"Please let there be someone at the door." Mo begged to herself.
Atticus held her close for warmth.
"You think it's gonna stop?" Megan asked.
"Oh, I hope it's not raining at the lake." Sara frowned.
Patch tried to shake himself dry.
Drell knocked on one of the front doors. "Hello? Is anybody home?!" he called out.
"Alright, kids, when you're at work with Mommy and Daddy, you're always on|your best behavior, right?" Jim reminded his kids who then nodded in response. "Same goes to you, Cherry." he then added to his niece.
"Yeah, yeah." Cherry put her hands in her pockets as she put her glasses away.
"HELLO!" Drell called.
"Hello, Evers Real Estate!" Jim called out. "We're from Evers and Evers Real Estate!"
"Maybe they're not home." Patch whispered.
"Nobody's home," Cherry walked off. "Let's go."
Suddenly, just like the gates from earlier, the door creaked open by itself, feeling more and more like a scary movie.
"This mansion definitely is not a safe place for anyone to live in." Mo said.
"I've never seen anything like this." Patch looked up to the humans.
"Same here." Atticus said.
Jim tried to call for someone, but he only heard his own echo, so they were all now walking inside the house.
'This is so creepy.' Patch thought to himself.
"Alright, whoever's there, come on out, this isn't funny!" Drell called as they entered the creepy house.
"Yeah!" Atticus called out.
They came into the main room which had twin staircases with candles everywhere and a giant dusty clock into view. This home looked very old-fashioned.
"Kinda makes me think of my parents' place." Drell commented.
"Your parents house is like this?" Atticus asked.
"Not as dusty, but it's not too far off," Drell replied. "Just have a basement and you have my bedroom."
"Good to know." Atticus said.
Cherry randomly held out her hand and rubbed her fingers together, wanting him to give her money for saying those three words. Atticus grumbled before giving her a dollar bill. Cherry took the money and put it inside of her jacket.
"Sara, this puts us in a whole new league." Jim whispered to his wife.
"Smells like Grandma's house." Megan commented.
"Worse, it smells like Grandma." Michael mumbled.
"All this place needs is a little dusting." Patch said.
"We'll get a cleaning crew to come out here and shine it up," Jim suggested. "This place would be sparkling from top to bottom."
Michael's eyes widened to one cobweb. "Mom, this place has spiders!"
Atticus simply took a deep breath and blew the spiders away, surprising the family how strong his lungs and breath was.
Cherry had spiders and webs in her hair. "They're in my hair, aren't they?" she asked dryly at first.
"Uh-huh." Drell nodded.
"Okay..." Cherry said before screaming loudly. "GET THEM OUT! GET THEM OUT!"
"Oops, sorry." Atticus said sheepishly before blowing the spiders off Cherry's hair and right through the window, killing each of the spiders.
Cherry patted her hair and looked in a frenzy. Michael and Megan looked shocked to see that Cherry could be scared of anything despite being dark and scary herself.
"Guess I need a bit more practice on my aim." Atticus said.
"Please do..." Cherry panted while Mo and Patch laughed at her misfortune. "And what is so funny?!"
"Oh, nothing, nothing." Patch said, trying to resist to laugh.
"Yeah, take it easy, Cher, it's just a joke." Mo added in, folding her arms with an amused smirk.
Cherry lowly growled.
Lightning flashed as there was an aged man walking down the hallway and looked to the visitors of the mansion. "Sara Evers...?"
"Yes, I'm Sara." the woman replied with a small smile.
"Oh, sure, a creepy butler that doesn't make this place any less scary." Mo whispered.
"Do you think he 'did it'?" Atticus attempted to joke like in classic murder mystery where the butler was often the killer.
"What do you think, detective?" Mo whispered back, letting him handle this mystery.
"Atticus, you are going to have to solve this case." Drell whispered to him.
"GAH!" Atticus yelped. "Don't do that..."
"Sorry..." Drell replied, honestly sorry as he butted into their conversation.
"And who are you, sir?" Cherry asked the butler.
"My name is Ramsley." the butler replied in a very creepy grave voice.
"Pleased to meet you, sir." Atticus said, extending his right hand to the butler.
The butler seemed to ignore his hand. "We were not expecting others..."
"He's rather rude." Patch said.
"Yes, we were on our way out of town," Sara replied to the butler. "And I invited my niece and her friends to come along."
"Yeah, then we realized the enormity and complexity of your unique estate we wanted to commit the full resources of Evers and Evers Real Estate," Jim walked over to his family and made them come forward with him. "At Evers and Evers Real Estate, we want you to be happy forevers and evers. Please accept this waterproof calendar as a token of our appreciation." he then held out a tiny card from his pocket and handed it over to the butler.
"I don't think this guy likes other people." Mo whispered.
"Very well," Ramsley took the calendar. "We shall have to place other settings."
Drell looked curious. "What do you have other settings for?"
"Master Gracey wishes to discuss his affairs over dinner." Ramsley replied.
"What kind of affairs?" Atticus asked.
"I'm afraid that is only between the master and his guests in which I have no part of." Ramsley replied.
"Let me guess, he was only anticipating on having Cherry's aunt over here alone, right?" Atticus asked, sounding like a detective.
"Precisely." Ramsley replied.
"And as for not shaking Atticus's hand?" Mo asked.
"I'm not too friendly with strangers, young lady." Ramsley never broke his grave monotone as he led them into the dining room.
"Wow, and I thought Forte was a buzzkill." Cherry rolled her eyes.
"I think this guy beat him to the punch." Patch said.
"Heh." Cherry rolled her eyes.
"Well, at least this place can't get any more creepy." Patch said.
"And it will now..." Cherry groaned. "Sir, I'm afraid we can't stay for dinner, we have plans." she then said.
"That's right." Sara agreed with her niece.
"Yeah, so, if you'll just excuse us." Drell said.
"We mustn't be rude." Jim said in a snooty accent to mock Ramsley about staying for dinner.
"What about our family adventure?" Michael asked.
"Yeah, Dad." Megan added in.
"Uncle Jim, you promised we'd be here in a minute and we'd go to the lake with my friends after." Cherry spoke up.
"We'll have some soup and then we'll get going, alright?" Jim compromised with them as they passed the suits of armor which gave Cherry Beauty and the Beast flashbacks.
"Then why do I have a bad feeling that we'll be staying longer than planned?" Atticus asked.
"Will you let the grown-ups handle this, kid?" Jim glanced to him.
"Alright, fine." Atticus said.
"Thank you." Jim replied.
Sara looked apologetic to Atticus about her husband's behavior. Atticus shrugged, telling her it was alright.
"Are these baroque?" Cherry asked about the suits of armor.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, they are." Ramsely replied.
"Well, if it's not 'baroque', don't fix it." Cherry replied with a small smirk.
This caused for Atticus, Mo, Patch, Michael, Megan, and even Drell to laugh, finding that funny. Ramsley glanced back, not laughing, then looked back as he continued to lead them into the dining room of the mansion. There were several chairs and candles, including a roaring fireplace as the lightning flashed outside the windows.
"Well, at least this part of the mansion isn't creepy." Mo smiled.
"It's not that bad." Patch had to admit.
"Eh, it's okay." Cherry shrugged.
"Wow..." Jim smiled as Ramsley shut the doors behind them. "Nice, very nice... Good job... Hey, Megan, how'd you like to eat like this everyday at home?" he then joked with his daughter.
His attempt was a failure as Megan didn't seem to laugh.
"The Master will be with you shortly." Ramsley informed the guests as lightning illuminated against his face slightly.
Jim nodded and put his hands together. "Carry on."
Ramsley bowed to them and went off.
"Okay, seriously, that guy gives me the creeps." Patch said, surprising the family that they weren't hearing things while Atticus simply had a suspicious look towards Ramsley, having a bad feeling about the butler.
"I warned you." Drell whispered to Atticus about Ramsley.
"I know, I'm going to keep a close eye on him." Atticus whispered back.
"Good boy." Drell gently patted him on the head.
"Thanks." Atticus smiled.
"Oh, and have you ever felt the weight of gravity before?" Drell whispered to Atticus.
"Um, no, no, I haven't." Atticus shook his head.
"Wanna find out?" Drell smirked with a small wink.
"Yes." Atticus nodded.
"I'll show ya sometime." Drell grinned to him, pressing his fingertips together.
"Awesome!" Atticus smiled.
Drell smiled back to him.
"Carry on." Ramsley told the others before he walked off in the distance.
"He doesn't lighten up much as it seems." Mo said.
"You said it." Jim agreed.
The others observed the dining room until the master of the mansion would come meet them.