"It's so… large," Olette said at last.

"I bet we could spend all day here," Hayner grinned, already thinking of the things they could do.

Pence took another picture. "Let's look around. Maybe robbers lived here or something."

Olette glanced at her friend, a skeptical smile on her face. "I doubt it. But maybe we'll find some interesting things."

"Well, at least we won't be sitting around," Hayner muttered.

"So," Olette said happily, "Which door should we try first? That one on the left looks interesting, and there's no rubble in from of it." The girl talked up to the door and tried the doorknob tentatively. The door swung open to reveal a rather trashed dining hall. The table in the center was split in two and the few pictures that had been on the wall seemed to been torn down, though not damaged too severely. Olette walked in, a sad look on her face. "I wonder what happened."

"Vandals," Hayner replied immediately.

"You really think that people would simply want to tear this place apart?" Olette sighed and shook her head. "I guess there's no telling what people will do."

"Riiight," Hayner laughed. "I bet they were looking for something. With a place as ritzy as this, probably money."

"Or to murder someone," Pence smiled as he came into the room. He calmly took a picture, this one of the table.

"Murders." Olette put her hands on her hips. "I can see it now. It wasn't just a murder, it was for a ransom. You really are random, Pence."

"I try to be." The boy nodded and walked out of the room, finding to be of no further interest.

Olette came back to the entrance of the dining room, then stopped. "I guess we can come back later…"

Hayner smiled. "I guess so, but there's not much to see here."

"True." Olette looked across the foyer tentatively. "Where next? I want to keep on moving. What about the garden or something?"

Hayner screwed up his face. "Nah. What about the room over there?" He pointed to the room Olette had noted as rubble covered.

"That might take a lot of work," Olette said in an unsure manner.

"Of course!" Hayner replied enthusiastically.

And then, from across the room—"What'cha guys plotting?"

"Your demise, Pence," Hayner laughed. "Help me get all this junk out of the way." Pence nodded agreeably and Olette sighed.

Thirty minutes later, most of the debris had been moved aside. There was silence as all three friends panted and tested on the floor. Eventually, Pence spoke.

"So who's gonna' open the door?"

"I will," Hayner volunteered. He sighed, stretched, and yawned, then put his hand on the doorknob. "Here we go." The door, for inside information, was supposed to swing inward. However, about a foot into opening, it became stuck.

"What's the problem?" asked Pence.

"Something's blocking the door," Hayner grunted.

"Well, don't push too hard. See if you can reach around and push on the item blocking it. Maybe it'll move out of the way."

"Gee, thanks." Hayner stuck his arm behind the door and felt around. Touching something hard, he gave it a shove and immediately fell on his face as the door swung wide.

"What happened?" Olette asked worriedly as she helped Hayner to his feet.

The boy shrugged. "Felt like some sort of a cart. Pushing it from the door was probably the wrong sort of way. I dunno. I pushed it, it rolled away."

"And the falling?" Pence asked grinning.

"I was leaning on the door." Hayner brushed himself off indignantly. "You would've been too, if you had done it. What's inside, then?"

Olette peeked inside the room, then turned back to her companions, an odd look on her face. Hayner walked over and looked inside, as well.

"I'm guessing there's a reason a portable clothes rack was propped up against a door to a ballroom," Pence said after he had gotten his look, as well.

Olette stepped nervously into the room and walked over to the rack. She fingered the clothes lightly. "Black robes with metal dangles," she said at last. "They aren't that old and all of them have major spills on them. Like someone didn't do the washing." She tsk-tsked lightly under her breath.

Hayner stepped inside, then began coughing. "It's pretty dusty in here, you guys. There's nothing interesting, anyway. Let's get out."

Pence squeezed in the opening and shook his head. "Wait a moment, I want to take some pictures for evidence."

Hayner leaned against one ornate wall. "Evidence? For what? That this place seriously needs a cleaning? You're just wasting film."

Pence crossed his arms. "I have no idea. I want pictures. I can paste them on my bedroom wall. Why do you care?"

Hayner leaned forward. "I just don't think it's worth it, that's all."

Olette smiled. Boys. "Guys, these robes are interesting, right?"

"Yeah, sort of…" Hayner trailed off with an indifferent air. Pence looked over and nodded.

"Interesting enough to take a picture. Smile!" The boy grinned and took a picture as Olette jumped. "This'll be a good memory, don't you think?"

Olette crossed her arms. "I'll look like a doofus. Pence, what's your idea with that camera, anyway?"

Pence spread his arms wide and sighed dramatically. "It's for the sake of science!"

"Taking pictures of me near dirty black robes. Yeah, that's real science for you."

Hayner straightened. "Yeah, well, let's get going. It's all funny, but there's the whole upstairs waiting."

Olette nodded. "Whatever you say, Hayner. Come on, Pence."

Pence frowned and looked at the room. As the others left, he snapped a couple quick pictures, then ran out the door after them.

Upstairs found the trio in a white room. Everything was white, from the walls to the table, except for several pictures taped neatly to the wall. The ceiling was high and the large windows were broken only in a couple panes. It was a timeless room, an unhappy room. The pictures on the walls were crayoned in. It seemed to Olette that if she touched them, they would shatter in the same way the windows had done. The girl sighed and stayed a reverent distance from them.

Pence carefully took photographs of each picture on the wall, while Hayner supplied all commentary.

"It's an anthropomorphic dog, a duck, and a boy. What's with these pictures? And here, a red spiky guy in one of those cloaks, almost. Speaking of similarities, who would paint a room so suddenly white in a place like this? It doesn't make sense. And white flowers. They have to be glass or something, because there's dust everywhere and they would've died otherwise. This is a really creepy room."

Olette sighed. "I don't know about that. I think it's rather nice. A little touch up here and there and it would be a perfect haven from all the rest of this dark, spidery mansion. Don't you think so, Pence?"

Pence shrugged silently. Olette continued.

"I mean… that ballroom was nice, too. With those large windows on the sides and the painted ceiling, but this room is rather refreshing after all that. If you added a little color to the table, it seems it would reflect all around here and light it right up. The dawn would be rather pretty."

Hayner stared at the girl, nodding, while obviously not understanding a word she was saying. "Riight. I think we've seen enough of this place. Let's go."

"You always want to keep on moving, don't you?" Olette muttered crossly. "Maybe I could just stay here."

Pence shook his head. "No, we should probably stick together."

Hayner laughed. "What, are you scared?"

"No." Pence crossed his arms. "This place just is better enjoyed with three."

Olette raised an eyebrow. "Right… I guess I'll be able to come around again once we've seen the whole place, right, Hayner?"

"I wasn't thinking that we wou—"

"Right, Hayner?"

Hayner winced. "Of course, dear lady Olette. Let's just get going."

"All right." Olette ran lightly over to the door and waved as she turned around briefly. "Bye, little room!"

Pence was the last person out of the room, once again, as he took another picture of the empty room. He patted his camera smugly as he left.

The trio meandered around the upper balcony until coming to the last visible door. Olette smiled faintly. "I was almost hoping that this would never end. I guess this'll be the last room. I wonder what's in it…"

The door opened slowly. And as the Library stretched open for all to see, Olette gave a disappointed sigh. "There's nothing. I guess I shouldn't have expected anything."

Pence shrugged. "Those other rooms were interesting. And anyway, there's a paper over on this table, see? Just like the papers in that white room."

Olette looked over at Pence. "What do you mean, white room?"

"Well," Pence said unsurely, "I'm talking about the room we just visited. That white room covered in papers."

Olette frowned. "The room we visited last was that empty ballroom."

Pence looked down at his camera and . "Have it your way." The boy looked down at the paper and smiled at the intricate design. "This is pretty neat over here, Olette, come look."

Olette walked over, Hayner uninterestedly behind her. She gave a double take as she looked at the table. "It does look like that's only half of the emblem on the paper, don't you think?"

Hayner spared a glance down at the table. "Yes, my Lady. Now please let's go."

Olette doodled around with her finger as if to make the table look like the paper. "There're a few books here we might take… but…"

Pence stepped back from the table and began to edge away, looking at the floor. "Run. Towards the door. Now."

Hayner glanced quickly at the floor. "What did you DO, Pence?"

"I didn't do anything," Pence frowned as he tensed against the doorframe.

Hayner grabbed Olette's wrist and pulled her away from the table with a jerk. The girl gave a stunned rebuttal and clamped her fingers down on his in fright when the floor suddenly disappeared in front of them. "What in the world…?" the three children gasped.

This house was strange. But there was nothing more surprising that this.

Yanno what? I'm updating this because I can. XD ...let's be hoping that I can get another part out. ...sometime. Anyway.