Part 2
"As you can see, our grounds are extensive and well-kept." The curator, Janine Dobbs, was leading them through the back of the mansion to familiarize them with their surroundings. Derek had already concluded that she was not an ancestor of any neither of the victims nor of the actual owner. She was a small woman of about 50 who seemed nervous around Derek's camera. She'd occasionally looked back and when she saw it, she'd look away as if she was afraid of it.
Derek didn't want to be impolite. But he really did need to film so he ignored her silent pleas. And Jason wasn't exactly much help.
"The crew will arrive tomorrow, so you have one night alone in the house. If at anytime you need assistance, you can call me, or if it's an emergency, call the sheriff's office. The mansion itself is very well built and you shouldn't have any problems with leakage. There's supposed to be a storm tonight." She led them through the doors into the
Main foyer. "We have running water as well as electricity. The renovations are on minor things, such as the outside sculptures that need a bit of fixing."
Derek nodded. The conditions were often more ideal than he had been faced with before. There were rooms, beds, and bathrooms, running water, electricity.
"This place is beautiful." Sue said beside them, tracing the arches with her eyes. They danced over the carved moldings above the doors.
Derek couldn't forget the odd feeling he had when she said that. It was almost the words of reminiscing. He pushed the thought of out his mind. Getting paranoid, Barnes. He urged himself. It was nothing at all. Just his imagination acting up. Or maybe it was Sue. That must've been it. Derek didn't like the idea of Jason's girlfriend showing up.
"Indeed it is. The second level is where your rooms will be. Cleaners attend to the house every three days. As I understand, you plan to stay for a week?" She looked at Derek, then at Jason. She didn't look at Sue at all.
"Well, that's what we're planning. But I'm not really sure." Derek said.
"Well, whenever you decide you're done is fine. Just call us." Dobbs smiled.
She started to leave. Jason and Derek smiled back at her and waved.
"I hope the research goes well for you two." She said.
Derek's grin disappeared. He glanced at Jason, who was already halfway up the long staircase.
"What was with the that?" Jason asked as he walked into Derek's room.
"With what?" Derek asked.
"I know this is business and all, but you could at least talk to Sue." Jason said.
"Man, this is business, you're right. And you're supposed to be helping me." Derek said.
"And I am. I'm just sayin', talk to her. You don't like her?" Jason asked Derek. He looked up at Jason and shrugged.
"I don't know. She's nice and all, but…" Derek stopped.
"What?" Jason said.
"In the garden, she was staring at me." Derek said.
"Hey, you're the Fox Mulder of the Internet, and Sue's really not into that stuff. She's a senior at Yale."
Derek was impressed. "Yale?"
"Yeah. So she was probably just watching your camera skills." Jason said, smiling. "Don't worry about it."
Within an hour, Derek had begun his "official" investigation. Wielding the camera, Jason panned it across the main hall.
He finally focused it back on Derek, who was checking his hair in one of the large mirrors.
"Talk about bad luck." Jason said, whistling at the mirror, which spanned from mid-wall to the ceiling.
"Yeah. Wouldn't want to break one of those." Derek grinned. "Ready?"
"Yeah, we're running." Jason said, moving around to look at Derek directly. Jason frowned when he saw himself filming Derek in the mirror's reflection. He nodded to the right and Derek looked behind him. Noticing the camera staring back at him from the mirror, he moved aside.
"Derek Barnes here with my partner Jason. We're on location at the Huddleston Mansion deep in the town of Huddleston, Georgia. As you can see-
Jason moved the camera to show the ornate tapestries decorating the main hall.
"The house is very large and has been kept in an immaculate fashion. Back to the case at hand, Freaky Links has uncovered what appear to be the eyewitness accounts of several noblemen that were interviewed by police back in 1862. One of those interviewed, an Elias Torren, mentioned several accounts of strange noises being heard. He said that there were paintings moved around in the middle of the night. Now, if you'll observe one of these paintings described-
He nodded to Jason and pointed to one piece of art located at the top of the staircase.
"You'll see that these paintings are very large and would take at least 6 men to lift and move. This is the description given by a Margery Huddleston, J.E. Huddleston's third daughter, written when she was 19. She moved into the house on her 15th birthday and said that the decorative work her father did rivaled the greatest shrines of India. Anyways, Elias Torren was not the only one who reported these odd happenings. Another visitor, a cousin by the name of Jennifer Dunn, on vacation from England, described in her diary that many of the sculptures in the massive gardens were also moved."
Derek waited. Jason looked at him from behind the camera.
"Garden." Derek said, nodding toward the door.
"Oh." Jason said, and turned the camera off. They walked out the main door and turned to enter the side gate that led them down the stone path to the gardens.
When they stopped beside a huge statue of the late J.E. Huddleston, Jason started the camera up again.
"Okay. Now, one of the statues Jennifer Dunn mentioned happened to be the one of the late great man himself, J.E. Huddleston, who is right here next to me." Derek motioned towards the statue, which towered over him by at least 2 feet.
"Now, this statue was once located all the way on the Far East side of the garden. One night, a disturbance was heard and the next morning, the statue was here, only 25 feet from the west gate. Record shows that the statue weighed half a ton and took over 10 men to lift, when it was built in 1866. Given this mansion's history of strange and unusual occurrences, one would think that the Freaky Links team is actually here to find what happened to the 8 disappearances, right? Wrong. We actually know what happened to the 8 people. We just don't know how."
Jason walked with Derek as he went to the staircase.
"The 8 people, names unknown, consisted of four men, three women, and a 5 year-old child. Each were guests at the shindig Huddleston threw that night, and each never went home that night. However, three months later, each body was found in an entire town away. Autopsy reports showed that the victims died no more than a week before they were found. Which meant that for 2 months and 2 weeks, these people were alive. Further reports show that the victims died of an overwhelming amount of stab wounds to various parts of the body. It was because of this that identification was almost entirely unrecognizable, save that whoever or whatever killed these people left the face in better shape than the rest of the body."
Derek looked behind him momentarily to make sure he didn't stumble. He turned and walked up the stairs, going as fast as he could without falling.
"We are approaching the three bedrooms that we are staying in right now."
Jason peeked inside Derek's room and moved the camera around, zooming on his laptop and backpack lying on the bed. Derek stepped back out in front of the camera.
"This is my room, as you can see. Our trusty web mistress Lan has been kind enough to be my eyes and ears back in sunny old O, as I am to hers here in Huddleston."
After that, they moved on to Jason's room and through a mounted effort on Sue's part, Derek and Jason skipped her room.
They went back downstairs. At this point, Jason noticed that Sue was no longer with them. He dismissed it quickly, as he noticed Derek looking through his documents and pictures searching for the various sites he wanted to film. As soon as he was done, Jason started filming again.
"Okay. We're in the main dining hall. This is the very room where J.E. Huddleston wined and dined his guests. Now, if this document I have here is correct, there should be a secret passageway behind this fireplace right here. I know, cliché. The late cousin Jennifer wrote this in a diary entry. Does the Freaky Links Team dare go inside to explore?"
In front of him, Jason's eyes left the camera for a moment to look at the fireplace, which, even though it was cleanly kept, still looked like it had its vermin problems.
Jason shook his head and mouthed an unyielding no.
Derek just grinned. Jason shut the camera off as Derek walked to him.
"You can keep watch." Derek said. He took the camera and looked through the stuff he had taken with him. Derek, you're going to need to organize better, he said to himself.
"Here we go." Derek said. He pulled a small brick loose and saw a rusted button hidden beneath it. He breathed in deeply and pushed it. The house seemed to rumble as the fireplace revealed a small crack. Putting the camera down, Derek slid both hands into the crack and started pulling. The door slid open a bit easier than he had thought.
"Be careful." Jason said as Derek disappeared into the hole. "That's my jacket you're wearing."
"As you can see, our grounds are extensive and well-kept." The curator, Janine Dobbs, was leading them through the back of the mansion to familiarize them with their surroundings. Derek had already concluded that she was not an ancestor of any neither of the victims nor of the actual owner. She was a small woman of about 50 who seemed nervous around Derek's camera. She'd occasionally looked back and when she saw it, she'd look away as if she was afraid of it.
Derek didn't want to be impolite. But he really did need to film so he ignored her silent pleas. And Jason wasn't exactly much help.
"The crew will arrive tomorrow, so you have one night alone in the house. If at anytime you need assistance, you can call me, or if it's an emergency, call the sheriff's office. The mansion itself is very well built and you shouldn't have any problems with leakage. There's supposed to be a storm tonight." She led them through the doors into the
Main foyer. "We have running water as well as electricity. The renovations are on minor things, such as the outside sculptures that need a bit of fixing."
Derek nodded. The conditions were often more ideal than he had been faced with before. There were rooms, beds, and bathrooms, running water, electricity.
"This place is beautiful." Sue said beside them, tracing the arches with her eyes. They danced over the carved moldings above the doors.
Derek couldn't forget the odd feeling he had when she said that. It was almost the words of reminiscing. He pushed the thought of out his mind. Getting paranoid, Barnes. He urged himself. It was nothing at all. Just his imagination acting up. Or maybe it was Sue. That must've been it. Derek didn't like the idea of Jason's girlfriend showing up.
"Indeed it is. The second level is where your rooms will be. Cleaners attend to the house every three days. As I understand, you plan to stay for a week?" She looked at Derek, then at Jason. She didn't look at Sue at all.
"Well, that's what we're planning. But I'm not really sure." Derek said.
"Well, whenever you decide you're done is fine. Just call us." Dobbs smiled.
She started to leave. Jason and Derek smiled back at her and waved.
"I hope the research goes well for you two." She said.
Derek's grin disappeared. He glanced at Jason, who was already halfway up the long staircase.
"What was with the that?" Jason asked as he walked into Derek's room.
"With what?" Derek asked.
"I know this is business and all, but you could at least talk to Sue." Jason said.
"Man, this is business, you're right. And you're supposed to be helping me." Derek said.
"And I am. I'm just sayin', talk to her. You don't like her?" Jason asked Derek. He looked up at Jason and shrugged.
"I don't know. She's nice and all, but…" Derek stopped.
"What?" Jason said.
"In the garden, she was staring at me." Derek said.
"Hey, you're the Fox Mulder of the Internet, and Sue's really not into that stuff. She's a senior at Yale."
Derek was impressed. "Yale?"
"Yeah. So she was probably just watching your camera skills." Jason said, smiling. "Don't worry about it."
Within an hour, Derek had begun his "official" investigation. Wielding the camera, Jason panned it across the main hall.
He finally focused it back on Derek, who was checking his hair in one of the large mirrors.
"Talk about bad luck." Jason said, whistling at the mirror, which spanned from mid-wall to the ceiling.
"Yeah. Wouldn't want to break one of those." Derek grinned. "Ready?"
"Yeah, we're running." Jason said, moving around to look at Derek directly. Jason frowned when he saw himself filming Derek in the mirror's reflection. He nodded to the right and Derek looked behind him. Noticing the camera staring back at him from the mirror, he moved aside.
"Derek Barnes here with my partner Jason. We're on location at the Huddleston Mansion deep in the town of Huddleston, Georgia. As you can see-
Jason moved the camera to show the ornate tapestries decorating the main hall.
"The house is very large and has been kept in an immaculate fashion. Back to the case at hand, Freaky Links has uncovered what appear to be the eyewitness accounts of several noblemen that were interviewed by police back in 1862. One of those interviewed, an Elias Torren, mentioned several accounts of strange noises being heard. He said that there were paintings moved around in the middle of the night. Now, if you'll observe one of these paintings described-
He nodded to Jason and pointed to one piece of art located at the top of the staircase.
"You'll see that these paintings are very large and would take at least 6 men to lift and move. This is the description given by a Margery Huddleston, J.E. Huddleston's third daughter, written when she was 19. She moved into the house on her 15th birthday and said that the decorative work her father did rivaled the greatest shrines of India. Anyways, Elias Torren was not the only one who reported these odd happenings. Another visitor, a cousin by the name of Jennifer Dunn, on vacation from England, described in her diary that many of the sculptures in the massive gardens were also moved."
Derek waited. Jason looked at him from behind the camera.
"Garden." Derek said, nodding toward the door.
"Oh." Jason said, and turned the camera off. They walked out the main door and turned to enter the side gate that led them down the stone path to the gardens.
When they stopped beside a huge statue of the late J.E. Huddleston, Jason started the camera up again.
"Okay. Now, one of the statues Jennifer Dunn mentioned happened to be the one of the late great man himself, J.E. Huddleston, who is right here next to me." Derek motioned towards the statue, which towered over him by at least 2 feet.
"Now, this statue was once located all the way on the Far East side of the garden. One night, a disturbance was heard and the next morning, the statue was here, only 25 feet from the west gate. Record shows that the statue weighed half a ton and took over 10 men to lift, when it was built in 1866. Given this mansion's history of strange and unusual occurrences, one would think that the Freaky Links team is actually here to find what happened to the 8 disappearances, right? Wrong. We actually know what happened to the 8 people. We just don't know how."
Jason walked with Derek as he went to the staircase.
"The 8 people, names unknown, consisted of four men, three women, and a 5 year-old child. Each were guests at the shindig Huddleston threw that night, and each never went home that night. However, three months later, each body was found in an entire town away. Autopsy reports showed that the victims died no more than a week before they were found. Which meant that for 2 months and 2 weeks, these people were alive. Further reports show that the victims died of an overwhelming amount of stab wounds to various parts of the body. It was because of this that identification was almost entirely unrecognizable, save that whoever or whatever killed these people left the face in better shape than the rest of the body."
Derek looked behind him momentarily to make sure he didn't stumble. He turned and walked up the stairs, going as fast as he could without falling.
"We are approaching the three bedrooms that we are staying in right now."
Jason peeked inside Derek's room and moved the camera around, zooming on his laptop and backpack lying on the bed. Derek stepped back out in front of the camera.
"This is my room, as you can see. Our trusty web mistress Lan has been kind enough to be my eyes and ears back in sunny old O, as I am to hers here in Huddleston."
After that, they moved on to Jason's room and through a mounted effort on Sue's part, Derek and Jason skipped her room.
They went back downstairs. At this point, Jason noticed that Sue was no longer with them. He dismissed it quickly, as he noticed Derek looking through his documents and pictures searching for the various sites he wanted to film. As soon as he was done, Jason started filming again.
"Okay. We're in the main dining hall. This is the very room where J.E. Huddleston wined and dined his guests. Now, if this document I have here is correct, there should be a secret passageway behind this fireplace right here. I know, cliché. The late cousin Jennifer wrote this in a diary entry. Does the Freaky Links Team dare go inside to explore?"
In front of him, Jason's eyes left the camera for a moment to look at the fireplace, which, even though it was cleanly kept, still looked like it had its vermin problems.
Jason shook his head and mouthed an unyielding no.
Derek just grinned. Jason shut the camera off as Derek walked to him.
"You can keep watch." Derek said. He took the camera and looked through the stuff he had taken with him. Derek, you're going to need to organize better, he said to himself.
"Here we go." Derek said. He pulled a small brick loose and saw a rusted button hidden beneath it. He breathed in deeply and pushed it. The house seemed to rumble as the fireplace revealed a small crack. Putting the camera down, Derek slid both hands into the crack and started pulling. The door slid open a bit easier than he had thought.
"Be careful." Jason said as Derek disappeared into the hole. "That's my jacket you're wearing."