Chapter 2: Welcome, Curious Friends…
As Adrianna and Mike approached the house, Adrianna's uneasiness about the house continued to increase. A large iron gate was open just a crack, allowing them to fit through. As Mike squeezed through the opening, Adrianna noticed a plaque on a stone pillar that was on the side of the gate. Another pillar, identical to this one, was on the other.
"Ravenswood Manor," Adrianna read as Mike made his way through the gate, "Built 1849."
Adrianna also made her way through the gate, and looked at the imposing wooden house.
"C'mon," Adrianna said, against her better judgment, "Let's go see if anyone's home."
They walked up onto the covered wooden porch, and as Mike used one of the large door knockers, Adrianna peered into one of the windows. She couldn't see a thing through any of them. The wind whistled by the porch, and Adrianna heard some soft music, coming from somewhere inside the house.
"Do you hear that?" She asked, trying to listen. She wasn't sure if it was real or not. It sounded like a music box.
"I don't think anyone's hom-" Mike started to say, but all of a sudden, the large doors creaked open. Mike and Adrianna peered inside. The room was lit by a few candles, and Mike and Adrianna walked into the house to get a better look. But as soon as they entered, the doors closed behind them.
"Uh oh." Mike quipped. He tried to open the doors, but they were stuck shut. Meanwhile, Adrianna was concentrating on the rest of the room. There didn't seem to be anywhere else to go. All that was in the room were a few candles and plants, and a gilded mirror on the wall. Adrianna looked at the mirror. All of a sudden, her reflection changed. It was a woman with brunette hair, and she looked like she was wearing a veil. She had a sad expression on her face…she looked trapped.
It was the woman from Adrianna's dreams.
"Uh…any luck with those doors, Mike?" Adrianna called nervously. She touched the old wall, trying to find some sort of secret passageway. But as soon as she did, it started to feel wet. Adrianna backed away, and watched in shock as red liquid started to drip from out of nowhere on the wall. It spelled out a message: Welcome, curious friends…
"Mike!" Adrianna gasped, and they stared at the message.
"Is that…blood?" Mike asked.
"I sure hope not," Adrianna murmured.
There was a creaking noise – a wall near the message suddenly opened, revealing a small octagonal room with many flickering candles and four portraits.
They were all of the same person – a young girl, the one Adrianna had seen in the mirror. One of the girl picking roses, one of her riding in a boat with a parasol, the girl wading in a pond, and the girl having a picnic with a man playing a guitar.
Adrianna and Mike stepped in, and the wall slid shut.
"I think we need to stop walking through doors," Mike suggested. Out of the corners of the room, a voice suddenly blared from everywhere and nowhere.
"You, you who have dared disturbing the serenity of this place... You must have a lot of courage to step through the door of this house..."
Adrianna and Mike whirled around, searching for where the voice was coming from.
"Mike! Look at the paintings!" Adrianna said, noticing that they were changing.
The room was stretching. And the portraits were too, revealing that they weren't as they appeared. The one of the woman picking roses revealed a skeleton coming out of the ground to attack her; the one of her in the boat revealed that she was headed right for a steep waterfall. The portrait of the girl in the pond stretched to show a water demon reaching for her ankles, and the picnic scene showed that millions of ants and other horrifying critters were coming to destroy their picnic.
Things aren't always what they seem, the mysterious voice said, "This room's walls, for example, are they actually stretching? And as you can see, there is no door... no window...What a frightening problem to solve... where is the way out?"
All of a sudden, the candles went out, and the two heard a scream from above. There, at the top of the room, was a corpse in a tattered tuxedo, being hung by a mysterious figure. It reminded Adrianna of the shadowy man that she'd seen in her dreams.
The figure cackled, and vanished. The lights came back on, and Adrianna realized that Mike had a vice grip on her arm in terror.
"Mike, relax," Adrianna said, trying to console him. But she was feeling unnerved herself. The wall slid open again, and they could see it lead to another part of the house.
"C'mon," Adrianna said, helping Mike out of the room.
"Why'd you listen to me?" Mike moaned, "I'm never right…I never should've suggested we come to this godforsaken house."
"I hear something," Adrianna said, trying to take Mike's mind off things. They walked through a hallway that had portraits hanging in it – unbeknownst to them, as soon as they passed one, it transformed and contorted. A woman lying on a couch became a panther-creature, a sailing ship contorted into a black and white ghost ship, and a Greek woman transformed into a hideous medusa. At the end of the hall was a large, full body portrait of the woman that Adrianna kept seeing. She was in a wedding dress.
"So she's a bride," Adrianna whispered to herself. But there was still a lot that Adrianna did not understand.