Stevenson House

"Ready to go?" Louis' mom asked on Monday, as the group of 8th graders stood outside the four buses, waiting as their luggage was packed.

"Yeah," Louis replied. "I've got everything."

"So when do we tell each other if we're the murderers?" Tom asked, having apparently decided to get in on the pact.

Twitty shrugged. "I dunno. Hey, Lou, is that a water gun sticking out of your bad?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Louis said, glancing at Mrs. Stevens. He pushed the fake pistol into his bag and zipped it up. "I just thought it would be a good surprise for our little murderer."

"Sweet!" Twitty laughed. "Let's get on the bus before we get murdered trying to catch up with it." He recalled chasing Tawny's limo back in 7th grade as a result of their prank calling.

"Yeah," Tawny laughed. "We'd better go."

"Bye, Mom!" Ren called as she checked each student as they boarded the buses.

After the long and easy goodbyes, Louis, Tawny, Twitty, Tom, and Allison rushed onto the bus to get the best seats in the back.

"All right people!" Ren said as she stepped up to the front of the bus. "May I have you're attention please?"

The chatting continued.

She cleared her throat loudly. "May I have you're attention please?"

Nothing happened. With a sigh, Ren put her fingers in her mouth and blew the loudest whistle anyone had ever heard.

The bus was silent.

"Thank you." Ren smiled and sighed of relief. "Now, there are a few rules I'd like to run through before we leave."

She unrolled a piece of paper that must have been at least two feet long.

Ignoring Ren's rule reading, Louis whispered to Twitty, who sat next to him, "We'll tell everyone tonight when everybody else is asleep."

He seems pretty excited.

Twitty nodded, and passed the message to Allison.

"And that concludes the rules," Ren finished about ten minutes later. "Now, I just have to deliver the rules to the other buses, and then we can go!"

Everyone on the bus groaned.

>>>>

"Wow."

Stevenson House was one of the tiniest mansions Louis had ever seen.

"We're staying in this tiny shack?" He asked, annoyed. "What about all the descriptions from people? One of the biggest houses in the state? This place barely looks as big as my house!"

"Louis, relax!" Ren said. "Don't judge it. We haven't even gone inside."

"Ahem," came a soft voice.

A short, plump woman, who wore a blue sundress, stepped outside of the house and stood proudly on the porch.

"Welcome to Stevenson House!" She exclaimed in a voice that sounded like she'd sucked in a whole gallon of helium. "I'm Miss Pateer! I'll be your guide this week."

"This is going to be a long week," Louis whispered to Twitty.

"Oh don't worry, Love, the luggage will be taken care of," Miss Pateer said as Ren bent down to pick up her suitcase.

"Okay," Ren smiled.

"Now!" Miss Pateer grinned. "If you'll all follow me, I can show you around the house."

Everyone stepped onto the porch, groaning, because they figured what would be inside, considering the looks of the outer house.

They were wrong.

When Miss Pateer opened the door, they were in awe.

The front hall was glorious! There was a bright crystal chandelier that hung gracefully about the long and spiral staircase, which went up at least three floors. On the left, there was a medium-sized room that looked to be a gift shop, with all sorts of cases lining the walls. In the middle of room were shelves holding old things, probably artifacts, and typical souvenirs. Everything seemed to need a bit of dusting.

Everyone stepped into the large parlor.

"Wow, from the looks outside it seems like this is magic," Allison said.

"Yeah," Tawny agreed. "Magic."

They were so busy admiring the glorious house, that they didn't notice Miss Pateer's smile fade, almost into a frown, as she shut the front door and locked it with a big, far-from-undoable looking latch.

>>>>

"Now, children!" Miss Pateer smiled. "This is our head butler Francis and our cook Sophie."

Two very stiff figures emerged from the dusk of the kitchen. They were dressed in black.

"The looks are just supposed to freak you out," Louis whispered to Twitty.

The tour began.

They walked through all different rooms upstairs, and downstairs. There seemed to be thousands almost, and every time you looked down a hallway, turned around, then looked at it again, it seemed to have changed one way or another.

One by one, Miss Pateer assigned people their rooms. When she was finished, she turned to the group and smiled.

"Now, if you'll follow me, I'll show you the kitchen," Miss Pateer said, grinning even more.

"Lame," Twitty said under his breath.

"Follow me," Louis said.

They tiptoed away from the group and began walking a hallway they'd been in earlier, although it seemed to be different, different wallpaper or something, but something definitely had changed.

"So," Twitty said, casually leaning again the wall. "What should we do now?"

His question was answered when the wall he was leaning on fell backwards, or moved backwards. The wall was opening!

"What the—"

"Wow," Louis said. "It's a secret passageway or something."

"Let's see where it goes," Twitty said.

Louis nodded, and stuck his foot in. He felt the floor, so took hold of a wall that hadn't moved, and put the other foot in too. There was a dim light far, far ahead of him.

"Come on, dude," he said to Twitty. "Let's see where it goes."

Twitty stuck a foot in as Louis moved forward, but stopped with a shrill scream as someone grabbed his shoulder.