Chapter one- Finding of a Lost Room

“Head under water, and you tell me, to breathe easy for awhile,” you start singing

“Breathing gets harder even I know that,” Keira starts the other part“Made room for me,”

“It’s too soon to see,”

“If I’m happy in your hands,”

“I’m unusually hard to hold on to. Blank stares at blank pages, no easy way to say this. You mean well, but you make this hard on me,”

“I’m not gonna write you a love song cause you ask for it, cause you need one, you see I’m not gonna write you a love song cause you tell me its make or breakin this if your on your way-”

“Wait…. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” a short pause is admitted.

“IF YOU LIKE PINA COLADAS” you and your best friend Keira start yelling, more than singing. “AND GETTING CAUGHT IN THE RAIN!”

“Uhm… wait I don’t know the next part,” she says

“IF YOU’RE NOT INTO YOGA! IF YOU HAVE HALF A BRAIN! Oh wait Keira,”

“What?”“Damn, I don’t know where the hell I’m going,” Keira starts laughing at you

“Yea, you have half a brain alright,”

“Shut up, I must be smart enough, to have my license,” you say tapping the steering wheel.

“Oh please, I have mine too… well I would if it wasn’t for the speeding and the parking and no one was there…,” she trails off. “Whatever, it’s not like I don’t know how to drive,”

“No, you just don’t know how to drive well!” you laugh.

“Well at least I’m not lost,” you slow the car down.“I think I found it,” she looks out to see, high above the trees on a promontory, a cross and a peaking little roof.

“Hey…. Hey Emi,”

“What…,”

“That’s a big ass house,” you speed up a little, anxious to get to the manor.

“That’s why they call it a mansion, dummy,” your tires stop at the bottom of a steep hill.

“Are you telling me, that we’re gonna have to walk all the up that mother f-”“Shhh, I hear something…,”

“What?” you don’t answer, “Emi… Em-” you turn your head in a questioning manner, stepping a little bit behind of Keira, and then turning and grabbing her shoulders.

“Rah!” she lets out a very loud scream.

“Emencia that’s not funny!” you start laughing.

“Get your flat butt walking,”

“it is not flat! it‘s proportionate to my body.” you scoff. a large circular fountain rests on a lower area of the promontory. You continue walking around past it, but slowly to enjoy its beauty, Keira lagging behind. Two pillars of square grass statues stand on the right and left side of the bottom of the stair case. Walking more up the stairs the two of you are greeted by two chalice shaped birdbaths on a flat and long platform. Well, that’s what they appear to be in your eyes. On the platform stretching horizontally lay flowerbeds along a rugged wall. Flowers consisting of daisies, roses, marigolds, pansies, asters, lobelias and more, all colorfully arranged along with a few small trees. Even on the next platform, shrubs lay about; they even are the greeters of the 2nd flight of stairs. The last dais, what stretches horizontally, instead of flowers, is marble. And two large, what seem to be raven type birds, that don’t seem like greeting anyone. An extravagantly large square double glass door stares back at you and Keira. In its archway, are round windows; a large one in the center, surrounded by smaller ones, and two medium sized on the left and right. Almost like a church. The windows around the mansion, are those similar looking to the door. Gothic style, long and thin windows are placed strategically around the building. Usually in groups of twos or threes. The walls that have windows on them are painted a faint yellow, like a full moons glow. You can see a small balcony directly above, and notice the crosses that you saw in Hornhill, a few miles away from Tiverton.

“Should we knock?” you shrug, and cautiously raise your hand.

“You wanna do it?” Keira shakes her head quickly. You lightly tap a few times in a row with your forefingers knuckle, your palm facing you. A large echo is heard throughout the hollow place.

“How do you knock like that? Can’t you do it the other way?”

“What’s wrong with the way I knock?”

“Nothing, I just don’t see anyone else do it like that,” you’re about to make an arguing statement, when the door is opened. You expect to see a rather short man, balding, with a British accent. Instead, a girl who’s a fair height, and has a full head of brunette hair stands in front of you and Keira. Her legs are long for her stature, making the casual long red skirt she’s wearing shorter than it should be.

“Hello there, you must be the Mistresses I was told about.” she says in a joyous tone. “I’m Kiyoko. I know it’s a Japanese name, my moms’ side of the family was and-- oh what am I doing? Come inside you all must be freezing. They expect it to snow later on tonight. I hope you brought something warm!”

“Crap, we left our stuff in the car!” Keira realizes… along with you.

“Oh don’t worry about it, I’ll get someone to fetch for it later on today,” walking in, you, Keira, and Kiyoko’s shoes can be heard echoing throughout each hall. And that’s a lot of halls. “Do you want a tour, or do you just want to settle in, or…,”

“Oh uh… we’ll go investigating I guess,” Keira says.“I’m fine with that, I love a good mystery,” Kiyoko laughs.

“Alright, if anything is needed, just let me know, you’re free to do whatever you want. When you find out what rooms you want to stay in, let me know and I’ll have your things sent there,”

“Thanks Kiyoko,” you say. “C’mon Kei, lets go ‘investigating’” you quote.

“Hush up, it was the first word that came to mind.” you laugh. The two of you walk up the grand staircase in the middle of the grand hall. “Left or right?”

“Left,” “that’s what I was thinking,”

“Great minds think alike,” nodding, the two of you walk down the candescent hallway, dimly lighted by the lamps on the wall, and a few on the ceiling. The both of you go up a few flights of stairs. “My God, how many stairs are there?”

“I don’t know but let’s just pick a room and get on with It.” the both of you agree on an adjoining room because the mansion is way to big and creepy to be in rooms far apart. In both of them are an armoire, desk, a queen size bed with a canopy, and cold hardwood flooring. All of each is beautifully decorated and dusty. Kiyoko said she’d clean them both, and to explore as much as you and Keira want. There is a lot to explore, so the two of you follow her directions, and head out. On your expedition, you open a door to a study. “What’s here?” Keira asks.

“That’s why were here to ‘investigate’” she gives you a look. “Hey look,”

“What?” you point to a portrait of your great-great- grandfather.

“It’s my grandfather,”“no its not, it can‘t be, I mean--,”

“Well my great, great grandfather… Lucien,”

“Lu-wha?”

“He was born in France… I think it’s French,” you stare at his features for a bit. Dark skin, eyes and hair. Something about him seems troubled in the painting, what you’re not sure, although it could be having to stand for so long during the portrait. “Hm,”

“Hey I found a key,” Keira interrupts your thoughts

“Funny lookin’ key,” you hold it in your hand. A two sided key.

“Where do you think it goes?” she asks.

“Your too curious for your own good,” she shrugs. You and Keira search the study, careful not to misplace anything.

“Looks like Mr. Lucien had a thing for vampires, there’s tons of stuff here about them. All sorts of mystical creatures, dragons, unicorns, types of sprites and spirits.”

“Well hey, so do I.” you look around some more. “Oh listen to this, ‘A wise rabbit has three entrances to his den’” you run your fingers over the words, and find a slot. You move it see a strange looking keyhole. “Hey! Hey I found it!”

“Nice! Ok you do the honors, since you did find it,” she hands you the key. You hesitantly push the key into the slot. “It fits!” you turn it.

A large crash is admitted.

“Crap!”

“Shit! What the hell!”

“Let’s get out of here,” the both of you run out to the hall and down to a dead end. “Dead end c’mon lets,”“wait-,” sadly you ran in the direction where the sound came

“What, what, what!?”

“this is where the crash was,”

“and we’re staying here why?” you tap the wall with your fist. “Your knocking like-,” Keira is interrupted by your foot making powerful contact with the wall. “What the hell are you doing!” you kick it again

“This-,” kick “wall-,” kick “is-,” kick, a creaking noise is heard, as the wall pushes inward. “Opened,” you say with a satisfied grin.

“Oh you sneaky,” you kind of hesitate. “What?”

“I don’t know, I just got a bad vibe,”

“Oh, you are so full of it. You just kicked the damn door open… err wall open,”

“Yea, but--,”

“Don’t be such a baby, come on,” the hallway is long, and dark. You bump into Keira a few times. You bump into her again when she runs into the wall. “Oww, oh. Ouch yea, that’s my face.” she rubs her nose and makes a few funny faces. The types you’d use for blackmailing. (Not that you’d think of ever blackmailing Keira) “I think we’re in need of your fantastic kicking abilities,” you proudly walk in front of her. “Step aside amateur,” with one very loud and very powerful kick a door is opened. “Oh wow,” you slowly walk into the room assumed to be your great-great- grandfathers.