Chapter X
Onward, to the Mansion of the Crying Girl!

"This is hard!" Al shouted plopping down on his bed and kicking his feet. We had been sitting in his room for only ten minutes and he was already admitting defeat. "We haven't even done anything." Isa said, as he threw a balled up paper at him. "We need a notebook and camera equipment. Do you an empty notebook around here somewhere?" Al sat up and throw the paperball back. "Maybe in the attic somewhere." he answered. He got up and walked over to his bedroom door. "Anyone care to go to the attic with me?" he asked. "It's pretty dark and creepy."
"You're fifteen years old," Isa said. "Suck it up and hurry up. We need that book." Al looked at me and gave me the sad eyes. "Don't you do it Ven." Isa pointed. I looked at Al again who was pouting. He reminded me of an abandoned puppy that we found when were little. It was a girl puppy and it was sick and dirty. Al's mother felt sorry for her and decided to keep her. They gave her a funny name, at least, I found it pretty funny. It was Dearly Beloved. Dearly Beloved...two seperate words and made into a name for a puppy. Very funny. He never told me why he gave her that name. But he reminded me of her and I couldn't say no. "Ventus!" Isa warned.
"(Sigh) I'll go." I volunteered.
"Sucker," I heard Isa mutter. I laughed and met eyes with Naros again. She quickly snatched her head down and I saw something pink in her face. Was she blushing? "C'mon, V!" Al slugged me in the arm and I jumped. Walking into the attic, I looked around and saw alot of small items there. The attic wasn't at all small but it wasn't big either, I'd say it was big enough to fit a bed, dresser, and could be capable of walking around in it without feeling cramped. There were alot of boxes, bags...spiders...dust...webs...this place needs to be cleaned up a bit. Can't wait for Spring Cleaning. "What are we looking for again?" Al asked. "A notebook," I answered. "It's to write your progress and ideas. You're gonna be graded on this, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," Al flagged me. I blew a web out of my way and sat on one of the chairs. "So, Al," I began, "when do you plan on cleaning up this place?"
"My family hasn't cleaned this attic in fifteen years," he informed me.
"Fifteen years?! Al, fifteen years ago you weren't even born."
"I know." I watched Al struggle with an item. He appeared to be straining on something. It was heavy, real heavy. I knew that because Al had his feet on the wall and was struggling to pull it out. "Do you need any help?" I offered, standing up. "Noooooooo!" he strained out. "I got this-AAAH! I pulled a muscle!" I shook my head and sat back down in the chair. On the table next to me, I noticed a book lying there. It was black and had a drawing on the front. It was a doodle of a stick figure (I believe it was a man) lying in a hospital bed. Next to the bed there was a vase with flowers in it and small kids surrounding the man. A woman was there holding a baby and they all looked sad. There was poor writing on top of it and it was apparent that a child had done it. It had 'Get Well Daddy' and 'Our New Baby Brother Wants to See You'. When I picked up the book, the paper fell off it. I quickly picked it up and shoved it in my pocket. The black book was dusty and, to my surprise when I opened it, empty. I flipped through the book and saw that nothing was written in it. "Hey," I said. "I found a book."
"AAH!"
CRASH!
"...Al?" I stood up and saw Al lying on his back, coughing and groaning. I gave a sigh and shook my head again. "Are you OK, bud?" I asked.
"Yeah," Al answered dusting himself off. "Never better. Wanna see something cool?"
"Uh, sure." Al motioned his hand for me to come near him. I climbed over the rubble, nearly tripping on the way and saw a silverish box lying on the floor. "What's that?" I asked.
"Yooooouuu'llllll seeee!" he sang as he quietly sat in front of the box and began to unlock it. "Come over here and see this!" he urged me. I walked over and sat down, leaning in to see Al open the box. When the lid was lifted, my eyes widened. "Whoa!" I half whispered, half exclaimed. There, in the box, was a pair of chakrams. They were neatly placed next to one another. They were dusty, but magnificent. "Where'd you get these?" I wanted to know.
"Before my mom became a cook, she use to play with chakrams. My dad gave these to her as their wedding gift years ago. He said that he had no use for them." I laughed and nudged him. "Maybe you should ask to have these for your birthday." I joked.

Al agreed and stared at them for a while. "Say, Al." I said. "As much as you wanna stare at them all day...you got a project to do."
"Oh yeah!" his response was. He stood up, closed the box, and hid it underneath the rubble he created. We then walked downstairs back to his room. "Found the book," Al announced.
"What was all that noise up there?" Isa asked. "It sounded like something fell."
"Or someone," I inferred, getting punched in the stomach. Sitting down, we all began to put our ideas together. "We should have music!" Demy exclaimed. "And special effects! Ooh, ooh, ooh! Lights and end credits!"
"We'll need questions to ask," Isa said, messing with his pen. "And we'll need to find people to interview."
"Oh that'll be easy!" Al said. "I'm good with people."
"We know you are," I replied. Once again, I was elbowed in my stomach.

After practicing what we were going to do, we were ready to put the documentary in action.
There was just one problem; we didn't have a camera. And the only person I knew who had a professional like camera was my sister, Nazareth. And we all knew, well most of us, that Nazareth was a selfish and evil person. She wouldn't even give a penny to a guy who needs it. It was just my luck that my sister was the only one in this town to own a professional camera the teacher recommended. When I got home, I immediately walked into Nazareth's room and asked to borrow her equipment. Well...I didn't ask her nicely. It went more like this; "Nazareth, I need to borrow your camera equipment." She ignored me the first time and continued her conversation on her cellphone. "Nazareth." I said somewhat gesturing my hands. "I need to borrow you camera equipment."
"Hold on a sec," she said to her friend. She placed her phone downward toward the pillow and gave me a look. Not sure what it was though. "Hmm..." she began. "I could've sworn I said to knock before entering my room. I do recall telling you this long ago."
"Never said it to me," I replied as I walked in front of her bedpost. "Did you hear me when I came in?"
"Yeah I heard ya," she said. "The answer's no."

"Whaddya mean the answer's no?" I asked even though I knew the answer. "You're on vacation and haven't touched it for days. You might as well lemme borrow it so I can help Al finish his project." Nazareth gave me another mysterious look and tilted her head. "Mmmmmmmmmmmmm..." she hummed. "No. Especially since it's Alex you're helping."
"He really needs to do this project. If he doesn't, he's gonna fail."
"His problem, not mine." was all she said and continued her conversation with her friend. I didn't budge. My presence annoyed her and in a way, I felt I was achieving something by standing still in her room. "Did you hear me?" she asked sternly placing the phone down. "I'm not giving you my camera so beat it!" "Yeah," I said. "I heard ya. The answer's no."
"I see where this is going." she smirked. "You're mocking me and trying to be cute about it." She picked up her phone and told her friend to hold the call, she placed it down and stood up. "I'm giving you until the count of five to get out of my room or there will be fatal consequences." I mocked her by crossing my arms and grinning. "One." I continued to mock her. "Two." I wasn't going to leave without the camera equipment. "Three." I knew there was one way to get her to say yes. "Four!" That was blackmail. "Fi-"
"I have a video of your party when Mom and Dad were away on a trip." I finally spoke. Nazareth's face turned from anger and annoyance to disbelief and doubt. "You don't." she said.
"Oh but I do," I grinned, "and unless you want your dirty little secret to be exposed, you let me borrow your camera equipment and we call it a day."

Nazareth crossed her arms and shook her head.
"You're lying." she declared. "There's no way you could've recorded that party. Besides, I locked you in your room until the party was over. You have no evidence." I arched an eyebrow and sighed. I watched her give a victory grin and sat back on her bed picking up her phone. I left her room and came back with a disc. I felt her eyes follow me as I turned on her tv and placed the disc in a player. The tv made a few noises before a recording of Nazareth and her friends partying popped up. When the music and the students started playing, Nazareth's phone clattered to the floor and I turned to see the face of shock and fear. "How did you-"
"I turned your camera on before you sent upstairs," I answered. "You wanna know the best thing about having a technology hound for a friend?" Nazareth's eyes widened. She knew exactly what I was going to say. "You wouldn't dare..." she said in a dark frightful tone.
"Try me." I urged. "Now give me the equipment or the internet and our parents will love to see this."

"No, never. You and your friends will ruin it!" she said, still trying to have some control over the situation, but it was clear that I won. I'm not sure whether I shook my head in pity for her or I grinned evilly. Either way, it didn't matter because all I had to do was shout out a simple sentence. "Mom! There's something up here you'd like to see."
"Coming!" we both heard our mother sing. She was in the kitchen downstairs and we heard her somewhat speed walking. With the video still playing and Mother closing in on Nazareth's room, my sis started to panic and all of her power and control went down the drain. "OK!" she faltered. "You win! You win! Now turn it off!"

"Hug me." I told her.
"What?"
"Just do it!" I rushed over to her and wrapped my arm around her and she did the same. I forgot to turn the tv off when I was close to it so I grabbed the remote and in the nick of time turned it off seconds before Mother walked in. She stood there in amazement seeing that Nazareth and I were hugging, something we haven't done since I was at least nine. "Aww!" she cried, placing her hands over her mouth. "You two are friends again."
"Yeah," Nazareth smiled. "We sure are."
"I need to take a picture of this." Mother pulled out her phone and snapped a pic of Nazareth and me hugging. When she left, I felt a huge fist slam up against my side. "You little witch doctor!" Nazareth snapped.
"Relax," I coughed out. "I didn't enjoy it anymore than you did. We had a deal, now cough it up." Nazareth looked as though she was on the verge of changing her mind, which in all cases, she always do. Instead of saying no and calling her friend, she walked over to her closet and handed me the equipment. "I swear Ven if you break any of these," she threatened, "that bruised rib will become a broken one. You understand?"
"Got it!" I happily shouted and ran out the room with my reward in hand.

I returned to Al's home and saw that they were sitting on the steps waiting for me. "Hey," Demy pointed. "Ven's back."
"You're alive!" Al shouted. "We thought that you went into the Lion's Den and would never return."
"You were the one who was thinking that, Al." Isa muttered. He then directed his attention towards the equipment and me. "You know how to work a camera?" he asked. I nodded. "Demy and I can switch here and there," I replied.
Demy looked at the bag and pulled the camera out of it. "I like this," he said. "When do we begin filming?"
"After we review the script one more time." Isa answered. "Then we'll be ready." We all reviewed the script again and we were ready to begin the documentary. I held the camera in my hands and once the red light turned green I gave Al his cue to go. "Hello there civilians and my loving but hateful teacher," Al began, "It is I, Alexander the Great Narrator!"
"Cut!" I heard Isa say. "Alex, you can't brag like that on your documentary. The teacher hates braggers."
"Oh yeah," Al said. "That's right. Thanks Isa. Okay, TAKE TWO!" I held the camera up again and when the light turned green, Al knew it was his cue. "Hello my fellow classmates," Al said in a boastful like tone "you all already know my name but for those of you who don't recognize this sexy-I mean-me, my name's Alex and I am in room 362." I gave Al the thumbs up and motioned for him to continue. "For my project," he continued, "my group and I decided to investigate the Mansion of the Crying Girl. We all know the story about her, however, if you're like my pal here Demy-" I turned the camera towards Demy who was obliviously playing with his guitar, then turned back to Al. "-you may not know the story of the haunted mansion. There are alot of stories that's been told throughout the years but which story is the truth?" Al pondered in his head quietly and snapped his fingers. "How 'bout we go ask the town?"

"And cut!" Isa said. He nonchalantly clapped his hands. "Very good, Al. That was very good. But you forgot one thing."
"Really?" Al said. "And what's that?" Isa pointed with his pencil to Naros, Demy, me, and himself. "You didn't introduce us."
"Ahn no biggie, Isa," Al somewhat flagged him, "I'll introduce you guys when we get to the town square."
"That won't make any sense," Demy replied. "We should probably start with introducing all of us, then we can talk about the mansion...or something like that." We looked at Demy quietly and nodded in agreement. "That's a great idea," Al said, "how come I never thought of that?"
"Because you rarely think." Isa remarked, which earned him a glare by Al. After two more takes on the intro of the documentary, we finally managed to do it correctly and now we were ready to interview some people in town. Of course we had to get their consent, which was the most easiest thing that could be done since everyone in town knew us and loved us.

The first place we went to was Henley's Treat Sweet. Awkward name but Mr. Henley was an awkward man.
Mr. Henley was an old man whose store has been opened for only a few months. He used to own an antique store that, unfortunately, burned down last year. It was devastating considering the fact that the antique store had been in our town for centuries. Literally. Mr. Henley was heartbroken but eventually he got over it and created a new store in which people would ask; "Why is it Treat Sweet and not Sweet Treat?" and the answer is always the same, "He's Mr. Henley." It was apparent that Mr. Henley knew that we were coming, for the store said closed but we could see five chairs out near the counter and Mr. Henley invited us in. Demy opened the door to the store and happily announced his presence as well as ours. "We're here!" he shouted.
"Hello, Demy!" Mr. Henley greeted. "Come now, have a seat. You all must be thirsty or hungry."
"Both!" Al replied hopping down in a chair beside Isa. I pulled the seat beside me out for Naros to sit in, which she did. "Good day Isa," Mr. Henley said. "Howdy Alexander, and afternoon Ventus. And who might you be dear? I've never seen a face like yours around here before."
"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Henley," Naros smiled. "I'm Naros."
"Ven's girlfriend." Al teased.
"She's not my girlfriend!" I protested.
"But she will beeeeeeeee," Mr. Henley sanged.
"Mr. Henley! You too?"
"Ventus my boy," Mr. Henley laughed. "I may be an old man, but I know how boys act when they like a girl. Believe me, 45 years of marriage and she still makes me feel young inside." We all laughed at that. We would have stayed longer and chat a bit more, but because of Al's big mouth, we had a project to do. So it was time to get to work. "Mr. Henley," I began. "We're doing a documentary and we would like to know if you wouldn't mind being in the film."
"Of course I don't mind, Ventus." Mr. Henley said. "What's the documentary about anyway?"

"The Mansion of the Crying Girl." Al answered. Mr. Henley looked at the five of us as if we were crazy.
"What're y'all?" he asked. "Paranormal investigators?"
"Just friends tryna help an idiotic big mouth." Isa nonchalantly replied, his head resting on his hand. "Oh I can tell you alot about that house." Mr. Henley said. "It's full of tragedy and sadness." I turned on the camera and aimed it at Mr. Henley, he's not one to repeat himself on this matter. "Years ago," he began. "There was a family that lived in that mansion. They had two children, a maid and a butler."
"oooooh nooo." Demy moaned and slammed his head down on the counter. "C'mon Demy!" Al replied, "That story I told ya was only a joke."
"Quiet!" Isa hissed. "Continue Mr. Henley."
"I've seen the children myself," Mr. Henley started again. "A young boy and a little girl. From what I remember, she had beautiful long blonde hair and wore a white dress and carried around a tiny sketchbook. Her brother was different. He was a brunette-"
"With sharp blue eyes...?" Naros asked.
"Why yes dear," said Mr. Henley. "You've heard this story before?" Naros shook her head. "A friend of mine told me that boys with brown hair are known to have sharp blue eyes." she replied. "I'm sorry...it was just a thought that ran through my head."
"No problem dear." Mr. Henley continued his story of the Crying Girl and when he finished he gave a big hardy laugh and shook his head. "It's only a story," said the old man. "I doubt there is someone in there really crying. If so, then a tragedy it must be. Poor child."

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Henley." Al said.
"No no no, thank you!" Mr. Henley replied. "Come back anytime. I'm always opened!"

Once we all came to an agreement that interviewing half the town was enough, we finally chose to go to the mansion.
"Onward," Al proudly raised his fist and marched. "To the Mansion of the Crying Girl!"
"Are you sure you wanna do this...?" asked Demy. "We could lie and say that it's off limits..."
"Don't be ridiculous, Demy." Al said. "We made it this far, we can't back out now. Besides, I only have until Friday to put this whole documentary in tack." Demy gulped and looked at the arch we were to pass into the forest. "It's settled." he laughed. "Now, onward! To the Mansion of the Crying Girl...again!"