No adventure in a mansion, manor, castle, whatever's complete without going through hidden tunnels behind false walls, unbearably stuffy from the tight brickwork that went into forming the hidden tunnels, and the dark secrets that lie somewhere in the tunnels.
Unsurprisingly, thought went into these tunnels preventing water from getting inside from the heavy rains that occur daily, that it wouldn't surprise Theodore if it contributed to the flooding outside as water's pushed away from the mansion, combining with the collected water on the ground, causing the streams flowing down the hill.
The brickwork inside the tunnels muted the storm outside, footsteps deafened, the silence the only thing heard through the tunnels, while Theodore and Lila maneuvered through them.
Theodore found scratch marks on the ground, too large and spaced to be mice, there's only a set of scratch marks, too, not four like an animal.
On the walls, he sees similar scratch marks, pinprick holes that looked dug in, whatever maneuvered through the tunnels climbed, too.
That's what the Winchesters saw.
If Theodore gone through their guest room, he would've saw the marks on the ceiling, too.
"In the center of it, Harold," Lila summed while staying close to Theodore as he guided them with the blue light of the Sonic Screwdriver.
From the note to now, whatever's going on, Harold's involved, becomes the question of what's the endgame, and if the reason the Winchesters saw glowing eyes had something to do with it.
Theodore doesn't think whatever they're dealing with necessary wanted to harm the Winchesters, rather, scare them away.
Else, they would've looked at two murders.
"What about us?" Lila asked what purpose it served assaulting her and Theodore with the books, if it was supposed to scare them away.
Mindful of the webs that clung to parts of the tunnels, Theodore replied that it's possible that the intent wasn't to scare them away, but to get their attention, and to their credit, his attention's piqued.
"There are easier ways of getting someone's attention, you know," Lila denounced the idea of someone using projectile books to get her and Theodore's attention.
Less chances of a broken nose, it's a miracle she's even breathing out of it, she'll be stuck in the TARDIS until the ointments take effect, and the discoloration goes away.
"Perhaps they're getting desperate," Theodore reasoned that this wasn't an act of malice, leading Lila into asking him, "You don't think… Harold's keeping someone here, do you?"
The letter, the forged invitation…
"I don't want to make my deductions this early, but… it doesn't add up," Theodore says to her as he turned a corner, ahead, there's a staircase leading down somewhere.
Going forward, Theodore sees the steps broken in sections, guiding Lila as he went down them, and the temperature shifted as they reached the bottom, feeling it becoming colder.
Faintly, Theodore and Lila smelt something, peppery, neither could explain it, and it's faint enough they couldn't distinctly pinpoint the source.
Suggesting that the scent's coming from the brickwork, itself, Lila questioned why it smelled the way it did, something Theodore couldn't answer, but curious, as well.
The peppery smell remained with them throughout their movement through the tunnels, until Lila spotted damage in the brickwork ahead of them.
Walking up to it, the two see a gaping hole, the pried bricks pushed to the side, when Theodore knelt to see where the hole leads, he found it's blocked off by wooden boards, when he tried pushing on them, he heard filled kegs, from the smell, he says they're filled with wine.
The fizzy scent he picked up on makes the wine old enough to have been processed before the nuclear testing and use.
Looking ahead as the tunnel continued, Theodore believed that when the original basement became closed-off during one of the renovations, a wine cellar took its place, and that if they kept going, they'll find it.
It's his belief that there's a hidden staircase somewhere in the tunnels that led to the first floor, somewhere in one of the rooms that Harold wouldn't let them go into, where they'd find the staircase.
"Something's bothering me, if Harold's keeping someone down here, why wouldn't the staff know anything about it?" Lila questioned how no one working in the manor knew about what Harold's doing, being they lived on the grounds, a requirement because of the daily storms.
More, wouldn't they report similar sightings, sounds?
A good question of itself, Theodore pondered, as he forced the makeshift blockade away from the hole, ensuring they have an exit strategy should they need it.
Always have an escape plan, his father would say.
Pondering the question, the only thing coming to mind for Theodore's the thought that whoever Harold kept in the hidden basement's aware that trying to get the attention from the staff wouldn't worked as well as scaring the Winchesters and assaulting him and Lila with the books.
Maybe Harold threatened them, not the first time it's happened.
Only when they find the basement, maybe they'll have their answers.
The peppery smell coming from the brickwork started become stronger as they're deeper in the tunnels, enough that Theodore and Lila can smell it better.
It didn't smell like any peppers the two were familiar with, but it started nauseating them that Theodore made quick masks with the handkerchiefs he took out of his pockets.
Another set of staircases leading down, the two walked, the smell worsened, without fresh air, it lingered, to the point it wouldn't surprise Theodore if it infused into their clothes.
Spotting an arched doorway ahead, Theodore sees a faint glow, coming closer, he sees that there's lit torches, and when he and Lila's enshrouded by the light, he turned off his Sonic Screwdriver.
It looked like a dungeon more than a basement and Theodore remarked that this couldn't been a recent addition, this's older than the previous mansions.
A row of arched doorways, no doors on them, slowly, Theodore moved ahead, looking through the open doorways into different rooms, some filled with things, some weren't.
He found a room with old portraits inside, with Lila beside him, they studied the portraits.
One was that of a young boy dressed in red, Lila mentioned the book, that this might've been Ramsey, the youngest Thornton son that died of illness.
Another portrait, there's a young adult leaning on a cane, that had to been Gerald, the oldest Thornton son who had an accident that crippled him.
Then, finally, the last portrait, it's obviously Harold, but something's amiss, this portrait had the face completely ripped out of it, thus they couldn't see his face.
From the raggedy cuts, Theodore said someone had to physically mar this portrait to tear out Harold's face.
"Why would anyone do something like that?" Lila asked aloud as she looked at the three portraits, seeing the face ripped out of Harold.
Something stirred behind them and they took notice immediately, sharply turning around, they didn't see anything except the lit torches and r the rooms ahead of them.
Instinctively, Theodore pulled Lila behind him as he stepped forward, his icy blue eyes slowly moving as he went through the threshold of the room, standing in the hallway.
Looking around, Theodore didn't see anything or anyone, until he heard a skittering noise coming an adjacent room.
Against better judgement, he went towards the adjacent room, there isn't anything inside it, except a hole in the wall, whatever it was, gone through it, and because his father taught him well, he walked backwards away from the room.
Only stopped when he felt Lila's hands on his back as his icy blue eyes remained locked on the arch doorway.
Walking sideways, Theodore went with Lila as they moved away from the adjacent room, further up, once they're out of sight, they started walking normally.
There's an intense peppery smell coming from one of the rooms that Theodore forbids Lila from entering, instead investigating himself.
Nothing inside the room, but the peppery smell's unbearably strong, that Theodore believed this room was used solely for storing something.
No longer anything inside, except the smell that forever permitted the brickwork, and before Theodore left the room to return to Lila's side, he noticed a piece of yellowed paper stuck to the ground.
Reaching down and snapping it up, Theodore sees it's a faded piece of paper with lines denoting something shipped to the original Thornton estate.
Couldn't tell what, ink's almost faded completely, and without anything to go by, Theodore dropped the paper, returning to Lila's side as she kept watch.
"Whatever's the source of the peppery smell, this was where they brought it," Theodore looked towards Lila as he briefly looked back to the room he went through, having not found anything except the source of the peppery smell.
Despite this section being, what Theodore estimated, over a hundred years old, the smell remained, and like an Egyptian tomb, with no fresh air, no contact to the outside, it's allowed too stagnant unimpeded.
Skittering noises resumed, somewhere ahead of them, this time, and as Theodore and Lila looked ahead to see where the skittering noises came from, they heard an exasperated, "And so it begins, again!"
Turning their heads, standing behind them, holding his handgun tightly, wearing sunglasses, Harold.