Arthur stood up in front of the group and stated, "Okay! Everyone, we need to go over the rules", in the first living room of the house, they seated themselves upon the well-worn red velvet couches and Ivan was in the leather seat. The room was dark, red wine colored wall paper seemed to heave outwardly and then retract. The raised grain mahogany floors seemed to behave of a carotid artery, pulsing life into the manor. Light from the large stone hearth and the few flickering wicks of candles incandescently illuminated the room. Francis was seated in the love seat next to Matthew. A wise Grandfather clock bellowed its broadcast of the time in fifth teen minute intervals. The ticks and tocks sung a hypnotic rhythm entrancing its guest. Yao and Alfred sat across from where Francis and Matthew were sitting which created an alleyway to the frame of the antechamber. Ivan sat on an elegant black leather chair near Alfred. Alfred in his bold arrogance placed his feet on the coffee table pinched in between two couches. A childhood of horror movies had seared terror in the mental fabric of his mind. The ambiance of this setting had Alfred ripping bits and pieces of his fingernails to release nervous energy. Arthur stood silhouetted in front of the hearth fire that wisp and crackled as it burned the air in the room that seeped in through the cold drafts. "These rules will be valid to our survival for the coming days. Be wise to listen for your own safety. The manor has an erratic behavior. Passage is decided by the house, and the house devours fear!"

Francis started to wrangle with Arthur, "It figures that a prisoner of mother England would create rules simply because he's got a bad case of the willies"

Arthur was getting a little irritated, "This house is filled with unsettled spirits! If we do not have a set of rules, than we will all end up dead", he continued," I am sure that you, being the Frenchman you are, would not want to die at the age of one thousand one hundred-"

"Please, no need to say my actual age, twenty-six works for me monsieur."

"Now, we can start," Arthur had a small black board with a stand out propped next to him. He wrote the first rule on the board with a small piece of white chalk, "Rule number one, never go anywhere alone. If you roam these halls alone, unthinkable things happen, and we do not want that."

"Wait, what about the bathroom? Because I don't want to see any of you guys going to the bathroom and I like my privacy", Alfred questioned.

"If you need to go, than the person with you can wait outside the door, and be sure to be armed," Arthur answered then snapped at Alfred, "Alfred F. Jones, take your bloody feet off the coffee table right this instant before I make you watch The Conjuring and every bloody Paranormal Activity in one night! It is disrespectful and rude, you are a guest here."

"No one lives here though", Alfred sassed not moving a muscle because he knew that Arthur would never make him watch all of those horror flicks in one night.

"That does not matter; this is not your house."

Matthew decided to jump in and help Arthur. Unlike Arthur, Matthew knew how to convince Alfred to do almost anything, "Hey, Al, I'm pretty sure that heroes don't put their feet on coffee tables when they are at someone else's house."

Almost instantly, Alfred took his feet off the coffee table and quickly wiped off anything his shoes may have left with his hand. He then sat up straight; being more attentive to Arthur's set of rules.

"Moving on, rule number two; do not open a door unless it is verified 'safe'. If a door seems suspicious, notify me or Ivan, and do not even bloody think about breaking that rule or you will be sorry," before he moved on, he stopped himself and said, "and questions will be answered after I announce the rules."

"Now, rule number three; no one goes to the attic, basement and any floors above the third floor."

Alfred interrupted again, "Why mention the attic if we aren't allowed to go to any rooms after the third floor?"

"I said questions later you git!" Arthur sighed, "I mentioned it because the attic is dangerous and I am trying to make this as safe as bloody possible."

"Now, no interruptions", Arthur wrote the next rule on the chalkboard, "Rule number four; no, I repeat, no touching any delicate artifacts or any artifacts at all. If you break any object you could anger any spirits that still roam around this manor." He then wrote another rule down, "Last but not least, rule number five; we must all get along, and this rule is valid to our survival. If we do not get along and work together than we could all die without accomplishing anything and this will all be for nothing."

Arthur placed the piece of chalk he was using on the frame of the chalkboard and faced the group, "Now, any questions?" Not even a second after Arthur spoke, everyone's hands shot up, "Oh, jolly good, guess you all have questions", He looked around and spotted someone. "Yao you go first and we will go counter clockwise after that."

Yao went first, "I assume we have roommates due to your first regulation, but just to be sure, do we have roommate? Also, when is lunch?"

"Why am I not surprised that you asked about food," Arthur sighed and answered Yao's question, "Yes, we do, we will be paired up after questions. Lunch will be after the tour, so one to two o'clock."

Yao groaned, "Aiya that is such a long wait," Yao continued to whine, "I'm going to die of starvation before I the day even starts!"

"You can have snacks you know, no one said you could only eat at lunch."

Yao quickly stopped his whining, "Thank goodness, "

"Anyways," Arthur moved on to the puzzled individual, "Next, Alfred it is your turn", Arthur said, waiting for him to ask things like 'Is there a McDonalds nearby' or 'Does this place have Wi-Fi'.

Alfred immediately asked his question in a joyful tone, "Is there Wi-Fi? Is there T.V here? Will there be hamburgers?"

Arthur was right, "We are staying here for about six days, so every day a two different people will cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner." He paused, "If we have hamburgers they better be good because you are going to make them."

"Yes!, "Alfred did a little victory dance while sitting down.

Arthur almost smiled at Alfred's foolishness, but refrained since France was there so he kept a straight face, "And no, there is not any T.V nor Wi-Fi. They did not have Wi-Fi in the eighteen hundreds! And the electricity that was installed later on, barley works. Ivan, you're next."

"It is my turn now, da? Do we get a map of the house just in case we get lost?" Ivan smiled," Also, why was I mentioned in rule number two?"

Arthur opened a suitcase and took six medium-sized pieces of paper out, "I'm glad you asked! These are the maps to the house, but when the house is awakened there is no telling that these maps will be accurate." He passed out the maps out to everyone, leaving one for him, sort of ignoring Ivan's second question for he did not this it was that important.

"How come the library on the fourth floor is scribbled out?" Matthew said in his usual soft voice.

"I didn't make this map, so I don't know why things are written or scribbled out," Arthur included "Now it's your turn Matthew"

Francis interrupted, "What about me? It's not every nice to exclude people. I am here too, no."

"And I thought you wouldn't notice. Alright, Francis," Arthur sighed, "it's your turn"

Francis adjusted his tie, "I have only had one. First Why are we here? The only explanation I got is that we were here to investigate any paranormal stuff and you would pay us money to come with you."

Alfred laughed weakly, "P-paranormal? Y-you never s-said anything like that."

"Arthur never told you?" Yao glared at Arthur, "Arthur you know better than to put your little brother in a situation that he isn't comfortable with. You know he is scared to death of this type of stuff . Shame on you."

"Hey, no one asked for your bloody opinion you old bloody bastard!" Arthur crossed his arms, "Stay out of it; I knew he would not come if I mentioned a 'haunted' manor."

"No! He just said that if I would like to come to investigate a manor."

"And you said..." Francis joined the conversation.

"Well, I said of course because I am the hero after all"

Arthur ignored Alfred and answered Francis's question, "To answer your question, Francis, I brought you all here to assist me in silencing this manor once and for all. The queen wanted me to do so because she did not want more people die and she wants to make it a museum."

"So she wants to make money off of this place and you weren't man enough to go here alone," Yao chuckled, "That is pathetic! You should have just convinced your queen that there is other ways to make money, like making it a tourist attraction or paying off your ebt with me." he said jokingly.

"Yao that is not helping me get out of this. I'm sure that's what the Queen intended after we are done here just so we can pay off that stupid debt."

"You still don't have enough money to pay that debt off," Yao shook his head in disappointment, "At this rate it will take you forever to pay me back."

"You just figured that out, almost everyone has a debt with you. Yet you are in debt as well."

Alfred agreed with Arthur, "Yeah, back off, we all are trying to pay you back!"

Yao laughed, "You're one to talk. You are still making me make all of your stuff which is putting you deeper in debt. Not to mention not only do you have debt with me, but you have debt with almost everyone. So, you should back off."

"Hey! That's not very nice!" Alfred shouted.

Francis laughed, "You both know that you're not going to win."

"You bloody git! You just say that because you wanted to disagree with me! "Arthur broke his own rule by yelling at Francis, starting a verbal brawl with him

"So it's my turn now? Well, my question is, what are we looking for, I didn't really get those details?" Matthew's voice was barely heard by anyone, they all were fighting. So, as usual he was completely ignored. "Kumajiro, when do you think they will notice me?" he looked at his pet bear, Kumajiro who he held most of the time. "Maybe if I spoke up a little, then maybe they would listen to me right?"

"Who are you?" Kumajiro looked up at Matthew

He groan and spoke with a hint of annoyance,"I'm your owner, Matthew Williams, remember." he looked at the fight; Francis and Arthur were trying to murder one another, Yao tried to calm them down getting angry in the process, Alfred went on about heroism and was fighting with Arthur mostly, and Ivan watched from the side lines, smiling, as usual. Matthew raised his voice a little, "But seriously, guys, we really should stop fighting. This is getting us nowhere."

"Huh? What was that? Did I hear something?" Alfred teased. Alfred and Francis were usually the only people who payed attention to him. Unfortunately, Francis was too occupied insulting England to hear his younger brother..

"Don't act like I'm not here Al, it's not funny." Alfred ignored Matthew as he went on about how he was the hero.

"Why do you all ignore me? I don't get it! I'm a human being! I breathe the same air as you! Yet it seems that my very existence is always ignored!" Matthew's voice ascended to a yell. Everyone stared at Matthew's sudden burst of anger; it wasn't normal for him to so angry that he would yell.

Arthur backed away from France and spoke apologetically to Matthew, "Oh, uh, Matthew, I'm sorry, we all must have gotten carried away and forgot-"

"Apology not accepted!"

"What, why!?"