Chapter 2: The nightmare begins

Steve indeed tried to talk the plan out of Ellen's head, but it didn't work whatsoever. Ellen's plans were indestructible. She had now arranged that they became the true owners of Rose Red and that they were going to live there. Steve tried everything to stop this all from happening, he even begged her on his knees to do this not. Still Rose Red would become his new home. Ellen made sure, that one day before them, all the furniture had been placed in the house in their right positions. Therefore, Steve now stood in front of the house that he so deeply feared and loathed. It was a grey day and it had already drizzled from the moment Steve woke up. His children were running around in the enormous grounds of Rose Red. Steve however, called them back.

'Jake, Kevin, Emma! Stay near us! Or you might not only get lost,' he added quietly, so his wife next to him wouldn't hear it.

Ellen however, thought Steve called them back for a very different reason.

'Good thinking Steve, now we can tell them about their new rooms.'

'Great.'

'Did you say something dear?' Ellen said not looking at her husband, but still staring at the mansion like she was obsessed with it.

'No, no noting,' Steve said hastily.

In the mean time, the children had already arrived next to them and stood waiting eagerly to hear about their new grand home. Ellen now finally tore her eyes of Rose Red and looked at her children.

'I hope that all of you are very pleased that this is going to be your new home. There is more, listen, I've another little surprise for you: you will all get not only a large room for yourself, but also a whole wing with playrooms and so on just for the three of you!'

'Wow! Cool mom!' Jake said looking longingly at the house like he couldn't wait to see all of it.

'Go and have a look then!' Ellen said like she could read the minds of her children.

'Whose last to enter is a fat elephant!' Kevin shouted and ran towards the front doors, followed at his heels by Jake. Emma, who still had small legs, entered a minute after them. Then a certain thought struck Steve and told this to his wife.

'Ellen dear, have you realised that John and Ellen only had two children, and we three. So we have a bedroom short for them in the children's wing.'

'Of course I have thought about that! Therefore, I have arranged that the whole wing will be rebuilt. When it is finished, it will be bigger, and there will be enough space for the three of them,' Ellen said staring at Rose Red once more.

Steve didn't know what to reply to this. He did think many things, but didn't dare to say them in front of his now so obsessed wife and therefore asked something very different.

'Shall we go in too?'

Ellen nodded, grabbed his arm and they walked into the first room of Rose Red, the Great Hall. Steve gasped. Nothing had changed in the house. Everything looked like an exact copy of the picture that was burned on his retina. The only difference was the painting that hung under the Great Stairway, this was not the old Ellen Rimbauer, but the Ellen that was standing next to him.

The children were now running around in the house in and out of its many chambers. Suddenly, Emma gave a shriek.

'Help! Help! Everything has turned upside down! Mommy!'

Steve run towards the voice of his frightened daughter, but Ellen walked calmly. Jake and Kevin also came out of their rooms to see what was happening.

All of them now stood in the same room as Emma, in which everything was indeed turned upside down.

'Wow, we are walking on the ceiling,' Jake said amazed.

'Of course we're not. This is the Perspective Hallway. Everything looks upside down. There are many hidden doors here too and they lead to other parts of the house. We also have a Mirror Library. That is full of mirrors on the ceiling and floor to make it look very big. Shall we go and have a look over there?' Ellen asked, looking pleased that with herself that she knew already so much about the house.

Ellen and the children left the Perspective Hallway, leaving Steve behind alone. Steve knew all these things too, and knew once he had entered the room that there was nothing to be frightened off. Certainly, he had been in this room already many times before when he was young. Not knowing where to go with himself, Steve walked towards Ellen Rimbauer's old bedroom. There he found himself facing his and Ellen's new bedroom. Probably, they both had there own bedroom too, but this was defiantly for the two of them. He walked to the tall windows and got view of a part of the house, including the Solarium. Now, every plant in there looked very dead. However, Ellen would probably make sure that would change soon, for she was so busy with rebuilding the house. Steve walked away from the window and thought by himself that maybe Rose Red wasn't so bad yet. Still, he couldn't have been more wrong to think that.

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'How could you do that without even discussing it with me! This is going to cost us a lot of money!'

A week had now passed since the arrival of Steve, Ellen and the children. Things were getting worse already for a while between Ellen and Steve, but now it was complete mayhem. It wasn't a normal day anymore if they weren't arguing at least five times. Those disagreements were mostly about the small things as usual, but like now about some bigger actions.

'Who cares about that? We have enough for six houses! So what is your problem?' Ellen nearly shouted.

'My problem is that you do everything without discussing it to me!' Steve replied angrily.

'Let me tell you this, times have changed since Ellen Rimbauer first moved in here. Women have rights to and are allowed to do what ever they want! Is that clear?'

'For goodness sake Ellen! That doesn't mean you don't have to discuss anything with me anymore!'

'Shall I all send them back home then?' Ellen said pointing at the row of servants standing lined up in front of them.

'Oh hell, please yourself,' Steve ended and walked out of the room.

Once more angry on Ellen and everything that had to do with Rose Red; Steve went to their bedroom. The bedroom, however, was not anymore theirs, but his. Ellen moved out two days ago, because a new improved one was now being built in one of the wings. At the same time, the children's wing was also being rebuilt. Moreover, they had servants now too, who needed a lot of space. Luckily, that space was still there ready to be used.

After pacing for a while and having mulled things over, Steve thought that maybe it wasn't to bad after all, having servants. He walked towards the window, where he also stood his first day. There he saw something that shocked him deeply. Ellen walked in the back garden with a servant Steve hadn't seen standing in the row, a dark, African woman. Shocked by the new information he looked quickly away at nothing in particular. His look fell by some unknown reason on the Solarium. Once more, he was shocked to see what he saw. Ellen had told him that the Solarium would be the last thing to be renovated. Nevertheless, Steve could clearly see the new green leaves on most of the plants. Rose Red was awake yet again and more hungry than ever before.

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'Steve, Steve! Where are you?' a panicked voice shouted through Rose Red two days later.

Scared by the note of panic in the voice of his wife, Steve quickly stood up and walked towards the producer of the sound. He found her and the servants in the Great Hall, all of them with white, frightened faces.

'Ellen dear, what's wrong?' he asked quickly.

'It-It's terrible. O-one of the s-s-servants … is m-missing,' Ellen stuttered.

Steve thinking it wasn't wise to ask his wife more about this, he turned towards the remaining servants.

'Can someone please tell me who is missing, since when, where it has happened and who was the last to the him or her?' Steve asked trying to remain calm.

A small, pretty, young girl stepped forward.

'Yes?' Steve said friendly.

'I was last to see her, Sukeena. She is missing for a few hours and it has probably happened in the Solarium.'

'In groups of three, begin a search through the whole house. Please make sure the children know nothing about this happening and don't call the police. No one is going to know about this, except the ones present here in the room,' Steve said and then turned to his wife to calm her down.

Chapter 3: Some answers, but more questions