The next day, Atticus, Cherry, Patch, and Drell were ready for the trip and where even Mo was ready.
"I hope Jim and Sara be careful," Michelle said to her husband. "It's going to rain later tonight."
"I'm sure they'll be just fine." Bud said.
"Cherry, are you ready up there?!" Michelle called upstairs.
"Yeah, I'll come down when Aunt Sara and Uncle Jim drive up!" Cherry called back.
They then heard a honking sound from a vehicle from outside, telling them that the people Cherry was waiting for were there.
"That must be them." Michelle said.
Bud nodded and decided to go see his sister before Cherry would come down who got all of her stuff and started to make her way downstairs.
"Got everything?" Michelle asked her daughter.
"Yep, I triple checked." Cherry nodded.
"Good." Michelle nodded as her daughter was then on her way out the door.
Bud and Sara hugged each other with laughs as they hadn't seen each other in a long time.
"It's been so long, Bud, how've you Michelle and Cherry been?" Sara asked.
"Oh, we're fine, thank you," Bud smiled back. "Cherry's been a little sneaky lately though, but at least she's happy."
"Really? Halloween must be close by then." Sara giggled, knowing and remembering the only times her niece would smile.
"Oh, yeah, you can count on that." Bud chuckled.
"Well, at least she's bringing some friends along with her." Sara smiled.
"Yeah." Bud agreed.
Cherry walked over and looked up to her aunt.
"Hi, Cherry!" Sara hugged her niece. "So good to see you again."
Cherry gave a polite nod of her head and she put her stuff in the trunk of the car as two younger kids were watching her from the backseat of the car.
"Let's just hope that you didn't invite too many friends to come with." Jim said to Cherry.
"I think Atticus said his sister would drive him, his dog, and his girlfriend and they're gonna follow your car, Uncle Jim." Cherry replied to her aunt's husband.
"Whew, that's good." Jim smiled.
"Yeah, when they ride up and you meet them, we'll get going." Cherry replied.
"Michael, Megan, come out and meet your cousin." Sara encouraged her hiding children.
"Alright." Megan sighed.
Michael looked nervous, but came out with his older sister.
"Hello." Cherry looked to her younger cousins.
"Hey." Megan waved.
"Um... Hi..." Michael blinked.
"Well, this is fascinating..." Cherry deadpanned as there was rarely any conversation going on between her and her younger cousins.
"So, you ready?" Megan asked.
"As I'll ever be..." Cherry shrugged. "We have to wait for my friends first."
"Are they scary as you are?" Michael asked.
Cherry glanced at him. "Me? Scary?"
"S-Sorry, you just look kind of scary." Michael said.
Cherry rolled her eyes to that, then looked out for Jessica's car since she was going to bring Atticus, Mo, and Patch. And where to her surprise, the one that was driving was actually Drell. "What... The...?"
The horn honked loudly.
Drell rolled down the window and smiled. "Surprise!"
"Oh, what's his name again?" Bud struggled. "Django? Dilbert?"
"Drell." Michelle told her husband.
"Yeah, that." Bud said then.
"Drell, what are you doing here?" Cherry asked through her teeth.
"What, can't I come along for the ride?" Drell smirked innocently.
"Where is Jessica?" Cherry sounded desperate. "Atticus said specifically that she was going to drive him, Patch, and Mo, NOT YOU!"
"After what you did last night, do you really think she would still come?" Drell asked.
"Oh, come on, it was a harmless prank..." Cherry defended.
Drell gripped her collar with a smirk. "So's this... From Jessica to you..."
Cherry chuckled nervously.
Drell let go of her then. "Can we get a move on or what?" he then asked. "I hear there's rain in the forecast."
"Yeah." Atticus nodded.
"Are you guys ready to go then?" Cherry asked Jim and Sara.
"Ready as we'll ever be." Sara said.
"Get a move on." Jim agreed.
"Alright," Cherry nodded, then looked to Drell. "Okay, follow Uncle Jim and Aunt Sara's car."
"You got it." Drell said.
Cherry walked over into Jim and Sara's car in the backseat with Michael and Megan. Sara waved with a smile to her brother and sister-in-law as they were now on their way to the house. And where it was going to be a long trip to the mansion. Cherry seemed to fall asleep on the way.
It was a long car trip to the mansion, but they finally made it to the entrance of it.
"Are we still in America?" Megan asked.
"Wow..." Cherry liked the sight of the mansion which looked like something out of a horror movie.
"Yeah, that's a whole lot of gate," Jim commented. "They must have a big possum problem down here."
"That's some big possum." Michael commented.
"Some people that are rich have gates just like this." Drell told him.
Jim saw no one coming out to greet them, so he honked his horn to get a little attention. "Didn't they know we were coming?" he then asked his wife impatiently.
"Of course they knew." Sara replied.
"Maybe there's a call box or something." Megan suggested.
"I don't know if they have a call box." Mo said.
Jim rolled down his window and leaned out to call out for someone while honking his horn for some sort of attention. "Hello?! Hello! The Evers are here! We have some company with us! Yes, we're here now!"
"What is going on in there?" Patch wondered. "If they don't answer, then Mr. Evers can't sell the mansion."
"Maybe no one's home." Mo said.
"So what do we do?" Atticus wondered.
Jim unfastened his seat-belt. "Now I got to get out in the dirt with my brand-new shoes on."
Cherry groaned and rolled her eyes at her uncle's obsession with his looks and how brand new everything was, especially with his car. Sara decided to join her husband. Drell decided to go out with them as well. Jim, Sara, and Drell walked up to the front gate.
"How are we gonna get in?" Sara wondered.
"I could break the lock and push the gates open." Drell guessed.
"Or what if you give me a boost, and I'll go around the back?" Jim suggested.
"They're probably old," Sara smiled in slight amusement of her husband's idea. "We'll surprise them. You'll probably kill them."
"Just suggestions." Drell said.
"Let's just go," Sara replied. "It's getting late."
"Besides, they're probably not home." Drell said.
Suddenly, as they were walking away, the gate doors were creaking open behind them.
"Oh, sure, why not?" Drell asked, annoyed overhearing the gates opening.
"All right, we're in business," Jim clapped his hands together excitedly. "Let's go, let's go, let's do this!"
Sara found the gates opening by themselves after they were about to leave rather creepy. She got back into the car with her husband as Drell went back to Atticus, Mo, and Patch so they could drive to the front doors of the eerie mansion. Thunder was heard rumbling in the distance as gray clouds started to roam the skies.
"I suddenly have a bad feeling about this." Atticus said.
"Me too..." Patch was sitting low to the floor which was usually an animal's way of saying something bad was going to happen and htat he could feel it.
A black bird cawed as it landed and perched on the roof of the mansion and looked down at the incoming visitors.
"Oh, great, a black bird," Mo groaned. "Why? Why did a black bird have to be included?"
"You're not afraid of birds, are you, Mo?" Atticus asked.
"No, but I've done my research and a creepy mansion, plus the gates opening by themselves and the black bird are signs that this is not a great house to be at, now the only things that we need to prove it are a storm flooding the roads, a cemetery in the backyard, and the front door opening right after one of us knocks on it." Mo said.
"You sound like a regular detective." Atticus smiled in admiration toward her research, his eyes seemed to glow as he held onto her every word.
"Well, what do you expect with having a detective for a boyfriend?" Mo smiled with a wink at Atticus.
Atticus chuckled to that.
Drell smirked as he looked over to them as he stopped the car. "Having fun back there?"
Atticus and Mo simply rolled their eyes at him. Drell chuckled as he then kept driving. Atticus and Mo then smiled bashfully to each other. Patch seemed to enjoy this as it seemed to be entertaining for him.
Cherry came out of the car with her relatives.
"Bob Vila would have a field day with this place." Jim commented.
"Who?" Cherry asked.
"Never mind that now." Sara told her niece, then jolted when she heard one of the car doors slamming.
"Hey, Megan, don't slam the door like that," Jim warned his older daughter. "It's very sensitive."
"Seriously?" Drell asked.
"Yeah, it's just a car, Dad." Megan nearly scoffed.
"Ah! It's not just a car," Jim scolded her before going to his car to 'soothe' it from what his daughter said about it. "It's a very delicate piece of machinery. Shh. She didn't mean what she just said. She didn't mean that."
"Okay, that man is just obsessed with that car and looking good." Patch whispered.
"Ya think?" Drell snorted. "Sheesh, I hate self-absorbed people."
Cherry quietly snickered to that.
"Let's take a look around." Atticus said,
"Might as well." Mo agreed, though a little nervous.
"Come on, let's see what's around back." Sara suggested.
"I'm getting hungry." Michael groaned.
"Let's hope there's cell service." Mo said.
"If not, I brought my crystal ball." Atticus replied.
"Cool." Michael smiled.
"I'm hungry too." Megan whined.
"Don't worry," Jim promised as they were going to explore. "We'll be 20 minutes tops."
"Hey, Dad, when we get to the lake, can I go to that pizza shop where I ate that whole pizza, and when we got to the cabin, I threw up and you still saw the pepperoni chunks in it?" Michael asked.
"Yuck." Cherry shuddered.
"Yeah, we can go there if we can avoid a repeat performance." Jim murmured to his son before they looked over.
"They have their own graveyard." Cherry commented, seeing numerous tombstones.
"Oh, great, my theories are coming true." Mo groaned.
"It appears so..." Atticus looked overwhelmed.
"Wow... Now that's something you dont' see every day." Jim commented.
"Oh... My... God! Dead people?" Megan gawked at her father.
"Hey, honey, you know they have, uh, dead people in the backyard?" Jim weakly called to his wife.
"Oh, sure, this doesn't tell you that this mansion might creepy or even haunted at all." Atticus said sarcastically.
"Well, some people have pools," Sara shrugged. "Some people have private cemeteries. It happens."
"Yeah, like the Addams family maybe." Cherry replied.
"This place just gives me the creeps." Mo shivered.
"So, Uncle Jim, you're gonna sell a house with this?" Cherry asked.
"This historical sprawling manor with spacious grounds?" Jim replied. "Yes."
"Hey, that's good," Sara smiled. "We'll put that on the listing."
"And looks like the black bird might be included since it hasn't left its spot on the mansion." Atticus said.
"And leave out all the dead people?!" Megan gestured wildly to the cemetery.
"We'll just stick to the bright side," Jim said before lightning flashed and it started to rain, much to his misfortune. "Oh, no. I got my good suit on."
"Quick, under the porch!" Drell called out.
They all ran and rushed for the porch as it started to rain and headed for the front doors, hoping someone would be home so they could come inside before they would catch cold.