You hadn't heard mention of Warren and Dale Burgess for years—at least, not until now. As luck would have it, your Aunt May had gotten sick, your brother Bobby had already moved out, and the wonderful lady down the street that babysat you when you were young moved away. You were old enough to spend time alone, yes, but not for two and a half weeks.

Your mother had made seemingly dozens of phone calls to various people, trying to find someone to look after you at an affordable price while she and your father rushed off on an emergency business trip. She had just been about to despair when Dad had brought in several older numbers, and your mother finally struck lucky with your cousin Warren. You barely remembered any mention of him, and you had definitely never met him. Mom and Dad thought he worked for the government or something?

So now you were here.

Oh man, you didn't want to know what you had gotten yourself into.

The main house was pretty huge, with all older design. The yard was what really caught your attention. You had always appreciated a pretty garden, as you yourself couldn't keep something alive for more than a few days. As you and your cousin Dale approached the main house, you tried to catch a butterfly, but it dashed away.

"Uh, you might not want to do that," Dale said. "They can get... kinda cranky."

You gave him a weird look. "It's a butterfly."

Dale glanced away. He seemed wary about having someone new on the property. He had spent the first few minutes explaining that there were animals in the woods and you shouldn't go out there.

"Yeah, well. Butterflies can be weird." Dale opened the front door of the house for you. "Come on in!"

Your jaw dropped. The entry hall was huge, but that wasn't what you were concerned about—it was the mess. Dozens of pairs of muddy shoes were scattered across the ground, and the rugs had been bunched up in the corners. Dirty footprints marched around in dizzying circles.

Dale immediately did a double take. "What—Guys!" he screeched. "I just cleaned! We have a guest, you've gotta keep things neat!"

There were several thunks, and a teenager tumbled into the entry hall. A pair of glasses were skewed sideways on his freckled face, and in his arms was a clawing, hissing cat. He looked maybe sixteen, but the fresh scratches on his face may have thrown off your guess. Despite his messy appearance, you felt strangely awed by him, like he had some secret power up his sleeve.

"New person!" the kid yelled excitedly. The next second he was shaking your hand with way too much vigor, cheerfully rambling about how much you were going to love this place and it was so cool did Dale tell you about the—

"Seth!" Dale interrupted. He awkwardly cleared his throat. "They're, uh, new here."

"Huh?" Seth blinked owlishly, but then a flash of recognition crossed his face. "Oh. Okay. Nevermind."

Now you were definitely suspicious. If your parents weren't off to the airport in a rush to catch their plane, you would've called them. At least you could always call the police. If they could get past the property gates.

"What's with the mess?" Dale was asking. "I cleaned like an hour ago, messes usually don't happen this fast."

"Dragon got out." Seth cuddled the mass of black fur in his arms. "Me and Kendra had to go catch her... and then we needed Tanu's help... and Warren's. Vanessa finally caught her by the swamps, but she got cranky when we got back."

"There are swamps here?" you asked.

Seth grinned. "Yeah. Whole bunch of different areas. Maybe some point we could show you."

Dale took you by the shoulders and steered you into the kitchen. "That's an if. And only if Stan says it's okay." You vaguely recalled your father telling you about Stan Sorenson. He and his wife Ruth were the owners of this land.

There was a whole group of people in the kitchen, sprawled out at the table or leaning on the cabinets. When you walked in, a few glanced over, but most of them were deeply ingrained in their conversations. That is, until, Seth over-dramatically cleared his throat and announced, "Yo guys, the new person's here!"

Now everyone looked over, and you felt nervous. However, your nervousness started to dissipate when each of them stepped forward to shake your hand and introduce themself. No way were you going to be able to remember all their names—along with Warren, Stan, and Ruth, who you already knew about, there was also Tanu, Elise, Vanessa, Trask, and Mara. Your head spun with all the new faces.

Finally a young girl stepped forward. She looked about eighteen, and had the same freckled face as Seth, along with flowing hair and a stylish outfit. "I'm Kendra," she introduced herself. "It's nice to meet you! I'll be showing you around."

You shook Kendra's hand and made yourself remember her name. "Nice to meet you too," you got out. Something about her seemed off. She seemed to give off a semblance of power, just like Seth did, but hers was... brighter.

"I'm guessing you want to head up to your room and get rid of that?" Kendra asked, gesturing at your small suitcase. You nodded, and Kendra smiled in agreement. "C'mon, then. You'll be sharing a room with Seth—is that alright?"

You shrugged. "Sure, I guess," you said.

Kendra led you up several flights of rug-covered stairs with Seth trailing behind you. By the time you reached the second floor, you felt winded, but the Sorenson siblings didn't even break a sweat the entire way up.

On the third floor, you looked down the hallway and noticed several doors. Although you could deal with sharing a room for a little while, if there were spare rooms...

"How many guest rooms are there here?" you asked.

Kendra glanced over her shoulder. "Quite a few. It's a big house."

"Then... why am I sharing a room?"

For the first time since you met her, Kendra looked caught by surprise. Her bright feeling wavered. "Ah—kids stay in the attic. Anyone under eighteen."

You frowned. That seemed off.

Seth must've noticed, because he clapped you on the back. "C'mon, it's just a lame family tradition. It's not that bad! I had to share the attic with Kenny for a while."

Kendra rolled her eyes. "You were the slob leaving dorito dust everywhere." She turned back to you. "Don't worry, I made sure he cleaned up your side."

You reached a door, and Kendra swung it open for you. The attic was kind of small and had a low ceiling, but it was cozy looking. Clearly the kids had decorated—among the old toys and bookshelves were beanbags and picture frames, and lights were strung up on the walls. The left side of the room had art posters and comic books lying around, so you figured that was Seth's side and dropped your stuff on the other half of the room. A bed was neatly made. The dresser looked empty. Other than a few wall decorations, it was obvious Kendra had moved most of her stuff to her new room.

You tossed your backpack onto the bed. Seth belly-flopped onto his bed, sending pencils bouncing onto the floor, and Kendra settled down on a beanbag.

"If you don't mind, Grandpa asked me to explain the rules to you since he's a little busy," Kendra said. "You might want to sit."

You felt a little nervous, but you sat on your bed.

Kendra leaned back and cracked her neck. "Okay. So. First of all, don't go into the woods. Under any circumstances. I cannot stress that enough, the yard is the limit and that's that." Kendra caught you with a deadly stare. "A lot of this land is still untamed, and we don't want you getting lost... or running into something unfriendly."

A chill ran down your back. Maybe she didn't mean to, but Kendra was seriously spooking you.

"Secondly," Kendra continued, "the barn is off-limits. There's a lot of dangerous equipment in there, and Dale will be pissed if you mess with his tools. We all want to avoid that."

Okay. That wasn't as terrifying.

"Thirdly—if an animal on the preserve starts bothering you, come right to me or Seth."

That wasn't scary, that was just—weird.

"Um. What?" you asked. Maybe you misheard her.

"The animals here are weird, even some of the domestic ones," Seth said. "Especially the goats. Sometimes they come into the yard, though we've, uh, nicely asked them not to. Whatever."

Your gut told you Seth was thinking of something else, but now an idea was starting to form in your head. Yeah, this family was weird, but if they were establishing all these rules they probably didn't want you dead. As long as you followed the rules, you could probably snoop around and figure things out without getting yourself killed.

"And that's that!" Kendra gave you a double thumbs up. "You're gonna love it here. There's a pool, too, I hope you brought your bathing suit."

"Yo, Kenny, the keys," Seth piped.

"Oh yeah! Here!" Kendra fished out a ring of golden keys from her pocket and tossed it to you. Three shining keys dangled from it.

"The keyholes are in the attic," Kendra explained. "It's a bit of a puzzle, but give it your best shot! You'll love it."

"Ask me if you get stuck, I can give you a hint," Seth said with a grin.

You shook the key ring. The jangling sounded almost like bells.

"Got it," you said.

Seth kicked up his feet on his headboard. "You'd do well to solve it. There's just something... magical about the end of it."

You didn't like his expression, but now you were ready. It was time to figure out the secrets of this place.

—

The first few days were relatively quiet. You splashed around the pool with the Sorenson siblings, put together the jigsaw puzzles in the treehouse, and scribbled down anything remotely out of the ordinary in your notebook. You really couldn't make sense of the little things—the birdbaths were drained, the attic you were in seemed smaller than it should've been, and the many people around the house were constantly doing "busywork" around the property or discussed matters behind closed doors. You once went to listen in, but then Elise burst out the door a second later and happily dragged you off to create some clay sculptures with her. You decided not to try that again.

The weirdest thing, though, was Dale's morning chore. The head groundskeeper would briskly walk around the front lawn, laying down pie tins filled with milk. Immediately all the bugs in the lawn would make a beeline to the tins and drink. You timed it once—it took thirty seven minutes and sixteen seconds for the bugs to drink it all. Later in the day, Dale would come back, collect the tins, and take them into the barn.

You asked him once. He first pretended he didn't hear you, and then claimed it was an old family tradition, but he was a terrible liar. You marked that down.

You hadn't broken the rules so far, and you still didn't plan to. Something was up. Those rules must've been there to keep you safe. Judging by how much you had seen already, you probably would be able to figure things out without breaking them.

You had worked on Kendra's key puzzle, of course. The first key was to the miniature closet in the dollhouse, and the second was to a jewelry box on the dresser. Each had held a new key and several of the most delicious chocolates you had ever tasted. Seth had stole a few from you when you looked the other way, but Kendra had caught him and made him give them back.

So now you were looking for the third keyhole. And dang, it was giving you a hard time.

The keys jingled in your hand as you paced the attic. A few feet away, Seth gave you a concerned side eye, not really paying attention to Elise's art lesson.

"Shading with watercolor can be freaking weird, I'll warn ya. You gotta focus." Elise stuck a paintbrush in Seth's ear, making him jump. "Like how you're not doing right now!"

"Sorry!" Seth chucked the paintbrush across the room, where it bumped against the bookshelf before rolling to the floor. He turned to you. "Are you okay?"

You shrugged. In all honesty, you were getting frustrated. "Is the third keyhole somewhere on your side of the attic?"

Seth shook his head. "Nuh-uh. I moved it back to your side."

You groaned and collapsed on a beanbag. "This is stupid."

"Hey, hey!" Elise let another paintbrush fly, this time bonking you in the head. "Don't let that negative narwhal talk get you down. I've got a lot of faith in you."

Seth gave a mischievous grin. "Here's your hint, negative narwhal. At dawn, we ride!" He broke up into laughter and fell back on his bed.

"...At dawn, we ride?" you ask him. You must've had a weird expression, because Elise snorted.

"Yeah. Just go with it," Seth said.

You study the final key. "Fine. You go back to your watercolor and let me figure this out."

"Good idea! C'mon, practice makes perfect!" cheered Elise. Seth groaned good-naturedly.

You scouted the attic for a few minutes. The toy soldiers were too small for keyholes, and their box was already open, with no false bottom. The plushy toy horses had no secret hidden under their fluff. There was a book about horses on the bookshelf, but it yielded nothing.

As you scoured the bookshelf for another equestrian-themed story, another book caught your eye. Among the teen romance novels and filled sketchbooks was a thicker book with golden trim.

It took some muscle to pull out, but you managed. The title was in fanciful, curling script: The Journal of Secrets.

Your heart rate immediately sped up. Secrets! That was what you had been looking for. And there was three locks... but then again, this had nothing to do with Seth's clue...

When you tried your key ring, you found that two of the keys fit—the two you had found on your own. The third didn't fit.

"Great," you mumbled. You turned around to see Elise and Seth looking at you with bright expressions.

"You found the journal!" Seth said excitedly. "Technically it's Kendra's now, so once you're done with the puzzle, you might want to give it back to her."

"Yay. Where's the last key?"

"At dawn, we ride. Horsey horsey. Bracken—wait, you don't know him, never mind."

You make a mental note to write down "Bracken" in your journal of weird. "Gotcha."

Seth and Elise went back to their watercolor, but now you could tell they were watching you in their peripherals. You had to be close. You really, really wanted that Journal of Secrets to be opened.

You stood in the center of the room and took a deep breath. Okay. A horse. You slowly turned in a circle, and your eyes set on an old rocking horse.

"Um... wow," you muttered involuntarily. The thing was a wreck. It might've once been a unicorn, but the horn was snapped off at the base. Scrapes and holes covered its sides. The thing looked like it had been through a war.

It was definitely messed up, but this was a horse. You ran your hands through its mane, tilted it back and forth, and finally found a keyhole on the belly.

You ignored the chocolates—whatever, Seth could have those—and grabbed the key. A second later, the Journal of Secrets popped open in your hands, and...

Blank.

It was blank.

You flipped through the pages, but there really was nothing. The entire book was empty.

"Seriously?" You turned on Seth and Elise. "Is this a joke? I just did a whole lot of work!"

"It's not empty," Seth said, chewing on his paintbrush and acting like he was studying his canvas. "Just figure it out and follow the instructions."

You huffed and flipped through the pages again, this time more slowly, and you noticed something—vertically written, right by the spine, were the words Drink the milk.

Immediately your mind flashed to Dale and his weird morning chores. Well, duh. That was the only milk you had seen so far.

But... ew.

"I'm not drinking the weird bug milk," you say. "That stuff is probably nasty."

Elise gasped. "It's not nasty! It's actually pretty good."

"Whatever. I don't have time for this." You snapped the book closed. "That's it to the puzzle? I'm giving this back to Kendra."

With that, you marched off, ignoring Seth and Elise's saddened expressions.

—

Kendra didn't want you to give her back the journal until you finished the puzzle, but you were adamant. You weren't getting sick, especially when it would be a burden to this family, since they were the ones looking after you. Eventually Kendra took the book, looking actually devastated. It was just a little puzzle. You didn't understand why everyone so desperately wanted you to solve it.

You finally caved, though. A few days later, you subtly tailed Dale around the yard, and waited until he walked away to shoo the bugs away from a tin. You had grabbed a small glass from the kitchen cabinet, and now you dipped it in the milk.

"Hey! Hey!" You jumped, nearly spilling your new drink. Elise was standing on the porch, jumping around and waving her arms, with a look on her face like they gon' do it! Another woman sat next to her—Mara, if you remembered correctly—casually counting a rock collection.

You glance down at your drink and huff. "Hi, Elise," you call.

"What's taken you so long? You found the instructions days ago!"

"Oh my god, Elise!" You throw your free hand into the air. "I'm lactose intolerant, of course I'm going to say no to the milk!" And just for the sake of spiting her, you downed your glass like a shot.

Oh.

Oh.

That... honestly, that explained a lot.