Chapter 4: Trespassing
Joe's body hung against the wall, warm blood still dripping from the fresh wounds in his chest and stomach onto the cold stone floors of the basement. All signs of life were gone from his body as it dangled over the puddle of blood below him. His attacker wasted no time thinking about the homicide he just committed, but concocted the next strategy to finish what he was determined to accomplish, and what makes it better is that none of the other people in the mansion had a single clue as to what was coming.
"Well he broke the rule for disappearing, if that's the case," Andrew said.
"Should we go looking for him?" Quinn asked, concerned about their missing friend.
"Not now, it's not of use for all of you to go wandering off and get lost somewhere here, and it's against the protocol for any guests to go somewhere without a tour guide; it's all insurance business. He can find us when he gets back, I'm sure we won't get too far ahead without him," Andrew said.
"Let's hope a ghost didn't get him. Ooohhhh!" Dave said jokingly, creeping up ghost like behind some of the girls.
"Shut up Karofsky," Santana said as she turned around and slapped Dave on the shoulder. "You shouldn't be talking, you were cowering before after Andrew told the story of the homicidal butler," Santana finished, seeing the defeat in Karofsky's eyes.
"Okay, if you guys are done joking around, I would like to get back to the tour," Sebastian said.
"Thank you, now let's continue by heading into the kitchen where we have a tale of breaking and entering as well as homicide by arson. It's sure to heat things up. Ha ha," Andrew said, cracking himself up, but not even cracking a smile of his guests. "Well some people find that funny," he said before leading the group through the dining room and into the kitchen,
"I have a bad feeling about this one," Tina said as Mike and Artie both nodded their heads in agreement before following through the door.
"Well as you can see in here pretty much everything in here is as updated as the house is, and that's for a very interesting reason. In 1894, the Jones family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Jones as well as their two children. The story I'm about to tell took place on a warm August night. While Mr. Jones was working late one night, and both children were spending the night at their friend's houses, Mrs. Jones took the time to attempt to cook dinner for herself and her husband, but she was in for a surprise," Andrew said, starting the story.
"She was alone in the huge mansion that night and had not thought to lock the front door, which was a huge mistake. She heard the front door open, and her first thought was that it was her husband returning home from work, but she was wrong," Andrew began. "She called out to who she thought was Mr. Jones, saying: 'I'm in the kitchen, honey!' But who appeared in the doorway of the kitchen was not who she expected. She turned and saw three men dressed in all black, obviously there to rob them. Mrs. Jones attempted to make a break for it out the back door here, but she wasn't fast enough when one of the men grabbed her and threw her to the ground.
"She screamed and thrashed to get away, but she wasn't strong enough. One of the men got down to where her face was and pointed a gun against her temple asking 'Is there anyone else here?' to which she replied in a terrified voice 'No.' The two men started to leave but stopped to throw the man holding her down some rope. He took the rope and tied her hands together, then taking the other end he tied it to the island in the middle of the kitchen facing the stove. Once the men left, Mrs. Jones could hear them breaking things and taking stuff out of their mansion as she tried to get free. As she struggled she could smell something burning, and she looked up and realized the stove was still on. Using only her feet, she tried to turn the stove off, but ended up knocking the pot of hot food over onto a towel, it did not take long for it to set on fire, soon spreading to anything flammable nearby.
"Mrs. Jones screamed in pure terror, which caused the men to see what was her problem, when they were met with the ever growing fire. 'Please help me!' Mrs. Jones screamed, but the men ignored her and got out of there before they got busted, leaving her to the fire. It didn't take long until the fire nearly consumed that whole area and eventually spread to the island that she was tied to and soon enough she became nothing more than a charred dead body. When Mr. Jones returned home an hour later, he was met with the smell of something burning bad, and was not prepared for the scene in the kitchen, but as for his wife, she was gone for good. It took years until they could get the smell of burning flesh out of the house, but they say this kitchen is still haunted by her spirit, hoping for revenge on anyone who breaks into the house." Andrew said, finishing yet another story.
"Now I don't think I can ever be alone in my house again," Kurt said.
"That story was really disgusting. I feel like I'm going to be sick," Mercedes said, leaning up against the counter next to her.
"Yeah, why do all these stories have to be disgusting or creepy?" Rachel asked.
"What do you expect? You wanted to tour the mansion and be told of all the tales and events that took place here which made it the legend it is," Andrew said, "and that's what I'm doing."
"Okay, then let's keep going, and hopefully the next one won't be as disturbing," Finn said.
Andrew nodded in agreement and led the group back into the hallway. They all filed through the door one by one, leaving Rory as the last one to leave. But when he was about to follow the rest of the group he heard a noise come from beyond the door leading to the backyard. He walked over to the door and cupped his hands around his eyes as he looked out the window. He couldn't see much through the rain, but could slightly see what looked like someone's silhouette.
He opened the door and walked into the rain. "Joe, is that you?" He said, thinking it was their missing friend, but it wasn't. When Rory walked up to where he saw the silhouette he was shocked to see it was only one of the many statues on the residence, and now he felt stupid thinking it was an actual person.
As Rory headed back to the door, he noticed it was now closed, and when he was unable to open it because somehow it became locked. He tried multiple times to get it open, but was not even close to successful. Now he needed to find another way in, so he decided to walk around the house to the front door. As he rounded one corner, he saw a door which most likely led to the basement, but he just walked past it.
The rain began to fall harder, and the lightning and thunder cracked in the sky. Rory looked up startled when he heard a loud crack of thunder, and was not expecting to suddenly be hit across the back of the head with a hard blunt metal object. Stunned and disoriented by the unexpected blow, he fell to the ground into a muddy puddle. His vision went completely blurry as he was barely able to tell which way was up or down as he felt himself being picked up and thrown over someone's shoulder. All he heard was the sound of a creaky door opening before he was flung down a small flight of stone stairs onto a cold dirty floor. The disorientation really hit him, and as he looked up his vision clear a bit to allow him to see the bloody body that belonged to Joe hang up against the wall.
He heard the faint sound of someone talking, and he comprehended it to be: "Get out of my house." And right after he heard those words, he was struck in the head once again by the same shovel that nearly knocked him unconscious, only this time, the blow had killed him.
All Jack could do was constantly think of his home, and how easily his wife figuratively sent it crumbling to the ground. She defiled their marriage and his trust, and now he not only lost the woman he once loved, but he lost the house he claimed as his own. Now he was on the run, and trying not to be caught for the murder he committed a few nights before.
As he walked past a news stand he saw several newspapers all about him, his wife and the butler missing, with just their blood left in the bedroom. The police were not only on the lookout for them, but for the person whom committed the crime. And either way, Jack needed to make sure they didn't find him. So he set off, to another town to start another life, now he wished it would be as easy as he hoped.