"God, this stuff is like quicksand." Derek said, sticking his head out the window.
"Yeah and we're sinking in it." Jason remarked, opening the door. A thick thread of dirt fell off.
"So how far do we still have to go?" Derek asked, his eyes scanning the directions he had received from Chloe and Lan.
"Uhh…" Jason looked at his map. "Maybe a mile or so."
"All right." Derek took his phone out and dialed Chloe's number.
"Yeah?"
"Chloe?"
"Derek? Where are you?" She asked.
"We're about a mile away."
"Great, we're almost there." She said. "We've been reading more about this place. Did you know that Huddleston, boy this guy was a real nutcase-"
"Is that your professional opinion?" Jason asked.
"Funny. But really, it was rumored he did experiments on his family, which might explain the deaths, and I think he might have done them on his dinner guests too."
The phone started to break up.
"Chloe?" Derek shouted.
"it's the trees." Jason said. "They're blocking the signal."
"I'll see you at the house!"
***
When Chloe and Lan had reached the house, they both cautiously opened their doors.
"Thank God I rented the SUV." Chloe said.
"Right." Lan groaned as her shoes sank about 2 inches in the dirt.
"Okay, well I guess we either go in or wait outside." Chloe said, looking at the house before them. It looked like it was about to fold over like a house of cards.
"Let's test the structural integrity first." Lan suggested.
Chloe looked at her. "How do we do that?"
Lan hefted her backpack and bent down. She picked up a large rock and squeezed it in her hand. Reaching back, she heaved it towards the house. It flew through the air and banged against the wall.
Neither of them spoke. The house stood silent, a small scrape where the rock had made contact.
"All right, I guess it won't collapse on us." Lan said, shrugging.
They trudged towards the front, and they both sighed with relief as they stepped on firmer ground. Wiping her shoes on nearby bushes, Chloe took out her cell phone. She speed dialed Derek and after a couple of seconds, the phone reported that there was no signal.
"I can't get to him." Chloe said, shaking her head. She looked up at the structure and squinted.
"I think we should wait here." Lan said. She raised a hand and she wanted to dust off a window, but the greenish moss covering it dissuaded her.
There was a deep rumbling as Derek and Jason pulled up with the reckless abandon of a wrecking ball. Mud sloshed on the wheels and on the surrounding shrubbery as they stopped. Derek opened the door with gusto and jumped down, his shoes hitting mud. He looked down and shrugged.
Chloe and Lan looked at each other in disbelief.
Jason, a little more cautious, stepped out of the car and jumped to drier ground.
"This was Huddleston's old stomping grounds?" Derek asked.
"It's a fixer-upper, I can tell you." Jason said, turning the camera on.
"Mmm, okay, let's do a opening crawl in front of the house." Derek said, gesturing for Chloe and Lan to join him in front of the camera.
"We're rolling." Jason said, pushing the red 'record' button.
"All right. Hey Freaks. Derek here, with the entire team standing in front of Huddleston's old house. Yeah, I know, we were there before. Turns out that the old man had two houses. Chloe Tanner and Lan Williams here, Jason Tatum behind the camera. Now, we're still trying to figure this whole mess out, it's a real puzzler. Did Old Man Huddleston perform experiments with the occult on his family? Was this the origin of his descent into madness? What really happened to his dinner guests at Huddleston Manor in Georgia? We're going to find out."
Derek waved Jason over and they crowded around the steps. Derek looked back uncertainly and gingerly walked up the stone steps. A piece of the step gave way as his foot touched it and he almost fell off.
"Careful." He said.
When they had all reached the front door, Jason looked at the handle. Scraping some of the moss off, he pushed the door open.
"Ugh, what is that smell?" Chloe asked.
"Could be a dead body." Derek joked.
Lan hit him in the arm.
"Ow, hey."
"I think it's the moss." Jason said, covering his nose.
"Well, uh, why don't we split up?" Derek said. "Jason, you and Lan take the third floor."
He looked at Chloe. "We can get the basement." Derek said, cracking open a door that led to a sharp turn of narrow steps. He could barely see beyond the third tread of steps.
"You sure?" Lan asked. "It doesn't look so stable."
"I don't think any of this house does." Jason said, poking a wall. It trembled under his touch and a few flakes of paint fluttered off.
"We'll be fine." Derek said.
They split up and Derek and Chloe began their descent.
Lan cast a worried look at the open door before following Jason upstairs.
The rooms were empty, except for a few small pieces of old furniture.
Lan passed by an old armoire in the hall and shuddered. It had probably been there for decades. Out of curiosity, she pulled the handle and slid the drawer open.
"Jason?"
"What?" He came out of a room.
"Look." She said. There were old photos, each stuck together by something dark and sticky. She reached in a hand and pulled at one. She pulled it out, attached the several other photographs.
Jason examined the photos.
"It's the family." She said, pointing to a picture of an old woman sitting neatly on a bench. "I recognize that photo, it's the grandmother."
"They just left it here?" Jason asked. "People have no sense of family memories."
"Wait, there's something else." Lan squinted. There was barely any light. Jason shone the camera down into the drawer and she peeked in.
"Oh my God."
"What?" Jason asked anxiously.
"Look at this." Lan said, pulling out an old bounded notebook. It was covered in dust and scratches. More of the dark sticky stuff coated the top. She offered a face of disgust as it got on her hands. She held it to her nose and sniffed it.
"What is that stuff?" Jason asked.
"I don't know."
"What's in the book?"
Lan opened it, examining the pages. They were covered in words written in cursive, scratchy and faded. The edges of the book were old and yellowed, creases cutting down the sides.
"Hey, look at that." Jason said, pointing.
At the bottom of a page, it said J.E. Huddleston.
"Well, now we know who wrote in it." Lan said. "It must be a journal. I can read some of it." She said, her eyes tracing the cursive until a thick crease harshly cut it off.
Jason looked into the drawer again. Aside from the rest of the photos, he didn't see anything. Taking the photos out and stuffing them carefully into the backpack Lan carried, he closed the drawer. Opening the second drawer, he frowned.
He pulled out several thick volumes, each torn and covered with more of the substance.
"You know, whatever this stuff is, it's damn annoying." He said, wiping his hand off.
"What are these?" Lan asked, taking one of the books. She read the spine.
"History of the Occult." Jason read off one of them. He picked up a blue book and looked at the spine. It was torn where the title was. He opened the book and was startled when a big image of a ferocious demon-like creature faced him. He flipped the page quickly.
"Possession and Alchemy?" Lan read.
"This guy was one whacked out dude." Jason said, shaking his head. He put the books in Lan's backpack.
"You sure we should be taking this stuff?" Lan asked.
"We need it. Especially that journal."
Jason quickly checked the third drawer, which was empty. He opened the fourth drawer and cursed as it stalled halfway from opening. Lan stooped down and pulled on it.
"See if you can push it from the back." Jason said, pulling the edge of the armoire so Lan could slip behind.
"Uh, Jason." Lan said, looking behind the armoire.
"What?" Jason asked. "See if you can push the left edge, I think I've got it. There's something stuck under."
"Jason?"
"There's a piece of paper or something…"
"Jason!"
Jason looked up. "What?!?"
"There's something you should see." Lan said quietly, and her finger pointed to the armoire.
Jason stood up and joined Lan.
"What the hell is that?" He asked.
They both stared at a gaping hole, big and black, reaching down to god knows where.
"I don't know." Lan said. Jason shone the camera down into the hole. He held it back up.
"It's too dark. I don't see any ground."
"Well we know why the drawer wouldn't open." Lan said, pulling on a rope that led to the armoire. The rope swayed in her hand, the other end leading down into the abyss.
"Let's go find Chloe and Derek." Jason said.