The Mansion in the Night

Previously called The Haunted Mansion (not really haunted)

In honour of Halloween which is tomorrow.

Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled. The wind tossed trees about like T-shirts in a dryer. Rain poured down in torrents. The storm was at its element.

A lone figure ran through the darkness, feet slapping the muddy ground. Her long dark hair hung wet and stringy around her head, and smacked against her back with every pounding step she took. Her shoes had been consumed by the mud hours ago, as had her hat, socks, and jacket. The girl was freezing. She had to find shelter soon.

A brilliant bolt of lighting illuminated the sky, and in the distance, a large dark silhouette came into focus. The girl blinked. She grimaced and covered her ears, still running, as the thunder that followed the lightning roared, sounding like an angry beast. The lightning flashed again. The silhouette was a mansion, she could see it clearly now. As she got closer, she could see that it was huge, a dark red brown colour, and…the windows were bright. Inside, the lights were on. Someone was home! The girl’s pace quickened.

The storm was not ready to lose her yet. It shot a bolt of lightning streaking towards her head. But the girl was quicker than the lightning, and she dodged it. The storm was getting weaker from raging for many hours, but it was still putting up a tremendous fight. The girl’s hope grew as the mansion loomed closer and closer, and with a sob of relief, she flung herself upon the heavy wooden doors at the front. The thunder roared, furious that the girl had managed to find shelter.

She huddled at the bottom of the doors for a while, gathering her bearings. Then she straightened. A tentative hand reached out and touched the door, feeling its smooth dry surface. Then her numb fingers grasped the brass knocker, and she tried in vain to lift it. It took what little strength she had left to lift it one inch. She dropped it and it landed with a soft thump.

And she waited.

Inside the house, the thump was not heard, for inside it was almost as bad as the storm outside. Inside, the flat-screen TV was playing a horror movie, which the onlookers were criticizing. A cloud of bats flitted about on the ceiling, trying to dislodge a fellow bat from the ornate crystal chandelier and catch bugs at the same time. A small dark haired girl was throwing the bugs up in the air from a small glass jar. “Catch,” she said, just before she let another handful fly. The bats chattered a thank you and flew left and right, gulping the dead insects.

The girl peered into the jar, which was half empty. “I’m hungry,” she told the bats. “Can’t I have a few…?”

Quite a few bats chattered loudly as if to say ‘NO!’

The girl sighed, for she had understood them. They WERE saying no.

“Fine, fine,” she said, looking longingly into the jar. She glanced behind her, admiring the bat wings that stretched out from her back. “But since I’ve got wings too doesn’t that entitle me to just one?”

The bats screeched.

Popcorn whizzed through the air among the bugs as various people threw pieces through the air. Some of the braver bats tried to catch them as they flew through the air. On TV, a pretty model, who resembled a Barbie™, backed away from a closet door, which was creaking open to reveal a snow white skeleton with glowing red eye sockets. The girl, naturally, screamed loudly. Half the onlookers screamed in unison, and then immediately started laughing afterward. None of them were really scared. The only reason they watched scary movies on Halloween was so they could laugh at it and scream along with the frightened people on TV. Nothing in the movies was scarier than the secrets the mansion had to hold. Of course, some of the mansion’s inhabitants weren’t allowed to scream, for obvious reasons.

“I can scream louder than that,” scoffed a woman at the back, dressed in a dark purple cloak. She cleared her throat.

“We know, we know,” a girl with curly red hair said quickly. She scratched her ear and swished her tail, the light breeze sending a few stray popcorn kernels tumbling across the floor towards the bat girl. “All banshees can scream louder than that.”

“But I’m the loudest,” the banshee reminded the girl.

“Of course,” the cat girl agreed.

“Blooood,” the skeleton on TV moaned. “BLOOOOOOOOOOOD!”

This got a big laugh from the crowd.

“Oh, wasn’t that a scream?” laughed the cat girl, nudging a skeleton beside her who was laughing the hardest. “That was funny, Cassie!” he chortled, pretending to wipe imaginary tears from his eye sockets. Cassie laughed again. “Skeletons have no need for blood anyway. They want a blood seeker? Try a vampire.”

Beside the bat girl with the jar of bugs, another bat girl waved at Cassie and grinned, showing her pointy canines. “I do indeed seek blood, Cassie,” she said in a silky voice. “The question is, whos blood shall I consume tonight?” She laughed to show it was all in fun. She then frowned up at the bat in the chandelier, who was still stuck fast. “I might be drinking you if you die in there,” she yelled up to the bat. The bat, hearing this, began to struggled frantically.

On TV, a handsome actor had appeared and sliced the skeleton’s head off. The skeleton beside Cassie shook his head. “If that skeleton had had more milk, that never would have happened.”

“MUST DRINK MORE MILK!” a few of the onlookers chorused, and then laughed and clapped their hands as the skeleton’s head bounced up and bit the actor’s thigh.

Only one girl wasn’t joining in the fun. She was very pale, and her hair was jet black and very stringy. She was staring blankly at the TV without seeing anything. This shouldn’t have been a problem for her, as she had four enormous eyes, alternating in green and red. She looked depressed.

“Why aren’t you watching the movie?” asked Cassie innocently, knowing very well why.

The girl ignored her and said plainly, “I’m bored. I think I’ll go to bed now.”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “Fine. Goodnight, Haily.”

As Haily left the livingroom and trudged down the hallway, her head drooped. Another Halloween alone. Everyone had a friend but her. Three cat people, two vampires, four skeletons—even an equal number of bats—but four-eyes? There was only her. Haily sighed. You can’t win ‘em all, she thought to herself as she plodded down the hallway. She wished she had a friend.

In the corner of the livingroom, a small light went on. It was the light that went on whenever there was someone in the house that shouldn’t be. But no one saw it except a small spider in its web. The spider took out a book and began to read by its light.

* * *

The blonde girl was not exactly IN the house yet, but she was close enough. After waiting for what seemed like hours, she was even more cold and tired than ever before. She summoned all the strength she had and pounded on the door with both fists.

No one came.

She trailed her fingers down the edge of the door until she found the doorknob; simple and brassy. She twisted it and to her surprise, it was open. She cast one last glance at the raging storm. It thundered in rage, but there was nothing it could do. She had escaped from it. The girl opened the door and slipped inside, shutting it firmly behind her. Oh, WHY had the lightning burned down her home?

She was facing the main hall. There was a large empty space in front of her, which could’ve been a dance floor, except that there was a red carpet that lined the edges of the room. Beyond the dance floor were two sets of stairs which connected at the top of a large balcony where there was another door, half open. On her right and to her left there were also doors. One was open, the other shut. “You can do this, Jenna,” she whispered to herself.

She wrung a few remaining drops of rain out of her hair and started the trek up the stairs. When she reached the top, she peered inside. As she realized what she was looking at, she whirled around, flattened herself up against the outside wall and gasped. There were MONSTERS up there, all watching a movie on TV! There was a girl with bat wings, a skeleton, and wasn’t that a werewolf? She knew that she shouldn’t be scared, because after all…but what if they were hostile? She didn’t see anyone that looked normal, like her. She ran from the door as fast as she could without making any noise. She ran all the way back to the front door, but it seemed to have latched shut. She was trapped.

Jenna took a deep, shuddering breath and looked at the two doors to her left and right. The right one was open, that meant someone might be inside. Another monster, maybe. But if the other one is shut, it would be shut for a reason. So which to choose? With a deep breath, she made her decision, and headed through the already opened door.

* * *

Haily edged down the deserted hallways towards her bedroom. There was fear in the air. She shook her head to clear it. What was she thinking?! She wasn’t scared!

Yes, she was. She lied. She was scared. Her nerves were ready to snap, even though she knew she had no reason to be scared. She was nearing the edge of the corridor. Her room would be just there. She couldn’t wait to get there. Just then. the storm threw out a particularly loud clap of thunder, and Haily jumped high. Then once she realized that she had been holding her breath, she let it all out in a loud whoooooooooooooooooooooosh.

* * *

Jenna heard a strange noise. It sounded like somebody letting out their breath all in one go. There’s someone else down the same corridor, she thought, trembling. He…she…it’s gonna get me. As she neared the edge of the corridor, she drew a sharp breath to steady her nerves.

* * *

Haily froze. Had she heard someone breathing? She took a very small step forward. She could just about peer around the corner, but she was afraid to…

* * *

The floor creaked. Jenna hadn’t moved, not blinked, not breathed, not shifted her weight, nothing. That meant only one thing. There was someone right around the corner making that noise. What if it was a monster? Or, even worse, a human? Were there humans in this monster house? What if the human looked around the corner and saw her and jumped to conclusions? Jenna knew that she had to be brave. She didn’t even know if it was a human yet, anyway. She closed her eyes and breathed in…

* * *

Haily composed herself…

* * *

Both girls thrust their head around the corner. Their heads clunked together. Jenna let out a blood-curdling scream. Haily let out a shriek that a banshee would’ve envied. Both girls turned and bolted.

Jenna screeched to a halt. She had seen what was around the corner, but it wasn’t anything to be scared of!

Haily also slowed. Why had she run away? She’d been dreaming about this moment for years!

Both girls crept back and faced each other again. Then their faces split into wide grins. Their eyes widened in surprise. All eight of them.

“You look just like me!” cried Haily, staring at Jenna’s four bright blue eyes. “You look just like ME!” replied Jenna, taking in Haily’s Christmas coloured eyes. The girls laughed. “And to think I was SCARED of you!” giggled Jenna. “I needed a place to stay the night when the lightning burned down my old home in the woods, but when I saw the monsters, I was so scared! I thought YOU were a monster, too, before I could see you.”

Haily laughed loudly. “I thought you were a monster too,” she said, chuckling. “That scream scared the daylights out of me.”

“I think it has,” said Jenna, looking at Haily’s pale skin. The girls laughed again. “Want to come join the party?” offered Haily. She no longer wanted to go to bed, now that she had the friend she had longed for, for so long. “Sure!” said Jenna, blinking her blue eyes.

“Would you want to…live here too? Now that you don’t have a home?” asked Haily cautiously. “You can share my room.”

“YES!” cried Jenna. “That would be AWESOME!”

The two new friends linked arms and headed back down the hallway to the party.

Heh heh, that was a twist ending! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

~CatnipPacket