The Mansion (2 page)

‘Ok, but you are all crazy if you ask me,’
the old man said, shaking his head.

Tony and Jeremy walked in through the front
door and turned to see the old man close the door. They waited
until they heard the key in the lock turn and click, signifying
that it had locked before joining the others in the dining
room.

The old man walked to his old muddy
Landrover, and he pulled on the door. It creaked as it opened, and
the chassis also gave a groan when he got in. he sat motionless and
stared at the house. He shook his head once more and started up the
engine. He turned the car around in the wide gravel driveway and
headed down the long, tree-lined road leading back to the main
road.

Once all the monitors were up and running in
the dining room, Tony, Michael, and Jeremy took a number of cameras
each and headed to different rooms, setting up the cameras in
positions where they could observe the largest part of the room.
They each contacted Phoebe via the handheld radios they all
carried, each responding to her directions by moving the cameras
left or right to get the best picture. The three men all met at the
bottom of the stairs. They looked at each other, Michael radioing
their position and saying that they were about to head upstairs to
set up the cameras. Phoebe told them to stay where they were until
John had joined them. He had been working on a special electrical
charge detector that sounded an alarm and flashed when a static
charge passed over it.

Once he had joined them, they all headed up
the large winding staircase. As they reached the top, a strong,
cold breeze crashed against them, it’s cold bite making the hairs
on their necks rise; they could see their own breath as they
exhaled. They all automatically slowed and looked at each
other.

They moved down the corridor, its dark
wallpaper and red carpet making it feel dark and mysterious. They
passed several paintings, all depicting women and men being
tortured in different ways. Jeremy decided to head back to the top
of the stairs and place a night vision camera pointing down the
corridor. He then jogged back down to the others, who continued to
inspect the paintings.

‘This is some sick shit!’ Michael said.

The others looked at him and nodded.

As they reached the other end of the
corridor, Tony turned and directed the others. ‘Right, there are
six rooms. We’ll set up a camera in each, and John, if you place
your static charge monitor in the middle of the corridor when we
head back, that should cover everything. We can look at the book of
incidents when we get back to the dining room.’

The others nodded and then they all entered
the rooms.

Tony pushed the door open and was met by a
strong beam of light. A large window that stretched from floor to
ceiling bathed the room in the grey light from outside. A large
four-poster bed sat proud in the center of the room, dark, wooden
cabinets and wardrobes stood in sharp contrast against the faded
cream wallpaper. He looked closer at the wallpaper and could see a
faint print on it. He found it hard to see what the pattern
actually was, so he ran his hand over it and could feel the raised
outlines of the lines and circles that made up the pattern. He
stood back and turned on his digital camera. He had placed an
infrared filter on its lens and took several pictures of the
largest un-obscured wall. When he was done, he set up the
night-vision camera he had on a retractable tripod and positioned
it in the corner of the room, focusing on the bed and cabinets. He
radioed down to Phoebe to check that she was receiving the picture
but was met with static. He tried again and was met with a
static-filled voice telling him all was ok with the picture. He
looked down at the receiver in his hand.
Maybe it’s the
batteries
, he thought to himself. Just as he left the room and
pulled the door behind him, he heard a thump coming from the room
and froze. His radio bust into life, making him jump.

‘Tony, did you knock the camera over?’ Phoebe
asked.

He looked at the radio receiver in his hand
before replying. ‘Erm no, I’m no longer in the room. I just closed
the door and heard a thump.’

He turned the handle, pushed the door open,
and stepped back into the room. The camera was on its side, the
tripod legs still in their fixed triangular position. He walked
over to it and picked it up and inspected it carefully. He wobbled
it but it didn’t fall over; it was in a secure place and position.
He stood in front of it and radioed down to Phoebe.

‘Can you see me?’

The radio again fed back static before
clearing.

Phoebe stared at the screen and Tony
crouching, his face in frame. She was about to reply when she saw a
dark shadow move across the room behind him. She gasped and shouted
into the radio.

‘Behind you, I just saw something move behind
you!’

Tony quickly stood up and turned around. He
could not see anything. He moved to the large window and peered
out. All was still outside until he heard the faint call of a crow.
He looked at the trees and finally found the lonesome bird that was
calling. He turned again and carefully scoured the room. He raised
the radio to his mouth and spoke slowly into it as he turned again
and looked outside at the grey sky.

‘You must have seen a shadow cast by a
passing bird or something because there’s nothing here.’

‘No it wasn’t a bird's shadow; it was behind
you and then moved away out of shot,’ Phoebe said.

‘When I get done here we’ll check the
footage,’ Tony replied.

The others then began responding, asking if
Tony was ok. He replied quickly, telling them to continue with
their jobs of placing cameras in the other rooms. Tony once again
left the room and moved on to another room, passing John, who was
standing outside the door to another room.

‘You ok?’ he asked.

‘I pushed open the door and then it closed
suddenly, now I can’t seem to open it,’ John replied.

Tony stopped and watched as John struggled to
open the door. He then offered to try. He placed his hand on the
round door handle and turned it. When it had reached its furthest
point, he pushed. The door slowly opened; he even let go of the
handle and the door continued to open with a creak.

He looked at John who looked at him in
astonishment.

‘Are you messing with me or something?’ he
said to John.

John just stood, mouth open, shaking his
head. Tony sighed and moved on to the next room.

Michael had entered his room, its walls
covered in a dark red paper. The ceiling was covered in small
irregular-shaped mirrors, creating a mosaic pattern.

The bed, a four-poster, rested against a
wall. Above the headboard was a painting of several skeletons
sitting at a table. A large grime-stained window let in the grey
light of the outside world. He stood at it and looked out. The
mansion’s gardens stretched out in front of him. A small gathering
of trees stood in the center of the lawn, and he looked at them.
Their leafless limbs began to sway gently. He was about to turn
away and begin positioning the camera he held in his hand when out
of the corner of his eye he saw a dark outline of a figure standing
at the tree’s base. He stopped and refocused but saw nothing. He
shook his head and began setting up the tripod and camera facing
the bed, contacting Phoebe to check position and reception. When he
got the all clear, he left and headed to the last room.

Jeremy walked into a large room covered with
wallpaper that depicted a carnival scene. The room itself consisted
of four small beds and a large gathering of dolls and cuddly toys
piled in a corner: there were teddy bears in various types of
clothes, and dolls sat and stared blankly at him, some with
clothes, and others sat naked; a few had limbs missing. He shivered
as a cold breeze surrounded him. He never liked dolls; there was
something sinister about them, especially their eyes, which seemed
to follow you wherever you went. He moved from bed to bed, noticing
the old faded and stained sheets. He took several pictures with his
digital camera of each bed and the pile of toys, and he then began
to set up the camera and tripod. A large bang made him jump back
from the camera. He spun around, searching for whatever had made
the noise. He radioed to the others, asking if any of them had
heard the loud bang. Each in turn responded with a ‘No’ or a
‘Negative.’ He walked around the room, pushing his feet hard down
into the carpet to see if there was a loose floorboard that may
have returned to its normal place after he had stepped on it, but
nothing felt loose. He opened the small wardrobe that rested
against a wall but found it empty. It was then that he noticed the
wallpaper in detail. The carnival scene he had initially noticed
was a complete scene, starting by the door and depicting different
rides and animal attractions all around the room until it reached
the door again, only breaking where the large window separated the
design. He looked closer and saw that the people depicted in the
design were all headless. He then heard another loud bang that
shattered the silence of the room. He turned quickly and pushed his
back against the wall. This time he knew where it had emanated
from.

‘Did you hear that one?’ he called into the
radio.

Again the others responded with ‘No.’ The
door opened, and he gasped. He relaxed and sighed when he saw
Michael walk in.

‘What’s going on in here?’ he asked
Jeremy.

Jeremy pointed to the window and explained
that he had heard two loud bangs. They both slowly moved over to
the window and peered out. The window overlooked the garden that
Michael had seen from the room he had just set up. Unlike the room
he had just been in, this window led onto a small balcony. They
both looked down at the balcony floor and saw what had caused the
two loud bangs. On the floor of the balcony lay two large
crows.

‘Crazy birds have just flown into the window
and killed themselves,’ Michael said.

At that moment, another crow came out of
nowhere and crashed into the window. The two investigators fell
backwards, their hearts racing from the sudden jumpstart. They sat
on the floor, looking at each other and then at the window.

‘Get set up and let’s get out of here,’
Jeremy said. Michael nodded and helped his friend quickly set up
the camera, they decided to set it up so they could see the beds
and window as well as the mountain of dolls and toys.

John slowly entered the room he had been
struggling to open the door too. He was greeted by a musty smell
and an icy blast of air that made him shiver. Mold covered the
light green wallpaper, the carpet had several dark stains on it,
and the four-poster bed that stood in the center of the room had no
bed covers, just an old, stained mattress. There were several
gouges cut into each of the bed posts. The windows that let in the
light were thick with grime, letting in very little natural light.
He looked for a light switch and found one in the middle of the
wall that the door belonged to. He flicked it, and the small
crystal chandelier came to life, bathing the room in a strange low
light. The walls danced with spots and shapes cast from the small
crystals of the light fixture. He took several pictures of the room
before setting up his camera. He called down to Phoebe while
standing in the camera’s view and waving. Phoebe responded by
telling him he was silly. He felt another icy blast of air and then
the door he had struggled to open slammed shut. He stood bolt
upright and looked at the door. He quickly walked over to the door
and tried to open it, but again it didn’t move. He radioed to the
others but was met with static. He looked around him at the room.
The small light spots and glints cast onto the wall from the light
began to move quicker and quicker. He looked up at the chandelier,
expecting it to be swaying, but it was still. He then heard a
quiet, sinister laugh. He felt a cold electric shock shoot up his
spine to his head. His heart began to pound as he heard a low voice
speak. He quickly grabbed his voice recorder from his pocket and
pressed record.

‘What is your name?’ he asked.

The voice continued to speak, but in a
language he didn’t understand. There was a click as the door
opened. The voice ceased at that very moment. He quickly exited and
walked into Jeremy. They looked at each other, and they didn’t have
to say anything; they both knew that they had just experienced more
in the last few minutes than all the other investigations they had
ever done.

Tony opened the door to one of the last two
remaining rooms in the corridor. He stepped in and found the room
to be very dark; only a small amount of natural light illuminated
the room. There was only one window in the room, which ran along
the length of the skirting board of one of the walls and was no
more than a foot in height. The walls of the room were painted
black. Nothing else was in the room except for a large crystal
chandelier that hung down from the ceiling; its point finished just
inches from the wooden floor. He found a light switch that had been
painted black also and pushed his finger down on it. The chandelier
burst into life. The walls that were black now showed pictures of
mutilated corpses. The large chandelier was in fact a form of
cinema projector, projecting the pictures that were caught and
stored within the crystals. He looked at each one: bodies with
their chests skinless and showing the ribs, headless bodies, female
bodies with their breasts removed, and several men hanging with
their feet and hands tied together. He quickly set up a night
vision camera and left the room, turning the light off as he
left.

He was met in the corridor by Jeremy and
Michael, who were standing by the final door. John was placing his
static charge detector in the middle of the corridor and turned it
on. The others all entered the final room, which was the largest of
all of them. The four-poster bed sat on top of a raised wooden
platform in the center of the room. The walls were covered in black
and white photographs and painted pictures. They separated and
looked at the pictures: photographs of children sitting together in
pretty dresses and shirts and trousers. There were several pictures
of a family, the man standing proud behind a chair, and his wife
sitting, looking pale and non-expressional. The children, all of
whom looked to be a similar age, stood around the chair either side
of him, none of them smiling.