Chapter 2: Exploration
Courtney was the first of all of them to flip out.
"We're gonna die!"
Kasi slapped her in the face. "It's just a storm, relax."
Courtney still looked like she wanted to go cry in a corner. Cat was a little disconcerted by the house, the story had not scared her to badly but after hearing it then ending up in a house very similar to it... This did make her a bit nervous.
"Okay, well. We should probably look around the house." Kadin said glancing to the doors on either side of them then to the staircase across from the main door.
"No way!" Courtney said sounding hysterical.
"I'll stay with you Courtney..." Cat said to relax her friend. The red head still looked uncomfortable but she stopped complaining.
"Im going to head up stairs." Kadin said point up the large stairs.
"Take Kasi with you it looks big, you guys can split up." Cat said.
Kasi shrugged and followed the younger girl up the stairs.
"Let's go." Cat said to her underling. Courtney sighed and followed her to the door on the left. Inside was a massive dining room.
The first thing Cat noticed, even after running into the house, was that the power was on.
A long table, at most ten feet long, sat in the middle of the room. Walking closer to it Cat could see it was cherry oak and the sides of it were covered in small complicated designs.
"This is gorgeous." Courtney said circling the table, her hand dragged on it. Both girls noticed how no dust was on the table. No one voiced the question hanging in the air.
The chairs matched the table. The rest of the room was full of decorative furniture used to hold plates, silverware, place mats, and anything you could possibly think of to go on a table.
"Cat look up!"
The long haired girl did. Her eyes were first drawn to the fancy chandelier hanging above them. She noticed how, unlike the rest of the house, it wasn't on, making the room seem darker than it should be. Her eyes then trailed over to a cat walk that lined the right side of the room, it was on the same level as the chandelier and was overlooking the entire room. Anyone up there could see everything going on.
A flash of lightening coming in from the tall windows on the left side of the room made both girls jump.
Cat stared at the cat walk above, she could have sworn she just saw a shadow moving across it. It could have just been the flash of lightening, but didn't hurt to be suspicious.
"Cat." Courtney called.
The girl walked over to her friend to find her standing in front of a fire place. It was very large and made of marble. A fire was not lit which didn't surprise them.
Courtney picked up a picture frame that was sitting on the mantle, there were several of them there in all shapes and sizes. The red head handed the picture to her and Cat looked at it confused. She then looked to each picture on the mantle and was a little surprised to find them all the same.
Each picture frame was empty, not a single image was placed inside the decorative pretty frames.
"Weird." Cat put the picture back and noticed again how there was still no dust.
"Should we move on to the next room?" Courtney asked waiting at a door next to the fire place.
"Yep, lets role." The two girls moved on as another flash of lightening lit up the room.
Kadin opened yet another door to find the same thing she found in the other three. An empty room with no furniture, no drapes or curtains, just soft clean carpet on the floor and a fancy bed frame with just a mattress.
"What the hell man!" Kadin pouted closing the door. Kasi came out of the room across from her and clicked the door closed.
"Empty. Like the rest." She informed.
"What the hell! Where is everyone." Kadin repeated.
When the girls had gone upstairs they got to choose from left and right. Originally Kadin had gone left and Kasi went right, but all there was to the left was a big empty room that looked like it was used for storage and some more bedrooms and bathrooms.
So the senior returned to her skater friend to join in searching the massive amounts of bed rooms.
"This place is weird. Its like people were suddenly here then up and left." Kasi said as the two walked down the halls.
"Maybe they did." Kadin said bluntly. They came across more bedrooms and bathrooms before they found a different room.
It was big and had some furniture. A big desk with a lamp on it, some book cases, leather couches and a coffee table. A statue of a woman dancing in ribbon stood next to double glass doors that led out to a balcony.
"Oooh" Kadin hummed and immediately went for the balcony. The glass doors swung open with ease and the girls walked out onto the stone platform.
It was decently sized and over looked a big garden. A stone fountain sat to the entrance of a maze made of bushes. Kadin could easily see someone getting lost and never found in there.
Other than the maze the garden was very nice, in the distance to the left she could see a gazebo surrounded by rose trees. Stone paths lead throughout the entire landscape. A pond sat on the edge of the land.
"It's pretty if it wasn't raining." Kasi said looking up at the awning that protected them from getting drenched. It did not however protect them from the horrible winds.
"Let's go back inside."
"Yeah."
The two girls hurried inside before being blown over the side. Kasi checked out the bookshelf, finding it bookless, while Kadin raided the desk.
"There's paper, pencils, note books and a lot of random stuff..."
"What kind of random stuff."
Kadin pulled out a stack of papers. She began flipping through them. "Bills and receipts." She pulled a few out and read them off. "Electric bill, water bill, receipts for food and..."
She paused staring at the papers like they were embarrassing pictures of her.
"What?" Kasi came over curious.
"Someone bought a shitload of baby stuff... Diapers, clothes, bottles. Tons of it." She handed the receipt to her shorter friend.
Kasi took them and flipped through them. "Maybe the family that had been here had a lot of kids?"
"Okay, but where's the stuff? You checked the storage room. It was empty remember?" Kadin said throwing the papers back onto the desk.
There was a sudden pitter patter outside the room. Kadin's head snapped to the door, it was hanging open. She couldn't remember if she had closed it or not.
"You heard that right?" Kasi hissed quickly. Kadin nodded, she cautiously walked out of the room the older girl close behind. They glanced down the hall and didn't see anyone.
"Nothing." Kadin said, she didn't feel to relieved yet. It would be very bad if they came into this house and found a murderer or something.
Kadin started down the hall to go meet up with Cat and Courtney again but stopped when she heard a yelp and a thud. She turned around to see Kasi on the floor sitting in a small puddle.
"You trip?" Kadin asked amused.
"Oh shut it!" Kasi snapped not in the mood. She stood up, her butt was all wet. "Where'd this puddle come from?"
Kadin looked at it, it was fresh, that was obvious because it wasn't there when they went in the room. Leading away from the puddle was smaller droplets or footprints. So someone had stood in the door way watching the girls then had run off.
Kadin looked up at the ceiling to make sure it wasn't a leak or anything. It wasn't.
"There's someone else here in the house..." Kasi whispered. The desire to be very quiet falling over both girls.
The younger of the girls nodded standing up. She began to follow the trail of water, scared and eager to find out who had left it.
Cat groaned closing the fridge. It had been completely empty, just like all the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. Aside from everything being so empty she could easily hide inside a pantry, the kitchen was quit nice. The counter tops were made of an expensive white marble the cupboards were a deep brown color from the wood they were made of and the appliances that were there looked like some serious stuff.
Courtney sat on the island in the middle of the room, swinging her feet.
"I'm hungry..."
That was the whole reason they were here. At the camp they had left all of their stuff including the food! They had hoped to find at least some stale crackers by there wasn't even dust in the spotless kitchen.
"I know me too..." Cat sighed coming over. The girls had explored most of the downstairs. They had been to the dinning room already, after that they found a living room right next to the kitchen and some stairs that led up to a few large bedrooms. And a library that had a TON of books and very pretty glass windows that over looked a big garden, it would have been nice if the weather wasn't so crappy.
Cat patted her big hoodie and was happy to find it almost completely dry. Courtney looked the same, her white blouse no longer see through.
"We should find Kadin and Kasi now shouldn't we." Courtney asked while pouting.
"That would be the smart thing to do."
The girls were about to leave back to the foyer when they suddenly heard a sound they didn't expect to.
"Meeeommm... Meeeehhhmmm."
Cat shuttered a little. "What the hell was that."
Courtney instantly latched onto the brunettes' arm and dug her nails in. Lucky the hoodie was thick enough that Cat didn't notice.
"It sounded like a whimper... But creepier." Courtney whispered. Cat looked around quietly, listening to see if it would come again.
"Meehhh."
The whimper sounded shaky, like the thing making it was shivering or scared.
She slowly walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. The whimper had come from near the window. When the girls looked through the dim light they saw the window was open and a figure was climbing through it.
"What is that!?" Courtney screeched.
Cat cringed at how loud her voice was. The small figure suddenly yelped and fell backwards into the room. It had been trying to get out.
The figure rolled over and sat up holding its knee. With another flash of lightening it is revealed that the figure is a child.
A child with brown eyes, pink hair and a big white scarf around his neck.