They say the Old Château is haunted.
Years ago, the man who owned it (a wealthy businessman who used it primarily as a summer retreat) mysteriously died within its walls. His family inherited the place and for a while they kept it, tax reasons they said, and one night, a murderer entered the house, killing everything living in it.
The family friend ventured into the mansion after her friend's communications to her ceased. And she never returned back...
The police were called to investigate, after a group of children dared at a girl to go inside the mansion for an hour, and after a full hour and 30 minutes, she was still inside, so the other children felt bad, and followed suit.
The police investigated it at precisely 5:00 PM. Oddly, a storm occurred at 6:00 a few moments after a number of police searched for 3 policemen and 1 policewoman that have never returned.
6:00 AM, a man passes past the chateau, he abruptly stops, and stares in horror at the ground level window, and runs away, screaming bloody murder. As a town woman asks him what happens he reply that he saw the window covered in blood, with the words "Help Me" inscribed in it.
The man submitted to an asylum, and the next morning, the man commits suicide.
Nobody listened to the Man.
That's how the story got around, that the Old Château is haunted.
Ghosts, people say.
It was raining.
A group of children were standing outside a vast mansion.
Their colored hoods contrasting brightly with the dark Mansion next to them.
The house was massive, two stories with a tall roof. It was T-shaped, with the double front doors at the bottom of the 'T'; it certainly looked like it would cost a lot of money.
2 girls, new kids, walked to the large gates, the shorter girl with short choppy brown hair and large mysterious and intimidating amethyst eyes, and the other with long blonde hair in a ponytail and innocent and daring stormy gray eyes. Both of their build was athletic and petite, but the shorter girl had pale skin, unlike the tanned blonde.
Brunette, age 8
Blonde, age 11
The blonde shivered, considering she was wearing shorts for the play she and her friend were doing before this date, while the brunette was trying to unlock the gate, not shivering in the slightest.
The gate creaked open. As a cold breeze glided through the air, the brunette took a step forward, she abruptly stopped and gazed stoical at the blonde, "Well, Arabelle".

The blonde, Arabelle, stood there, a shiver running up her spine. "Funny, the one who agreed to the dare is having cold feet, before she even steps a foot beyond the gate" the brunette said, provoking Arabelle, and giving her the image of a coward.

"I am not a coward, Yuki!" retorted Arabelle.
"I didn't say you were a coward, did I? But let's start moving and finish this dare in time for the play."
The two stepped beyond the gate and Arabelle gazed up the mansion, from the door to the window shutters, and then the windows themselves...
Arable stopped in place, her gaze on the window next to the Oak door, she could have sworn she saw a figure in there, she blinked, shocked. But something warm slipped into her hand, breaking her trance.
She looked down to see Yuki's hand in hers, "If you don't want to do this, that's okay." The faintest of concern laced into her words and flickered into her eyes.

No, she shook her face, she was the one who chose instead of Yuki to go inside the mansion, so she could see the faintest of fear in her face, so she was going to continue, and after all she dragged poor Yuki into this with her.
The two, hand in hand went to the door, Yuki's confident, steady steps, and Arabelle's nervous, wobbling steps. They stopped in front of the door, Yuki looks at Arabelle, Arabelle nodded, and Yuki raised her arm and rapped her knuckles on the hard oak doors.
Knock Knock Knock

Arable gulped, "Wait!"

"You're too late; the door seems to be open." She said mockingly, all concern gone, as stepping inside, and fumbled with her bag, seemingly searching for something.
Arabelle looked around; the other children were still there, so begrudgingly, she followed her friend. She lowered the hood on the black coat she grabbed at the theatre, and ran a hand through her blonde hair to make sure it wasn't sticking up in any embarrassing way.
Yuki was already opening doors and exploring, a towel wrapped around her neck, her short hair having visible signs of being dried.
"This place is interesting" She murmured shaking her wet hat and throwing it into her bag. Arabelle wasn't sure how she hadn't caught a cold with her clothes.
As Yuki got out her pocket knife for safety, Arabelle shouted
"Look what you did! You left a damp patch on the carpet." Sure enough, Yuki was standing in her own personal dark circle of wet carpet.

Shrugging she said "Sorry, I was looking at the room and I must've dripped. Anyway, as I was about to say, isn't this Old Château?"
Arabelle stopped, and gulped, they hadn't told her this was the place they were going to stay the night in.
"You know what, it probably is, and it fits the bill well enough."
She turned around, heading to the front door, but it flung itself shut.
Shocked, Arabelle and Yuki ran for the door and tried to open it, but failed.
Yuki sighed, and Arabelle slid down the door holding her head.
"We're stuck" She moaned. But Yuki counter attacked
"I am NOT going to take the trouble and send you into an asylum, so stay sane till we get to your parents. Okay?" Arabelle groaned but Yuki gave her this look, and it creeped her out much more than being stuck in this mansion, so she stood up and took off her long black coat and shook it, trying to dry it.
"Hey, hypocrite! You're making a mess everywhere." Yuki shouted, noting the drips of dirty puddle water all over the nearby mirror, and some on her.

"It's the Old Château, right? Well then, nobody lives here and hasn't done for years, doubt anyone will care if we mess up an abandoned house."
Yuki ran a finger across the top of a table next, "I don't know, Arabelle, how many abandoned-for-years houses do you know that are regularly dusted." She showed a perfectly dust-free finger to her companion.
Arabelle took a closer look at the main foyer they were currently standing in, wide-eyed.
"Oh-Kay, you're right, this is really weird. I say we explore."
"What happened to your fear of this house, eh? Explore the creepy ghost house?" Yuki scoffed, "Sure, Arabelle, that's a great idea."
"What happened to your investigations, Yuki? Besides you know the place isn't really haunted, we settled that ages ago."
"Well, I'm starting to re-evaluate my decision after I discovered the fact that the house cleans itself. And the fact that the door closed by itself, besides you were scared moments ago, weren't you?"
Arabelle smiled nervously, "Calm down, Yuki, my grandmother always told me that there is truth at the heart of a myth, that with a careful appreciation of the legend, we can find the reality. That's all I want to do, have a little look around, and prove its not haunted, okay?" She walked over and put an arm around Yuki, hugging her close. "Shall we go?"

"Fine, you can even do a little dance if you feel like it, but if it is haunted, I get to say 'I told you so' and throw it in your face, Anyways I'll look for a journal to explain the murder."
Arable laughed "Whatever you want, Captain!"
The main foyer was longer than it was wide, with a small section at the front which was probably used for greeting guests, about half way across the foyer, two staircases lay on either side of the room which lead to a first floor landing with doors leading off into the other parts of the house. At the end of the foyer was an open door.

"We should probably start with the ground floor." Yuki said, looking at Arabelle, who had realized what she had said, and grabbed Yuki's arm.
Together, they walked through the door at the end of the room, not noticing the shadow of the little girl behind them.

A.N.
There isn't much action in this story, since its some kind of really huge prologue.
Don't expect much updating considering I'm going to re-evaluate my story and make it much more action charming!
I'm also going to submit the story in deviant art!
So, Ciao people !