Ch. 3 Gotta Go Get my Man
When everyone arrived inside the mansion, Laura made her first comment on the new place. "What a huge place!"
"Yeah! The main hall's gigantic!" exclaimed Anne.
The gang made their way through the main hall and made themselves comfortable.
Laura and Anne found two chairs to use in the main hall while the others stood up. There was an end table that stood between them as if it was a dinner for two.
Once everyone settled down, Mrs. Mary needed to leave to go get her husband. "I gotta go get Mr. Barrows. Everyone wait here." She then walked away into the corridor.
Nobody said anything until they felt sure she was gone. During that moment of silence, the teens looked around and checked out the mansion. For some reason, the mansion didn't seem to be as exciting as one had hoped.
Jennifer felt disappointed but said nothing about it. She had better manners than to trash talk someone else's home.
Then Anne spoke first, breaking the silence. "I bet this is going to be so fun living in a mansion compared to living in that orphanage!" exclaimed Anne already hooked on the mansion.
But Laura felt the opposite. "I don't feel too good about this mansion. It kind of gives me the creeps. It looks like those pictures are staring at us!" Laura looked around in fear.
"Tell me about it. I had the creeps by just looking at this place!" said Joshua agreeing with Laura.
Anne scuffed. "You guys are so paranoid! We just got here and you're already freaking out about it!"
Listening to the commotion, Jennifer wanted to be the peacemaker and calm everyone down. "Guys! Calm down! We need to just wait for Mrs. Mary to bring Mr. Barrows! She's coming right back!"
"Calm down? How can you calm down when this place is so creepy? This house makes me uneasy!" cried Laura looking at Jennifer with a sad face.
"Relax! You act like this place is haunted!" said Anne folding her arms with a smirk on her face.
"Maybe it is." added Joshua with a straight face.
"Josh!" exclaimed Jennifer giving him a mean look.
"Hey I'm just throwing it out there." he looked Jennifer in her eye with his arms halfway up as in surrender.
Aside from their minor dispute, the teens began to realize something.
"Hey does anybody know how long Mrs. Mary has been gone?" said Laura looking at everyone.
"Yeah what's taking her so long? Is Mr. Barrows in the woods or something?" Anne joked.
"Should I go find Mrs. Mary?" volunteered Joshua looking at Jennifer.
"No, I'll go look for her." confirmed Jennifer and then walked away. In the corridor, it was darker and scarier looking. She then remembered what Laura said about this place making her feel uneasy. Now Jennifer was feeling the same way. "Wow! This place really is scary." She looked around and called out for Mrs. Mary. "Umm…hello!...hello?...Mrs. Mary?...Mr. Barrows?...where are you?...everyone's waiting for you!" Jennifer then took her first, small steps. She took 10 steps and right before she was about to make the 11th step, Jennifer heard her friends scream back in the main hall. She gasped and quickly turned around. "Guys!" Immediately, Jennifer ran back to the main hall to check on everyone. But she couldn't believe her eyes. She was gone for 30 seconds and then everyone just mysteriously vanished. Also the lights were out. Quite impossible! "Guys?...Laura!...Anne!...Josh!...come on this isn't funny!" Jennifer waited for a response and got nothing. She instantly felt discouraged. "What happened to everybody? Everything was just fine! Now what?"