Chapter Two

Ethan had thought about sleeping in before the inevitable grind toward turning in all the applications he had filled out, but he wasn't even able to do that. He had originally thought his alarm was going off for some reason until he realized that Kathryn was waking him up. He mumbled something that wasn't even understandable to himself as he rolled over.

"Did Brian text you?" Kathryn asked, not even waiting for Ethan to completely wake up. "He didn't come home last night."

There could have been several reasons why Brian hadn't texted or come home last night. Maybe he had hooked up with someone. But Kathryn sounded extra worried. Which meant she had tried calling and texting Brian repeatedly. The least Ethan could do was check his phone.

"He didn't mention where he was going?" Ethan asked as he grabbed his phone from the bedside table and sat up. He had to turn on his phone. He hadn't remembered turning it off last night.

"He just said he was going out with some work friends," Kathryn said. "Part of me now wishes I had gone along. That way I'd know where he was right now."

When his phone came on, Ethan saw that he had a voicemail from Brian and showed Kathryn. "I'm sure he's fine," he said then played the message on speaker phone so Kathryn could hear it as well.

"Ethan," Brian's voice sounded frantic. He was also whispering. Ethan's hopes for his friend to be okay were shattered. "I don't know if you'll ever get this, but...I fucked up. I fucked up big time... The others ran, I don't know if they made it out... There was this big guy with a knife... I don't know how long I can hide. My phone's gonna die, but if you get this, I'm at..." He quickly gave an address then the message ended.

Ethan and Kathryn were silent for what felt like hours.

"Could he be joking?" Kathryn asked, hopeful. "Why else would he talk about a guy with a knife?"

"I don't know," Ethan said. He climbed out of bed and went over to the desk, replaying the message so he could write down the address.

"What are you gonna do?" Kathryn asked. "Should we call the police? What if it's actually just a joke?"

"I guess I'll find out when I get there," Ethan said then walked over to the closet to find a pair of jeans and a shirt.

"You're going there?" Kathryn asked as if he had just decided to walk through a portal straight to hell. But after that message, wasn't that exactly what he was doing? "Are you crazy?!"

"If you have any other suggestion, I'd love to hear it," Ethan said, stepping into the bathroom to change. "I don't know what else I could possibly do." Once dressed, he walked out of the bathroom, grabbing his phone and the paper with the address.

"I'm coming with you."

"No," Ethan was firm. "If it's really that dangerous, you need to be here. I'll call you if something comes up."

"And if you don't call or show up?"

Ethan wrote down a copy of the address for her. "If you don't hear anything from me by tonight, call the police," he said.

"Tonight?" Kathryn asked. "That's a long time to wait."

"I want to give myself enough time to find Brian and get out without getting myself in trouble," Ethan said. "Let's just hope for the best and maybe we'll all be laughing about this tonight."

"I'm not laughing anytime soon."

"Just keep an eye out here," Ethan said. "I'll text you when I get there." He slipped his shoes on then headed out the door.

Ethan didn't have a car, but Kathryn let him borrow hers. She was going to call in sick since she didn't feel like going to work, so she didn't need the car anyway. She was still texting him off and on, saying she could have gone with him. Ethan continued to tell her no. If something bad happened, he would never have been able to forgive himself if she ended up hurt.

The address was right outside of the suburbs that he hadn't even known existed. In fact, he wasn't able to even see the place until he was pulling up in front of the gate. Clouds had rolled in from nowhere, promising what might be a rough storm. Ethan wanted to get in and out as fast as possible.

Ethan turned off the car and got out, walking up to the gate. It wasn't visibly locked, but it also looked as if it hadn't been opened in decades. Even so, he managed to squeeze himself between the bars. That obviously hadn't been the way Brian and the others got in, but he wasn't about to do too much exploring. The place was already creeping him out enough.

He pulled out his phone to update Kathryn on his current whereabouts, but stopped when his phone was dead. He couldn't remember what the battery life had been at, but he was almost positive that it had been nowhere near dead. Either he had been mistaken, or the GPS he had used to get here had drained his power.

Either way, no phone.

If he wasn't able to contact Kathryn by tonight she would call the police, so at least there was that if something ended up going wrong.

Hopefully nothing would go wrong. Hopefully Brian was okay.

Ethan hesitated for a moment as he moved forward then just decided to go for the front door. As he grew closer, he saw that the windows at the front were dusty. There was no way he could peek inside. He reached for the doorknob, hoping for it to be locked...

The door opened before he could touch it. Ethan immediately jumped back, prepared to scream as the door opened wider. A light came on from inside, revealing the man standing there.

The man was tall and dressed like a butler. Even so, Ethan was still wary. Brian's message had mentioned a big guy with a knife after all.

"You must be Ethan," the man said. He sounded as polite as he looked! "Brian said you might come." He stepped back, gesturing for Ethan to come inside.

Ethan didn't move from where he was standing a few feet from the door. "Brian?" he asked, trying to process everything that had been said. "I'm expected?"

The man said nothing, just waiting patiently for Ethan to go inside. Ethan looked around, wondering if all of this WAS actually just a joke. The answers were inside, so he walked in. The man closed the door behind him.

Inside was almost the complete opposite of outside. Outside had been dark and gloomy; inside was bright and damn near homey. But Ethan refused to let his gueard down no matter how comfortable the place made him feel.

"Right this way," Mr. Butler Man said, leading Ethan down a short hallway to the left.

Before following, Ethan stopped to ponder at a broken mirror there in front of the door. The longer he looked at it, there was just something about it that sent a chill down his spine.

He hurried after the butler.