim. Stephen hoped to become a police officer one day. Jeremy was excited to dress up as a vampire. He kept threatening to bite everyone in the neck with his huge, fake fangs. Jeremy always played pranks on everyone and was the comedian in the family. He was also the youngest of the twelve-year-old twins, and a bit shorter than his twin brother, James. His hair was dark-brown, and he had a cowlick on the right side of his head, turning in funny directions. This annoyed Jeremy tremendously. Every time he brushed his hair, it went in the opposite direction. At times, he joked about shaving his head bald to get rid of it. Jeremy’s favorite activity was playing video games. He didn’t like school at all, but he loved to read. One of his worst habits was biting his nails. He did this all the time, and it drove the rest of the family crazy, except for James. He had the same annoying, bad habit. James was feeling stealthy, so he dressed as a ninja. He was positive that he would be able to fight any strange thing or monster that they might come across at Blackwell Mansion. He was the oldest of the twins, born twelve minutes before Jeremy. He was also taller. He had a great sense of humor and liked history. Anything about World War II or the Civil War interested him. He also loved to read science fiction books. James had a dream. He wanted to enlist in the military one day and become a soldier. When the three finished dressing, they grabbed their empty trick-or-treat bags and headed out the door, walking toward Siena Vista Drive at the other end of town. They had a long walk ahead of them. Many children were already out

trick-or-treating. The streets were lined with ghosts, goblins, witches, and other costumes parading around. Many parents were present to supervise the trick-ortreating activities and could be seen herding children across the street for safety. James thought about all the candy they would collect and was excited to get some yummy candy. He preferred gummi candies over all other candy and was hopeful he would get some that night. As they headed toward the mansion, the boys encountered a few of their friends. Jeremy walked up to one of them, Brandon, and started talking fast. He wanted to know if Brandon and his sister, Sheila, wanted to them on their adventure. He explained they were going to investigate Blackwell Mansion. Brandon seemed very excited about the idea and was ready to go. But he knew his sister wouldn’t be too excited about the idea of visiting the mansion. “Hey, Sheila, what about you? Are you too scared to go?” Brandon teased his sister as he pushed her slightly. He looked at her sarcastically with a crooked grin. “What exactly are you implying? Do you think I am scared? Well, I am not scared. I will be happy to go. I have no problem going there, whatsoever,” she replied with her arms crossed, tongue sticking out at her brother. Secretly, she was extremely scared. She had heard about terrible things happening at Blackwell Mansion. Ten-year-old Sheila was younger than Brandon, by two years, and highly intelligent. She was also very tall, taller than most boys she knew. Her hair was long, black, and straight. Sheila liked twirling her hair around her finger when she was deep in thought. Her big, round glasses often slid to the end of her nose, driving her brother crazy. He teased her all the time about how nerdy she looked wearing them. She, on the other hand, thought they made her look smart. Reading was what she enjoyed the most. Detective novels were on every bookshelf in her room. In school, her favorite subjects were science and math. Many people thought she was a genius. Sheila liked the fact that she was smarter than her brother, or so she believed. It gave her something to tease him about. Brandon and Sheila always found plenty of time to joke around with each other. Sheila dreamed of becoming a detective, FBI agent, or scientist. Her mind was always active, and she was very detail-oriented. She knew there was always a good explanation for everything. However, she was frustrated that she could not explain the odd

happenings at Blackwell Mansion. She hoped that in time, she could figure it all out. Sometimes, Sheila sat on her bed and looked up to the top of the hill. She would stare at the faded outline of the mansion. She would think about what might be going on inside the mysterious house. She would shake her head and dismiss those thoughts, as she did not believe in ghosts. Everyone assumed and claimed there were ghosts inside the mansion, but Sheila was not so sure. She believed there was much more to what people saw, and in time, the truth about the mansion would be revealed. Brandon didn’t like that his sister was so smart. Everyone always asked her for advice. He was also shorter than Sheila. Brandon felt this was not fair since he was older and a boy. He thought Sheila looked like a giant. Sometimes she got on his nerves. But no matter what, he loved her. Though he would never it it to her or anyone else. Brandon spent most of his spare time either riding his bike or playing basketball. He daydreamed about owning a car one day, and then he could ditch his bike for an awesome ride. It would be the best moment in his life. Most of Brandon’s friends liked to play sports, and he loved ing them. Brandon enjoyed hanging out with his best friends, James and Jeremy. Sometimes on weekends, they went to the movie theater. Brandon loved action-packed movies. If there was nothing decent playing at the theater, they went bowling. Brandon was not very good at it, but he enjoyed trying to better himself. Brandon liked a particular girl from school who hung out with all of them, but he never acted too friendly around her as he did not want James and Jeremy to know about his feelings toward her. One day, Jeremy told Brandon he liked Sheila and Brandon almost lost his mind. He was close to punching his best friend. What was he thinking? Why on earth would anyone like a nerdy and weird-looking girl like Sheila? He wanted Jeremy to be friends with another girl, maybe Mandy or Cathy. They were identical twins and friends from school. Yes, James and Jeremy can go hang out with them, thought Brandon, still disturbed at the thought of Jeremy liking his sister. The five set off for Blackwell Mansion. It had been the talk of the town for many years. People were curious and cautious. No one had ever been able to prove whether something strange was going on inside the mansion. On the way there,

the group teased each other. Just about halfway to the mansion, Stephen stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “Why don’t we stop at a few houses and do some trick-or-treating? That way, we can get some candy. We won’t get any candy at the mansion. Just tricks, no treats. Ha-ha!” Stephen thought his remark was fitting under the circumstance. He was quite proud of himself for thinking of it and stood there grinning waiting for a reply. Jeremy, who was even more of a comedian, announced, “Hey! How about the last one who makes it to the house across the street has to be the first one inside the mansion?” Instantly, there was a mad dash to the house across the street. The unfortunate one of them to arrive last was James. “Well, I guess that I am going to be the first one to enter Blackwell Mansion, but at least I get to see everything first. So, there!” He stuck his tongue out at the others. The other four children erupted in laughter. It was true, James would be the first one to see the inside of Blackwell Mansion. The question was whether or not that was lucky, or really unlucky. They would soon find out. They decided to stop at a more few houses to collect candy and then continued their walk toward the mansion. Looking ahead, they noticed the fog wasn’t very thick on this side of town. Unfortunately for them, it started raining. Lightning lit up the dark, autumn sky. Thunder roared as the rain continued to pour down, drenching the children in their costumes. Jeremy was deep in thought and happy that he had brought three flashlights with him. He did not want to run into something that he would not be able to see. He assumed there probably wasn’t any electricity inside the old building. The flashlights made him feel more secure. He wanted to be prepared. The idea of going to the mansion without any light source made him cringe. He refused to share his thoughts with the others. There was no way he would want the others to know how nervous he was about going into Blackwell Mansion, especially on Halloween night. The rain kept coming down harder and harder. It was getting difficult for the group to walk up the hill and still be able to look ahead. They could see trees

swaying in the wind next to the mansion. As they started getting closer to the mansion, Stephen happened to look up at the old house. What he saw stopped him instantly in his tracks. It looked like a light in one of the windows. What kind of light could that be? They were still too far away to know for sure. He pointed up to the old house, his hand shaking. “Hey, everyone. Look up there!” said Stephen, looking at the mansion. “D-d-ddid, you see that? I thought I saw some light, maybe a candle? I could be wrong, we are not that close, but the light seemed to flicker.” “No, I didn’t see anything,” replied James and Jeremy in harmony. “I saw nothing,” said Sheila, “but maybe we should just go back home or do some more trick-or-treating, just in case.” Brandon laughed at the others, as they agreed with Sheila’s suggestion. Brandon had seen the light and was eager to investigate. Scared or not, he was ready. The others were unsure if they still wanted to see what was inside the mansion. James took the lead and reminded the others that this was an adventure. It would be fun to see ghosts and other unexplained things. They continued walking, closer and closer to the old house. The wind picked up, but the rain stopped. Now, only a little thunder boomed. Now and then, you could see a few, stray flashes of lightning. Well, if nothing else, it sure was a perfectly, creepy Halloween night.

CHAPTER TWO

BLACKWELL MANSION

Up close, the abandoned house looked old and neglected. The front door was slightly ajar. Most of the windows were broken, missing glass, or dirty with torn curtains flapping in and out. Two rusty chairs sat on the front porch. The porch itself was covered with leaves and other debris. Sections of the walkway leading up to the house were overgrown with moss and other plants. Old, discolored newspapers flew across the porch. A black cat ran across the porch, turning its head to stare at the five children with its glowing, yellow eyes. It arched its back, hissed, and ran off toward one of the trees to the right of the walkway. Squeaking and cracking sounds came from inside the house. Jeremy assumed rusty, old doors were to blame. The upstairs of the house had shutters on the outside of the windows. The wind caused the shutters to slam into the windows, making a loud banging noise. Howling came from somewhere, perhaps the inside of the house. The mansion looked gigantic and scary. Off to the left side of the house, there was an overgrown path that led to Dragonhead Lake. Just as agreed, James was the first one to walk up to the large, stained-glass double doors. He made his way up the three steps leading to the porch. Cautiously, he proceeded to walk up to the front door. Before opening the door completely, he craned his neck to look through the opening. It was impossible to see anything. He stepped back and looked at the others. Sheila gave him the ‘go already’ look. Reluctantly, he pushed the door open all the way. As promised, he was the first to walk through the door. The door made creaking noises as he pushed it open, and it felt extremely heavy. The hinges to the door were rusted and the reason for the creaking noise. Once he entered the mansion, his foot made with the floor inside. It produced a rather loud snapping noise. James looked down, nervously at his foot. It sounded like the floor was breaking beneath his feet. He gently moved the other foot inside. Apprehensively, he stood in the entryway,

iring the inside of the mansion, shining his flashlight into the entryway. The house smelled musty and damp. The other four decided to follow James into the house once they saw he was inside safely. Sheila was the last one through the door. She turned around to close it. It was heavier than she anticipated and she had to push with all her might to get it closed. Once the door was closed, she backed up against it and looked around using a flashlight. What a fabulous house, she thought. The others looked around as well, but did not seem as impressed. Inside the house, there were many cobwebs spun around objects, and in corners of the rooms. Using their flashlights, they inspected the walls and ceilings. Brandon decided that this was not exactly what he had expected. He hated spiders and did not want to see any. The cobwebs looked thick and slimy from the dampness, glistening and sparkling in the glow of the flashlight. Brushing aside the cobwebs quickly, they walked ahead. The group stopped in the middle of the hallway, which appeared to be the center of the house. There were several doors on both sides of the hallway. “You know, I absolutely hate cobwebs. I hate spiders even more. We better not actually come across any,” Brandon whined in an irritated voice, looking at all the cobwebs nervously. “Oh, stop being such a baby and grow up! You are supposed to be twelve, not four years old, knock it off. What if there are spiders? What did you expect? This house hasn’t had anyone take care of it in years. Besides, is the itsy, bitsy spider going to hurt you?” joked Sheila. She elbowed Brandon in the ribs and laughed. She hated the fact that her brother was such a wimp when it came to spiders. He always asked her to kill spiders at their house, especially when one was in his room. Brandon would scream for her to take care of the pest. He begged and even bribed her to get rid of the ‘crawling beasts.’ To Brandon, there was nothing worse than a spider. He truly hated them. Sheila, on the other hand, thought they were very interesting. She was intrigued by them and believed they were amazing creatures. She wished her parents would allow her to get a pet tarantula. There was a zero chance of that happening though, as her mother hated spiders as much as Brandon, if not more. The others laughed and reassured Brandon they would take care of any spiders

for him, should they come across any. As they proceeded down the hallway, they spotted a tall mirror covered with thick dust. A coat rack stood in one of the corners of the room with a coat and hat hanging on it. Sheila walked to the coat rack and inspected the coat – it was a woman’s coat. It looked fairly new. She pointed it out to the others. They shrugged their shoulders and said nothing, looking unimpressed. Weird, thought Jeremy. These items didn’t look old or dirty, and he was puzzled. He asked the others what they thought about this fact, and they just gave him the ‘who cares’ attitude and look. It was not of interest to anyone other than Sheila. She continued to inspect the coat, looking through its pockets in hopes of finding something. Jeremy walked toward the large, wooden bench ahead. He placed his trick-ortreat bag filled with candy on the bench. It was heavy, and he did not want to keep lugging it around the mansion with him. He popped his fake fangs out of his mouth and dropped them into the candy-filled bag. He proceeded to take off his cape and draped it over the bag. There was no way he was going to be wearing a cape around the house. His cape could get caught on something, and the thought freaked him out. When he finished, he stood by the bench wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans. He ran his left hand through his damp hair and smiled at the others. James observed Jeremy and thought what he did was a good idea. Following Jeremy’s lead, he took off some of his costume and placed it on the bench next to Jeremy’s items. Stephen rolled his eyes and walked over to the twins and threw his cape at Jeremy. Jeremy caught it, giving him a dirty look. “What the heck, Stephen? Since when am I your personal assistant? Ummm, no!” he replied, dropping the cape on the bench. “No need to get so upset. I figured you would catch it and put it with your things, get over it,” snapped Stephen. The two laughed at each other, while the others looked at them and just shook their heads. “Sheila, are you going to keep your costume on?” asked James. “No, my trench coat is pretty wet. I think I will hang it on the coat rack to dry.” “Hey, that’s pretty clever,” joked Jeremy sarcastically.

Sheila walked to the coat rack and hung her coat next to the one already there. “Hey, don’t let me forget my coat when we leave, okay?” “Sure, we will try to and remind you,” declared James, wanting to get on with the exploration of the mansion. By now, he was getting impatient. Sheila placed her bag of candy next to all the other bags on the bench. She looked at the others as they stared at her. “What? Why are you staring at me?” she asked, wondering what they were thinking. “Are you finally ready?” asked Stephen impatiently. He tapped his index finger on his watch as if to imply they were wasting time. Sheila shook her head with a smirk on her face. She was ready to start investigating the mansion. James was even more impatient than Stephen. “Okay already. Can we please go? No more wasting time. Let’s do some exploring. Time is precious.” “Do we want to split up?” asked Sheila, acting as a detective and wanting to be in charge. The others thought about her question and thought it was a good idea. Splitting up into groups would make sense since they only had three flashlights, and there were five of them. James and Sheila would go as one team, while Jeremy, Stephen, and Brandon would go as the second team. James and Sheila decided to explore the ground floor of the mansion. Meanwhile, the other three would proceed to the second floor. They would all meet up together on the third floor of the mansion, which they assumed to be the attic. The two teams split up the flashlights and headed out to begin their exploring. James and Sheila walked to the next room, which turned out to be the kitchen. It was extremely large. Pots and pans hung down from the ceiling on black, metal chains. A huge, old, rusty stove leaned against a wall. On another wall was a refrigerator. There also stood a table with four chairs in the middle of the room. One of the chairs looked newer than the rest. The table had two plates on it. These, like the coat and hat from the entryway, looked new. How strange, thought Sheila. James pointed to the plates and asked Sheila what she thought of this. “I don’t know what is going on here. It seems strange to me that these plates would be new and clean. I mean the rest of the house is so dirty and dusty. How

could they stay so nice and clean?” Sheila asked James, picking up one of the plates, inspecting it more closely. James shrugged his shoulders as he looked around the room. He wanted to see if there was anything else out of place. There was not much else in the kitchen other than dirty kitchen cabinets. Some were open, and others were missing doors. Strange squeaking and scratching noises could be heard coming from the closed cabinets. James envisioned rats gnawing on the wood. Yuck! Hopefully not rats, with their beady, little eyes and long, thin tails, he thought, disgusted. He moved quickly away from the cabinets, hoping to avoid any with any potential rat. Outside, the window shutters slammed loudly against the house, causing Sheila to jump and almost fall over. Her nerves were a bit on edge. Suddenly, the large kitchen window above the sink popped open from the wind outside. James ran over and tried to close the latch, but the latch was too rusty and appeared broken. Sheila snickered as she watched James struggling to close it. Reluctantly, he gave up and left it open. He stomped out of the kitchen angry, not because he could not close the window, but because Sheila had laughed at him. Sheila stopped laughing, knowing she had upset James, but the grin on her face remained as she followed him out of the kitchen into the next room. Meanwhile, Stephen, Jeremy, and Brandon headed for the second floor of the house. The stairs once covered with beautiful carpeting now looked ugly, worn, and shredded. Leaves and debris lay scattered all over the stairway. Huge cobwebs seemed to block or even guard the stairway. Tattered oil paintings hung on the walls, and peculiar looking people appeared in these paintings. One painting, in particular, seemed to fascinate the boys. It was a painting of a woman dressed in a long, red, flowing evening gown. It hung in the middle of the massive wall. The woman in the painting looked as if she was smiling directly at them. She was holding a strange, twisted, golden object in her left hand. It appeared to be glistening even through the thick layers of dust. “Wow, would you look at that! That is one huge painting. It is so real, don’t you think?” said Stephen, pointing at the painting. “What is that in her hand? I mean, it looks like it is glowing!” he continued. For just a moment, he wanted to reach

out and touch it. However, he knew better. This place gave him the creeps. He was beginning to regret agreeing to come to the mansion. “I don’t know what it is, but it sure is shiny. How is that even possible? The painting is so old and faded. This seems so weird, don’t you think?” Jeremy asked, looking confused. “Okay, okay, let’s move on. We didn’t come here to look at paintings. We are here to explore this house, not to have discussions about art,” growled Brandon, feeling a bit nervous. The painting was strange. It made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He rubbed his neck, wishing they could turn around and go back home. The three walked up the stairs slowly, waving away more cobwebs. Reaching the top of the stairs, they noticed a large cabinet. Standing in front of it, they tried to pry the door open. Unfortunately, the hinges would not budge. Jeremy reached in his pocket and grabbed a tissue. He placed the tissue around the knob and pulled hard. He was hoping the tissue would help him get a better grip. He was wrong. Instantly, he fell backward and hit his head on the floor. He stood up and rubbed his throbbing head. He could feel a lump developing on the back of his head and hoped it was nothing serious. The others burst out laughing. Stephen finally stopped laughing long enough to walk to the cabinet and kick the door. It popped open. Two large books fell out onto the floor. Everyone looked down at the books with curiosity. They decided to take a look inside the cabinet as well, which was filled with strange items and other books. The books appeared to be written in a different language and had strange writings and drawings on their covers. The pages of these books were faded, some brittle to the touch and falling apart. “What language do you think this is, Brandon?” asked Stephen, pointing to one of the books. “I haven’t seen this writing anywhere before.” “Do you have any ideas, Jeremy?” Brandon shoved one of the books toward him with his head tilted to the side, with an inquisitive look. Jeremy looked at the book with little interest and replied, “No, never seen it before. I don’t care. Let’s move on. I want to see the rest of the house.” Jeremy

was getting more and more impatient. He turned and grabbed Stephen’s arm, dragging him down the hallway, stopping in the middle. They approached the first room. Jeremy stopped wanting to make sure everyone was ready to enter the room. Opening the door, the three entered the room. There, they found a bed covered only with a sheet. It looked as if it had something, or someone, under it! They looked at each other with their flashlights in hand. Stephen shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the bed. Slowly, they approached the bed and decided Stephen would pull the sheet off. Stephen smirked. He was more than happy to be the one to pull the sheet off, and he had no fear. Just as Stephen touched the sheet, a scream came from the bed. Stephen moved his hand away quickly. Terrified, the others ran toward the door. Only inches away, the door slammed closed and locked. Panic set in. “Great! Make me walk up to the bed and pull the sheet off. We dare you, you said. Yes, now look at what happened. What’s next?” Stephen screamed horrified. The three backed up against the door with their eyes fixated on the bed. It started to shake and slam up and down. They could not believe their eyes. Jeremy rubbed his eyes in disbelief. They watched in horror as all around the bed a greenish glow started to form. It moved quickly and directly toward them. Now, the entire room was lit up in the greenish glow. Jeremy panicked and started screaming for the others downstairs. He pounded his fists against the door, hoping it would open or that someone would hear him. His efforts were in vain, as at the same moment the wind picked up, and the house shook from rumbling thunder. The three closed their eyes. Then, just as quickly as everything had started, it stopped. Complete silence! The glow mysteriously vanished. The door popped open and hit Brandon in the leg. Confused, the three looked at each other. Relieved the door was open and eager to get out, they ran down the hallway as if their lives depended on it. “Good, now what? That was just lovely. Do you have any more great ideas? I do not want to see that kind of thing. I would really like to make it home alive tonight. Thank you! Next time there is something that needs to be done, count me out. I am done for tonight, okay?” screamed Stephen, visibly shaken by the mysterious event.

“Stephen, none of us knew that would happen. Besides, it was great, wasn’t it? We wanted creepy on Halloween, and we got it. We finally witnessed something unusual in Blackwell Mansion. We literally got to see something spooky!” said Jeremy, excited. “Yeah, Stephen, sorry! We didn’t know this was going to happen. If I had known, I would have done it myself. Let’s move on to the next room. What do you say?” asked Brandon, feeling bad for Stephen. “Well, I certainly cannot explain what just happened. It is either an elaborate Halloween trick played by someone who is very talented, or we just actually saw some kind of ghost! I agree, let’s get to the next room so we can meet up with the other two. We cannot stay in this house all night,” replied Jeremy. The others nodded in agreement. They followed Brandon’s lead down the hallway. Partially down the hallway, however, they stopped abruptly. The green light they had just seen appeared to be beaming through a keyhole of another bedroom. Getting closer, Stephen bent down and placed his left eye up against the keyhole to get a better look. What he saw shocked him. He stood still and watched in awe as the green glow took the shape of a flickering, green fire. “Ummm, what do you think, Jeremy?” whispered Stephen, pointing to the keyhole as he backed away from the door. Jeremy bent down to take a look. “Should we check it out? Do we want to know what it is? Maybe we should leave it alone. Maybe we are better off just to let it go, right?” Stephen did not feel so confident now. Part of him wondered if the green glow was real. If it was, he wanted to leave the mansion immediately. “I say, let’s go into the room. I want to find out what it is. We did come here to explore,” whispered Jeremy, still looking through the keyhole. “Hey, Brandon, what do you think? Should we continue?” asked Stephen more nervous than before. “Fine by me, don’t blame me if it is something scary or bad. I gave you all fair warning…ha-ha.” Brandon lined up behind the other two, ready to enter the room. The decision was made to proceed with the investigation. They stood in front of the door, hesitating. The glow appeared to become brighter as they stood there. It

seeped out from under the door, causing an eerie glow. Stephen started to reach for the doorknob, only to have his hand slapped away by Brandon. Brandon shook his head and said, “Let me go first.” Stephen stepped aside, allowing Brandon to enter the room. Brandon touched the doorknob but quickly spun around to look at others, baffled. Brandon put his hands up, looking confused. “What? What is wrong?” asked Jeremy, staring at Brandon. “You are not going to believe it, but the door handle is very hot,” said Brandon, still puzzled. “WHAT? How can it be hot?” asked Stephen perplexed. “I don’t know, should I still open it?” asked Brandon, feeling unsure now. “Well, that depends,” added Jeremy. “On what?” asked Brandon. “On how hot the doorknob is and how willing you are to enter the room,” continued Jeremy. The three stood outside the room for a few seconds, considering the options. Just as Brandon was about to reach for the knob, Jeremy wrapped his hand in the bottom of his shirt for heat protection, and bravely opened the door. Cautiously, they peeked through the door. The greenish glow danced in the fireplace. It flickered different shades of green. The middle of the flame appeared bright-white. They stood in awe and felt mesmerized by the image that materialized before them. The shape took on the image of a woman. All at once, they screamed, “The Woman in the Red Dress!” They recalled the painting on the wall leading up the stairs to the second floor. The woman’s greenish glow remained the same, except for her dress. It turned a vivid, blood-red color. The dress was torn, and sections of it billowed all around her. Her black hair whipped violently around her face. Her lips were as brightred as the dress and her eyes a radiant, bright green. She held the same strange, twisted, gold object in her hand from the painting. She appeared to be floating in the air and pointed the item directly at Stephen. She motioned for him to come toward her. Her face was clearly defined, with an eerie smile. Her eyes were

squinting in a way that made you want to run the other direction. Brandon thought she looked evil. He was about to run out the door when Stephen yelled, “Oh, good! She’s pointing that shiny thing at me. What should I do?” Just as the words left his lips, he started to move toward her, as if in a trance. The woman spun the item in her hand as she pointed it at Stephen and declared: “The gift will give you all.” Then, the glow subsided, and the woman disappeared. The room became dark and quiet.

CHAPTER THREE

NEW ENCOUNTERS

The three looked at each other with clear panic on their faces. Stephen looked downright pale. Deciding not to explore the house alone anymore, the three headed to the third floor for reinforcements. It was too much for just the three of them. They were a bit unnerved after what they had just seen. As they left the dark room, Stephen turned around one more time to look at the fireplace. He had a strange feeling in his stomach, having felt compelled to walk toward the woman when she had motioned for him to come to her. It made him feel uneasy. He walked up behind Jeremy and whispered in his ear, “Promise me you will not leave me. I am freaked out!” “I got your back, Stephen. I promise not to leave you. Now, come on, let’s find the others and tell them what just happened. Hopefully, they have not had any similar encounters.” At that same moment, in another part of the house, James and Sheila entered the living room. Three old couches, two oversized chairs, and three small tables filled the inside of the large room. In the center, of a long wall ahead of them, was a huge fireplace. Above it, hung a painting of a girl in a meadow. It was difficult to see all the details as cobwebs covered most of the painting. The dim lighting did not help either. The mantle was covered with debris and layers of dust. Four, tall brass candleholders were placed side by side, in pairs, on the ends of the mantle. The candle holders were also covered with cobwebs. An old, tattered baby blanket was thrown over one of the chairs. In the middle of the blanket, was a pink baby rattle which looked a bit brown, as if the pink color was dirty or had faded over time. A beautiful and ornate tea set was placed on the coffee table. It looked like fine china with a thick, gold band around the cup. The matching plate was placed

next to the cup. Off to the side of each set was a cloth napkin. At one point these must have been white, but now they looked a dingy off-white color or even a shade of yellow. It was difficult to tell under the lighting conditions. “I wonder what happened here? It looks as if someone had coffee or tea and then left. Even the napkins are still next to the cups. Don’t you think it’s weird that no one cleaned them up or put them away? Why would someone leave this on the table? They must have been in a hurry to leave,” replied Sheila, staring at the table. “Who knows what happened here. There have been so many stories. I don’t know what to believe. Why don’t we move on? I would like to see what else we can find. This is hardly spooky,” said James, feeling bored. “Whatever! No need to be snippy,” growled Sheila. She pointed ahead. “Let’s go this way unless you want to decide which way to go.” “Whatever you say, Ms. Detective. By all means, lead the way,” announced James with a sneer on his face. He knew she wanted to be in charge, so he felt like letting her. He did not care. He just wanted to have some fun. Let her be the first one to encounter something scary, he thought. She would regret taking the lead. Leaving the room, both glanced back at the tea set with an unsettling feeling that something was not right. Sheila started to suspect this mansion had more mysteries than they could ever solve. Nevertheless, she was becoming bored. The mansion was supposed to be scary. So far, it only seemed a bit mysterious. She was starting to feel this night was a total waste of time. As they turned to leave the room, both glanced at the wall to their left. They spotted a wooden bookshelf. It was about thirty feet long and reached up to the ceiling, which was tall. The bookshelf contained hundreds of books. Sheila loved books and was fascinated. She moved closer to get a better look. She brushed her hand over one of the books. It felt brittle, and a piece of it fell to the ground. She was horrified. Had she just destroyed some important book? She backed away slightly and tried to read some of the titles with the small flashlight in her hand. Some of the books appeared to be written in foreign languages. She did not recognize the wording or lettering. Many of the books were bound in leather, and some had no covers. The material looked as though it was splitting apart.

James walked toward the bookshelf observing Sheila. She seemed fascinated by the book in her hand. He found a book that looked clean and dust-free on the middle shelf. Perplexed, he reached for it. As he started to pull it off the shelf, it tipped outward a little. Suddenly, the bookshelf made a creaking noise. Sheila dropped her book and moved away. James backed up as well. Sheila aimed her flashlight at the bookshelf. There was a loud banging noise, followed by a highpitched squeak. The bookshelf swung outward and opened. Part of it appeared to be a door, disguised to look like a bookshelf. It was a secret age! Excited but confused, the two looked at each other, staring at a hallway ahead. James grinned. Sheila’s eyes sparkled as if to say, ‘Finally, something fun and creepy!’ “After you,” said James, moving aside for Sheila, allowing her to take the lead. She aimed her flashlight ahead, finding a long, narrow and descending hallway. The two walked through the opening, wondering if this age led to the basement. Just as they cleared the entryway, the bookshelf door closed behind them with another big bang. Both jumped and spun around. The door from the inside looked like a plain wall. There was no doorknob or handle, making it impossible to open. James and Sheila started to dread having entered the doorway. The idea of being locked in the mysterious age with no way out was unnerving. “I really, really hope that door opens. If it doesn’t, I hope we can find another way out,” said Sheila as she desperately looked for a way to open the door. The door would not budge. There was no way to open it from the inside. Sheila finally gave up and announced, “Let’s go. We have to find another way out or find where this ageway leads.” James agreed. Annoyed, they walked on. The hallway was damp, dark, very narrow, and becoming steeper. There were no windows or other doors. From what they could see, the walls were made of brick. Thick moss grew out of the cracks. Shining the light down on the ground, they could see spiders and other bugs crawling on the floor. Noises of water dripping echoed all around them. James was curious as to where the noise was coming from. Somewhere in the distance, a scratching sound could be heard. Neither knew where it was coming from. At times, it sounded as if it was coming from above them. James suddenly ed the small, extra flashlight on the back of his belt. He had forgotten

about it. He took it off with a smile on his face, thinking, ‘I am prepared!’ He had that flashlight for years and never used it for anything other than reading at night. He was glad he clipped it to his belt before leaving the house. Looking up at the ceiling, they saw nothing other than cobwebs and bricks. A musty and foul odor filled the hallway. Sheila walked through a thick cobweb and ended up with a small spider on her cheek. Rather than scream, she removed it from her cheek and put in on the ground. James looked at her as if she was crazy. He had no clue how she could be so calm with a spider on her face. Ewww! James heard a noise behind them and spun around to see what it was. Doing so caused him to lose his balance. He tripped and fell. As he tumbled to the ground, he saw a rat run over his foot. Panic-stricken, he got up and ran down the hall, ing Sheila and almost knocking her to the ground. James encountered a dead end. Sheila looked confused. She ran up behind him to find out what was going on. Instantly, she came to a stop realizing they were at a dead end. James was leaning up against the wall, trying to fix his flashlight. Its light was flickering on and off, damaged from his fall. He was frustrated and angry. “Darn flashlight,” he yelled. Sheila laughed quietly, finding it funny. “This is great. Wouldn’t it be just our luck if this flashlight died? We would be down to one,” said James. He pushed himself up against the wall, trying to keep his balance. Suddenly, he felt something very odd. He looked over his shoulder. The bricks of the wall separated and made a doorway. James backed away from the wall. The two stared at the opening as Sheila used her flashlight to look at the newly-created doorway. James was ready to move on, so he grabbed her hand and led her through the doorway. As they proceeded through the opening, they realized they were at the end of yet another hallway. Now, the floor seemed level. They assumed they had reached the bottom of the house or the basement. Sheila walked ahead a few steps and saw a room. James moved his flashlight around, trying to get a better look. The room was filled with many shelves and strange equipment. The shelves were lined with books and other unfamiliar items. Looking at one side of the room, they spotted another door. Off to the other side was another door. In the corner of a wall, was another door. How odd! Three doors in one room, they both thought.

As they approached one of the doors, they saw it was made of metal and covered in rust. They walked over to the other two doors to examine them. The other two doors were made of wood. One of the wooden doors was painted red, peeling in some areas. The other wooden door was painted black, and its paint looked chipped and dull. The dripping noise they had heard in the hallway now seemed to be coming directly from behind the black door. James placed an ear close to the black door. Drip, drip, drip… Sheila approached the red door. She placed her hand on the door. After feeling nothing unusual, she leaned close to place her ear on the door. She heard a howling sound coming from behind the door. Unexpectedly, a cold breeze blew past them, giving them chills and goosebumps. They looked around confused. Where did the breeze come from? Sheila wondered. Looking some more around the room, they spotted three tables centered in the room. Two of the tables were very low, with bottles of various shapes on them. They were filled with different colored liquids. A thick, tattered notepad was next to one of the bottles. The notepad showed drawings of some kind, including some unclear scribbling. Neither of them knew what it was or what it meant. James picked up the notepad to take a closer look. He was mystified. The scribbles looked like figures or numbers. He handed the notepad to Sheila, hoping she would know what it was or meant. “What do you think? Some formula?” Goosebumps ran up and down Sheila’s arms and back. “I don’t know,” answered Sheila in a shaky tone. She looked at the notepad and handed it back to James, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t want to know what any of this weird stuff is.” James, too, had an odd feeling about this room. He wasn’t sure if being in this mansion was such a great idea anymore. He wanted to find a way out of this place. This night was supposed to be a spooky and fun Halloween. Now, it was becoming a frightening nightmare. Sheila bent down and picked up a book off the floor that was in front of the table, proceeding to thumb through it. “So, let me get this straight,” stated Sheila, “we just entered a creepy scientist’s laboratory, and we have no clue how to get out? Am I correct?”

“Oh, please! You could hardly call this a creepy scientist’s lab. It is way too small, don’t be dumb. I thought you liked this kind of thing. I am surprised you are acting so nervous about this. Panicking isn’t going to help. We have to remain calm and find a way out. We have to figure out which door we want to open and hopefully find a way to get back together with the others.” “Fine, don’t expect me to be in a good mood until we are all on our way home. Got it?” Though Sheila liked adventures, she was more than ready to depart this spooky mansion. She could think of nothing else but getting home, putting on her pajamas, and going to sleep in her comfortable and warm bed. She did not want to be in the mansion anymore. The fun for her was over. “Yes, I got it. Now, let’s see what we can do about getting out of here,” said James, finding it funny she seemed so uneasy about the situation. She claimed to be the detective of the group, which is why he figured she would have loved all the mysterious ages and items they found so far. Meanwhile, on the second floor of the mansion, Stephen, Jeremy, and Brandon reached the stairway leading up to the attic. It was a steep climb. The stairs were old and made weird noises. The walls were dirty and bare. More cobwebs blocked their path. They cleared away one cobweb after another, getting frustrated at how many there were. Yes, these cobwebs were not like the fake ones everyone puts up on Halloween, these were the real deal. They felt nasty. Every once in a while, the cobwebs contained a special treat – Spiders! Once in the attic, a bearskin rug lay in front of them. “Oh, isn’t that sad. Did Mr. Bear have a run-in with a hunter?” joked Jeremy, as he pointed to the rug, laughing. “Very funny, Jeremy,” Stephen said, as he slapped his brother on the back. The head of the bear was big. It’s long, sharp, and yellow teeth were exposed. Its fur looked thin and fragile. They flashed their lights around the room, noticing many other animal skins. A moose head was mounted on a wall next to a window. Its antlers were massive and looked heavy. Across the room, hanging on another wall, was another animal skin. This one looked like a cougar. Stephen wondered if these were real animal skins or some fake, imitation. “Someone was obviously into hunting. Wonder who it was?” he added, still looking around.

“Don’t know,” said Brandon. “I’ve never heard that a hunter used to live in this house. I guess it’s just one more mystery.” Brandon continued to examine the room. He thought it was pretty spectacular and quite interesting. A high-pitched scream filled the room and startled the three boys. Scared and confused, they huddled together in a semi-circle. Panicked, they began rapidly shining their lights all around the room. They noticed a rocking chair standing in the corner of the attic all by itself. Suddenly, it started to rock back and forth, making a scratching noise on the old, wooden floor. As they watched the chair rocking, a mysterious green glow started to form over the top of the chair. One of the attic windows violently blew open, causing the window door to slam against the wall. Leaves flew in and landed on the floor, swirling in an upward fashion like a funnel cloud. The chair began to rock faster as the wind moved over it. Abruptly, the glow subsided and disappeared. The wind stopped as the glow vanished. The room became very quiet. The three looked at each other with huge eyes, eyebrows raised in astonishment. “Anyone care to explain that little incident?” questioned Jeremy, slightly shaking. “Not really. What about you, Brandon?” asked Stephen, ready to head home for the night. “Well, the way I see it, we can look at it in two different ways. One, we all imagined the same crazy thing and need to see a doctor fast to have our heads examined. Two, it was some freaky, supernatural thing that none of us can explain. What do you think?” said Brandon, thinking the entire incident was crazy. “I think that I will go with your number two theory. I would also like to suggest that we get out of here. I really would rather not see that again.” Jeremy hated the mansion after what he just witnessed. “I agree, let’s get out of here,” added Stephen. The boys turned around and ran at full speed down the stairs. On the second floor, they called for James and Sheila. There was no response. Stephen pulled on Jeremy’s arm as he moved too slowly. They ran in the direction of the other set of stairs that led down to the ground floor. Not wanting to be left behind,

Brandon was having a hard time keeping up with the others. They ran as fast as their feet would carry them. As they reached the ground floor, the three desperately yelled for James and Sheila once again. However, efforts to get their attention was unsuccessful. “So, now what? What are we going to do to find the others? We can’t seem to get any response from them. I am really worried,” announced Stephen. Frantically, the three looked around. They didn’t know what to do at this point. Had their friends left them alone in the house? Were they still on the main floor of the house? Where were they? Why hadn’t they responded to any of their screams of desperation? A plan would have to be made. The three would have to decide what to do next. “It’s almost eight o’clock! We need to get back home. We only have one hour left until we are supposed to be at home. Let’s decide what to do, so we can find the others and get the heck out of here,” declared Brandon. The walk to Blackwell Mansion had taken twenty minutes. This meant they only had approximately forty minutes to find the others and head home. Stephen suggested they search the ground floor for the others. Jeremy and Brandon agreed with the plan. Their main goal was to find Sheila and James and leave as quickly as possible. The continued exploration of Blackwell Mansion would have to wait for another day.

CHAPTER FOUR

NEW DISCOVERIES

James and Sheila looked around the room. The two decided to open one of the three doors. They would try each door and go through whichever door opened first. James fearlessly approached the metal door. He reached for the handle and attempted to turn it. Nothing happened. It would not budge. It was either stuck or locked. Watching James, Sheila decided to try another door. She strutted toward the red door, hoping to open it. But its handle was missing. She attempted to open it another way. She gave the door a firm push with her hip. It made a popping noise and opened. Surprised, the two walked toward the new opening and proceeded cautiously through the door. Once through the doorway, they looked ahead and discovered a set of stairs. This winding and circular stairway led up. The stairs were made of metal. James grabbed Sheila’s arm and pulled her behind him. He released her as he took the first step, moving up the stairway. Sheila shook her head in frustration. She wondered, ‘Why does he always insist on going first? Does he think he was so much better than me?’ She was irritated by his attitude. She ran up behind him and gave him a firm push in his butt, shoving him up the stairs. He snapped his head around and gave her a dirty look. “What is your problem?” he screamed. “You are my problem,” she barked back. “Boy, someone is nasty. What is wrong?” James shrieked, trying to figure out why she was acting like this. “For some reason, you seem to think you are entitled to go first all the time. What do you think you are the brave one? Be real! The first sign of trouble and you will be running like a baby!” Sheila laughed. “Okay, whatever. I was trying to be nice. I thought I would be the first one to go

ahead so if anything went wrong, you would be okay. But now, you are acting plain dumb. By all means, go ahead. I am happy to follow you.” James moved aside, in the narrow stairwell, to allow Sheila to him. She looked at him, smiling, feeling victorious. “Okay, I will, thanks!” she said, moving ahead and taking the lead. As they proceeded to walk up the stairs, James announced, “I love the echo our feet make on these stairs. Sounds eerie!” “I suppose if you are into that kind of spooky thing.” Sheila knew he made the comment to annoy and frighten her. She wasn’t about to let him know how much she was scared at the moment. This house was much more than she had bargained for, well, in a spooky kind of way. As she thought about the mansion, she cringed. The noise of the metal clinking beneath her feet began to irritate her. What a nasty noise, she thought. Clink, clunk, clink. All she could think of was finding a way out of the mansion and getting home. At the top of the stairs, they faced a short and narrow door. Since Sheila was standing there looking at the door, James decided to take the lead this time. Carefully, he turned the doorknob. He was amazed. They were back in the kitchen on the main level of the house! What a fantastic discovery. “Is this great, or what? It’s a house of mazes. Wait until we tell the others what we found,” James said, beaming with pride as if he was the greatest detective ever. He wondered what the others had found. He was also curious where the others were in the mansion. Once in the kitchen, they looked around in disbelief. They had entered the kitchen through a door, which on the outside looked like a kitchen cabinet or pantry. Sheila tugged on James’ arm and pointed to a light flashing in another room. “What do you think, James? What could it be? Or should I ask who?” she whispered into his ear. James shrugged his shoulders, and bravely shouted, “Who’s there?” No one replied. Sheila and James stood in silence, looking at each other. Sheila pointed to the light, still moving around in the other room. “Are we going in there or what? Do you want to stay here or find out what is going on?” He nodded but said nothing.

Just as they were about to move, the voices of Stephen, Jeremy, and Brandon could be heard in the distance. Sheila and James ran through the doorway to find themselves back in the entryway of the house – the five were reunited. All at once, everyone started talking. Each wanted to share information about what they had seen or what they had discovered. Stephen walked toward the front door and asked the others, “Had enough for one night? Can we please go home? I would rather discuss the rest of this somewhere other than here.” The other four agreed. It was time to go home. They walked toward the front door of the mansion and exited. James was the last one out and decided to close the door. After leaving the house, they walked down the path toward Siena Vista Drive. They were determined to be back at home on time. Outside, the wind was still blowing. Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder boomed above their heads. James and Sheila started telling the others what they had discovered in excited voices. Then the other three had their turn, talking the entire way home. Abruptly, everyone stopped walking at the same time. They reached the bottom of the hill. Looking up at the old mansion, each was wondering: What else remains to be seen? What will happen if we returned to Blackwell Mansion? There were so many questions. On this night, however, there would be no answers for them. They would have to wait for another time. The mansion looked small from where they were standing. In reality, it was a huge house. They knew they had only explored a tiny part of it. Continuing to walk toward town, everyone promised to go back to Blackwell Mansion. Tomorrow was another day, and they would continue their secret adventure and the exploration of what was yet to be discovered. Their mission was clear: To find out what was going on inside the mansion. Reaching Blossom Hill Road, it was time for the group to split up. Jeremy, Stephen, and James lived on Orchard Lane. The other two lived on Gardengrove Drive. The five said good-bye to each other. They agreed to meet the next day at 8 o’clock in the morning, hoping for an early start. The continued investigation of Blackwell Mansion would be conducted during daylight hours. “What do you think we should tell Mom and Dad when we get home?” James asked his brothers.

“Let’s just tell them that we went trick-or-treating and then decided to hang out with our friends. That isn’t exactly a lie,” replied Jeremy. “I agree. If we tell them the truth, they will freak out. You know how they feel about the mansion. They have declared it off-limits many times,” added Stephen. It was decided that it was best to keep the events of the night their little secret. The three approached their home. Running through the front door of their home, they almost tripped over their cats Smokey and Jake. The two cats loved to nap on the cold, tile floor by the entryway. The cats gave them annoying looks as if they were saying, ‘Hey, watch where you’re going.’ Once inside, the three walked into the living room to find their parents sitting on the large, grey, sectional couch. The boys plopped down on the couch and smiled at their parents. “Hey, what are you two doing?” asked Jeremy, looking at his mom. “We just finished watching the news. I am glad you are home on time. I was getting worried. The weather outside is pretty horrible tonight. Are you hungry?” “Nah. I just want to go get into my sweatpants and relax,” replied Stephen. They continued talking with their parents for a few minutes. Their dad was looking at the bags of candy. “It looks like you made out pretty good this year with all that candy, huh? Can I see it?” “Seriously? Are you really going to inspect our candy? We are not five years old anymore, Dad!” Stephen glared at his dad. He could not believe he was actually going to look at each piece of candy to make sure it was unopened and safe. How embarrassing, he thought. “Just leave the bags. You can have them back tomorrow. Yes, I am actually going to make sure they are okay. You may think I am overprotective, but I am your parent, I care. Off you go. Have a good night, gentlemen!” Having said what was on his mind, their dad walked into the kitchen with their candy bags. The three looked at their mom, Chelzie. She gave them a crooked smile and picked up her glasses to read a book. Just before they could escape up the stairs, she stopped them.

Chelzie was very smart. She knew something wasn’t right and did not miss a thing. She placed the book and glasses on the coffee table. “So, there isn’t a lot of candy in those bags. Your father may think they are full, but we know that is not true. What did you boys do all night?” With a grin on his face, Jeremy quickly replied, “We went out trick-or-treating and ran into Brandon and Sheila. We decided to walk around and talk. It’s what we do, you know?” He felt extremely confident in his quick and precise answer. “Uh-huh. That’s all?” she asked Stephen, looking directly at him. Her momradar told her there was more to the story. Stephen knew that look. It was the look of ‘we are in trouble.’ “Yes, Mom. We just hung out with our friends and had fun. We even got home on time,” he added as he pointed at his watch. “Pretty good, huh? Can we go upstairs now?” “Sure, have fun, but don’t be too loud.” She smiled, assuming Stephen was telling her the truth. “Mom, can I sleep in James and Jeremy’s room tonight? Please!” begged Stephen. “I suppose so, please your dad has to go to work early. He needs his sleep. Keep it quiet!” “Thanks, Mom, we will, promise!” said Stephen, excited the three could be in one room for the night discussing their previous adventure at Blackwell Mansion. As they walked up the stairs, Stephen wondered if she suspected anything. Tonight, the three brothers had a lot to talk about. No one wanted to be alone, and each wanted to share their thoughts and theories. The night had truly been eventful. After changing their clothes, the three met up in the twins’ room. Stephen sat on the floor while the others sat on their beds. They talked for a while until Stephen started dozing off on the floor. James kicked him. “Hey, sleepy, are you going to get your sleeping bag or go to your room?”

“No, I am going to my bed. I want to be comfortable. We can talk more in the morning. See you two then.” Stephen got up and walked across the hallway to his room. He pulled down the blinds to his window and jumped into bed. Under the covers, with only his head sticking out, he turned to look at his alarm clock. As he looked at the numbers, his eyes got heavy. Rather quickly, he drifted off to sleep. James and Jeremy talked for a few more minutes, but they were getting tired as well. James wondered what was happening at the mansion as they were at home in their beds. Though he was at home, his thoughts were definitely at Blackwell Mansion. Jeremy’s mind was preoccupied with thoughts about the inside of the mansion. He was not so eager to go back. On the other end of town, Brandon and Sheila arrived home. No one was home when they walked through the door, so they decided to go upstairs and change into their pajamas. Sheila walked into her room. She threw her costume on the black chair, in the corner of her room. She slid her shoes off and pulled the damp socks off her feet. She grabbed her fluffy, dark-blue robe and headed to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth while she waited for the shower water to heat up. Once the water was nice and warm, she got into the shower. When she finished showering, she put on the robe and walked back to her room. Brandon stood by Sheila’s bedroom door as Amber, their dog, a Chocolate Labrador Retriever, walked into Sheila’s room and curled up on the rug next to her bed. “Hey, you want to talk for a bit, or are you too tired?” asked Brandon. “We can talk a bit. Are you going to take a shower or change your clothes?” “No, I am going to take a quick shower,” answered Brandon. “Okay, I am going downstairs to grab a sandwich and some water. Do you want anything to eat?” Sheila asked. “No, I am good, thanks.” Brandon headed into the bathroom. Whatever, she thought as she walked downstairs. She could not believe he did not want anything to eat. Brandon was always hungry. She turned on the light at the bottom of the stairs and walked through the living room to the kitchen. She looked in the refrigerator for something to eat. She found nothing that appealed to her. She closed the door to the refrigerator, then walked to the

pantry. Looking at the shelves, she said out loud, “Peanut Butter and Jelly it is.” She made a sandwich, grabbed a bottle of water, and headed back up the stairs. She sat on her bed with her legs crossed, eating her sandwich. She started to feel very tired. Hopefully, Brandon would hurry up so they could talk a bit. She finished her sandwich and took a sip of water. Just as she was about to find out what was taking him so long, Brandon walked into her room. He had some beef jerky in his right hand and a soda in the other. Amber looked up, smelling the beef jerky. “No, Amber. This is my snack, not yours. Silly dog.” Brandon bent down and patted her head. Amber curled back up on the rug, probably realizing she was not getting any of the beef jerky. “Ummm, I thought you said you didn’t want anything,” she asked Brandon. She wondered why he changed his mind about eating. “Well, I am pretty hungry. Had to grab a snack.” “Very healthy, Brandon.” She shook her head in disbelief. He always ate junk food at night. “Yeah, well, it’s better than the left-over casserole in the fridge. You know how I hate that. Besides, beef jerky is not junk food. It is actually healthy, ha-ha.” Brandon finished eating and looked at Sheila. She was curled up on the bed, looking toward the bedroom window. He sipped his soda while he walked to the bedroom window to look outside. It was raining again. He was sick of the rain. “So, was today crazy or what?” Sheila asked, looking at Brandon. “Yes, that’s for sure. I wonder what the other three are talking about.” “I am pretty sure they are too tired to care at this point. They are probably already asleep.” “Speaking of sleep, I am off to my room. I am too tired to talk tonight. See you in the morning.” Brandon walked out of the room and closed her door. Sheila jumped out of bed, turned off the light, and got back into her bed. She stared at the ceiling. She could see a few flashes of lightning light up her room now and then. She was tired. Within minutes, she was asleep.

Brandon walked into his room, crawled into bed, pulled the blanket up over his head and drifted off to sleep. Morning was just hours away. Meanwhile, at Blackwell Mansion, clouds of smoke billowed from the tall chimney on the roof. A warm glow of light could be seen through the wide, front window. A loud, sobbing cry came from within the house.

CHAPTER FIVE

NEW FINDINGS

Jeremy was the first one to wake up. He heard the sound of howling wind and rain splashing against the bedroom window, making tapping noises. It was a typical fall day. Some of the branches from the massive tree in the front yard scratched the window, making screeching noises. The noise was awful, similar to the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard. It made Jeremy cringe. He thought about reminding his dad to trim the branches so they would not brush up against the glass. Jeremy walked away from the window and decided to wake his brothers. He walked to the bed where James was sleeping and pulled the blanket off him. James popped up and started yelling at him. “Do you mind? Do you have to be so darn rude? Give me my blanket back,” yelled James as he jumped up, snagging blanket from Jeremy. “Come on, get up. We need to get going. I am going to wake Stephen.” Jeremy walked out of the room, frustrated with his lazy twin. James pulled the blanket over his head and closed his eyes. There was no way he was ready to get up. However, the second, he started thinking about the mansion, that was all the motivation he needed. He pushed the blanket back and jumped out of bed, eager to head to the mansion. Across the hallway, Jeremy was talking to Stephen as he was getting dressed for the day. After a few minutes, Jeremy walked back to the room he shared with James. He put on some warm clothes and popped some new batteries into his flashlight. There was no way he would enter the mansion without working batteries for his flashlight. He could see it now – they would get inside where it was dark, and then the flashlight would die. That would be awful. He shook his head. Nope, not gonna happen, he thought. He slid three extra batteries into the

side pocket of his jeans, just in case. James was getting dressed while Jeremy fidgeted with his flashlight. James wanted to eat breakfast. He was starving. Watching Jeremy, he thought he should get more batteries for his flashlight as well. Better to be prepared, James thought. Finally, when the three were dressed, they walked downstairs to eat breakfast. Their mom was busy making cinnamon pancakes, their favorite. Their dad was already gone for the day, having to work early in the morning. The smell was divine! Yummy, the wonderful smell of cinnamon pancakes, thought Stephen. What a great way to start the day. Their mom handed them some plates and pointed to the syrup and butter on the table. Stephen smiled and begged, “May we please have some hot chocolate to go with this? The kind with mini marshmallows and whipped cream?” “Sure. I will make it for you. In the meantime, why don’t you drink the orange juice I put out for you?” She proceeded to make the hot chocolate. After she finished, she handed each of them a large mug of hot cocoa overflowing with whipped cream and mini marshmallows. The three boys grinned. They ate quickly and finished their warm drinks. Jeremy explained to their mother they were planning to meet Sheila and Brandon, but he left out the part about going to the mansion. He did not want to get into trouble with her. Their mom was okay with the plan with the understanding they wear raincoats. She didn’t want them to end up with colds, or worse pneumonia. Everyone in the family had already been sick several times this year. The three grabbed raincoats, gloves, and hats out of the front hall closet. “Hang on a minute, boys. I am going to make your sandwiches. Are you okay with turkey and swiss?” “Oh, yes, yes, yes,” replied James. She knew he liked sandwiches and turkey with swiss cheese was his favorite. The others laughed and nodded in agreement. Once their mother was done preparing the sandwiches, she placed them in a plastic bag and added some cans of soda. Jeremy grabbed a bag of Sea Salt, and Vinegar flavored chips (his favorite) for his lunch. Once they had their packed lunches, it was time to head

out to meet the other two. On the other end of town, Sheila woke up to the sound of pounding rain. She left her room and knocked on Brandon’s door, but there was no reply. She turned the door handle and walked into his room. She looked at his bed. Brandon was under the blanket, snoring. Wow, he is noisy, she thought. She walked toward the window and looked up at the hill, eyeing the mansion. She wondered what had happened there during the night. She was deep in thought, trying to all that had happened the night before. What a mysterious and scary house, she thought. She was curious if the house would be as scary during the day, or if it only looked intimidating during the night. She walked away from the window and decided to get dressed. I’ll let him sleep a little longer, she thought to herself, as she walked back to her room. She picked out some jeans and a hooded sweatshirt to wear. Once dressed, she felt ready to face the day. She decided it was time to wake Brandon. Standing over him in his room, she bent down and gave him a quick shove. “Wake up! The others are probably already waiting for us. We need to leave, now!” she yelled, pushing him. Brandon yawned and stretched. Annoyed, he yelled, “Go away! Why are you in my room? Ever hear of privacy?” “Okay, I will go without you. You will not know what happens at the mansion and I will not tell you,” Sheila teased, as she turned to walk out the door. “Hold on, I will get dressed,” Brandon replied, clearly irritated with her. Boy, he was grumpy this morning, she thought, frowning. She was hoping he would change his crabby attitude. She bounced down the stairs in a good mood, her long ponytail swinging side to side. It was going to be a great day. She leaned down and patted Amber’s head. The dog stared back at Sheila, wagging her tail. Sheila walked through the kitchen door to find her mom making breakfast. Mmmm, the smell of eggs, bacon, and toast filled the room. She was in the process of eating her breakfast when Brandon showed up. He looked tired. “I don’t like eggs and bacon. What else do we have?” he asked, not happy with the breakfast choice waiting for him. “Well, if you do not like it, have cereal,” his mom said in a perturbed voice. “No offense, Mom. You know I am not into eggs. Why can’t we have french

toast or pancakes? You never make them anymore.” “Obviously, someone has a memory lapse. I made french toast for you last week!” Brandon’s mouth opened to reply, but he shut it instead. He felt dumb. He had forgotten about the french toast. She was correct. She made it last Saturday after he asked her to make it for him. “If you stopped whining and started eating, we could head out. We are supposed to meet the others in less than ten minutes,” complained Sheila, giving Brandon a dirty look. “Whatever, I will grab one of those breakfast bars. Hmmm, never mind, I will have a toaster pastry instead.” He walked to the pantry, opened a box, and grabbed two packages of strawberry-flavored pastries. Yes, strawberry goodness, he thought, as he opened one of the packages and took a big bite out of a pastry. When Sheila finished eating, she made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for both of them. “Here, I made you a sandwich. Do you want some potato chips? I think I will take some juice.” “Yes, I will take some chips and a soda,” he responded, as he watched Sheila. She placed their lunches in plastic bags. No way was she going to have soggy sandwiches from the rain. “Here you go, you are welcome,” she said sarcastically, as she shoved the plastic bag into his hand. On her way out the door, Sheila took her jacket out of the closet and bent down and picked up an umbrella thinking – good for rain and can be used as a weapon. She hugged her mom goodbye and promised to be home before it got late. Amber followed Brandon and Sheila to the door, tail still wagging, thinking it was time for her daily walk. Brandon patted her head as he headed out. “No, Amber, you cannot go, girl. Maybe next time.” The dog looked at him with disappointment. She understood there would be no walk for her. She turned around and curled up on the plush carpet by the entryway. Brandon shut the door and proceeded to walk down the street. Sheila felt the

cold breeze hit her face. Now, she wished she could have stayed in her bed just a little longer. She wasn’t in the mood to give up her warm bed for a cold, musty, and dirty mansion. The boys always wanted to go to spooky places and explore creepy things. Most of the time, they liked it when she went with them because they enjoyed scaring her. They also liked to blame her for stuff when something bad happened. She was their scapegoat, so to speak. She knew they liked to blame her for things because they were the ones scared or nervous. Sheila wasn’t stupid, and she had gotten into trouble too many times for those four boys. Somehow, it was okay with her. She realized she was strong and smart. Most of all, she was determined to show them there wasn’t anything that could scare her. She was a lot braver than they knew. She grinned, hoping they would be the ones scared today. The five met at the bottom of Siena Vista Drive, each armed with a flashlight and their lunches. It was still raining, and occasional lightning flashed in the sky, followed by thunder. Another miserable and rainy day ahead, James thought as he looked at the dark sky. The five started talking about their exploration of the mansion. James wanted to be sure the five did not separate this time. Everyone was going as one group and would not be splitting up. The others disagreed with his suggestion. They thought it would make more sense to have two teams to cover more areas of the mansion. They continued to debate as they walked. Moving closer to the mansion, one could envision a horror movie. The house looked terrifying, even during the day. The sky over the house was dark, grey, and gloomy. The wind pushed against the five children as they walked up the hill. Cold rain splashed against their faces turning their cheeks numb. Sheila annoyingly kept brushing her long bangs off to the side, as they kept sticking to her forehead and covering her eyes. Sheila’s glasses were wet, and it was nearly impossible for her to see. They also kept fogging up. Her umbrella seemed pretty useless against the strong wind and pounding rain. Her feet felt wet, and she was getting chills. She regretted the decision leaving her warm home this morning, wishing she was still there, where it was cozy and comfortable. The others kept walking toward the mansion without much conversation. They were just as miserable but said nothing. Reaching their destination, they walked up the stairs approaching the front door. The five looked at the front door with confusion, recalling James closed it the night before, on their way out. Now it

stood partially open. A strange smell came from the inside of the house. Cautiously, James pushed the door open the rest of the way, the others followed behind. Sheila closed the dripping, wet umbrella and took off her glasses. She opened her jacket and wiped the lenses of her glasses dry on her sweatshirt. “Isn’t that special? The lovely spiders have made more webs. Do these arachnids ever give up?” Brandon pointed to some of the new webs. There was a warmth radiating around the room. In the living room, a burnt-wood smell hung in the air. Stephen walked toward the fireplace and stuck his hand inside. It felt warm. There were still a few chunks of wood with a red glow in the back of the fireplace. “That’s strange. The fireplace is warm. Who would have made a fire in here?” asked Stephen as he pointed to the fireplace and glowing embers. “That does seem strange. I thought this house was abandoned,” James chimed in. Who in their right mind would stay here at night? thought Sheila. Also, it would have to be someone crazy. Everyone in town knew about Blackwell Mansion and stayed away. There were so many different rumors, and the negative publicity kept everyone away. “Well, chalk it up to yet another mystery,” said Brandon. “I guess we should see what else is out of place. It seems like someone was in here last night. I wonder if someone was here last night when we were in the mansion? Or maybe he, she, or something was here after we left?” It was decided they would look around the rest of the house. The first place to check was the kitchen. In the kitchen, they confirmed what they already suspected. The two plates on the table were gone. Only two small rings of dust could be seen where the plates used to be. Baffled, everyone looked around for the plates. The sink contained only dirt and dust, but no plates. What happened to them? They wondered. Jeremy opened a few cabinets and looked inside. He found rusty cans of food and some old dishtowels. He opened a drawer, but it only contained tarnished silverware. Still, nothing out of the ordinary. James bumped into one of the cabinets while trying to move around. Suddenly, a

plate came crashing down onto the floor, but this one was clean. Who had cleaned it and where? This seemed odd. The sink was dirty, and there was no way the plate could have been cleaned in that particular sink. This house was becoming more mysterious by the minute. A weird noise rumbled above their heads. The five looked up at the ceiling. The kitchen light swayed side to side. “What caused that? Is someone or something upstairs?” asked Sheila out loud. “Okay, what do you think?” asked Jeremy, pointing to the kitchen light while looking at Stephen. “Don’t know, want to find out?” he responded, eager to head upstairs. “Oh, great, here we go again,” added James. Sheila looked up and wondered, “What caused the light to sway so much? That would take a lot of force.” The five walked upstairs to find the cause of the swaying light. The stairs creaked as they walked on them. Brandon, in the lead, stopped. He pointed to the painting of ‘The Woman in the Red Dress.’ It hung crooked on the wall, tilted to the right. “Okay, now tell me that was straight yesterday, right?” “Absolutely!” agreed Stephen. “Then why is it crooked now?” asked Brandon, still pointing to the painting. The others looked at it and shrugged their shoulders, unsure. As they were about to continue walking up the stairs, a green glow formed in the middle of the painting. The glow seemed to be coming out of the painting itself and began to expand. The glow looked like a thick, bright, neon-green colored fog. A loud laugh filled the stairway. It was as if the woman in the painting had just come to life! The five stared in disbelief at the painting and watched as a woman emerged. She looked as if she was smiling, holding the same strange, twisted object in her hand. Without warning, she pointed the object directly at Stephen, once again. This time, without hesitation, he reached for it. He held it in his hands. It was cold and heavy. The moment he grasped it firmly, he was enveloped by the glowing, green fog. The green light started swirling around him, engulfing him.

Stephen turned into a green haze. The glow was so intense, and the others looked away. Then the woman and Stephen disappeared. Screams filled the air. The four became terrified, screaming at the top of their lungs, calling out Stephen’s name. Confused, the children frantically looked around, hoping to find him. He was nowhere to be found. He simply vanished, gone without a trace. Stunned, they continued to call out his name. How could this be happening? Was this some sort of trick? Had he truly disappeared? Sheila looked behind the picture to find some kind of clue. She was desperate. The others watched in shock. Sheila, with her umbrella in hand, charged up the stairs screaming Stephen’s name. The other three followed quickly. At the top of the stairs, Sheila dropped her umbrella and screamed, “Stephen!” They only heard their voices calling out his name in desperation, again and again. Their screams were in vain. Stephen was gone. Yelling and screaming wasn’t going to bring him back. They knew this. They had to prepare for the fact he might be gone forever and may never return. How on earth were James and Jeremy going to explain this to their parents? How could they leave the house without him? What were they going to do? Sheila started getting emotional. She wanted to cry but decided to hold back. There was no way she was going to let the boys see her cry. Not now, not ever. She stood at the top of the stairs waiting to see what the others were planning to do or suggest. “Let’s stay calm for a minute. We have to think and remain logical. There has to be some explanation for what just happened. We cannot just give up. We must find Stephen. He would not stop looking if it was one of us. We must continue to look for him. What about looking in the room over the kitchen? We may find a clue there. That light downstairs was moving for some reason. Something made it move. It seems to be our only clue right now,” exclaimed Sheila, frustrated. She hoped the others would agree. Jeremy stood next to James with his arms around his brother’s shoulders. He tried to reassure him they would find Stephen. Jeremy was feeling upset. How did he let this happen to his younger brother? He felt guilt building. James’ head was tilted downward, showing his feeling of guilt as well. James looked up as he wiped a tear off his face. He did not want the others to see how emotional he was

feeling at the moment. The twins felt as if they failed Stephen. James pushed Jeremy’s arm away. “Get away from me. Just get away,” he yelled in frustration. “Hold on, don’t blame me for this,” screamed Jeremy. “I did not do this!” “You did nothing to help him either. You were standing right next to him. Why didn’t you grab him? You could have saved him. What is wrong with you?” James was furious. “Come on now. Let’s not blame each other. None of us knew this was going to happen. It could have happened to any of us,” shouted Brandon, watching the twins fight. “Yeah, except yesterday when she pointed that thing at him, he acted like he was in a trance. We should have known the minute we saw her, that he would be in trouble.” “Oh, I see. Now you are a mind reader, James? Get real, no one knew this would happen,” said Jeremy, getting more upset by the minute. Sheila felt the boys were out of control. They just wanted to blame each other instead of trying to find Stephen. “If you want to help Stephen, then stop this nonsense. Let’s get busy looking for him. This fighting is not going to help at all!” She stomped her foot in anger. Ashamed, the others agreed with her strategy. They should explore the room above the kitchen. Perhaps, they would uncover a valuable clue. They had nothing better to do. They proceeded to walk toward the room. As they approached, they noticed the door stood open. Sheila walked in first and started looking around. A baby’s crib leaned against the left wall of the room. The entire room was decorated in pink. The walls were covered in hand-painted pink balloons and flowers. Stuffed animals and other toys filled an open, white toy chest. Nothing seemed out of place or odd. Disappointed, they left the room, heading to the next. The four children hoped to find something. Any clue would be nice. Walking across the hallway to another room, James spotted a green glow of light. The door stood open, giving a direct view of the entire room. The glow moved slowly around a bed as laughter filled the room. Jeremy recognized the

laugh. He lunged toward the middle of the room. “It’s Stephen’s laugh. Hurry, he has to be in here somewhere!” Desperate, everyone called out his name. However, Stephen was nowhere to be seen. Silence filled the room. The green glow diminished and disappeared into the wall. Frantically, the four looked around the room. Sheila walked to the only closet in the room and looked around. Stephen was not in this room. With only hope on their side, they left the room and proceeded to walk down the hallway. They located a smaller room, possibly a storage room. It contained crates and boxes. James looked through some of the open boxes. He found nothing out of the ordinary, mostly just old clothing. As he moved some of the boxes to one side, he noticed something on the wall. He walked to the wall to get a closer look. What he discovered was a door, only about two feet tall. “Hey, over here. Look what I just found. It’s some kind of tiny door,” he yelled, excited. “Wow, you’re not kidding. That is tiny. Can we fit through that opening?” asked Jeremy. “Well, there is only one way to find out,” declared James, taking the lead. He crouched down and got on his hands and knees. He turned the knob and opened the door. As he crawled through the tiny opening, he turned his head around to check on the others. “Come on, follow me.” He motioned for the others to him. They took turns squeezing through the small opening. Once they were through the door, what they found amazed them. In front of them was a dark stairway. James used his flashlight to look up, the only direction the stairway led. The others huddled at the bottom of the stairs and used their flashlights as well to illuminate the entire stairway. It did not look like a long stairway. Again, James took the lead and headed up the stairs. One by one, the others followed. Slowly, they made their way up the circular stairway. At the top, James stopped when he encountered another door. Luckily, this one was a normal-sized door. Unfortunately, it would not open. He tried to turn the knob numerous times with no success. “Hey, everyone, hold up. This door is not opening. I am going to have to kick it to get it to open.”

The others stopped and waited to see if James could open the door. James backed up and kicked the door as hard as he could. The door popped open. The others moved up the stairs to James. The four gathered around the doorway to get a better look. The room before them was small, and the walls were painted blue. There was an oval-shaped window, which oddly seemed much too large for such a small room. Pictures of people wearing military uniforms hung on the walls. Above the desk, plaques and awards were displayed. The desk itself was covered with papers. A military uniform hung on a coat rack, covered in dust. James walked toward the coat rack to inspect the jacket. It was decorated with medals. On a wall next to the coat rack, there hung a picture of a man in uniform. Underneath the picture was a plaque. It read: Colonel Samuel Phillip Blackwell, U.S. Army. Wow, what good luck. They couldn’t believe it, finally a new clue. How exciting. Colonel Blackwell was one of the prior residents of Blackwell Mansion. He was highly decorated during his military career. What happened to the Colonel? What did this new clue have to do with the green glow? “What do you think? This place gets more mysterious by the second. I want to find Stephen and get out of this house of mazes. I hate it, I just want to go home,” complained James, scared they had not yet found Stephen. At this point, he didn’t think anything was funny anymore. He didn’t care about the Blackwell Legend mysteries. He shook his head in frustration and sat on the chair by the desk. Jeremy ed James, standing next to him. Jeremy pulled the top drawer of the desk open. It contained papers. As he searched through the pile, he noticed something peeking out from under the papers. He found a new clue - a diary. The front page was embossed with the name Samuel P. Blackwell. Jeremy took it out of the drawer and sat down on the floor. He flipped through some of the pages. A page dated July 24th, 1984, caught his attention. The diary read:

July 24, 1984 “I find myself more and more confused each day. No one knows when we must depart. My wife, Elizabeth, will soon give birth. I want desperately to be here with her. She needs my help. She has been ill for quite some time. I fear for her

safety.”

Another clue. Colonel Blackwell was married. He also had a child. Jeremy flipped through a few more pages and read on.

July 30th, 1984 “Our beautiful daughter has arrived. We decided to name her Danielle. Danielle was born at 6:17 a.m. on July 30th, 1984. She has thick, dark hair. I am captivated by her startling, blue eyes. My little angel is so beautiful. Unfortunately, Elizabeth is still very ill. She continues to have a high fever. I can only hope she recovers fast.”

The others noticed how quiet Jeremy became. He was enthralled with the diary. The others gathered around Jeremy trying to get a better look over his shoulder, hoping to see what he was reading. Annoyed at the invasion of his space, Jeremy moved away from the others and started reading out loud

August 14th, 1984 “Elizabeth is feeling much better, but she has lost too much weight. She seems pretty happy but physically weak. I hired a nanny to help Elizabeth with Danielle. I believe Rosy will be a great asset.”

August 24th, 1984 “Elizabeth is acting strange. She continues to ask for ‘The Gift.’ I have no clue what it is. Elizabeth prowls around the house all night and sleeps all day. Her behavior is of great concern to me. I have talked to her doctor. The diagnosis is

depression.”

August 30th, 1984 “I found Elizabeth unconscious on the bed. I took her to a nearby hospital. She is obsessed with ‘The Gift.’ She insists it will change our lives forever.”

The pages following the August 30th page were blank. Nothing else was written in the diary. “What do you think happened after August 30, 1984?” asked Jeremy, more curious than ever about what happened to the previous residents of the mansion. Frustrated, Jeremy walked to the desk and threw the diary on top of the piles of papers. All these clues and still no Stephen. He could only hope that these clues would eventually lead them to find Stephen. Jeremy walked away from the desk and looked out the large window. He placed his folded hands on top of his head. It was still raining outside. The sky looked gloomy, and Jeremy’s mood felt the same. He was also beginning to feel very annoyed. He did not look forward to going home and explaining to his parents about Stephen’s disappearance. How would he be able to make them understand? If he told his parents they had been in Blackwell Mansion, there would be trouble. The others looked around the room and spotted another door in the room. They were curious to find out what was on the other side. The house appeared to be one maze after another. The children were a bit reluctant to open the other door. Yet, curiosity took over. Brandon walked to the other door and turned its handle. Thank goodness it was not locked. He pushed the door open and walked through. Cautiously, the others followed his lead. To everyone’s surprise, they found themselves in a hallway with a stairway leading down. The group lined up and walked one at a time down the long stairway, hoping to find a way back to the main floor. Brandon reached the bottom first. He reached for the doorknob, hoping it was not locked. He opened the door and walked out into the hallway of the main floor. The others followed him, as he led the way toward the front end

of the house. Looking around, Brandon noticed something strange. Staring at one of the walls, he saw one of the paintings was missing. Only an outline remained where the painting used to hang. Brandon ed the painting as it previously caught his attention. Now, he realized who had been in the painting. It was Colonel Blackwell. The painting was now missing. Who had removed it, and why? As Brandon began explaining to the others about the missing painting, the green glow appeared out of nowhere and moved slowly toward the four. This time the glow was much larger. Again, laughter could be heard. The laughter sounded like a woman and Stephen. The four stood still in their positions. James stepped forward and reached out to touch the glow. A cold breeze surrounded him. It brought chills to his body. He felt as if he was floating in the air. He started to feel dizzy and closed his eyes. Panicked, Jeremy called out Stephen’s name. The green glow turned into the shapes of Stephen and a woman. Stunned, the four stared at the two figures. Stephen looked the same, except he was glowing and green. He smiled and spoke. “Hey, everyone. Don’t worry. I am okay. I have no clue how to get back, though. I need your help. Please, help me!” The woman spoke next. “Don’t be afraid! I will return your friend to you very soon. I mean him no harm. I am showing him ‘The Gift.’ It can change your life forever,” she cackled. As quickly as the two appeared, they disappeared again. Bewildered, the others looked around. Mystified, they all wondered: “How did Stephen’s body turn into the green glow? Is it a trick? Who is the woman? Is it Elizabeth Blackwell, the Colonel’s wife? Will she actually bring back Stephen? Most of all, is this really happening? Is this a dream, or a horrible nightmare?” There were so many questions, and yet, zero answers.

CHAPTER SIX

A CLUB IS FORMED

Confused and hungry, the four remained silent. They made their way back into the kitchen where they left their lunches. They knew nothing could be done at this point to find Stephen. Sheila lifted her lunch bag off the kitchen table and told the others she was going to eat. The others thought it was a good idea. Eating might help them to think clearly, and perhaps it would be easier to think with a full stomach. They sat around the table, watching each other eat robotically, deep in thought. Sheila ate her sandwich and was tearing it into small pieces. She wasn’t paying any attention. The peanut butter and jelly oozed out between her fingers and dripped down her hand. Mindlessly, she nibbled at her food. James and Jeremy stared at each other as they ate, saying nothing. Jeremy munched on his chips, thinking about Stephen and wondered if he was ever going to see his younger brother again. Sheila was always very logical. It was hard for her to make sense of what she just witnessed. It was not logical. Maybe, all of it was just a dream? She was sure that at any minute, she would wake up and realize everything had just been a nightmare. What other explanation was there? Brandon looked at the others and wondered what they could do to find Stephen. He felt little hope at the moment but was not about to tell the others how he felt. He knew they were already very upset and felt overwhelming guilt. Brandon had his ideas about what he witnessed. He believed in ghosts and was certain the woman was a ghost. She probably possessed some magical power. With that power, she must have turned Stephen into a ghost. The only thing he wasn’t sure about was if Stephen could become human again. Was Stephen doomed to live the rest of his life as a ghost in the mansion? Either way, it was not good unless they could figure out how to find Stephen and change him back to being human.

Jeremy spent his lunchtime thinking about Stephen as well. He loved his younger brother a lot and desperately wanted him back. He had no clue what to do next. Everything felt surreal. He felt awful. It was his and James’ responsibility to watch out for Stephen. Now, they lost Stephen. What would their parents say? It was all too much for Jeremy. He started to cry. Tears ran down his cheek. Embarrassed, he looked down on the floor as he wiped away his tears. Strange thoughts entered James’ mind. He was disturbed that Stephen vanished. James promised himself once they found Stephen, he would never return to Blackwell Mansion. This was a dreadful place. He became emotional thinking about the consequences of never seeing Stephen again. How could he have let him down? After all, he was his big brother, and it was his responsibility to protect him. He failed him. I am a total loser, thought James. He threw what was left of his sandwich on the floor. James got up and walked toward the wall and leaned against it, remaining silent. The others watched James with curiosity. What was he doing? Brandon made up his mind to speak. “I have a great idea. Why don’t we form some club? A detective or investigations club. Our club could explore and investigate strange and unusual happenings. Our club would need a name.” “Are you kidding me? How exactly is that going to help me get my brother back, huh?” growled Jeremy, agitated. “Well, it will be our first mission to find Stephen, that is how!” responded Brandon, hoping the others would be happier thinking about something other than Stephen’s disappearance. “I have a name, how about The Explorers Club?” announced Sheila. “We could vote on the name unless someone else has a better suggestion.” She wanted to come up with a name before anyone else, though she did not think forming a club was so important at the moment. “Lame!” chimed in Jeremy. “That sounds like a name from 1990! How about something catchier? Something more of this decade?” “Whatever. What do you suggest?” asked Sheila, her feelings hurt. “Okay, how about Pic⁵? Paranormal Investigators Club – 5, because there are

five of us…well, once Stephen is back,” suggested James. “Seems silly to be worried about some club when our friend is missing,” complained Sheila. “You guys are worried about something unimportant. You need to get your priorities straight. Mission one: FIND STEPHEN. Nothing else matters.” “Okay. I agree, but why not a club? Gee, Sheila, relax. I know it is a bad situation, but come on. We need something to do. We need some hope. Perhaps, this new venture will make us even more determined to find him. We now have our first club mission,” replied Brandon, hoping the others would feel better. “Okay, if you say so. Whatever you want to call it is fine by me. Call it the Stephen Finding Club for all I care,” Sheila added, feeling frustrated and sad. The boys were more worried about establishing some silly club. Did they not understand the urgency to find Stephen? This was a real-life emergency and not some fun, club activity. “Okay, let’s vote,” said James. Reluctantly, everyone voted and agreed. Pic⁵ was formed, and the club’s first mission was to find Stephen. The baffling mansion mysteries would have to wait until they could solve Stephen’s disappearance. The Pic⁵ considered all the current options. Each gave their opinion about how to proceed. The decision was made to look for more clues in the basement. Sheila was hoping to find a clue about how to find the woman. She knew the woman was the key to getting Stephen back. The four put away their lunch bags and stood up. Jeremy patted James on the back, saying, “Don’t worry, we will find him.” James gave him a hopeful glance. Sheila and Brandon just looked away, feeling horrible. Walking down the descending hallway, leading to the basement, each felt optimistic they would find new clues, eventually leading them to find Stephen. They realized it was getting late, and they were quickly running out of time. Before too long, they would need to be heading back home. Unfortunately, Stephen was still missing. They arrived at the end of the hallway and entered the cold, dark basement. They proceeded to walk into the room with three doors. James and Sheila previously

attempted to open the metal door. Now, they would try to see what was behind the black door. Dripping noises came from behind it. Brandon turned the door handle, opening the door. He poked his head inside the room, finding out it was surprisingly big. Confidently, he walked in. The others followed closely, not wanting to be left behind. They stopped to look around. Sheila glanced at the color of the walls. Dirty yellow, that was the only color that came to her mind. James walked to a sink in the corner of the room, and its faucet was dripping. Obviously, it was the cause of the noise they heard on the other side of the door. He tried to stop the drip by turning the faucet handle, but it was broken. There was no way to stop the dripping noise. He wiped his wet hands on his jeans and turned around to look at the others. Jeremy thought the room looked like some laboratory. It contained many bookshelves filled with books. Scientific equipment was placed on a long and narrow table. An open book was positioned in the middle of the table. It contained what looked like unusual formulas. Written in a reddish-brown ink were the words: New Life. Wow, what does that mean? Jeremy was mystified. His eyes got large, and his eyebrows arched in excitement. He motioned to the others to come over and take a look. The book was old, and the pages were brittle and torn. It was apparent everyone had the same thought: How did this get here? Who put it here? Another mystery with still zero answers. Jeremy’s mood changed. He began to frown, biting his lower lip. Deep in thought, he realized he had blood in his mouth. He had chomped down on his lip too hard. Angry, he wiped the blood away from his lip and brushed it on his pants. Frustrated and now hurting, he let out a sigh. Without warning, laughter filled the room. It was Stephen’s voice. The room lit up with the familiar green glow. Stephen formed in the middle of the glow. He was smiling while holding the strange and twisted object. He pointed it toward James, smiling. James reached out to touch the object. Brandon and Sheila jumped, holding back James, at the same time trying to stop him yelling, “NO, don’t do it!” They were too late. James disappeared the second he touched the object. The green glow vanished. Poof, just like that, he was gone! Jeremy collapsed onto the floor, about ready to cry. He placed his hands on his cheeks and bowed his head. He could not understand how both of his brothers could have disappeared. What could he do? The others looked on helpless. They felt awful for not being able to grab James quickly enough. Jeremy sat on the

damp and dirty floor, motionless. Finally, he shook his head in disbelief. Angry and confused, he stood up, wiped away his tears, and started to pull books off the shelves. He was determined to find a clue. Enough time had already been wasted. Puzzled by Jeremy’s actions, the others watched in confusion. They wondered what he was doing. Sheila gave Brandon an odd look as she shook her head. Has Jeremy lost his mind? Is this whole situation too much for him to handle? Thought Sheila, worried. Books flew all over the place. Crashing noises filled the room as books, and other items hit the floor. Unexpectedly, one of the bookshelves swung outward. Jeremy jumped back. Instantly, he felt a tiny victory. The others walked up next to Jeremy and looked curiously through the opening. Sheila aimed her flashlight ahead. She could see the outline of a staircase. She walked toward it and started walking up the metal stairs. Jeremy was not going to hesitate. He followed right behind. He practically ran up the stairs, Brandon following. At the top of the stair landing, there was a new doorway. Sheila slipped and fell. As she tried to get up, she felt something next to her foot. It was a brass candleholder. How did this end up here? She picked it up and held it out so the others could inspect it. “How do you suppose that got here?” asked Jeremy. Inspecting the candleholder, Jeremy discovered the wax from the candle wasn’t completely hard, still warm. “Someone must have just blown it out,” he announced, looking more closely at the candle. Perplexed, Sheila shrugged her shoulders and decided to hang onto the candleholder as they walked through the door. The new room they entered was completely empty. There were also no windows. This seemed very unusual. There was another door across the room. Jeremy walked past Sheila and took the lead. He was mad and determined to find Stephen and James. Quickly, the group realized they were back on the first floor of the house. Jeremy spun around, “What is going on here? This house is totally strange.” “What’s the purpose of this empty room?” asked Sheila perplexed. Everyone was annoyed and confused. Sheila heard the sound of the wind, probably from a storm headed their way. The house shook as thunder boomed outside. The weather must be getting worse, thought Sheila, listening to the

noises coming from outside. Sheila pushed her glasses back to the top of her nose. She was beginning to wonder if they would make it out of this miserable house of mazes. Suddenly, a voice came from somewhere. Once again, it was Stephen. This time, he spoke quietly. “James and I are on our way back, be patient. We are bringing Lizzy with us. She will explain everything to you. She will show there is no reason to be afraid.” Stephen’s voice faded and disappeared. Jeremy desperately looked around. He wondered: “Who is Lizzy? Could it be Elizabeth, the Colonel’s wife?” The three looked at each other. “Okay, now what? Let’s go back to the living room,” declared Sheila. The others agreed. They made their way back into the living room. Once there, they sat down on the couches but remained silent. After a few minutes, Brandon felt there had been enough silence and decided to speak up. “I think we should wait and see if James and Stephen reappear,” said Brandon as he stood in front of the fireplace, pounding his fist on the shelf above the fireplace. He looked at the thick layer of dust and blew it away, only to have it fly back in his face. He started coughing. The others watched and laughed, finding it extremely funny. Brandon did not think it was funny. Instead, he turned around to face them, arms crossed, looking mad. Jeremy looked at his watch. It was getting late, and they were almost out of time. He knew this was bad. He dreaded the idea of going home without his brothers. He felt nauseous as he swallowed. His parents would kill him if they knew they had been to Blackwell Mansion, not to mention, his brothers had disappeared there! Jeremy was not ready to face them nor the consequences. The front door of the house flew open and then slammed shut. Footsteps echoed through the house. Nervously, Sheila and Jeremy jumped off the couches and ran to a corner of the room. Brandon followed. They crouched down behind one of the overstuffed chairs. Someone entered the house. The three peeked over the chair to try and see who it was. Someone in a raincoat walked toward the kitchen, whistling. Quietly, the three stood up and walked toward the kitchen. They could hear

smashing noises. It sounded like kitchen drawers opening and slamming shut. They heard a woman’s voice. She was talking to herself quite loud and clear. She sounded very upset. “Who needs electricity? Yeah, how about me? Why not live in this house? What is wrong with everyone in town? I cannot believe some people!” She slammed some more items around but stopped talking. Cautiously, Sheila looked through the kitchen door opening to see what was going on. The woman had taken off her coat and tossed it over one of the chairs. She stood by the sink, wearing a black dress. Her hair too was black, long, and wet. Rainwater was dripping down her back. It seemed to annoy her because she reached behind her head, grabbed her hair, and proceeded to wring out the excess water. She started talking again. “Darn rain! I am so sick and tired of all the rain. Does it ever stop? Now, I have to make another fire to dry off and warm up. Electricity would be nice right about now,” she declared in a huff. Jeremy was nosey and wanted to get a better look at the woman. He leaned against Sheila. By accident, he bumped into Sheila, causing her to lunge forward into the kitchen. The noise startled the woman. She spun around, facing them. She held a knife in her right hand as she screamed at Sheila in anger, looking directly at her. “What are you doing in my house? Who are you? What do you want? You better answer me if you know what is good for you.” Her face looked angry and flushed. Her eyes glared at Sheila. Her mouth was puckered up, in a sinister way. Sheila backed up against the wall putting her hands in the air. “Look, lady….I’m sorry. My friends and I were just in here looking around. We didn’t realize anyone lived here. We’ve heard stories about this house. We wanted to see if any of them were true. We didn’t mean to intrude on your privacy. We are truly sorry. Please lower your knife. We do not mean you any harm.” Sheila kept her hands in the air as she watched the woman, hoping she would lower the knife. “Who is ‘we’?” asked the woman, as she looked behind Sheila trying to get a better look. Feeling non-threatened, she quickly lowered the knife and started to laugh. She plopped down on one of the chairs. She motioned for Sheila to do the same. Jeremy decided it was safe and stepped out from behind Sheila to enter the kitchen, Brandon followed. The woman looked at Jeremy and Brandon. The four stared at each other quietly. The woman seemed to be wondering what was going

on. Her eyes squinted as she looked at them with curiosity. The three children remained silent. They looked at the woman and waited for her to say something. Sheila wanted to get up and leave but was too scared to move. Finally, the woman spoke. “I suppose I should introduce myself. You must be curious as to who I am. My name is Danielle Blackwell. My parents used to live in this house a long time ago. After I was born my mother, Elizabeth, disappeared. My father took me away from here when I was just one year old. My father was Colonel Samuel Blackwell. He was devastated by my mother’s disappearance. After looking for her for over a year, he finally gave up. He decided it was best to leave this house. We moved away from Pineville. My father died three weeks ago in Watson City. That’s about 400 miles away from here, not sure if you know where that is. Well, his last request to me was to clean up the mansion and sell it. He wanted us to forget what happened here. Basically, he wanted to get rid of this house and everything associated with my mother, nothing but bad memories!” She leaned back in the chair and looked at the others, her hands folded. The others watched Danielle as she talked and continued. “I’ve been in this house for about a week. I have seen and uncovered many strange things. Most of these strange things are about my father. I am very worried about this. My father died in a mental institution as he was declared legally insane. His whole life, he never gave up trying to find my mother. The only thing he ever explained to me in detail was how she disappeared. He kept talking about a strange force supposedly abducting her.” Danielle pushed back in her chair. She ran her fingers through her wet hair. She stared at the others, looking sad. She appeared to be on the verge of crying. She pounded her fists on the table impatiently. She waited to see if any of the children were going to talk. “You probably think I am just as crazy as my father, right?” she asked, seeing the expression on their faces. Brandon felt that he owed Danielle the truth. They would have to tell her why they were in her house and explain their situation about their missing friends. “Umm, there is something we need to tell you. I feel you should know that two of our friends are missing. We believe your house or something in your house took them. We watched as some kind of green glow took them. I don’t know how I can explain it except one minute they were there, the next minute they

were gone.” Brandon went into greater detail, explaining the two days of exploring the house and what happened. When he was done, he looked at Danielle. Her face changed. It looked as if she was either going to cry or scream. She shook her head and slapped her right palm against her forehead. She looked up at the ceiling, quivering. “Oh, no! NO! NO! NO! This can’t be happening. That’s exactly the same way my father described my mother’s disappearance. Some strange light and force took my mother away. After all these years, I learned to accept what happened to her. It can’t be happening again. It can’t be real. Not now, not ever!” Sheila put her hand on Danielle’s shoulder. Danielle started to cry in anger. The others felt guilty about having told her about the other missing children. “Listen, we know you don’t want to accept this. I hate to tell you, but it’s true. We aren’t lying to you. This is serious. We need our friends back. Please, be strong. We beg you… please, help us. We can’t do this on our own. If we stick together, we may be able to get everyone back, including your mother!” “Oh, isn’t that just great. How, may I ask, are we going to do that?” asked Danielle sarcastically. “Wellll, I am not sure yet,” replied Brandon, smiling at Danielle, hoping to ease the tension in the room. “Look, all we have to do is make a plan,” added Sheila. She removed her glasses from her nose and cleaned them as she looked at Danielle. “Sure,” screamed Danielle. “As if making a plan is going to solve everything. Have you ever thought of the fact that if anyone finds out about this, they will think we are all insane?” “Maybe, but no one will ever have to hear about this. This can be our little secret. If we stay calm, everything will work out. Getting mad at each other isn’t going to accomplish anything. We must pull together. Are you going to help us?” asked Sheila, hoping she could convince Danielle to them in finding the others. “I am, Sheila,” answered Jeremy. Brandon and Danielle reluctantly agreed. They had to face the fact that the Colonel’s wife, Elizabeth, had never returned.

Did this mean James and Stephen might never return? Silently, the four sat around the table. Everyone was desperate to think of a great plan. Sheila glanced at her watch. She knew the time had come to leave. She stood up, pushed in her chair, and looked at the others. “We have to head back home. I know it is not what any of us want, but we have to go. It’s almost 7 o’clock.” “We really should be on our way home, Sheila is right. What do we do now? We can’t go home without the others. What do I say to my parents?” asked Jeremy hysterically. A new wave of nausea hit him hard. He felt dizzy. He felt as if his skull was going to explode. “I have a great idea. You could tell your parents that you, Stephen, and James are spending the night at our house. Your parents wouldn’t suspect a thing. You’re always at our house. My dad works nights and weekends. Mom is away at my Grandma’s. No one would suspect anything. It could work,” stated Sheila. “I guess I don’t have any other choice. This is a bad situation. What happens if my mother wants to speak to one of your parents?” asked Jeremy, worried their plan would fall apart. “If she calls, I’ll tell her that my mother is taking a bath and my father is at work. I’ll let her know that my mother will call her back later. It should work. We don’t want your parents to think for one second we are home alone without supervision. That could cause major issues for us. Have a little faith. This plan will work if you can remain calm and not act suspicious!” “I’m just worried that something else will go wrong tonight,” said Jeremy, thinking about facing his parents. He dreaded the idea. “Okay,” said Danielle. “You seem to have a great idea and a plan. You should head home for the night. We’ll meet back here tomorrow at nine o’clock in the morning. It will give us an early start. We need to look for new clues.” The others nodded in agreement and stood up to leave. “I suppose we better go now. I sure feel guilty about leaving James and Stephen behind. I wonder if they can hear or see us?” Jeremy cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Stephen! James! If you can hear me, listen up. We will come back for you tomorrow. Everything will be okay. Stay safe, and don’t worry. We will find a way to bring you back, I promise.” Yelling only seemed to

make his headache worse. He also felt empty inside. What had he done? He let down both of his brothers. Leaving the house alone without them was a strange and frustrating thought. Yet, he knew it was time to go home and deal with reality. Sheila tugged on Jeremy’s arm. “Come on, Jeremy, we can’t stay. There isn’t anything else we can do tonight. We did everything we could. We’ll find them. Good-bye, Danielle. It was great to meet you. Thank you for talking with us, we really have to go.” Brandon followed Jeremy and Sheila out the door. He waved to Danielle. Danielle got up and walked them to the door. She watched as the three walked down the path leading back into town, their heads down low. She felt awful for them. None of this was fair. Reluctantly, she closed the door. Jeremy turned around one last time to look at the house. In his mind, it was a horrible and evil house. It had taken his brothers. Anger welled up inside him. As he looked at the house, he noticed two small green lights in one of the windows on the second story. He wiped his eyes in disbelief. He craned his neck to get a better look. When he looked up again, the green lights were gone. Did he imagine the lights? Could it have been his brothers? There was no time to think about it now. He turned back around and ran to catch up with the others. Meanwhile, on the second story of the house, James and Stephen looked out the window. They heard Jeremy’s voice. They also knew that alone, they’d never be able to come back. ‘The Woman in the Red Dress’ watched as Stephen waved to Jeremy crying. She snatched James and Stephen by the arm and took them back to her secret place.

CHAPTER SEVEN

COULD BE TROUBLE

Brandon, Sheila, and Jeremy walked in silence. No one had much to say as they felt dreadful. The events of the day and evening had not turned out as they expected. The exploration of the mansion was supposed to be fun and exciting. Instead, it turned out terrifying. Jeremy kept quiet about what he had seen in one of the windows as they had left the mansion. It made no sense to him to mention it to the others. There wasn’t anything they could have done about it tonight anyway. The others would probably think he was making it up. Torn by guilt and fear, Jeremy walked on. Why had the woman taken James and Stephen? Why hadn’t she taken him? He would much rather be with his brothers than alone. He could not imagine never seeing his brothers again. His hands felt clammy and shaky. He could not recall ever feeling so sick to his stomach. Stephen was younger than the others. He was probably scared. Jeremy kept hoping to wake up and find out all of this was just a dream. Fat chance of that happening, he thought. The closer they got to their home, the more scared he became. He was not looking forward to lying to his parents about James and Stephen. He was hopeful he would be able to pull off this gigantic lie. He was not used to lying to his parents. His mom hated lies and always told the boys, ‘honesty is very important to keeping trust.’ Yeah, like she would ever trust him again if she found out he lied. Jeremy walked on in silence, remaining deep in thought. Sheila worried that they wouldn’t be able to think of a way to get the others back. The woman promised to return the other two. When? Maybe a day from now? A week? A month? No one knew for sure. Would they be able to trust her? They did not know if she was telling them the truth. At this point, everything remained uncertain. She felt as if she failed the two missing brothers. Suddenly, it occurred to her. She might not be able to figure out how to get them back.

Instant panic hit. It felt like someone just punched her in her stomach. She doubled over briefly as she walked. Wow, what if I fail? I never fail at anything, she thought to herself. She looked down on the ground and kept walking, planning, and thinking. They reached Blossom Hill Road, and Jeremy told the others he would go home, talk with his parents, and then them at their house. He would do his best to convince his parents that James and Stephen were at the Mitchell’s house, waiting for him to them. Brandon and Sheila nodded in agreement. It seemed like a good and logical plan. They hoped he could be convincing. Would his parents notice something was wrong? Would they be suspicious? Hopefully, not. Brandon started to worry all over again. He tried to push the negative thoughts from his mind. The group split up and headed to their respective homes. Arriving at his home, Jeremy paused by the front door. He unzipped his jacket and brushed his fingers through his hair. Bravely, he turned the door handle and walked inside. Jake, the cat, was asleep by the door. His mother approached as he leaned down to pet his cat. “Hi! Are you alone? Where are Stephen and James? It’s getting pretty late, and it has been dark for hours. What is going on?” she interrogated him, looking worried. “They’re not here. They are at the Mitchell’s house. They’re with Brandon and Sheila. We kind of decided, that maybe, you’d allow us to spend the night over there.” “Oh, you did? Without asking me first? I don’t know. Why didn’t they at least come home first? You know I usually don’t mind. I think it wasn’t nice to assume that I would say yes.” “They sent me home to beg. Nice, huh? How do you think I feel?” asked Jeremy, hoping he sounded convincing. “Maybe I should call their parents. Just to make sure that it’s okay with them.” “No! I mean… sure, whatever you say, Mom! I’ll go upstairs and get some clothes for us, okay?” Jeremy headed to the stairs, hoping to escape quickly

without more interrogation or confrontation from his mother. “Okay, but don’t forget your toothbrushes. By the way, I’ll call later to check up on you three. I still want to talk to one of their parents.” “You do that, Mom,” Jeremy said, as he ran up the stairs. Once inside his room, he sat on the bed to think. Had his mother believed him? Had he acted suspiciously? Was she going to call the Mitchell’s house? Oh boy, they were in deep trouble. How long would he have to lie, to hide the truth from his parents? He put some of his clothes in a bag. He walked to James’ dresser and placed some of his clothes in the bag. Next, he walked to Stephen’s room across the hallway. Once he packed clothes for all three of them, he headed to the bathroom. He placed the three toothbrushes into the bag and turned around. He ran back down the stairs. Just as he was putting his jacket on, his mother approached and touched his sleeve. “Not so fast, young man!” He felt his heart racing. “What is it, Mom? Is something wrong?” he asked, trying not to stutter, terrified. “No, should there be? You are acting funny. What is wrong? I just wanted you to take some of this microwave popcorn. I thought you might enjoy it. Oh, and don’t forget to call me when you get to Brandon’s. I would feel better knowing you made it safe. Would you prefer that I drive you? That would also allow me to speak to one of their parents.” “No, it’s okay, I’ll walk. It isn’t raining anymore, and it’s not a long walk. Stay inside, relax!” “Okay, if you’re sure. I’ll see you tomorrow. Be good and tell your brothers to behave. Also, ask them to please use their manners. By the way, do you have your cell phone with you?” “You bet, Mom. You can always call me. I know the rules – keep the cell phone with me at all times and keep it turned on. Got it, love you.” Jeremy closed the front door, glad to get out of the house. Well, that had gone better than expected. She seemed to believe him. It was a relief. Now, he could head to Brandon and Sheila’s house. He ran down the

sidewalk as fast as he could. After a minute of sprinting, he slowed down. He reached into his coat pocket and took out his phone. He dialed Brandon’s cell. “Hey, it’s me. I am on my way. Yeah, I will tell you all about it when I get there. I will be there in a few minutes.” He hung up the phone and slid it back into his coat pocket. Brandon and Sheila arrived home to an empty house. A note from their father was propped up on the kitchen counter. It read: “Went to work. Dinner is in the refrigerator. Mrs. Meyers across the street will check up on you. You know my work number – use it in case of an emergency. If you need anything, or if anything minor happens, call Mrs. Meyers. Okay? I’ll see you in the morning. Be good! Love, Dad.” Good, he was already at work, which made things a lot easier. Fewer complications for now. Their secret would be safe, even if only for a while. Jeremy should be here soon, thought Sheila. She walked into the kitchen and proceeded to take some leftover Lasagna out of the refrigerator. Brandon and Sheila ate dinner and decided to save some food for Jeremy. Sheila walked upstairs to her room, wanting to change into her pajamas. Brandon looked through some newspaper articles he had found a few days prior on the internet, pertaining to Blackwell Mansion. He printed them out, figuring he could read them at a later time. Within a few minutes, Jeremy arrived at the Mitchell’s house. He was glad to be there. He wanted to speak with Brandon and Sheila. Jeremy rang the doorbell and waited. Brandon got off the couch and walked to the door to let Jeremy in the house. “Thank goodness it’s you. We have been dying to find out what happened at your house. Did your parents believe you?” asked Brandon, eager to find out how Jeremy’s conversation with his parents had gone. He led Jeremy into the living room to chat. “The only one at home was Mom. She seemed to believe my story. She was a little mad that James and Stephen hadn’t come home first. Where is Sheila?” asked Jeremy, looking around to see if he could locate Sheila. “Let’s sit down on the couch and discuss this some more. She went upstairs to put on her pajamas. She will be down in a minute.”

Sheila came down the stairs cleaning her glasses. She was wearing her fuzzy, red slippers with black and white, polka dot pajamas. She looked at Jeremy, smiling. “Ah, I see you made it okay. I was getting worried about you.” She put her glasses on and walked toward the couch. “As I was saying,” continued Jeremy, “my mother acted okay. She did tell me, more than once, she planned to check upon us. It made me a little nervous, but I told her to go ahead and call.” “You did WHAT? Are you crazy? She will now call for sure,” bellowed Bandon, furiously. “Lighten up, Brandon Jeremy did the right thing. If he told her not to call, she would have been more suspicious. This way, she may not even call.” She winked at Jeremy. Just as Sheila finished talking, the phone rang. The three stared at the phone. No one wanted to answer it, afraid it was Jeremy’s mother. It rang and rang. “Don’t just sit there, answer it,” shrieked Brandon, pointing to Sheila. “Fine, I will.” She walked to the phone and picked it up. “Hello? Yes. Yes. NO! Fine. No problem. We will. Thank You. Bye.” She hung up the phone and walked to the kitchen. “Okay….who was it?” “Oh, it was just Mrs. Meyers. She wanted to know if we had eaten our dinner. Was everything okay? Should she come over? Would we call her if we needed anything? Now, let’s get something to snack on. I want to relax and start planning for tomorrow.” “Whew, what a relief. I thought it was my mother on the phone. I should call her and tell her that I am here,” said Jeremy, feeling relieved. “You do that, Jeremy. Call her right now. Sheila and I will get the food.” Jeremy picked up the phone and called his mother. She was very happy about the call. She asked to speak with the others. Quickly, he convinced her the others were watching a movie and did not want to disturb them. As he put the phone

down, Sheila came into the living room. She was carrying a huge bowl of popcorn. Brandon was carrying Jeremy’s dinner – Lasagna and some bread and butter. Brandon put down the food on the table and walked back to the kitchen to grab some cans of soda. He walked back into the room, listening to Sheila, talking with Jeremy. “So, what did she say?” asked Sheila, placing the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. “I don’t think she suspected a thing. She was very nice. She told us to have a great time.” “Good, now we won’t have to worry about her. That is great,” said Sheila, eating some popcorn, curled up in the large, cream-colored recliner. Brandon picked up the printed-out newspaper articles and handed them to Jeremy. “Have you read any of these? I found these last week on the internet. Some weird stuff happens at Blackwell Mansion.” He pointed to an article dated July 14, 1989. “Like this article. A young girl was found wandering around the inside of the house. The strange part is, she was missing for four years when they found her. The article also states after they found her, she kept talking about ghosts. Now, this is the interesting part…. she kept asking for ‘The Gift.’ What do you think about that? Coincidence? I think not!” “What else?” Jeremy asked, eagerly. “Here’s another bizarre article. It’s about a couple interested in purchasing the mansion. They had driven to the mansion and parked outside the front of it. That is where the car was eventually found. The couple, however, had never been heard from again or seen for that matter. Their car had been parked in front of the mansion for a month before anyone went to investigate. No one ever claimed the car.” “Wow! That is really odd. Anything else?” asked Jeremy, now eating, very interested in all the new information about Blackwell Mansion. “Yes. Here, read through these while you eat. Sheila and I will sit and relax. When you’re done eating and reading, we will get down to business, okay? We can’t waste too much time, but I do need to take a break. I am really tired, and it has been a long day. My whole body hurts. What about you, Sheila?”

“Yes, I agree. I am worn out. Let’s relax while he finishes eating.” She continued to eat popcorn as she sat back in the recliner, feet propped up on the end. Jeremy read the other articles while eating. His mind wasn’t really on food or relaxation. His thoughts were with James and Stephen. As he read the articles, he noticed something strange. Only two people had been found inside the house. One was the eleven-year-old girl. Another was a twenty-one-year-old woman. The name of the woman was Ms. Cynthia Galla. Ms. Galla lived on Honeywell Lane. Honeywell Lane was just one street away from the Mitchell’s home. Maybe Ms. Galla still lived there? Most likely not, but what if they could find her? Maybe she would have some useful information about Blackwell Mansion. Perhaps she would know how to help them? Jeremy placed the articles on the table. “You know what? I may have found us some help. There was someone else found in the mansion.” Jeremy shared the information from the article. “Hey, wait a minute. I wonder if she is the same Ms. Galla that Mom knows. Mom used to play cards every Friday night with some ladies. There was a Ms. Galla that came over to the house a few times. Let me see if I can find Mom’s old address book. Ms. Galla, the one Mom knows, is about forty years old. That would have made her twenty-something back in the 1990s. Wouldn’t it be great if she was the same woman?” Brandon got off the couch and walked to the study. His mother kept all her important papers on her desk. Brandon opened the door to the study. Looking around the room, he walked to the desk. The desk was covered in books. Pushing them aside, he looked for his mother’s address book. He opened the top drawer of the desk. He found the address book and sat down on the desk chair to look through it. He flipped through the pages. A, B, C, D, E, F, and finally, G. Slowly, he ran his finger down the list of names. Gabel, Gachett, Gage, and then Galla. No first name was listed. The address read: 1427 Railroad Way East. The last name was correct, even if the address wasn’t. Brandon picked up a pen and piece of paper and wrote down the address and phone number listed. He placed the address book back into the drawer. Jeremy and Sheila were eating popcorn and talking when Brandon returned.

“Guess what? I found Mom’s old address book. There is a listing for a Galla. Unfortunately, he or she lives on Railroad Way East. There is also no first name listed. What do you think? What should we do?” “I think that we should call the phone number and ask for Cynthia Galla, but it is getting late. Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to call,” said Sheila. “I agree with Sheila,” added Jeremy, getting sleepy. “So, what’s next?” “Sleep sounds good. Anything else can wait until tomorrow. Agreed?” asked Brandon. Feeling tired, the others agreed. They walked up the stairs to the bedrooms. Sheila said good-night to Jeremy and Brandon, then entered her room. She walked to her bed and pulled back her fluffy, dark purple blanket. Once snuggled under the warm blanket, she quickly fell asleep. Jeremy ed Brandon in his room. There were two, twin-sized beds and a desk in his room. Jeremy jumped on the bed, crawled under the blanket and fell asleep within minutes. Brandon was sleepy too. He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes and then dozed off to sleep. It had been a very long, eventful day. On the other end of town, Danielle closed the front door. She made her way back to the kitchen. She hated the darkness and decided to light a few more candles. The electricity company told her it could take up to two weeks for her electricity to be turned on. This seemed like an excessively, long time. Frustrated, she sat at the table and tried to think about what to do. Should she stay in the house? Should she look around for more clues? Should she eat, or sleep? Her head hurt thinking about all the questions going through her mind. What a miserable day, she thought. First, the man at the electric company looked at her strange when she begged him to turn on the electricity. Then, he asked her why she was so stupid as to live in that house. Next, to make matters worse, the lady at the sandwich shop questioned her about the mansion. Everyone seemed to act strangely toward her the minute she mentioned living in the mansion. While walking home, someone almost ran her over with a truck. She wasn’t even sure if it had been an accident. She was getting more and more concerned about

her safety in this town. Maybe someone was trying to get her to leave. Why? She wasn’t doing anything wrong, and it was her house. She planned on fixing up the house, finding a job, and staying in town. Now, however, she wasn’t sure if this was such a good idea. Perhaps someone was trying to make sure she would never find the secret of Blackwell Mansion? Danielle stood up and walked to the kitchen counter. She blew out some of the candles. Picking up one of the candles, she walked to the living room. She sat down on the big couch in the living room, taking off her shoes. She stretched out her arms and grabbed the blanket. She threw it over her shoulders. It was very cold inside the house. She debated whether or not to build another fire. Finally, after a few minutes of shivering, she decided she would. It would definitely warm up the house. Once the fire roared in the fireplace, she sat in front of it with a pillow and blanket, deciding she would rather sleep in front of the fire, keeping warm, even if it meant giving up the comfortable couch. The warmth of the fire was making her sleepy. She curled up in a ball on the floor. She looked around the room briefly and then closed her eyes. The crackle of the fire lulled her to sleep. Outside, the temperature dropped. The rain quickly turned to snow. The snowflakes came down fast and hard. The wind picked up, and a blizzard hit the town. Ever so quickly, the little town of Pineville was covered with a thick, white blanket of snow.

CHAPTER EIGHT

A NEW BEGINNING

Jeremy woke up and walked to the window. He stretched and yawned as he looked out. The sun was just coming up, and the snow sparkled on the trees and ground. It looked like a winter wonderland. “Hey, Brandon, it snowed last night. You should see how white everything is out there. We must have had a massive snowstorm,” yelled Jeremy, all excited about the snow. “What time is it?” asked Brandon, still waking up, feeling grumpy. “I don’t know. My watch is on that dresser over there.” He pointed to a dresser on the other side of the room. Sheila walked into the room after hearing the boys talking. She had been awake for a while. She walked to the window, curious to see all the snow. “WOW! It really dumped snow last night. That’s at least six inches,” she announced. “I wonder when it snowed? Last time I looked outside, it was barely raining. We should eat and head to Blackwell Mansion. I hope Danielle slept well. It will be interesting to find out if she had any visitors during the night,” commented Brandon with a smile, now in a better mood. The three dressed and headed downstairs. Sheila handed everyone a bowl and placed three boxes of cereal on the table. She reached inside the refrigerator and took out some milk and orange juice. She placed three drinking glasses on the table. “Anyone want some juice?” she asked, pouring herself a glass.

“No, I am freezing. How about some hot cocoa?” begged Jeremy. “Oh yeah, …hot chocolate!” agreed Brandon. “Fine, I’ll make it. You two eat,” said Sheila, looking in the pantry for the hot chocolate. Sheila found the small marshmallows and the hot chocolate mix on the top shelf. She warmed up the milk on the stove and stirred in the hot chocolate mix. It smelled so delicious to her. After the hot chocolate was ready, she poured it into three mugs and topped them off with whipped cream and more marshmallows. The three sipped their hot chocolate, deep in thought. Sheila loved hot chocolate, especially on a cold day. She ate her cereal and put all the dishes in the dishwasher. She wiped down the counters and ensured the kitchen was clean. “Hey, let’s get ready to head out,” she exclaimed, eager to see Danielle. “Ummm, I did not bring any snow clothes,” said Jeremy. He was worried it would be cold outside. “Don’t worry, Jeremy. I have extra gloves, hats, and jackets. I may even have a pair of boots that may work for you. You are more than welcome to borrow anything you need,” offered Brandon, smiling at Jeremy. After getting dressed for the cold weather, they started to walk out the door. Suddenly, Sheila stopped. “OH, NO! Guess what? We forgot to call Galla! We need to find out if it is Cynthia Galla.” “Darn, you’re right,” said Jeremy. The three walked back into the house. Brandon picked up the phone by the door. The others stood close by. He dialed the number written down on the paper he was holding. “It’s ringing,” he informed the others. They watched and listened. Brandon moved the phone away from his face so the others could try to listen. As they huddled around him, Sheila said, “Hey, genius, how about putting her on speakerphone? That way we can hear too!” Brandon gave Sheila a dirty look for making the comment but put the phone on speaker, then someone answered. “Hello?” “Ms. Galla?” asked Brandon.

“Yes, and you are?” said the female voice on the other line. “My name is Brandon Mitchell. I am trying to find a person named Cynthia Galla. Is that you?” “Yes and no. Why do you want to know, may I ask?” “It’s kind of a long story. It has to do with Blackwell Mansion. Ummm, let’s just say some people I care about are missing. I need to ask you a few questions, please!” “BLACKWELL MANSION! I can’t help you.” CLICK. The line went dead. She hung up the phone. “What happened?” asked Jeremy, looking confused. “She hung up, that’s what. You heard it for yourself. When I mentioned Blackwell Mansion, she freaked out. What do you suppose that means?” Brandon said, looking at the others. “She knows something, that’s what it means. You just reminded her of something she does not want to talk about,” replied Sheila. “Now what? Do I call her back? She may not even answer the phone,” Brandon asked, wondering if she would answer the phone or even talk with him again. “Call back, do it now,” Jeremy yelled. He wanted to find out what Ms. Galla was hiding. Brandon redialed the number. This time it took ten rings before she answered the phone. “Please, don’t hang up. I need your help. I found out about you through some newspaper articles. Please, talk with me,” begged Brandon. “What do you want from me?” asked the irritated female voice. “I need information. What do you know about Blackwell Mansion? Please, this is important. My two friends have disappeared in there, and I need to get them back. I don’t know how,” explained Brandon. He hoped she would agree to answer some questions.

“What do you mean by ‘disappeared’…they just vanished? Were they taken by someone?” asked Ms. Galla in a low tone, sounding confused and nervous. “We believe ‘The Woman in the Red Dress’ took them. How do I get them back?” “How do you know about the woman?” Ms. Galla questioned, sounding scared. “Again, that’s a long story. I can tell you, but it would take quite some time. Time is something we don’t have,” Brandon replied. “What do you mean by ‘we’?” She seemed to be getting frustrated. “Okay, I’ll try to explain some of it. Three of my friends, my sister, and I went to Blackwell Mansion on Halloween night. We were looking around and just having fun. Suddenly, a green light appeared. Then, it sucked up two of my friends. The woman was inside the middle of the green glow. Now, we need help getting them back.” After a moment of silence, she spoke. “Here’s what I’ll do. You come over to my house tomorrow, let’s say around noon, and I’ll tell you everything I know. There is something you need to know about me too. I changed my name from Cynthia to Denise. I really didn’t want people to know who I was. There are still quite a few people who what happened to ‘Cynthia Galla.’ So, are you interested in meeting tomorrow?” “Yes! We are very interested. Thank you so much. We will be there. Oh, by the way, do you still play cards with my mother?” “Is your mother Carol Mitchell?” asked Ms. Galla, sounding happier. “Yes, she sure is,” Brandon replied quickly. “I’ve met your mother several times. She spoke of you and your sister often. That was a long time ago.” “Well, good-bye. Thank you, Denise. You are very nice to help us. Could you just do me one big favor? Don’t tell anyone about this…I promise to explain tomorrow.”

“That’s not a problem. I really wouldn’t want to talk with anyone about Blackwell Mansion. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Then, Ms. Galla hung up the phone. The others looked shocked that Denise or Cynthia (as she used to be called) actually spoke to Brandon. Sheila decided to move things along. “Well, I guess we can’t talk to her today. So, let’s get to Blackwell Mansion to talk with Danielle. She is probably impatiently waiting.” “Good point, Sheila. We should go,” agreed Jeremy, putting on the gloves he borrowed from Brandon. The three finally walked out the door, heading to see Danielle at Blackwell Mansion. Once outside, they felt a cold breeze. The snow was beautiful, but it was deep. The walk to Blackwell Mansion was tedious and slow. The snow was much thicker than they anticipated. Some of the snow was very hard, probably from the freezing-cold temperature, which appeared to be dropping quickly. Inside Blackwell Mansion, the house was cold and the fire had burned out. Danielle woke up, still wrapped in the blanket. She walked to the huge pile of wood and placed some logs in the fireplace and started a new fire. She shivered as she waited for the fire to get hot. Once the fire warmed the area, she felt better. Well, at least her teeth had stopped chattering. Cold and hungry, she walked to the kitchen to grab a cup. She filled it with water from the faucet. She picked up a tea bag from the counter. She would boil the water in a pot, over the flames in the fireplace, to make tea. She looked in the cupboards for something to eat. She took out some bread and blackberry jam. Thank goodness, she thought. She was glad she bought some supplies at the Corner Market downtown. She would have loved to eat some eggs and toast, but without electricity that was not going to happen. After eating, she walked back to the living room to warm up and make a cup of hot tea. Once done, she turned around to look outside through the big window. The sky was now dark grey, and light snow started falling. She glanced at her silver watch. It was nearly nine o’clock in the morning, and the others would arrive soon. She waited patiently, hoping they were okay, sipping her tea. The house remained silent, except for the noise of the crackling wood. The sound was very soothing and made Danielle sleepy. She looked into the fireplace and felt hypnotized by the flickering of the flames as she thought about the missing kids.

Sheila looked up at the house, at the top of the hill. The mansion was monstrous and contained many rooms, some of which they probably had not yet discovered. It could take a long time to explore every inch of the mansion. She saw smoke billowing from the chimney. This made her feel happy knowing once they arrived, they would be warm and toasty from the fire inside the fireplace. Snow fell all around them, as they walked up the path to the house. The wind was wickedly cold. Their faces stung from the freezing wind. Their feet were cold, and it was exhausting to walk through the snow. They made a path with their shoes through the tall snow on the ground. Sheila thought, “Would be nice if this area was plowed or if someone had shoveled it.” Her glasses were frosty from the cold. This annoyed her greatly. She removed them from her nose and tried to defog them. She breathed on them and wiped them with her glove. The glove smeared the lenses, making things worse. She regretted wearing glasses. Someday, she thought. She wanted to switch to lenses. Then she would not have this issue. She disliked the idea of putting something in her eye. It seemed weird. She shook her head in frustration and kept walking, trying to catch up with the other two. The three were almost up the hill and not too far from the front of the mansion. After a few more minutes, Jeremy was the first to walk up to the snow and ice-covered steps. “Hey, be careful, these stairs are slippery!” Jeremy remarked as his right foot slid on a small patch of ice, almost causing him to fall on his butt. He caught himself and held onto the side of the doorway. “Yeah, that would be great. I can see it now, one of us breaking an arm or leg,” added Sheila sarcastically, shaking her head. Jeremy stomped his feet on the floor in front of the door, hoping to knock off some of the ice on his boots. He knocked on the front door and waited. Danielle appeared at the door quickly, wrapped up in her blanket. “Good morning!” she said, smiling at the three. “It’s pretty cold in here, but I have started a fire, and it is warming up nicely. Come on in.” She let them enter as she stepped aside. “It has to be warmer inside than it is out here,” Sheila said, feeling the warm air from the inside hitting her as she walked through the door. Danielle quickly closed the door once the others were inside, trying to keep the warmth from

escaping through the door. Once inside the house, Brandon asked Danielle how she slept. He was also curious as to whether or not she had seen anyone or anything. He assumed she had not, but wanted to find out nonetheless. They walked into the living room, which felt warm in comparison to the outside. “I slept okay. It was cold most of the night. I didn’t see anything, or hear anyone.” The others gathered around the fire for warmth. “I had to restart the fire twice because it was so cold and kept burning out. I am glad it kept going most of the night, or it would be even colder now,” she explained, throwing another wood log onto the fire. “You know, we should be roasting marshmallows,” joked Jeremy. “We should be planning. We need to decide what we are going to do today. What should we do first? Any ideas?” asked Brandon. “I think that we should look at the painting of ‘The Woman in the Red Dress’ and see if we can find some new clues. We may have overlooked something before,” said Jeremy. “Good idea,” agreed Sheila. “You know,” added Jeremy, “it is possible we overlooked a lot of things in this house.” The first thing everyone decided to do was to look at the painting of the woman. They also thought that the laboratory could contain some clues. Danielle had an idea, recommending they make a list. It would be a list of all clues, basically a list of everything they had found. The others thought a list was pretty clever and asked Danielle if she had a pen and paper to get started. Danielle left the room for a moment and reappeared with the pen and paper in hand. “Okay, everyone start talking. Tell me things that you want me to add to our list. Once we have everything written down, we can prioritize the list later,” Danielle announced, ready to write. Once everyone had given his or her input, the list was complete. It read:

1. Woman in Red Dress – Danielle’s mother? What did the painting mean? 2. ‘The Gift’ 3. Stephen and James disappear 4. Laboratory – strange books/formulas 5. Many strange rooms in the house 6. Many ages in the house 7. Colonel Blackwell’s diary 8. Newspaper articles

“Hold on a minute! You never told me about any newspaper articles. What are you talking about?” Danielle asked, curiously. Brandon scooted closer to Danielle and told her all about the articles. He also added information about his conversation with Ms. Galla. Danielle was stunned. She couldn’t believe their luck. Perhaps, there was hope after all. Maybe they would get some new clues from Ms. Galla. Danielle wanted all the information they could get from Ms. Galla, wondering what she had seen in Blackwell Mansion so many years ago.

CHAPTER NINE

ONE IS RETURNED

After their discussion, everyone looked at the list. There seemed to be so many unsolved items on the list. It felt overwhelming. Danielle had some thoughts after re-reading the list a few times. “I have a feeling the woman in the picture is trying to show us something. I think there might be something in the background of the painting. We need a magnifying glass. I believe the painting definitely requires a closer look.” “I have one. I brought it just in case we would need one. Good detectives always carry one. Let’s go look at the painting,” stated Sheila, very proud of herself for having brought the magnifying glass with her. The group walked toward the stairs. After reaching the base of the stairs, they looked up at the painting. Sheila took out her magnifying glass and held it up against the painting. The others looked for anything unusual in the painting. Sheila pointed to something behind the woman in the painting. It was small and oblong. Sheila moved the magnifying glass over the area. What they found surprised them, it looked like a door. It was halfway open, and a beautiful garden could be seen. In the background, there stood a woman holding a baby. A man was standing by a tree, and there was something else, something they couldn’t identify. Sheila dropped the magnifying glass and looked at the others. “What do you think?” she asked, getting excited. They had found a clue! “I think I understand the painting. Do you want me to tell you what I think it means?” asked Danielle. “YES!” the others screamed with excitement. “Okay, here it goes. I think that the woman in the painting is my mother. I think

the man is my father, Colonel Samuel Blackwell. I also believe that I am the baby in the painting. I don’t understand what the garden has to do with all of this. I also don’t know what that other thing is in the painting.” As they were looking more closely at the painting, Danielle backed away. She pointed to the green glow surrounding the painting. Stephen materialized in front of it. He reached out to Jeremy and whispered to him. “If you make a wish for me to come back, I can! If you close your eyes, hold my hand, and make the wish, I will come back.” Jeremy looked at the others confused. The others stood on the stairs with their mouths open. They heard what Stephen said to Jeremy. “Do it hurry! Do it before he disappears again. Don’t think about it, just do it!” Jeremy swallowed hard and reached for Stephen’s hand, which felt ice-cold to the touch. He grasped his hand tightly. Jeremy closed his eyes and wished for Stephen to come back, saying, “Stephen come back, I wish for you to come back…come back to us!!!” Immediately, a cold wind whirled all around. The green glow grew intense. Jeremy could feel Stephen’s hand getting warm. Everyone closed their eyes. Suddenly, the wind stopped. There was complete silence. A small, shaky voice said, “What happened?” The others opened their eyes. They couldn’t believe what they saw – Stephen was standing next to Jeremy holding his hand. He was human again! Jeremy pulled Stephen into his arms and gave him a big hug. He couldn’t believe his brother was back. “Where have you been? I have been so worried about you,” said Jeremy, hugging Stephen so tightly he was almost choking him. “Jeremy, you wouldn’t believe where I have been. It was amazing and weird. I don’t know how we got there, but we always returned to the same spot in this house. Wait until I tell you everything,” explained an excited Stephen. Danielle and the others led Stephen to the living room. They were eager to hear his story. They also hoped Stephen would have some information as to how they could get James back. Jeremy introduced Danielle briefly and explained how they met Danielle.

“Stephen, I know you have a lot to tell us. The woman you were with, is she my mother?” asked Danielle hopeful. “I don’t know. She said her name was Elizabeth Blackwell or Lizzy. She did say that she had a daughter named Danielle. Her husband was someone named Samuel Blackwell. She also said that she couldn’t come back with me. Danielle would have to find the true secret of Blackwell Mansion first.” “What does that mean?” Danielle screamed, confused, and angry. “Stephen, this is Danielle Blackwell. She is Elizabeth Blackwell’s daughter, and she is the one who lives in this house. How can she help? What secret are you talking about? We have found tons of clues, but how do they reveal the secret of the mansion?” Jeremy asked. “Elizabeth, or Lizzy, as she calls herself, said the secret hidden in these walls could and will change life forever. She didn’t say how or why. She did say it is why she can’t come back. It changed her. She is the only one who can’t come back until Danielle finds a way.” Angry, Danielle shouted, “Oh, isn’t that great. Everyone can come back, except for my mother. What is so great about where you were, Stephen?” Stephen shrugged his shoulders and replied, “I don’t know. We spent most of our time in some room that looked into a garden. It always looked like daylight in there. Lizzy would sing a song about New Life. She said the reason she took James and me was that she was lonely. She was trapped in this new world and couldn’t leave. She was very sad. James said he would stay with her until you found a way to bring back Lizzy. You know how he is, always trying to be a hero,” explained Stephen. He was tired but glad to be back with the others. “Well then, we better get busy finding out what this secret is so we can bring them both back,” stated Brandon. “Right, we have to put an end to all of this. We need to see if we can find a way into the painting. Maybe then, we can solve this mystery and secret,” concluded Sheila. Danielle agreed. She couldn’t understand any of this. All she knew was she wanted her mother back. She had already lost her father. Giving up on her

mother was not going to happen! Jeremy was ecstatic Stephen was back. However, looking at Stephen made him miss James. It was a twin thing, he thought. He did not feel complete without his twin, feeling empty. He could not explain it to the others. It was just something he felt. Jeremy thought about the door in the basement. Had they missed a secret room somewhere? The decision was made to split up and look for the mysterious door. Jeremy, Stephen, and Brandon would go together. Sheila and Danielle would go as a team. The teams would split up in the basement. It would be the first place they would search. Jeremy, Stephen, and Brandon left Sheila and Danielle by the stairs. They headed for the backside of the house. Danielle and Sheila would investigate the front end of the basement. Jeremy walked down the long and narrow hall. He stopped when he felt a breeze. It appeared to come from the moss-covered bricks. He felt along the wall for an opening. The others ed in. Without warning, the floor gave way under their feet. They fell into a metal tube and slid down. It felt like going on a crazy carnival ride. They screamed as they slid down the spiraling tube, all the while trying to stop with their hands and feet against the tube. BAMMM! They fell, one by one, out of the tube onto the floor. Shocked, they looked around. Brandon rubbed his right knee. It was throbbing from the rough landing onto the hard, concrete floor. Turning on his flashlight, Brandon discovered a dark room with a door ahead. Jeremy rubbed his head. He whacked it on the floor when he landed. It was aching. Stephen jumped up and got on his feet, feeling a bit dizzy after that crazy ride down the metal tube. The others followed Brandon and glanced at the door that lay ahead. A light flickered through the cracks of the door. It was a bright glow of some kind. Stephen backed up and hid behind Jeremy. The other two looked at him. Jeremy raised his flashlight and aimed it at Stephen. He was shaking. His face looked pale. He refused to speak. Jeremy looked at him and asked, “Hey man, what’s wrong? You look as if you just saw a ghost!” Stephen just stared at the door. He kept shaking his head and backed away further from the door. Again, Jeremy asked what was wrong. Finally, Stephen spoke with a cracked voice, “That’s it! I’m not going. Count me out. Been there, done that. Oh no, not me,

have fun.” “What do you mean by ‘That’s it?’ What does that mean? I don’t get it. It is just a door,” said Jeremy, looking at a frantic and clearly unnerved Stephen. “No, it isn’t just a door. It’s a bizarro world out there. Sure, everything is perfect and nice, but it’s not real. Not our kind of real world. Get it? I am telling you, I am not going. You can’t make me.” Snapped Stephen deathly afraid. “You said before this other world is amazing. How bad can it be?” asked Jeremy puzzled. “Look, there is amazing as we know it, and then there is weirdo paradise. There is something not right with that world. Beyond that door is something not of our world. You always say I am so smart. Well, I am smart. I am not going through that door. This is the door Lizzy took us through. I know exactly what is back there. I am not going back. I may be younger than you, but I am not stupid. I don’t know how to explain it. Besides, the door only leads to the room that looks out into the garden. We can’t go into the garden without ‘The Gift.’ It is the weird thing that Lizzy is holding in her hand, in the painting. Lizzy told me her father’s friend, a scientist, made it and is responsible for the other world.” “What? What are you talking about, Stephen? Why didn’t you tell us this before? This information is important. We are trying to find a way to get James and Lizzy back. We can’t do that if you don’t tell us everything you know.” “You two need to stop fighting. What we need to do is find out everything we can and then report back to the others. Is there another way out of here?” asked Brandon. The three looked around and spotted some stairs that lead up. They decided to find out where the stairs led. Meanwhile, in the front of the basement, Danielle and Sheila walked around looking for new clues, without success. They were about to give up when they heard a knocking noise, followed by loud screaming. The two ran toward the direction of the noise. Danielle lost her footing and slipped, falling to the ground. Her hands felt something slimy. She aimed her flashlight on the ground. Wet and gooey moss covered the ground. Sheila helped her up. “Where are we? Which part of the basement are we in?” asked Sheila, assuming Danielle would know.

“I have no idea where we are exactly. The knocking noises appear to be getting louder. Let’s keep going,” responded Danielle. “Are you okay? Can you keep walking, Danielle?” “Yes, I am okay. I did twist my ankle, but I will put some ice on it later or elevate it.” The two kept moving down the corridor until the knocking noise appeared to be below them. Shining their flashlights on the ground, the two looked around. All of a sudden, Sheila screamed. Danielle rushed over to find out what was wrong. Sheila was pointing to the ground, which was covered with moss. The ground was moving, slowly up and down. Muffled noises were coming from underneath it. Danielle got on her hands and knees and moved her ear closer to the ground, being careful not to touch the nasty ground. “I hear something. It sounds like someone said, ‘Open up!’ Did you hear it?” “Open what? There isn’t anything here!” said Sheila, looking around confused. “Maybe,” said Danielle, “there is an opening under this moss. Want to help me remove some of it?” “You actually think there is something under this slimy moss?” “There is only one way to find out. Get over here and help me, please! Take off your shoe. We can use it as a make-shift shovel to scrape some of it off. Okay?” “You are so weird. Okay, let’s do it. If you are wrong, you will owe me. I don’t like this slimy stuff,” said Sheila, irritated. They both removed a shoe and started to scrape the moss off the ground. Pieces flew off easily enough. Within a few seconds, they had huge chunks removed. Danielle reached down and started scraping with her hands. The moss was cold and damp. It felt disgusting on her hands. “Hey, wait a minute. This feels like wood. The rest of the floor is brick. Maybe there is a door or something. Help me get the rest of the moss off,” Danielle said, excited.

“I told you, we are stuck down here. This door doesn’t open. This dumb door in the ceiling is a dead end. We might as well go back down the stairs and wait for the others to find us.” “Brandon, you give up way too easily. You can go back if you want. I am going to try and open this door. What about you, Stephen?” said Jeremy, eager to get out of the area. “I am with you, Jeremy. I am not going back. That place gives me the creeps. Besides, this door could be a valuable clue. I want to find out what’s on the other side,” Stephen stated, wanting to get back to the main floor of the mansion. “Fine, you two stay. I am going back. I am going to see what else I can find down there,” proclaimed Brandon, tired of trying to open the door or wait for help. He walked down the stairs. Stephen shook his head as he watched Brandon go. “Brandon is so dumb. He should have stayed with us,” said Stephen. “I know, I agree with you. He wants to do what he wants to do. Get over here and help me. Maybe we can get the door open in the ceiling together. I am just glad the ceiling is low so that we can reach it. If he wants to be on his own, we can’t worry about him.” Brandon reached the bottom of the stairs and stared at the door ahead. He could see the light behind it. Without another thought, he walked up to the door, turned the handle, and walked through. Shocked he was able to enter the room, he stared ahead. All of a sudden, he was greeted by ‘The Woman in the Red Dress.’ Before he could turn and run back out of the room, she grabbed his hand and dragged him off to the secret place. “I am telling you, there is something here! Look for yourself. It is a door,” said Danielle, happy they found something under the moss. “Where? I see the wood, but how do you figure it’s a door, Danielle?” “We need to scrape some more of the moss off. Just wait and see,” said Danielle, getting excited. “Fine, if you say so,” responded Sheila. She still believed they were wasting

their time. As they started scraping off more moss, they heard a pounding noise. This time Danielle shouted, “Hello! Can anyone hear me?” The reply came, “Yes, it is us, Jeremy and Stephen. We are stuck down here. There is some kind of door. We can’t open it. Can you?” Danielle looked around. “Wait, I see a latch under the moss. Let me see if it opens the door, hang on. We will have you out of there in just a minute.” Removing more of the moss, the latch was fully revealed. Danielle reached down and removed the rusty pin securely holding the door shut. Sheila and Danielle lifted the door, which was still partially covered with moss. It was heavy. The two managed to swing it open and then let it drop. It made a loud BOOM noise. Jeremy climbed up through the door. He reached down so Stephen could grab his hand. Jeremy pulled up Stephen through the door. “Thank goodness you found us. We thought we were going to die down there. We fell down a tube and ended up in a room down there. There is another basement below this basement. How weird is that? The only other way out seems to be through the door in the basement. The door, according to Stephen, is really bad news. He says it is the way to ‘Weirdo World.’ We should go get Brandon because he went back down the stairs, probably heading for the door.” “I will go get him,” grunted Stephen. “Wait for me!” He jumped back down into the other basement area as the others waited. When Stephen reached the bottom of the other basement, he looked around confused. Where was Brandon? Then, he saw it! The door was halfway open, and he knew Brandon had gone through the door. How could he? What was he thinking? Stephen wondered. He turned around and ran back to the others. “You are not going to believe this, Brandon is gone, he went through the door. I am not going after him. I am telling you, he is completely crazy. I don’t know what in the world he thought when he walked through that door,” said Stephen, out of breath from running. “Help me back up, please.” Sheila bent down and extended her arm to help Stephen up through the ceiling door. “Stephen, calm down. What is the problem? You said it’s only a room. The ‘Weirdo World’ is on the other side. You also said we couldn’t go there without

‘The Gift.’ He doesn’t have it. So, why worry?” “What if there is another way? What if he finds it and it takes him? What if he never comes back? Don’t you get it? We need to get out of this house before it is too late!” screamed Stephen, now hysterical. “Okay, let’s assume that there is another way. What is the worst thing that could happen?” asked Jeremy. Stephen was quick to reply. “I don’t want to know. It is too weird for me. If Brandon was dumb enough to go through the door, I say, let him stay down there.” “That’s nice. He never gave up on you. He is supposed to be your friend. The right thing to do is to get him and then leave. I am going, who is going with me?” asked Danielle. Everyone looked at each other. No one really wanted to go, but they also knew it was the right thing to do. “Fine, let’s all go,” replied Jeremy, as the others reluctantly agreed. Slowly and cautiously, they jumped down the door opening and proceeded to walk toward the other door. Reaching the door, Danielle stopped. “Are you sure about this?” she asked the others. They all nodded their heads ‘yes.’ As she opened the door, bright light greeted them. It felt warm and welcoming. Danielle took the lead and walked through the door. She stopped a few feet into the room and looked around. The others followed her. What they found was unbelievable. The enormous room had one extremely large window made out of glass. The odd thing was, there wasn’t any place to open it. Brandon wasn’t anywhere to be found. They looked around and wondered where Brandon could have gone. There was a door, but it was locked. Great, thought Jeremy, another mystery. Like we don’t already have enough of those. What do we do now? As if someone had read his mind, a voice behind him said: “You want to see what life can be?” Startled, Jeremy swung around. He saw Lizzy behind the window waving to him. He screamed and pointed to the others to look at Lizzy. They turned to look. She waved to them and came closer and closer. Suddenly, she was right in front of them, still behind the glass. She pointed to Danielle and said, “I miss

you and want to be with you. I want to come back. The secret you seek lies in the Halls of Knowledge.” Then she disappeared. Danielle looked at the others, confused. “What do you think she meant by that? Does she want us to play these guessing games all day?” Danielle asked, furiously. She didn’t want to play games. She wanted to find Brandon and figure out how to get James back. If they were lucky, maybe they would get Lizzy back too. “Let’s see. When I think of ‘Halls of Knowledge’ I think of schools or libraries. What about you?” asked Sheila, feeling smart. “What are you thinking? We need to go to school or something? Do you think we will find our clues in school or a library? I doubt that!” commented an annoyed Danielle. “No, what I am saying is that there may be a library in this mansion. That could be the place with clues,” responded Sheila, angry Danielle had made fun of her. “You know, Sheila, I think you may be right. Let’s go and see what we can find,” agreed Danielle, leading the way to find the library. They went back to the ceiling door. One and one by one, they managed to get on the upper level of the basement. Stephen was the last one in the bottom basement, and Sheila helped pull him up. Finally, they would head to the main area of the mansion to try and find the library. How exciting, they were on their way to search for new clues. However, deep inside, everyone was very upset that James was still missing. Brandon had now disappeared, and no one knew what that meant. Had Lizzy taken him? Had he just found something interesting and was investigating it? They walked on, hoping to find clues, or Brandon and James. What area of the house remained to be explored? What had they missed? Could they find the library? Jeremy stopped abruptly. He looked around and began to laugh. Everyone looked at him, giving him a strange look. They were trying to figure out what could be so funny. “We are so dumb. Don’t you get it? Stephen has always shown up at the same spot, upstairs. He was trying to tell us something, right Stephen? I bet that the library or study is upstairs,” said a chuckling Jeremy.

“I don’t know. I have always assumed that a library or study would be on the bottom or ground floor of a house. When have you ever seen a library on the second floor?” asked Danielle. “Why are you dragging me into this? I only showed up where Lizzy brought me,” stated Stephen. “You know, there was some kind of library on the first floor. Perhaps there is some kind of other study or library on the second floor. This house is so odd, there could be one on each floor,” added Danielle, confident they would find the elusive room. “There were strange books in the basement in the laboratory. Could the lab be considered part of the ‘Halls of Knowledge’?” asked Sheila. “What we need to do is split up. I know everyone wants to stay together, but I say, let’s split up and find this ‘Halls of Knowledge.’ We will cover more ground if we are in two groups,” stated Danielle. The others agreed with her plan. They would split up and try to find a strange room with many books. Jeremy and Stephen decided to explore the first floor one more time. Danielle and Sheila would look around on the second floor. Time was running out, and it was almost evening. Thank goodness for all the snow, there would be no school any time soon. The Pic⁵ would have a chance to continue exploring Blackwell Mansion. Just when you think everything is hopeless, something great happens. Yes, that was exactly what Jeremy thought as he moved the bookshelf aside. It was part of the big wall unit in the living room. The bookshelf moved easily. Stephen watched in awe as a huge room was revealed. It was a library! Rows and rows of books on tall shelves. These shelves were tall with ladders attached to the bookcases. It was amazing. There wasn’t a window in the room. There was, however, a fireplace. Wood was placed on the left side of it with paper and matches. Wondering if the matches were old and if they would work, Jeremy bent down to start a fire. Within a few minutes, the fire was burning bright, illuminating the room. Stephen walked out of the room to call the others while Jeremy looked at the books. Stephen walked through the opening of the bookcase and walked to the bottom of the stairway and yelled. “Hey, everyone, come on. We think we found the library. Hurry!” He turned

around and walked back toward the library. When he was back in the room with Jeremy, he looked around. This was one, extensive room. It was filled with wallto-wall bookshelves. Two desks stood side by side near the fireplace. A large table with a lamp stood in the corner of a room. It was littered with papers. From where Stephen was standing, the papers looked like newspapers. There were two large, stuffed chairs in front of the fireplace. One chair had a pillow placed on it, while the other had a pair of reading glasses on the armrest. A large, shag rug was placed in front of the fireplace. There was a jacket on one of the ladders. Stephen walked to it and took it off the ladder. He proceeded to search through the jacket. He found a notepad and pen along with a photograph of a woman and baby. He assumed it was Lizzy and Danielle Blackwell. It must have been Colonel Blackwell’s jacket. Jeremy walked to one of the shelves and ran his hand over the books. He looked up at the tall bookcase. Wow! How can anyone find a specific book in this large library? He wondered, it seemed impossible. Jeremy hoped the clue they were looking for wasn’t in a book. It could take forever to look through all the books. It was a horrible thought. Stephen was looking through the notepad he found when Danielle and Sheila walked in. Sheila smiled as she spotted the shelves filled with books. She could not believe their luck. They found the library. “Wow, this is so awesome! What do we look for? Is it a book? What other clues could we find in the library? This place is huge,” said Sheila in an eager voice. “I found a notepad in this jacket,” added Stephen as he placed it on one of the desks. The others walked toward the desk to look at the notepad. It was small but full of writing. Danielle flipped through some of the pages. It didn’t seem like there was anything unusual in the notepad. A few addresses, some names, and notes. She could not understand the notes, nor did she have any clue what they meant. The writings looked scientific. Danielle put the notepad back on the desk. Sheila wanted to take a look. As she flipped to one of the last pages, she found something interesting. There was a list of book names. Next to the names of the books were numbers. “Check it out! I think I may have found a clue. There are names of books in this

notepad. Maybe, we can find these books. There could be some other clues in these books. What do you think?” “Great. How do we find these books? There must be thousands of books here. What are the odds we find any of these? It could take forever, and we don’t have that kind of time,” complained Jeremy. “Well, the sooner we get started, the sooner we may find them. There is a reason these books are listed in the notepad. It has to be a clue. If we don’t look for these, we may never find what we are looking for. I say, let’s do it. Let’s find these books,” added Sheila. It was the only thing they could do. They agreed to split up and each look through a section of the library. Danielle made a list for each person, with names of books to look for. It seemed like an eternity before someone finally cried out, “Got it! I found one of the books.” They huddled around Danielle. She flipped through the book entitled: Mysteries of Another World. It was a very strange book. It detailed strange and unusual happenings, along with information about other worlds and universes. Danielle found a page folded over halfway through the book. She started reading out loud, “Sometimes we find another world by accident. The new world may not be an accident. Some of these worlds can be created with science. This is something I learned when I stumbled on a universe different from our own. I cannot tell you how odd it seemed to me to be entering into a world years ahead of our time.” “What does that mean? Why would this matter? How is this going to help us figure out what we need to do?” Jeremy asked, feeling frustrated. “Maybe it will tell us how to get into another universe. Stephen, you told us that ‘Weirdo World’ on the other side of the glass was a kind of different universe. Perhaps, we can get into it and get the others back. If we can go there, we must be able to bring them back. Right? Doesn’t that seem logical?” Sheila questioned the others. “Yeah, but I think this is all getting a little too strange for me. I don’t know if I want to know about this stuff.” “Jeremy, do you or don’t you want to get James back? I want to get my mother back, if possible. It does not matter to me how we do that. I don’t care if it takes

science, magic, or luck. I just want to see her again. Now, let’s see if we can find some of the other books. Once we find them, we should then sit down, read them, and decide what to do next. Agreed?” “I think Danielle is right. We are quickly running out of time. We have to solve the mystery. These books may be the clues we need. If we are patient and try, I think we can solve the mystery and get the others back.” The search for the other books continued. Meanwhile, outside, the sky turned dark. It started to snow heavily again. It was almost evening. The children should have been on their way back home. Danielle walked to the fireplace with her hands on her hips. “Everyone, listen up! You guys have to get home. I don’t think we will have time to do anything else tonight. It is getting very late. I don’t want you to get into trouble with your parents. Please get going. I can stay here and keep looking for books. If I find anything important, we can go over it tomorrow.” After a few minutes of silence, reluctantly the others agreed. Stephen and Jeremy did not like the idea of leaving James behind, but it had to be done. Hopefully, when they got home, no one would notice his absence.

CHAPTER TEN

UNEXPLAINED

At the front door of the mansion, Danielle waved good-bye to the others. The warm glow of the fireplace lit up the room and kept her warm. She sat down on the couch and flipped through the book she brought with her from the library. She wondered how this book would help them. Maybe it wouldn’t. She started to feel frustrated, ing the look on Stephen’s face as he walked out of the house. He looked so sad. Stephen did not want to leave, knowing that James was somewhere out there in the ‘Weirdo World.’ Danielle felt helpless. She was the oldest of the group and felt a great responsibility. She wanted to be an adult and solve all the problems. However, deep in her heart, she knew that might not happen. What could she do? She continued to flip through the pages. She rolled her hair, in-between two of her fingers as she read. She began to feel tired. It had been another exhausting day. Her eyes felt heavy. She had a difficult time keeping them open. She tried to concentrate on the book, though the reading was rather boring. She felt it was all a bunch of nonsense. How could a person enter another universe? How could there be another universe? It was stupid. She threw the book across the room. As the book hit the ground, a small, thin piece of paper fell out. She stared at the paper for a second. Curious, Danielle jumped up and walked to the book, bent down, and picked it up off the floor. The paper read: “The gateway to the new world can only be entered by belief. You have to believe you can get in and follow the directions in Chamberlain’s book ‘Gateways Revealed,’ other useful information may be found as well.” Yes! She had discovered a valuable, new clue. This had to be what they were looking for. Danielle would go to the library and find Chamberlain’s book. She looked at the fireplace and took a minute to think. Should she look for the book tonight? Should she go to sleep and start her search early in the morning? Suddenly, she realized she had not eaten. She was starving. She walked to the

kitchen and approached a chair. Her purse dangled over the back of the chair. She reached into the purse and pulled out a candy bar. She laughed as she ate it and almost choked. What a lovely dinner, she thought sarcastically. She should have gone to Sandy’s Sandwich Shop on East Hallow Lane and bought some dinner. She grabbed a can of soda to wash down the candy bar. Luckily, it was still cold from the snow and ice she put in the metal bucket, a great improvised refrigerator. With the soda in one hand and what was left of the candy bar in the other, she walked back to the library. Once in the library, she walked to the fireplace and tossed a few more pieces of wood on top of the massive fire. She did not want to lose warmth. Instantly, the fire flared up bigger. She smiled as she sat down in front of the warm fire. She finished her candy bar and soda. Right after, she stood up and walked back to the bookcase on the right wall. She felt a bit intimidated. There was no way she would find the book. As she looked through the books, she noticed something wonderful. They were in alphabetical order, by the author’s name. How lucky! Currently, she was in the ‘S’ section, needing to find the ‘C’ section. She walked along the wall looking at book names. Within a minute or two, she found some ‘C’ authors. Carlyl, Castor, Chamberlain…whoa, there it was! She had found it. What amazing luck. ‘Gateways Revealed’ by Scott D. Chamberlain, Ph.D. She couldn’t believe it. With shaky hands, she removed the book from the shelf. It was a thin book. Thankfully, at least it would not take long to read. She sat down behind one of the desks and started reading. The fire was her reading light. After what seemed like hours, she closed the book. She was having a hard time believing what she has just read. It was odd and seemed unreal. How could you really do what the book said? The fire in the fireplace was burning out, and it started getting dark in the room. She wanted to go back to the living room to think. She picked up the book and headed to the living room. Back in the living room, she walked to one of the front windows to look outside. It was still snowing. The wind was blowing strong. Trees swayed as snow heavily fell out of the sky. The fire crackled in the fireplace and warmed her. She felt sleepy. Her mind, though, was not tired. She had so much to think about. She had uncovered new information and many new clues. There was no way she would be able to sleep. She wanted to organize her thoughts. Somehow, the clues had to add up to something useful. Would she be

able to put all the clues together and solve the mystery? She wished for a phone to call the others. They would be so excited to find out about what she had found. This new information was wonderful. Chamberlain’s book was weird but seemed to be just what they needed. It outlined a plan on how to enter another world. It went on to explain about the way you enter into the world and how to exit. That was exactly what they were trying to do. Danielle sat on the couch and tried to think of how to get into that ‘Weirdo World,’ as Stephen called it. She wondered what they would find on the other side. Would it be something great or scary? Did they really need to know? Could they get the others back without going into the other world? She did not want others to get hurt. What if something evil lived in the other world? Would this other world do something to them? Could it change them? There were still too many questions. She really did not want to think about it. It seemed a little much. She wished the others were there with her. They always seemed to have good ideas. For one person, it was so much to think about. One person only saw one side of the story. When there were four of them, everyone had input and ideas. Looking at her watch, she saw that it was almost midnight. The others would be back around eight o’clock in the morning. What could she accomplish between now and then? Maybe she would be better off getting some sleep. Sometimes, sleep helped you to think more clearly. Danielle did not think she would be able to sleep. With so much on her mind, she felt awake. Her body was tired, and she felt drained. Thinking about everything that happened today made her feel even more tired. She closed her eyes, the book still on her lap. The snap, crackle, and popping noises of the fire comforted her as she drifted off to sleep. Her eyes fluttered open and then closed. She tried to stay awake but failed. The new day was rapidly approaching. Outside, the snow continued to fall. The wind whipped through the trees. Branches fell to the ground from the heavy weight of the snow and wind. Shutters slammed against the house and doors creaked. Snow piled up against the front door and covered the window ledges. Jeremy and Stephen were extremely lucky. Their parents did even notice James wasn’t with them. They walked upstairs and went to bed. Jeremy was wondering what Danielle was doing and if she had found any new clues. Before too long, he

fell asleep thinking about James. Stephen tossed and turned in bed, his mind wandering. He was worried about James. Stephen wondered if they were going to be able to get James and Lizzy back. He looked out the window and saw the snow falling. Up at the top of the hill, the mansion looked dark. He assumed Danielle was asleep. Stephen curled up under his blanket and eventually succumbed to sleep. Sheila nervously entered the house without Brandon. She hoped no one was home. She had no idea how she would explain Brandon’s absence. As she walked through the house, she realized no one was home! Thank goodness, she thought. Sheila sat on the bottom of the stairs. She was hungry but was too tired to eat. Finally, she stood up and walked up the stairs to her room. She put on her nightshirt and thick socks. She was so cold. She walked to the window, though it was difficult to see anything outside. The snow was thick and heavy. Blizzard conditions, she thought. She was grateful to be home, wondering what was happening at the mansion. Sheila thought about Brandon, James, and Lizzy as she tossed and turned restlessly in her bed. She tried desperately to turn off her brain. All she wanted was to sleep. After a little while, she dozed off and started to dream of the snow and ice skating on River Road pond. A horrible winter storm hit Pineville. The electricity was knocked out. When everyone woke up the next day, it was cold. No electricity meant no warmth. It was going to be a bad day. Tree branches were coated with thick ice crystals. The snow was deeper than ever. Sheila woke up feeling like a frozen popsicle. Her toes were sticking out of her blanket, and though she was still wearing her thick socks, her feet were very cold. She drew her feet inside the blanket for warmth and pulled the goose down, comforter up to her chin. She thought it was odd that the house was so darn cold. She shivered lightly. She turned to glance at her alarm clock. It was dead, no light of any kind. Is the electricity out? She wondered. She jumped out of bed and put on her fuzzy slippers, grabbing her robe along the way. Quickly, she belted it. She walked to the bathroom. The house was cold, brrr, Sheila thought. She flicked the light switch. Nothing. Okay, the electricity was definitely off. No wonder it was so cold. She turned around and walked down the hallway to look at the thermostat. It was not working either. Great, she thought, frustrated. Feeling cold, she walked back into her room. She threw on some warm clothes and decided to head down the stairs. Walking into the kitchen, she was greeted by her mother.

“Why, good morning! How are you?” “Wow, that looks delicious – apple and bread for breakfast?” asked Sheila, wishing it was a better breakfast. “Yes, no electricity. I cannot make you anything warm. Sorry,” replied her mom. “Why are you dressed already?” “Going to meet the guys. Brandon is already there. He spent the night at Stephen, James, and Jeremy’s house. I need to go. We are planning on going skating at the pond. I think the guys have a hockey game or something,” she lied. She disliked the idea of having to lie but knew she had to do it. It was one of those times it was just better not to tell the truth. She felt guilty. She tried to hide her guilt by smiling. “So, where are Brandon’s hockey supplies? He forgot them. I am supposed to bring them.” “In the front closet. Make sure you take his thick gloves too. It is freezing out there. You bundle up as well, I don’t want you getting sick. I’m not even sure you can walk through the snow and ice. Are you sure there is a game today?” “Yep, pretty sure. I doubt a little storm would cancel the game. Don’t worry, Mom.” Sheila grabbed the overstuffed bag and walked out of the house, heading to James, Jeremy and Stephen’s house. The walk was tedious. The snow was hard, frozen from the cold temperature. Once she arrived at the house, she knocked on the door several times. She was freezing cold and wanted to get inside. It was definitely too cold to be outside. Finally, after a minute or two, Stephen and Jeremy appeared dressed for the weather. They gave her an odd look. “Why do you have that bag?” asked Jeremy, pointing to the bag on the ground. “Ummm, how about I had to cover my story about why Brandon wasn’t with me. I told Mom he was here with you, and he had forgotten his hockey stuff. I told her you guys had a hockey game today.” “Sounds like a good cover story. Did she believe you? You want to leave the bag in the shed?”

“Yes, I do not want to carry it around. Mom was curious as to why you would have a hockey game, but eventually, she just let it go. We should be on our way to see Denise this morning.” Jeremy grabbed the bag. “Let me put it in the shed. I will be right back.” He returned within a few minutes. The others stood outside shivering in the cold. “Should we leave?” asked Stephen. The others nodded. As they headed toward the other end of town, they walked briskly, trying to get warm. No one talked on the long walk up the hill, while trying to keep warm. It was still snowing, and the wind was blowing hard. The deep snow made it tough to walk. They were knee-deep in snow and lifting their legs up out of the snow to walk was like carrying extra weight. They were getting tired fast. Danielle woke up and started another fire. Quickly, the room warmed up. Sitting on the couch, she read Chamberlain’s book again. She had put a pot on the glowing embers of the fire and heated up some water. She had a few packages of instant hot cocoa left. After the cocoa was made, she added some more wood to make the fire bigger and warmer. She was glad she had gotten a good night’s sleep. She felt her head was much clearer. She felt less confused. It was pretty early, though. The others would be visiting Ms. Galla and then come to Blackwell Mansion. Danielle took a sweater from her bag. She quickly pulled it over her head. It was cold in the old mansion. Even with the warm fire burning in the fireplace, only the living room was warm. She walked to the front door and opened it to look outside. Snow flew in. Instantly, she slammed it shut. Brrrrrr…. she had wanted to see how bad the weather was outside, but after that little incident, she felt she did not need to know. She walked back to the couch and sat down. She would sit, relax, and wait until the others arrived. Sheila, Jeremy, and Stephen walked toward Railroad Way East, heading toward Ms. Galla’s house. Within minutes, they were standing outside her house. Jeremy walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. The others looked on as a woman appeared at the door. She greeted them and asked if they were the ones who had called her. Sheila replied with ‘yes’ and the woman motioned for them to come inside. The three followed her down the hallway to her kitchen. “I thought we could talk in the kitchen if that is okay with all of you. Sorry about

how cold it is. I wish the electricity would come back on. Thank goodness I have an old-fashioned, wooden stove in here. I used to think it didn’t work. I put some wooden logs in there this morning, and it sure got nice and toasty fast!” “Wow, it is nice and warm,” replied Jeremy, rubbing his hands together. They sat around the kitchen table. Ms. Galla put her head down. The others looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders and waited for her to speak. After what seemed like a very long time, Ms. Galla raised her head. She had a tear running down her cheek, and her hands were shaking. She finally spoke. “You have to understand that this situation is very difficult for me. I spent a long time trying to forget about Blackwell Mansion. I was young when I went there so many years ago. Many strange things happened to me”. “That’s okay,” said Jeremy. “Take your time, we understand. I am sure it was very hard for you to hear us ask about the mansion.” “As I was saying, this is difficult. When you kids called, all the memories came back to me. I thought that I was done with Blackwell Mansion, once and for all. Now, however, I am forced to reliving the nightmare.” She sat in silence. The others waited patiently. “Many strange things happen at the mansion. You really need to find your friends and never go back! The mansion is an evil place. There is some room there, which is very odd. It was filled with weird things that I did not understand. I really do not know how it got there. All I know is I was stuck in there for a very long time. I did have some help from a friendly lady named Lizzy. That is all I know. I wish I could be of more help to you and your friends.” The four looked at Ms. Galla in disbelief. “Well, isn’t that great,” said Jeremy. “Now we are more confused than ever.” “As I told you, I don’t know anything else. I do not know the purpose of the room.” “I am sick and tired of these unsolved clues. When are we going to get some answers?” complained Stephen.

Embarrassed, Sheila looked at Ms. Galla (Denise) and said, “Thanks for your time, Ms. Galla, we will leave. We are grateful you agreed to talk to us. We will try to figure it all out.” The group got up and walked to the door. Ms. Galla followed. She reached out and shook everyone’s hand, wishing them luck. After she closed the door, she walked into her living room and sat on her rocking chair. She put her head in her hands and cried, feeling horrible about the situation. She felt bad for the others. They would have a hard time trying to figure out the mansion and its mysteries. The other three walked onward toward the mansion. None of them felt much like talking. They had many things to think about and still lacked useful clues. Their mystery case was getting more complicated. Every time they thought they found a clue, they found themselves more confused. Nothing was making sense. Sheila secretly hoped that Danielle found something during the night, some clue, some tiny shred of evidence to lead them down the path to expose the mysteries of Blackwell Mansion.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

NEW HOPE

Danielle was impatient and very restless, pacing around the room. Finally, she decided to walk back to the front door. Determined, she opened the door to take one more look outside. An ice-cold breeze hit her in the face, and she stepped into a massive pile of snow. The snow was piled up against the front door and fell into the house the minute she opened the door. She regretted having opened the door. She peered down the hill. Off in the distance, she could see small figures making their way up the hill, she smiled. They were almost there. They would arrive in a few minutes, but then again, the snow looked pretty deep from where she stood watching them. It could take them longer. She closed the door as cold air was getting into the mansion. It would take forever to heat the area again. She walked back to the fireplace and rubbed her hands together and held them over the flame to warm them up. The warmth felt so good. Once she felt warmer, she sat on top of the blanket placed in front of the fireplace. She crossed her legs and closed her eyes. She breathed deeply and tried to visualize her father. She recalled his spicy cologne that gagged her at times. She smiled. She tried to the last time she saw her mother, the real one, not the ghost-like figure. She could not recall her at all. Sadness set in, and she opened her eyes. She stood up and added three more pieces of wood to the fire. Jeremy pointed up the hill toward Blackwell Mansion. He saw smoke billowing out of the chimney. He was shivering. It was bitterly cold, and he could not wait to get inside the warm mansion. The wind was strong and cold. Heads down, they proceeded up the hill. Stephen was knee-deep in snow. It was taking everything out of him to walk. It was hard work. He thought about the warm fireplace inside the mansion, giving him the incentive to keep walking. Danielle sat back down on the couch and sipped her hot cocoa. She waited for the others to arrive. The news she had to share would make them so happy. Her

discoveries were incredible. They probably wouldn’t believe what she was about to tell them. There was so much to talk about, and so many new plans would have to be made. Danielle thought about what she would tell the others. She worried that they would not believe her, or that they would not want to proceed with the plan to enter the other world. They would probably be scared. Would she be able to convince them to take the chance and go through the gateway? She placed another log on the fire and walked to the window. The others were almost there. It was taking them longer than she originally expected. She turned around and sat down in front of the fire. She rubbed her hands to warm them up, her fingers feeling numb. She hoped the electricity would soon be turned on. She would love to have light and electricity. The fire was nice, but it didn’t warm the entire house. The three made their way up the hill. Once on the front porch, they shook the snow off. They were covered with snow, feeling wet. Little icicles hung from their hats. Jeremy moved his foot back and forth, cleaning away the pile of snow on the porch. Danielle heard them by the front door. She opened the door and welcomed them. She led them into the kitchen and handed them cups of hot cocoa. Jeremy thought it was the best cocoa he had ever had. It felt so warm and tasted good. Once everyone was gathered around the kitchen table, Danielle stood up and shared her discoveries. She paced back and forth while she talked, the others listened intensely. After talking for a while, she finally sat down and looked at the others. Their expressions said everything – they were stunned. Jeremy looked at Danielle with his mouth open. Stephen shook his head in disbelief. Sheila squinted her eyes while she sat there, trying to make sense of what she had just heard. “You mean to tell us that there is a way to get into the other world? Can we go there and get back? Is it safe?” Jeremy asked. “Yes, there is a way to get there and get back. I don’t know what we will find on the other side. I cannot guarantee that it will be safe. I have not been there. So, I do not know what to expect any more than any of you. I can only hope that it will be okay. I think regardless of what we find, we have to do this to bring back James, Brandon, and Lizzy. It doesn’t matter at this time how strange or weird everything seems. We have to trust our instincts and do it. I can tell you. I stayed up late last night thinking about what we would find and how we would do it. I

think I have a plan. I will share it with all of you, and then you can give me your ideas and input. Does that seem fair?” The others nodded and remained silent, allowing her to speak. Danielle explained her plan. It involved following the instructions from Chamberlain’s book. She tried to verbalize how it was supposed to work. She also outlined what each one would have to do and what their part was in getting James, Brandon, and Lizzy back. The plan appeared to be well thought out. The others felt sure that they would be able to follow through with the plan, but they still had concerns. Regardless, they knew they had to do this. Stephen had been on the other side before, knowing what to expect once on the other side. He was not scared but was a little nervous. Not everything in the other world made sense. It just was. Things existed over there that just did not make sense in the real world. Stephen was young and realized maybe the others would have a better understanding of the other world. He would leave all the logical thinking to the older ones. “You have to realize that the other world is not like ours. There are things there that I don’t understand. Maybe you guys can get it because I don’t. I am pretty smart, but this is just weird.” Stephen announced. “Stephen, we don’t expect you or any of us to understand everything. We just need you to tell us what you saw when you were there. What can we expect to find? Is it like another planet? Another country? What? You have to give us some kind of idea what we are dealing with,” added Sheila. “I don’t know what to tell you. Once we were on the other side of the glass, it was like the countryside. It did not seem real, though. It looked real, but there was just something that seemed out of place. Every time we were in the other world, all I wanted to do was sleep. It was crazy. I curled up on the grass under a tree and fell asleep. When I woke up, I was upstairs in the attic of the mansion. I can’t explain it to you. I guess there are just things out there that we should accept. Right?” “Yeah, I agree. We are wasting time trying to figure it all out. Let’s just do it. Let’s go there and see what happens. What is the worst thing that can happen? We get stuck there forever. So what? At least we will all be together. Can you

imagine how James, Brandon, and Lizzy feel? They must feel very lonely. Are they the only ones on the other side?” “I never saw anyone else,” answered Stephen. “Lizzy talked about other people and other places. I did not understand what she was talking about. It made no sense to me at all. I just figured that she knew what she was talking about.” “Wait a minute. We almost forgot to tell you about our visit with Ms. Galla. She told us very little. She said she was confused by the other area inside the mansion.” “Okay, that’s it, we are going. Let’s find out for ourselves what is going on in this mysterious other room or world. Why are we sitting here wasting time?” said Danielle, ready to go. Danielle was right. It made no sense to keep talking about the other world. Going there, they would be able to find out for themselves. They stood up and looked at each other with approval. Sheila walked out of the room. Danielle picked up the book and was right behind her, Stephen and Jeremy followed. In the basement, they approached the glass window. Looking through the glass, Jeremy tried to see if he could locate James, Brandon or Lizzy. Danielle opened the book. “It says in here, we first have to believe that we can get into the other world. It goes on to say that we have to close our eyes, hold hands and visualize walking through the opening, in this case, the glass. I guess we better try it.” Danielle reached out and held Sheila’s hand. She reached for Jeremy, he, in turn, grabbed Stephen’s hand. Once they were all holding hands, they closed their eyes, attempting to visualize walking through the glass. When their eyes were closed, something amazing happened. A large, bright blue portal appeared in the glass. The light became very bright. A light breeze surrounded them. Their first instinct was to open their eyes, but they knew better. Danielle took some small steps. Slowly, she moved ahead with her eyes closed. She pulled the others behind her. They followed, no one opened their eyes. Danielle thought that at any second, she would feel the glass. Yet, she kept walking… walking for what seemed like a long time. Danielle stopped. Cautiously, she opened one eye, squinting. They had walked through the glass! They were on the other side. She opened her other eye and dropped Sheila’s

hand. Instantly, Sheila opened her eyes. She, too, was amazed. One by one, each of them looked around. It really was beautiful. The grass they stood on was deep and lush. There was a warm breeze. There wasn’t any snow in this world. Birds chirped. Looking up into the sky, Jeremy gazed at the clouds. It was a glorious summer day in this world. In the distance, Stephen saw some figures moving toward them. He waved. It was James, Brandon, and Lizzy. He set off, running toward his brother. The others followed quickly. Stephen jumped into his brother’s arms. James swung Stephen around. They were both excited to be finally back together. Jeremy walked up to his brothers and threw his arms around them. The three brothers were thrilled to be reunited. Danielle cautiously walked up to Lizzy. Lizzy smiled and took Danielle’s hand into her own. Danielle wanted to cry. She finally had her mother back. “Darling, it has been such a long time. I never thought I would see you again,” said Lizzy. “I don’t know what to say. I thought you were dead. I didn’t know that you were in some other world. It really doesn’t make any sense,” replied Danielle. “I know, don’t worry. We have the rest of our lives to talk about all of this. Did you figure out how we can get out of here?” “Yes, the same way we came in. Just tell me this, how come you could not get back on your own?” “It took someone that loved me to bring me back. It was just one of those unexplained things. As I said, we can talk about this later. Before we go, I want you to have this.” She handed Danielle the item she had held in her hand. It was the strange, twisted item out of the painting. “It is ‘The Gift,’” she added. “It can help you get into other worlds but, unfortunately for me, it would not allow me to return. I am not sure if it will ever work correctly. Maybe later, we will find out more about it. In the meantime, it is made of gold, so it should at least be worth some money if nothing else. ‘The Gift’ did allow me to get back and forth to the house. However, I just was not able to stay there. It would not allow me to stay in the real world, and I don’t know why. It has many other powers that I do not understand. For some strange reason, it keeps me young. It’s like a fountain of youth. I wish I knew everything

there was to know about this. I do know that your grandfather’s friend created this item in during the war. He was a scientist in Bavaria.” “Let’s get out of here,” said Danielle. “I am sure we will have a lot of time to catch up on everything that you know.” The others walked toward Danielle and Lizzy. Together, they walked toward the glass window. Lizzy stopped and turned around. She looked behind her. She was finally going back to the real world. The others looked at her, Stephen spoke up. “I guess we didn’t solve all the mysteries about Blackwell Mansion, did we? At least Danielle got Lizzy back, that is great. The rest doesn’t matter, does it?” “Yes, you are right. We can have Lizzy fill us in on all the other stuff later. There are some things I wish we had answers for….like the scientist. I’d like to know how he created the gift and what all it can do. It would be great to find out about all those things, don’t you agree? Well, let’s get out of here and go home. This was one big case. I am glad we at least solved part of it,” added Sheila. Everyone held hands and visualized walking through the glass. As they walked toward the glass, something odd happened. Lizzy stopped. She turned around and pointed to a distant tree. The others looked in the direction she pointed. Off in the distance, they could see a figure. It looked like a man. He looked older, and his hair was snow white. He appeared to be walking toward them, waving something in the air. Lizzy smiled and walked toward the man. Danielle grabbed her arm. “NO, Mom, don’t go. Please, stay with me! Do you hear me?” Her mother smiled and tried to pry Danielle’s hand off her arm. “Let go of me, darling. I want to go back to him. It is your dad.” “No, Mom, it is not Dad. He is gone. Come on. We need to get out of here.” The others watched and listened as they started to feel uneasy. Stephen looked at the man approaching. Getting closer, the boys noticed something not right. The man with the white hair had red eyes, and his smile was not a smile. Rather, he looked evil. His hair looked wild, and his eyes even wilder. He was swinging some sort of wooden item, saying something under his breath. Whatever he was saying, Lizzy seemed to understand him. She was under his spell. She nodded and walked toward him. Danielle was still pulling on Lizzy’s arm, trying to get her to stop and come back. Finally, Lizzy turned around and screamed, “Let me GO!!”

Shocked and confused, Danielle released her arm. It was at that moment, Danielle realized Lizzy was not her mother, she was someone else. She backed away and looked at the others. They grabbed her hand. Sheila whispered into her ear, “Let it go, Dani. Clear your mind. We have to get back to the other side. Believe.” The others stood there holding hands just as they had done before. Danielle pulled them through the portal in the window, and they emerged on the other side. When they opened their eyes, they were on the other side of the glass. Danielle walked up close to the window to look at Lizzy, or whoever it was, walking away with the man. They were holding hands as they continued to walk off into the distance. She felt sad. She turned around and walked back up the stairs with the others. They headed toward the living room. Jeremy walked to one of the light switches and flicked it on by habit. Surprisingly, the lights came on. Everyone cheered. Danielle smiled. At least one good thing happened today, she thought. Well, two, I guess. James and Brandon are back. The group sat down, and everyone remained quiet. Danielle finally broke the silence and said, “Hey, it’s okay. You got your friend and brother back. I found out the woman isn’t my mother. I have no clue as to who or what she is. She is someone else. Don’t feel bad for me. It is okay.” Sheila felt sad for Danielle. She put her hand on her shoulder. “I am sorry, Danielle. I wanted things to turn out good for all of us. I wanted you to have your mother back.” “Again, no worries, it’s good. I am happy. I have this massive house which is still very mysterious. I have a bunch of new friends, and now I have electricity. What more could a girl ask for?” she chuckled as she wiped tears from her face. She tried to act stoic. She was pretty happy, considering not all the answers had been revealed today. “Listen, you have to head home. I think we are going to have this snow hanging around for a few more days. You will probably have some snow days from school. This will allow you to come back tomorrow. We still have things to figure out. If you want to help me do that, I would love the help.” “Yes, I am in,” said Sheila with a smile. “Me, too,” said James.

“Yep, me too,” added Stephen. Brandon looked at Jeremy, and both nodded. The decision was made. The group would go home to their respective homes, and Danielle would stay at the mansion. Danielle walked to the front door with the others and thanked them. Everyone said good-bye and promised to return in the morning. Danielle closed the door with a heavy heart. She felt a great loss and disappointment. Part of her was a bit jealous. They had gotten James, Stephen, and Brandon back. She was still alone. She walked to the fireplace and put more logs on the fire. She decided to go upstairs and make a bed for the night. She would finally be able to sleep in a real bed now that the electricity was back on. Outside of Blackwell Mansion, the others walked toward their homes. They were delighted to be back together, and most of all, everyone was safe. They had been through so much. Now, they wondered what other mysteries the Pic⁵ would try to solve in the future. What else would they find in Blackwell Mansion? Would they explore other worlds? Only time would tell. For now, they were happy to be together, though the mystery was not completely solved.

CHAPTER TWELVE

IN TROUBLE

Jeremy, Stephen, and James reached the bottom of the hill and said good-bye to Brandon and Sheila. They agreed to meet up at the Donut Shop on 5th Street at 10 o’clock the next morning. They would get some doughnuts and head to Blackwell Mansion to visit with Danielle. Sheila and Brandon made their way back home. Inside their home, they walked into the living room to find their parents watching the local news. “WOW, can you believe this? The news said we received over 12 inches of snow last night and we are expecting six more by tomorrow morning! I better get that snowblower out of the shed!” said their dad, laughing. “Honey, do we have enough food to last us a while?” she asked her husband nervously. He replied, “We should be okay. I can always throw some chains on the truck and head to town if you need me to pick anything up.” The kids listened to their parents for a bit and headed up the stairs. Brandon was tired and not in the mood for anything other than a hot shower. He went straight to the bathroom. Sheila went to her room and changed out of her damp clothes. She put on a warm set of pajamas. She wanted a shower or hot bath, but more than anything, she wanted some warm food. She walked down the stairs and started to smell something good. Her mom was in the kitchen cooking. “Can I help you with anything?” she asked her mom. “No, thank you, honey, thanks for asking. Go take a hot bath. I know you are cold and tired.” “I would, but Brandon beat me to the bathroom, I have to wait,” she complained.

“You can go take a bath in my tub, in my bathroom. You would like that. I know you like the jetted tub. Take a relaxing bubble bath,” replied her mother, smiling. “Really, Mom? Are you sure? That would be amazing!” She kissed her mom on the cheek to thank her and bounced up the stairs, excited. She stopped and grabbed a fresh towel from the hall linen closet. Once in her parent’s bathroom, she poured bubble bath into the huge tub and waited for it to fill with water. Sliding into the hot water, she was in heaven. She closed her eyes and relaxed for the first time that day. Meanwhile, dinner was complete, and Brandon was downstairs devouring the spaghetti, meatballs, salad, and garlic bread. He was starving. On the other end of town, Jeremy, Stephen, and James walked through the front door of their home. Their worried mother greeted them. She gave them a dirty look as she grabbed their wet coats. “Is there any particular reason you guys decided to come home so late? Why did you not answer your cell phones? I called you four times! The weather has been horrible, and I have been worried. You are in big trouble!” She stomped out of the room and headed for the laundry room to wash their jackets. When their mother was mad, she cleaned or did laundry as it seemed to calm her down. Jeremy reached into his jeans and looked at his phone. Four missed calls, darn. He did not hear the phone ring. Stephen turned around and grabbed the phone out of his hoodie pouch. Three missed calls. Boy, no wonder their mom was so mad! James did not have his phone as he left it in his room days ago. The three walked up the stairs. Stephen reached the bathroom first and slammed the door shut. He was going to take a long, hot shower. The other two put on some sweats, t-shirts and warm socks. While Stephen showered, the twins headed downstairs to see if there was anything good to eat. Their mom was putting plates on the table but continued to glare at them. She was visibly upset. Jeremy walked over to her and said, “Mom, I am sorry, we should have called and checked our phones. We were having fun and got carried away. Please, don’t be mad forever! I promise it will not happen again.” Jeremy grinned at his mom, hoping she would smile back.

“Darn right it won’t. Maybe I should take your cell phones away since you are not able to answer them,” she shouted, still furious with the boys. James jumped into the conversation. “Come on, Mom. We are really sorry.” He batted his eyes at her, trying to be funny. Their mom turned around and put the food on the table. Jeremy could see a tiny smile on her face. James sat down and poured some tea from the pitcher. Stephen walked into the kitchen and stopped. Everyone was looking at him. “Excuse me, why are you all looking at me,” he asked. Jeremy laughed and answered, “No reason, paranoid much?” Stephen pulled out a chair and grabbed the pitcher of tea. “What’s going on?” he asked, pouring himself a tall glass of iced tea. “Nothing, why? We were just apologizing to Mom.” “Oh…. yeah, Mom. I am really sorry, please don’t be mad.” “I am not mad… I was just worried. I gave you three cell phones for a reason. I expect you to answer my call. If you cannot do that, I will be forced to take them away. I am not going to put up with your nonsense. Got it?” The three replied at once, “Got it.” They ate their dinner in silence. Their mother announced, “I am off to read my book and take a bath. You can do the dishes for me, right? Please clean up the rest of the kitchen as well. I put the apple pie in the fridge if any of you are interested. There is some vanilla ice cream in the freezer too. Help yourselves.” She smiled and walked out of the kitchen. The three ate the pie and cleaned the kitchen. After what seemed like a very long time, they were done. James walked into the living room and turned on the television. Jake, the cat, jumped on his lap and wanted to be petted. James looked down at the shiny, black cat and smiled. Jeremy plopped down next to James, reached over and patted Jake’s head. The cat purred, enjoying all the attention. Stephen sat down in the big, brown leather recliner. He put his feet up and covered up with the blanket. He scooted down further into the chair. Ah, so good

to be home in our warm and safe house, he thought. Everyone was quiet, and only the noise of the television filled the room. On top of the hill, on the other end of town, Danielle pulled back the clean top sheet. She jumped on the bed with delight, knowing she was going to sleep in a bed, rather than the couch downstairs. She picked a room close to the stairs on the second floor. It overlooked the front of the house from a large balcony. She opened the heavy curtains to look out. She disliked the idea of being in complete darkness all night. She felt very alone in the big house. It was strange knowing there was some sort of odd universe in her basement. It was best not to focus on that. It was time to sleep. Once under her covers, she pulled the sheet partially over her head. She turned onto her side to be able to look out the balcony doors. It was still snowing. Danielle closed her eyes and started to fall asleep. As she slept, she dreamt of her mother, Lizzy. In her dream, she was right next to her, talking to her ever so sweetly. Danielle smiled in her sleep and rolled over. Brandon woke up first this time. He stretched and swung his feet over the edge of the bed. He looked for his shoes because his feet were freezing. He could not locate any shoes, so he put on a pair of thick socks. He stood up and walked to the window. The window looked frosty, and it was difficult to get a good look. It must be cold, he thought. He rubbed his hands together and walked to his dresser. Looking through it, he finally found what he was looking for – his favorite red, fleece sweatshirt. He slipped it over his head. He pulled a pair of jeans off the hanger in his closet and finished getting dressed. He bent down to pick up his snow boots. As he was ready to head downstairs, he turned off his bedroom light, closed his door, and headed to Sheila’s room. Pounding on her door, he yelled, “Will you get up already!” There was no response. He pounded on the door again with his fist. Still, no response. He was getting mad. Irritated, he turned the doorknob and walked into the room, glancing at her bed. He could see one of her feet sticking out of the comforter. She was obviously in a really deep sleep. He walked to her bed and pulled her comforter back. She rolled over and gave him an evil look. “DO YOU MIND?” she growled. She snatched the blanket from him and put it over her head. “Leave…now! GET OUT! You are so rude,” she yelled at him. Brandon laughed. “Would you please get up?” We are supposed to meet the

others at the Donut Shop in 15 minutes.” “Yeah, I hear you, go downstairs. I will be there in five minutes.” Brandon shook his head and left the room. To make a point, on the way out, he slammed the door. Why is she so angry? She could have set the alarm on her cell phone. She knows we are supposed to meet the others, soon, he thought, feeling angry. Brandon sat on the couch in the living room, petting Amber. She wagged her tail and looked at him with her big, brown eyes. Sheila walked into the room. “Are you ready or what,” she asked, acting snippy. “Wow, what is wrong with you, Ms. Grumpy? I have been sitting here waiting for you.” “There is nothing wrong. I am just tired and worn out. I want to sleep,” she said, looking tired and irritated. “Well, stay here. I can go without you.” “Not on your life, I am going!” responded Sheila, walking toward the door. At the same moment, on the other end of town, the three boys woke up to the smell of something delicious. It smelled like biscuits. Their mom was making breakfast. Darn, we are supposed to go to the Donut Shop this morning, thought James. He wanted to eat biscuits. Stephen entered the kitchen and headed straight for the platter on the table. He grabbed a biscuit smothered with eggs and cheese. He was not missing out on this yummy breakfast. His stomach was growling. The others thought it was a good idea as well. They leaned over the table to take the biscuit too. After all, their mom had gone through all the trouble of making breakfast. How could they disappoint her and not eat? After promising to call at least every few hours, they headed out to the Donut Shop on 5th Street. “It is so cold. I hate this much snow!” complained Stephen. He pulled his hat over his cold ears. The snow wasn’t too bad, but with the drastic temperature drop, it was freezing. They continued to walk in silence until they saw the familiar sign of the Donut Shop. A gigantic doughnut floated on top of the

building in hot-pink, neon lights. They walked through the door and felt the warmth. The smell of the doughnuts was amazing. Mmmm, thought Jeremy. There was nothing better than a fresh and warm doughnut. Looking at the tables, James noticed Sheila waving at them. They walked toward their friends to them. They sat down at a booth. “Doesn’t it smell so good in here? Shall we get a dozen doughnuts and take them with us to the mansion?” said Sheila, sniffing the air. “Why not get two? I am sure Danielle won’t mind the extras, ha-ha.” “Two! What, are you hungry, Jeremy?” Sheila replied, laughing. The others started laughing as well. Sheila walked to the counter to ire the huge selection of doughnuts. What to pick? She contemplated. She ed Jeremy loved Apple Fritters. James liked the Bavarian Cream. Stephen preferred the plain, glazed type. She loved chocolate-glazed doughnuts. Brandon would eat just about any kind of doughnut. She decided to get a few of each, to make a total of two dozen. Sheila paid the lady at the counter. The woman smiled at her and handed her a large plastic bag containing the two boxes of doughnuts. “Are we ready to go?” she asked, looking at the others. “I guess so. It sure was nice to be in a warm building. It was even nicer to sit here and smell the doughnuts,” said James. They bundled up and walked out into the cold. On the way to the mansion, Jeremy stopped to run into Jon’s Quick-Stop to pick up something to drink for later. He thought some milk and juice sounded good. He also grabbed a few cans of soda. The others chose to wait outside while he shopped. Once all the supplies were in one large bag, they continued to walk to the mansion.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

UNFORESEEN EVENTS

A booming noise startled Danielle. She sat up in bed and looked around. Was that a real sound, or did I just imagine it? she thought. She decided it was not real and slid back under the sheets. Just as she was about to close her eyes, there it was again. BOOM…BOOM…BOOM. This time, the noise was much louder. She pulled back the sheets and jumped out of bed. She bent down to put her shoes on and grabbed the robe from the end of the bed. She walked to the window and looked outside. It is still snowing! Wow, is it ever going to stop? She wondered. On her way down the stairs, she heard the sound again. BOOM… BOOM… BOOM. Scared, she looked down the stairs. Was the noise coming from the bottom of the stairs? She felt a bit reluctant to walk down the rest of the way. She held onto the stair railing and made her way down the staircase very slowly. Halfway down the stairs, she looked at the painting on the wall. What had happened? The painting hung crooked on the wall. She walked over to it and straightened out the painting. She noticed something odd. As she looked off to the side, there was something shiny peeking out from behind the painting. She removed the painting from the wall, leaning it up against the wall, securing it with her knees. Moving closer to take a better look, she realized it was a wall safe. What a surprise! Curious, she proceeded to touch the large, round, brass-colored knob. It looked like a combination safe. She had no idea where she would find the correct combination of numbers to open the safe. Frustrated, she bent down, picked up the painting, and placed it back on the wall, covering the wall safe. She walked down the rest of the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase, she stopped abruptly. BOOM… BOOM… BOOM… There it was again. Where is it coming from? What is that noise? She

wondered. She stood there and waited to see if the noise returned. Nothing, complete silence. She decided to make some coffee and sit in the living room to wait for the others. Sipping her freshly brewed coffee, Danielle decided to make another fire. The house was still a bit chilly. While she was placing a few wood logs in the fireplace, she was startled by the strange recurring noise. BOOM… BOOM… BOOM. This time, the sound was very loud. It became apparent the noise was coming from the basement. Danielle placed the coffee cup on the table and decided to get dressed. She walked back up the stairs. She pulled the suitcase out from under her bed and searched for some warm clothes. Once dressed, she proceeded to the bathroom to brush her teeth and comb her messy hair. As she brushed her teeth, she felt an odd sensation on her back. She spun around to look. There was nothing there. She bent over the sink to finish brushing her teeth. As she looked up to wipe her mouth on a towel, she dropped the towel into the sink. She was looking at a face in the mirror, and it was not her own! Meanwhile, at the front of the house, Stephen was the first one to reach the steps leading up to the large, front door. He knocked loudly twice. The others stood behind him, waiting. After a minute or two, Stephen knocked again. What is taking Danielle so long to answer? He wondered. There was no answer at the door. “Should we see if the door is unlocked and let ourselves in?” he asked the others. “No, I don’t think that is a good idea,” Sheila responded. Impatiently, James walked to the door and turned the handle. The door was unlocked. He walked through the door. “Danielle! Where are you? We are here!” he shouted. There was no reply. The others followed him into the house. Stephen closed the door. They stood in the entryway and looked around. Jeremy peeked into the living room and saw a fire crackling in the fireplace. Sheila walked into the kitchen and placed the doughnuts and drinks on the table. She saw a new coffee maker on the counter with coffee in the carafe. Obviously, Danielle made some coffee this morning and not too long ago. She must be around here somewhere, concluded Sheila.

Jeremy walked into the kitchen and sat down on one of the chairs. James ed him in the kitchen to get a doughnut. Stephen and Brandon stayed in the living room. Brandon walked to the fireplace and added a few more wood logs for heat. Stephen sat down in the chair by the fireplace and looked around. Suddenly, Danielle shouted, “Hello, who is down there?” She walked down the stairs with her long, black umbrella in hand. Sheila looked at her with an odd look. “Ummm, what are you doing?” asked Sheila, looking at Danielle holding the umbrella. “I heard some noises coming from downstairs. The front door was locked, so I was a bit freaked out.” James came out of the kitchen and looked at the two. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the door was unlocked when we got here. I know, I am the one who opened the door.” “Are you sure? I just checked it less than an hour ago, and it was locked,” asked Danielle, looking confused. “Absolutely. I am positive, ask the others. They were right behind me when I turned the door handle. How else could we have gotten into the house?” Danielle looked at James with her eyebrows arched. She was greatly confused and nervous. “I am telling you… it was locked! Someone else must have unlocked it. I am not crazy.” Danielle shook her head and walked to the living room. Then she walked to the table and picked up her cold cup of coffee and sipped it. The others watched her. She placed the coffee cup back on the table, her hands shaking. “Okay, so you are not going to believe this either, something just happened to me a few minutes ago upstairs. First, I woke up to some booming noises. Next, I went to the bathroom upstairs to brush my teeth. When I was done brushing my teeth, I looked into the mirror over the sink, and there was a face staring at me and let me tell you…it was NOT my face!” “What? What are you talking about?” screamed Jeremy, beginning to panic.

“Something is off here. There is someone else in this house,” declared Danielle. Panicked, the others looked around. Without even paying any attention to what they were doing, they formed a circle around Danielle. “Calm down, Danielle.” Stephen grabbed her shaking hands. “We are here with you. It’s okay.” He smiled at her, noticing her bottom lip was quivering. “No, you don’t get. There is more. When I heard the noise, I walked down the stairs to investigate where it was coming from. Halfway down the stairs, I noticed a painting hanging sideways. I was puzzled by this, so I proceeded to straighten it out. As I had it in my hands, I noticed something shiny behind it. I removed the painting and leaned it up against the wall, revealing a wall safe behind the painting. I tried to open it, but it requires some kind of combination of numbers. I have no clue what those numbers could be.” “Awesome!” shouted James with a huge grin on his face. He loved new clues. “Awesome, how so?” asked Danielle. “Well, maybe there is something of value in that safe,” replied James, hoping there was some treasure to be found. “Hey, wait a minute. Are you thinking what I am thinking?” Brandon asked the others with a smirk. “Yup, I do believe so,” replied Stephen, nodding his head. “Someone knows that safe is there and they were in the house getting something out of it, or at least trying to open it,” explained James. “What? Do you really think someone is or was in the house? Seriously? Now, you do have me scared.” Danielle walked past the others toward the front door. She locked the door nervously. “Danielle, I would be scared too. , we are here now, and at least you are not alone.” Sheila was nervous as well. She did not like the idea of someone or something uninvited in the house. She was about to say something else when a noise echoed through the room. BOOM…BOOM…BOOM. Danielle jumped and gave the group a ‘told you so’ look. Everyone looked around, frantically trying to figure out the source of the noise.

“Is that the noise you heard before, Dani?” whispered Sheila. “Yeah, that is it. It is always three of those noises and then silence. I am pretty sure the noise is coming from the basement.” “I suppose we know where we need to go next, right?” Jeremy asked as he pointed to the basement. “Not so quick, I am starving. Did you bring breakfast? Please tell me you did,” Danielle grinned at the others with her hands stretched out. “Oh, yes, we did. We brought two dozen doughnuts, and the boxes are on the kitchen table. We brought some milk and other things to drink too. Is your refrigerator working?” James looked at Danielle, waiting for an answer. “Yes, I cleaned it out yesterday and plugged it in. It is working and cold,” said Danielle. She walked into the kitchen and placed the drinks on the shelf in the refrigerator. She sat down on a chair with a huge smile on her face, opening one of the doughnut boxes. Oh, what a wonderful smell, she thought. Her stomach was rumbling from hunger. She took one of the chocolate-glazed doughnuts out of the box and took a huge bite. Yummy! After eating doughnuts, getting warmed up and talking a bit, the group decided it was time to find out what was going on in the basement. James got up and walked to the kitchen doorway. “Are we ready to go?” “No, not really,” replied Sheila, feeling apprehensive. “Well, I think we need to go. There is still the matter of the booming noise in the basement and the odd face in the mirror. Plus, we still do not know about the white-haired man on the other side of the glass, and most of all, …why is Lizzy not really Lizzy?” asked Stephen. “I am not sure we can figure it all out today. Do you think we can?” asked Danielle, hoping they could. “Probably not,” replied James, “but we need to try.” Danielle smiled. The others looked at her face and wondered what she was thinking.

“Why are you smiling?” James asked her. “Well, James, I was just thinking about how easy and different this will be now that we have electricity.” “Very true, I had not thought about that,” James replied. He was happy they would have a much easier time with electricity and being able to illuminate the basement. “We should still take flashlights and our phones, just in case. You never know. What happens if the electricity goes out again? Safety first.” Sheila was always thinking ahead. She tried to think of the ‘what if’ scenarios, wanting to be prepared. Approaching the staircase to the basement, Stephen stopped. His heart was racing. He was not prepared to go back down to the ‘Weirdo World.’ Jeremy noticed his unsure look and asked Stephen what was going on. Once Stephen explained it, he understood his caution to go down. “Don’t worry. We are all going together. Nothing will happen,” Jeremy reassured Stephen. “Yes, famous final words out of a horror show,” replied Sheila, laughing nervously. Danielle laughed too. “Okay, everyone, let’s get this over and done with.” She made sure the light switch was on. She could see down the stairway. Thank goodness, she thought, leading the way. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she stopped cold in her tracks. BOOM…there it is again, she thought. She noticed the noise was just one time instead of three. How odd. The others looked around. She motioned for them to keep going. They proceeded to the large window in the basement. The bright light was not as bright as before, and it looked gloomy behind the glass. That seemed strange. Stephen walked up to the glass and tried to see what was going on behind the glass. As he looked off to the right behind the glass, he felt as if someone was watching him. He turned to look around. The others stood like statues. No one moved. The white-haired man stared at them. James raised his right hand and pointed straight ahead. Stephen looked in the direction he was pointing. He

jumped back, away from the glass. The man with the white, fluffy hair approached, not alone. There was a woman right behind him. It looked like Lizzy. On the left side, there was a tree, and it looked to be on fire. The old, white-haired man walked past the tree, and the tree extinguished itself. Smoke billowed from it. The woman bent down and picked up an item. She held it in her left hand. It was a bizarre scene, making no sense to the group. The others moved closer to the glass to get a better look. Stephen apprehensively followed. They watched and said nothing. Suddenly, the old man stood directly in front of the glass. His hair was white as snow and long. His eyes were blazing red. He wore a cape the color of his eyes. The woman stood behind him with her head bowed. She did not look up. The man was talking, but they could not hear what he was saying. He was starting to look very angry. With his stained, yellow teeth exposed, he looked wicked. The kids backed away from the glass in horror. Danielle grabbed Sheila by the arm and said, “Let’s get out of here.” Sheila stood frozen. She looked straight ahead at the man. The man smiled evilly from behind the glass, continuing to stare at the others. There was another BOOM. The man smiled and laughed. The woman laughed hysterically behind the glass, as well. The man turned and took the woman’s hand and walked away. They disappeared into the back of the scene behind a building. The group looked on puzzled. What on earth just happened? What did it mean? Danielle said, “Okay, let’s follow them. Let’s go through.” “You want to do what?” screamed Stephen. “No way, I will wait here for you.” “We all go, or we all stay. No one is staying behind,” said Danielle. “Danielle is right. We all go,” chimed in Jeremy, rubbing his forehead. He had a massive headache. He walked over and slapped James across the cheek. SLAP! “What are you doing?” yelled an angry James. “Have you lost your mind? Why are you slapping me?” He pushed Jeremy hard, almost causing him to fall over.

“I was just trying to make sure I was not sleeping,” Jeremy replied sarcastically. “Oh, nice. Next time, slap yourself. Stay away from me. You are such a jerk!” The others watched, trying not to laugh. Sheila took Danielle’s arm and reached out to James. Within seconds, everyone was holding hands and walking toward the glass. All of a sudden, the ground started shaking. The group looked around as James fell over. Sheila lost her footing and fell onto the glass window. Danielle tried to catch Stephen, but she fell over backward and hit her head on the floor. The ground shook violently. Small pieces of plaster fell from the ceiling. Earthquake, thought Jeremy. Do we have Earthquakes in Pineville? The others must have read his mind. Danielle screamed, “Get back upstairs! Get out of the house, hurry!” They ran as quickly as they could as the entire house shook. Once they made it upstairs, the massive chandelier in the entryway came crashing down. It missed James by inches. The front door was locked. There was no way out. It would not unlock. Danielle pointed to the kitchen. The group ran to the kitchen, dodging things falling from the ceiling. Danielle grabbed her purse off the back of the chair, running to the backdoor. She opened it quickly, and everyone exited the building as quickly as they could. They ran down the side path to get to the front of the house. The house was moving and swaying back and forth. “It’s obviously not an Earthquake, is it?” asked Danielle, pointing to the rest of the town. “No…I do not think so,” replied Stephen, watching the house sway. “Gosh, what is going on?” Sheila looked scared as she stood in front of the mansion. “I need to go back in there. I am going back to the basement,” Danielle said, wanting to find her mother. “NO, Danielle, stay here. We do not know if it safe to go back inside.” “Try and stop me, James,” hissed Danielle. She dropped her purse on the ground, walking in the direction of the side kitchen door. The house was still shaking as she entered the kitchen. She grabbed a frying pan out of the cabinet and put it over her head to use as a shield. She headed back down to the basement. As she

looked ahead, the area behind the window had grown completely black. She couldn’t see a thing. She leaned in to take a closer look. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around. James smiled at her. The others stood next to him, looking at Danielle. “Hey, we told you we were in this together. We meant it,” said Sheila, watching the walls crumbling and getting more nervous. “I appreciate it very much, but we have to hurry.” The glass started to make an odd noise. Danielle walked up to the glass window to investigate. She could barely see but felt fine cracks on the glass surface. She backed away. Suddenly, the whole window exploded. Glass flew all over. James ducked, and a chunk of glass hit Sheila in the cheek. She felt blood running down her face. She put her hand over the cut. Danielle turned to look at Sheila. “It’s not bad, just a little cut.” “Is everyone okay?” screamed Stephen. “Yes, I am okay,” replied Jeremy. “Me too,” said Danielle. Danielle walked to the now open window area. It looked like a dark room behind it. There was zero light. Out of the darkness, she heard a small, whimpering noise. She walked closer. “Dani….Dani…” “Hello? Who’s there?” replied Danielle. Curious, she walked into the darkness. James ran up behind her holding his flashlight. They looked ahead. A woman in a red dress walked toward them. She was limping but smiling. “Mom? Is that you?” asked Danielle apprehensive. “Yes, help me!” screamed Lizzy. James grabbed Danielle’s right arm. “No, do not go. Please, wait for her to come to us. We don’t know what else is in there!”

Danielle freed herself from James’ grip. She ran toward the woman. Taking her arm, she led her out of the room. The others looked on as Danielle emerged from the darkness with the ‘Woman in the Red Dress.’ Danielle smiled as she walked up to Sheila. “Who are you?” asked Sheila, looking at the woman. “Why, I am Elizabeth. Who are all of you? How did we get here?” Just as Stephen was about to say something, the house shook violently. This time it felt like the floor was coming apart. Everyone looked down. The ground was opening up, and there were visible cracks on the floor, filled with a glowing, red light. “Time to go…,” screamed Jeremy, heading for the main floor of the house. The others followed quickly. James and Danielle helped carry Lizzy as she was weak, and her ankle was hurt. Once on the main floor, it was apparent the house was completely falling apart. The group ran out the side door, heading to the front of the house, hoping to escape in time. As they stood away from the house, it disintegrated right in front of them. Flames shot out of the windows, and loud booming noises could be heard. The house was engulfed in fire. It burned to the ground, and Danielle cried. Elizabeth took Danielle’s hand in her own and smiled. The others looked on. Off in the distance, Stephen heard a fire truck. He turned to look down the hill and saw flashing lights making their way up the hill toward the mansion. By the time the fire truck arrived, the mansion was gone. It was a complete loss. The group looked on as the fire destroyed all the clues and evidence. They were saddened to realize they might never solve the case of the Mysterious Blackwell Mansion. “Mom, I know this may not be the time or place, but can you tell us a little about the mansion or the white-haired man,” begged Danielle. “Let us talk about it in town. We should go sit down and talk for a bit,” Lizzy replied, looking at the others for approval. “Sounds like a plan, Lizzy,” Stephen agreed, wanting to leave.

The fire trucks pulled up in front of the mansion. Firefighters put out the remaining flames still burning. A police officer approached the group. “Are you all okay?” he asked, looking at them. “Yes, sir, we are fine,” answered Danielle. “Looks to me like there was an explosion, probably caused by a leaking gas line. It is the only explanation for the total destruction of such a large building. I am just glad you all made it out safe and sound,” Officer McGilley said, rubbing his forehead, looking at the destroyed building. “Yes, you are probably correct, officer. We were extremely lucky,” Danielle smiled, thinking it sounded like a reasonable event and probably was best to make him believe he was correct. “Is there anything I can do for you? Do you need a ride into town?” Officer McGilley offered, smiling. “Sure, we would love a ride to the café on 5th Street if that is okay,” said James. “My SUV is over there. Follow me,” he said, leading the way. The others shrugged their shoulders and followed. Once in the SUV, Officer McGilley drove them to town. He asked the group about their personal information so he could get ahold of them in the future if necessary. He assumed there could be more questions about the fire later on. Then, as promised, he dropped them off at the café. They thanked him and walked into the café, hoping Lizzy would explain more about the mansion. Once everyone was seated around the large table in the café, Sheila ordered warm drinks for everyone. She was glad she put money in her pocket before heading to the mansion. She would have a way to pay for their drinks. The group of friends sat quietly, drinking. They observed Lizzy. Everyone was trying to warm up since all their jackets had been destroyed by the fire and the explosion of the mansion. They could hear people in the café talking about the explosion. The town was curious, and there was a lot of gossiping going on. Lizzy smiled. “So, I think I should start by telling you a little about the whitehaired man. He was Danielle’s grandfather’s friend. He invented ‘the gift’ a long

time ago. I eventually found it and was transported to him. Not sure how, but I was. Long story short, he was a crazy scientist. I believe he was not right in the head if you know what I mean. He seemed evil to me. He was never very nice, insisting I stay with him, refusing to let me go. I figured, if I could get one of you to me in that world, I could possibly find a way to get out. It worked. I am just sorry I upset and scared you. I did not feel like myself at times. It was as if I was under some spell.” “Yes, you were not the nicest at times,” Stephen replied, laughing. “No, and I am very sorry. So, the white-haired man showed me some pretty amazing things. He also told me about a treasure near Dragonhead Lake. Supposedly, it belongs to him, and there are items there that have great, secret powers. He wanted to get them for some time. Unfortunately, he could not leave the world we were in either. I think he would have if he knew how. I am just sorry we never got to figure it all out. I slept a lot when I was behind the glass, Stephen, Brandon, and James did too. I believe it was some spell or something that caused us to be sleepy all the time. Well, I guess we may never know the rest. At least, I am back, and you are all okay.” “Mom, I think we will have plenty of time to get caught up. Hey, do you know anything about the safe? There was a safe behind the painting of you?” Danielle asked Lizzy. “Yes, it was where your dad kept some papers. I do not think there was anything of value inside of it. Maybe once the fire is completely out, we can go back there sometime and open the safe, if it is still there,” Lizzy explained to the group. “Do you know the combination, Mom?” “Of course, darling. It is my birthday and your birthday! Your dad was not very original,” Lizzy announced, laughing. It felt good for her to be able to laugh. It had been quite a stressful day. But, for the first time in many years, she had her daughter back, and there was nothing better, or so she thought. “Now what?” asked Danielle, wondering where she and her mother would live now. “Well, I suppose we go home. Where will you go, Dani? What will you do?” Sheila questioned, looking worried.

“Danielle and I will go to Dragonhead Lake to our cabin. We will be fine.” Danielle turned to her mom. “What cabin?” “The cabin your father built a long time ago. It’s more of a lake house than a cabin. It’s almost as big as the mansion was. I cannot believe you did not know about it. We will have plenty of time to discuss everything that happened in the mansion once we are settled in the cabin.” “What? Why did I not know about this?” “We have a lot to talk about, Dani,” replied Lizzy. “Your friends can come to visit us, and I can tell you more about the mansion.” “Mom, I cannot believe our home is gone. It is awful. All our things, gone.” “Dani, we have many things in the cabin, do not worry. All will be okay, I promise,” Lizzy said, smiling, holding her daughter’s hand. The others smiled too. Sheila stood up, grabbed the check off the table, and walked to the cash to pay the bill. As she stood waiting for the cashier, James walked up behind her and whispered in her ear, “You know what that means, right?” “Oh, yes, of course!” she shouted loud enough so everyone could hear, as she spun around to face the others sitting at the table. “The case is NOT over!” “Nope, we’re just getting started…”

THE END