Chapter 7: The inaugural

'Hello, welcome to Rose Red.'

Steve and Ellen were now already standing more than an hour next to the door through which people kept on coming. Steve's legs were starting to ache and he felt hungry. Ellen also looked a bit tired of standing and willing to get away from the door. This could also be due to the cold, because she was wearing a thin silk dress that probably didn't give a lot of warmth. A little while later, they got to hear that all the guests had now arrived, so they were free to go. Inside the house, the buzz of talking could be heard through the music played by a life orchestra. People were laughing, sipping from their red wines and every while eating from the delicious food waiters were serving non-stop. Soon already, Ellen and Steve were separated both talking to different guests. Steve sometimes did glimpse Ellen at a distance and she certainly seemed to have a good time. He was glad about this, because Ellen had had enough trouble already here in Rose Red and she deserved a good party.

'Steve! What are you doing here?' a voice interrupted his thoughts.

In front of him stood a man of his age wearing a tuxedo, holding a glass of wine and his face shining with happiness.

'Well, I life here with my wife Ellen and we organised this party to get to know the people in the neighbourhood a bit better,' Steve replied, thinking hard where he had seen the man before.

'Really? That's amazing. Don't you recognise me anymore?' the man now asked laughing at Steve's puzzled expression.

Suddenly it hit Steve like a hammer. Of course, he knew that man; it was Emery Waterman. He was here as well when they were investigating Rose Red's hidden powers about ten years with Joyce Reardon. However, his appearance had changed a lot during the period. He had lost much weight and he somehow looked younger than he did then.

'Emery, goodness I didn't recognise you like this. You have changed so much. I could better ask what you are doing here, I mean you don't have good memories about it I guess,' Steve said smiling.

'No, not a single good memory. Nevertheless, I life here nearby and I wanted to see which idiot bought the house,' Emery simply answered.

'Well thanks; it looks like I'm that idiot.'

'No offence, but I just wondered, I mean everyone here know the history that it conceals and many people were doubting if they were going because of that,' Emery said.

'Somehow, I can imagine that,' Steve said sarcastically.

'Anyway, I got to go again, see if I can find my wife back.'

'All right then, nice seeing you again, Emery,' Steve said.

'Nice seeing you too, bye,' Emery said disappearing into the crowd.

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Steve had a very good evening further on too. He danced with Ellen, laughed about jokes that were made, drunk a little bit too much wine and talked to everyone who was there. He forgot about all the trouble they had had, the ghost of Ellen Rimbauer and about the fact that Ellen didn't act like herself lately. However, tonight nothing seemed wrong and both of them were having the time of their lives. Even the guests seemed to have forgotten that they were actually celebrating in the haunted mansion of Rose Red.

Steve was just dancing very closely with Ellen, when someone tugged his shirt from below. He looked around wildly, before he noticed Emma who stood next to him, still holding on to his shirt. He let go of Ellen, took Emma by her hand and led her away from the inaugural. Ellen first only stared at them walking away and then went after them quickly. Finally, in a quiet hallway, they stopped walking.

'Emma, why are you here? You should be asleep for hours already. How come the nanny let you go away?' Steve asked her quietly.

'Someone has fainted; she is up at the second floor near the mirror library. I think she lost her way while going to the bathroom. The nanny was away to get a drink in the kitchen with the other servants. Thank you for the new dollhouse as well, daddy,' Emma said in one breath, talking hardly any louder than a bear whisper.

'Which new…?' Steve started to ask.

Then Ellen came bursting through the door, looking bewildered at Emma.

'Why is she here?' she asked Steve shortly.

'Don't worry Ellen, she just had a nightmare and I'll bring her back to bed. You can go back to the guests to see if they are still enjoying themselves,' he answered her straight back.

Emma did look at him a little surprised, but didn't ask for the reason he just told Ellen a downright lie.

'All right, and make sure the nanny doesn't let the children escape again. They were supposed to stay in their wing and not wander here,' she said curtly, then turned around and closed the door with a snap.

Steve sighed. He got a bit tired of the changes of emotions his wife had lately. One moment to another, she could totally change.

'Are you still coming daddy, because we need to get to the woman before she gets lost again,' Emma asked quietly.

'Come on then sweetie, lets get you back into bed first,' Steve said, picking up Emma and he carried her to her room. There he put her into bed quickly, kissed her goodnight and noticed while walking out of the room the dollhouse. It was a different dollhouse then he had seen her play with this afternoon. This was a dollhouse, he had seen years ago. It was what Annie had played, while they were on research. It was the dollhouse of Rose Red.

Steve registered this all very quickly and decided to worry about this later, but now first get to the woman before indeed something worse happened to her.

Luckily, he had found her very soon. She was lying on the top stair of the staircase on the second floor and was clearly unconscious. Steve noticed that she had been very lucky to fall not all the way down the stairs. It was a pretty, young woman of around thirty years, in a beautiful lavender blue dress. Steve didn't know who she was exactly, but he knew that he had talked to her in the beginning of the evening.

He got down next to her and started to tap her face softly. After a few seconds, she blinked and tried to open her eyes in the bright light.

'Hey, can you hear me?' Steve asked.

She gave him a small nod.

'Good, do you know who you are and why you are here?' Steve now asked her.

'Yes, my name is Sharon Smith and I was here for the inaugural,' Sharon replied slowly.

'All right, lets get you up then,' Steve said relieved. Gradually, Sharon got to her feet again and they walked to the nearby bathroom, so she could sit down and fresh herself up a bit. After she had finished with this, Steve entered the bathroom and asked her a few more questions of which he was interested to know the answers.

'Do you still remember why you were up here and what the reason was that you fainted?' he therefore asked curiously.

'Well, I had gone to the bathroom and I wanted to get back to the Great Hall. However, I guess I lost my way, because suddenly I was somewhere that didn't look the slightest at the direction where I came from. So I kept on walking, but I didn't come anywhere near the party anymore. Then I … I saw something, or I at least thought I saw something that scared me and furthermore I don't really know what happened,' Sharon ended quietly.

'Can you tell me what you saw, or at least what you think you saw?' Steve asked, at the same time wondering how she couldn't have found her way back. The Great Hall was only a little while away from this bathroom; surely, she would have heard the buzzing of talking and the music playing.

'Uhm, I don't know it was so weird. I guess you won't even believe me,' Sharon said looking down at her feet ashamed.

'Trust me in this house I'd believe everything, even if you told me you had seen an elephant running the corridor,' Steve said sarcastically.

Sharon looked up and smiled at this.

'All right then, I thought I saw many people, all transparent white, walking or more floating here down the stairs. It looked like they were on their way to something, but all of them looked unhappy and some of them looked hurt on both the inside and outside. I think … I think it were ghosts,' she ended quietly, looking at her shoes once more.

A silence followed her story. However, in Steve's mind it was anything but quiet. He was thinking very hard about the information he had just gotten and certainly believed every word she had said. Still some things just didn't make sense yet.

'You don't believe me, do you?' Sharon asked when Steve hadn't spoken after her story and she looked up into his eyes.

'I believe every word you told me, but now, we need to get you out of here as soon as we can,' Steve replied looking deep into her eyes. And his eyes told her that every word of him was true too.

Chapter 8: Aftershocks and new disbelief