Rose took a few seconds looking into the hallway. She was puzzled as of who or what was causing the light or those creaking of footsteps. Down the hallway there were more doors, and there were a couple of chairs and small tables as well. The end of the hallway faded to black.
Rose turned and went back to the stairs. As she climbed up the stairs, she made sure to listen for any sounds or footsteps that weren't her own. She even looked over her shoulder a couple of times to check and see if there was anything. Rose had read and heard too many stories of people wandering into places and have only one person surviving to tell the tale. If anyone made it out alive at all. One particular story crept in her mind, the story of a couple of Villagers who wandered the forests. Coming upon a mansion that appears to be abandoned. And the book goes on and describes in disturbing perfect detail of how multiple characters get picked off one by one and killed.
Remembering the way the characters died in such detail made Roses spine shiver. Though it was only a story and nothing more, it still made her want to be more cautious about her new surroundings.
As soon as she reached the next platform, Rose noticed that Caden was no where in sight. She was met with two different directions, one to her left, the other to her right. Each with their own flight of smaller steps
"Caden?" She called out, silence.
"Caden, which way did you go?" Rose called again. No answer. Rose was now facing a problem. Two ways, but no way telling which was the right way.
She turned to the left, and made her way up the short flight of steps. By the time she reached the top. She was met with a tall, lit, grand corridor. At the end was a long wide double door. The corridor was littered with broken furniture, the walls and floor were cracked. As Rose slowly made her way to the doors, she saw stone statues, broken. The statues had the bodies of villagers but had the heads of animals. Polar Bear, Wolf, Fox, and Sheep. All the statues posed as if they were in agony. The statue with the sheep head was lying down on the ground, as the statue with the wolf head choking the sheep head. The Polar Bear stood and looked like it was roaring, one of its feet was on the head of the Fox that also lay flat on the floor, looking defeated.
Rose looked down and saw pieces of glass shattered everywhere. She looked up and noticed a glass mirror on the wall. The mirror was all cracked with a few pieces missing.
'Someones face broke the mirror.'
Rose tried to joke, hoping to break the nervousness that was slowly gripping her. She made it to the doors and wrapped her fingers around the handle. Hesitantly, and with a sudden sense of fear, she opened the door. The door creaked and groaned, and it took Rose a little bit of effort to open.
Darkness, Rose opened both doors open to let in the torches light in the room. All Rose made out was a grey mess. She stepped inside, suddenly a torch right behind her on the wall near the left side of the doors lit. The torch was followed by another torch on the left side of the doors, but nothing more. In this room, all was dark, no windows, just the one double door. But she could still see the mess that lay before her. Broken smashed furniture layed all about the room, thousands of broken glass pieces layed all on the ground. There were broken splintered chairs, smashed tables, rippend and ragged carpet. Some ripped and torn portraits lay on the ground, some still hung on the walls. Dust was everywhere, covering almost everything. Not only that, but she was also greeted with a musky smell. Rose looked behind her and saw a sign on the wall near the left side of the door, beneath the lit torch. She wiped off the dust that covered the words.
Family Room
Rose looked back to the room, And then, she began walking deeper in the dusty room. The sound of her footsteps as her little shoes hit the gravel floor sounded off. And the dust were starting to lift off the ground, and started to fill her nose. Rose stopped and tried holding back her sneeze. It worked. Rose continued her way through all the dust, shattered glass, and broken furniture. As she made her way through she she heard a different sound in her steps. She paused and looked down at the ground. Just gravel lay beneath her. She stepped on the square ground a second time. Unlike the other parts of the steps she's taken, which sounded heavy and almost echoed her steps. This part of the floor had a hollow thud. Rose paid not mind to it, she had to find someone. Caden, this Nathan, someone had to be here surely. She continued forth until she spotted something that caught her eye.
Writing paper. Rose made her way to the small stack of paper, which lay spread on the floor. She picked one up and looked closely. A letter! Not just a letter, multiple letters. Rose began picking them up, once she was sure she had all of them, Rose looked all around the room. Making sure there was nothing else. Finally, she turned to leave the room. It wasn't until then that she felt something was more off. Rose couldn't wrap her mind around it. But something on the back of her mind was screaming at her that something was wrong.
She was nearly out the door when she heard it. A loud thud from behind her.
"Nathan? Caden?" She asked, looking behind her, then looking straight ahead.
*Rr.. *
"Aaaaaaah!" Rose screamed as she rushed out the door! She did not bother to look back a second time. She sprinted through the corridor and ran down the stairs.
At the bottom of the steps on the platform was Caden.
"Caden run!" Rose screamed as she passed him running down the next flight if stairs. Once she reached the bottom however, Caden had grabbed her, stopping her.
"Calm down. Whats wrong?" Caden asked. Rose stopped and looked up the stairs, wondering if there was something that may have been following her. Nothing.
"I thought you were behind me, where did you go?" Asked Caden. Rose took a moment to catch her breath, then said.
"Okay, when we were headed up the stairs, I saw a light and heard other footsteps. I looked around that corner and saw nothing. Then I tried looking for you and went into the family room. That's where I found these."
She held up the letters she found.
"Okay then, well these rooms have nothing, let's go down this hallway and see if theres something."
Rose nodded, and they went left and began walking down the hallway. Rose couldn't shake off the feeling things were unnatural about this mansion.
