The group gathered ten minutes later in the living room, most of them not willing to speak to anyone else. Hayley and Anna went immediately to work on the TV. Jenna flopped onto the couch, casting assorted pouts at her sister, who curled up in a chair with a sheaf of stories and a red pen. Alan leaned on the chair, watching her, while everyone else chose assorted dusty chairs.
"Who wants to hear the story behind this place?" he asked finally. Hayley and Anna raised their hands without looking up from their work. Mari and Hannah murmured assent, while Shannon and Amy shrugged. Mike assumed a bored demeanor.
"Well," Alan began, gesturing for Jenna to hit the lights, which she did as quickly as possible and without moving very much, "in the year 1915 in Armenia, the Ottoman Empire carried out their plan of genocide. Many Armenians were deported and worse. A family by the name of Katmarzeyan ended up in America. They began building this house. There were two children, a girl about your age, Jenna, and a little boy about as old as the twins. Anyway, this family was the victim of assorted hate crimes. The father was finally killed. Then the enraged population of the surrounding countryside stormed the mansion. They shot the wife and hung the girl, but they couldn't find the little boy. They tried to burn the house, but it wouldn't catch, so they just trashed the place and left. Then, ten years later, they returned, having heard screams and bangs in the night. They disappeared, and a few months passed before the bodies were found. They had been locked in the basement, and apparently died of starvation, clawing at the door with expressions of horror on their faces. Now, some people thought it had been the boy who'd done it, but they found his skeleton in a closet. He'd been locked in for safety and left behind when his family was murdered.
"The other farmers, who were superstitious by then, ordered that the ghosts be appeased by having rooms and turrets added to their mansion. The plan was carried out, but the construction workers died mysteriously, and a few simply disappeared. Finally, the place was bought by our great-grandfather, and it's been in the family ever since, although we don't actually live here."
Jenna shrugged. "Whatever."
Hannah spoke up. "I've got something to add. Three weeks ago, some teenagers were out here. They came running to the police, all fired up about something...completely incoherent. The officer on duty came out here and found the dead body of one of their friends...locked in the basement. He'd died of cardiac arrest. Actually, that's why I'm here. To see if I can get any clues as to what really happened to Isaac Bernard."
"Isn't it obvious?" Mike asked. "The ghost got him."
The TV flickered on, causing the twins to cheer. "We got it," Anna said in delight.
"Did that story scare you?" Kit asked absentmindedly, her pen skittering across the page she was grading.
"Not really," Hayley said. "It's not real."
"That's the scariest part," Mike said. "It is."
* * *
Emory rolled his eyes, flicking his thumb on his lighter and watching the bluish flame spring up. "Adults these days. They're so gullible."
Alicia tossed her empty can of beer over her shoulder and pushed the newly-broken window open. "Ooh, look, it's the basement," she said, giggling. "Scared, Josh?"
The new kid shook his head mutely. His protests hadn't done anything to sway these guys from the crime they wanted to commit, and anyway, it would be discovered before anything was ruined. He slipped through the window after Alicia, avoiding the shattered glass. Emory was not so lucky, and got a shallow cut on his face, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Right," he said, turning his flashlight on and illuminating the room. "Doesn't look so creepy to me."
Cobwebs choked the corners of the room they were in, anchored to boxes and tools. Several rusty nails stuck out of one wall, and the door hung off one hinge, slightly ajar. Alicia pushed it open the rest of the way and beeped the others on her walkie talkie. "So, where do we go now?" she asked, speaking in a whisper without quite knowing why.
"Maybe there's a sink down here," Emory suggested. "We could turn it on..."
Josh followed them without speaking, the darkness pressing in on him from all sides. The story had been muffled, but he'd heard it all right. He would've definitely been more comfortable anywhere but the basement, where so much innocent blood had been spilled. Actually, he doubted that the dead farmers had been innocent, but the Armenians were. So was that teenager who'd been killed.
The flashlight went out. Alicia screamed, someone staggered into Josh, and he backed into a metal bookshelf, which collapsed, sending him and assorted books tumbling to the floor.
After a brief moment of panic, Josh calmed down. "Hello," he called out softly, getting up and reaching out in hopes of finding Emory or Alicia. "Guys? Oh, come on. This isn't funny."
The flashlight rolled onto his foot, and he picked it up. It turned on, strong as ever, but illuminated nothing but a crushed beer can.
That was weird. Alicia had left her only can outside...
Something hit him in the small of his back, and sharp, tiny teeth tore into his ear. He screamed, and the flashlight fell to the floor, where it bounced and lay still.
* * *
"Did you hear something?" Shannon asked, tilting her head.
Jenna cursed in her head, having recognized the strangled yelps as Emory's. What was going on with all of them? She wasn't sure how they intended to get in, and it really didn't matter much. After all, it was just a stupid hazing. Josh would never do it - what a pity. She really liked him. "I didn't hear anything," she said sweetly.
Her sister gave her a suspicious look, but let it drop. "So, Alan, why do you want to sell this place?"
"Well, before, I just thought we could use the money, but now...I mean, that kid died. It's probably not the best...okay, I know I heard something that time."
They'd all heard it - the high-pitched screams coming from the air vent. Jenna swore, this time out loud, and vaulted over the arm of the couch to kneel beside the vent. "Hey! Hey! Who is that?"
"It goes to the basement," Mike said.
They all exchanged glances, which confused Anna. "Why're you all looking at each other?" she asked.
Hayley whapped her twin kindly on the head. "The basement, Annie. Remember the story?"
"But that isn't real."
Another scream, then silence. Before they knew what they were doing, the entire assembly ran out into the main hall, where Alan yanked open the door. Steps shrouded with darkness descended into the depths of the house.
"I need a flashlight," he said, squinting into the blackness.
Mari fetched two from the kitchen and handed one to Kit. "Good thing someone remembers flashlights around here," she hiseed.
"Don't start that again..."
The two hurried down the stairs.
* * *
They found Josh lying unmoving down a dusty corridor, his earlobe shredded by tiny claws. Alan handed his flashlight to Kit, who picked up the one on the ground and attempted to hang on to all three. Alan picked the teenage boy up and inspected the ruined bookshelf.
"What happened to him?" Kit asked, managing to switch one flashlight off and stick it into her pocket.
"Looks like a rat or something. They're quite vicious."
"Jeez. That's disgusting. Poor kid. What's he doing down here, anyway?"
Alan shrugged, a motion that caused the boy to stir. "Who knows. A dare, probably. You know kids these days."
Kit played her light over some footprints in the dust. "Looks like he had friends. I'll go look, you take him upstairs."
"I'm not leaving you alone down here. It's too dangerous."
Kit sighed. "You're probably right, hon. Let's go."
They walked quickly down the hallway, the silence ringing in their ears. Eventually, they came to a locked door, the footprints diverging, one set entering the room, the other continuing down the hallway. "Here's where we split up," Alan said softly. "This passage is a dead end. I'll be back in a minute, okay? You take this one."
Kit managed to prop the injured boy up against a wall and handed her fiancé one of the flashlights. He headed off, the darkness closing in behind him. Kit tried the door, kicked it, and then rammed it with her shoulder, which somehow caused it to spill open.
She stared for a moment in utter horror, then covered her ears to shut out the piercing wail that suddenly seemed to fill the room.
When Alan returned, he found the boy stirring and his fiancée nowhere to be seen. The room she'd managed to open was completely empty.
"Oh," the boy moaned, raising his hand to his ear.
Alan helped the boy up, then glanced again into the room. The flashlight lay abandoned in the center, but Kit's footprints - and those of whoever had come in before her - simply stopped in the middle of the floor.
Well...he had to get medical care for the kid, first. And Kit was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
Usually.
* * *
The phones didn't work. Anna and Mike couldn't find anything wrong with them - they just didn't work. Amy's cellphone seemed to have burned-out batteries, although she swore she'd charged them not so long ago.
Alan reappeared with a half-conscious teenager slung over his shoulder. The boy's ear was torn up. "Josh," Jenna cried, jumping up.
Alan gently set the boy on the table. "Mike, get the First-Aid kit out of the car," he said, tossing a set of keys to his brother. Jenna pressed a hand to her mouth, shaking slightly at the sight.
"Where's my mom?" Hayley asked suddenly.
Alan bit his lip. "She...uh...well, I won't lie to you. She disappeared."
"Holy crap," Shannon said. "I hope she has life insurance."
"She's probably just trying to scare us," Mari said calmly. "Remember, we used to do that all the time for kicks."
Mike returned with the kit and took out some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol. "This is going to sting."
Josh looked up, eyes clouded with pain. "What the heck, man," he said dully. "I know that. I'm not a child."
Despite his assertation, Josh screamed again when the alcohol-drenched cotton touched his ear. He nearly fainted, and insisted on putting the Band-Aid on by himself. Jenna watched the ordeal with sympathetic eyes, slipping a hand into her pocket and touching her earpiece, which was hissing quietly. She lifted it to her ear.
"No..." Emory whispered. "No...no..."
He repeated it over and over again, a disturbing mantra without fear or pain, just a simple repetition of the word. Jenna poked the earpiece into her ear and left the room quietly, unnoticed by the adults, who were focused on Josh. Her nieces met her eyes and nodded imperceptibly as she took step after step toward the basement door.
"What happened to your friends?" Alan asked when the Band-Aid was finally in place.
Josh shrugged. "Dunno, man. The light kinda...went out. Kinda. And then they weren't there and that thing attacked me. What was it?"
"A rat, I think."
"Oh, gross."
Hannah sighed. "There's definitely something sinister about that basement," she said. "God, now I'm afraid to go down there...but I have to if I want a paycheck. Ah, the story of our lives, right?"
The other women shrugged, then jumped almost as one when a door slammed somewhere above. Their eyes travelled to the ceiling, where the miniature chandelier that lit the kitchen had begun to shake.
"What is that?" Amy asked.
"I'm not sure," Mike said, picking up the flashlight. "But I'm going to find out what it is."
* * *
Kristen gave up on her painting. She wasn't much good with subjects that moved, and lights kept flashing on and off in the mansion, mostly on the upper floors. She couldn't imagine why the kids who had broken in would mess with the lights, if it was kids at all. There was the possibility that Vahe-Taline wasn't abandoned any longer...
She hadn't heard the previous screams, but she'd brought binoculars, and when she saw a flicker of movement in the bushes outside, she lifted them to her eyes.
A dirty, blood-streaked girl was hoisting herself out of a broken window in the cellar. She was obviously in pain. Kristen sighed. So much for a nice, quiet evening in the country. Some nurse she'd be if she didn't at least try to help.
She left her things on the hill and took off at a slow jog toward the gate.
* * *
Jenna realized within five seconds how foolish it had been to take off without a flashlight. She had a pen in her pocket with a small light on it, but it did little to beat back the darkness, and holding down the button hurt her thumb.
"Em," she called softly. "Alicia. Guys, where are you?"
She could still hear Emory in the earpiece, but he'd started to cry now. That had to be the most frightening thing she'd ever heard - Em, crying. "I need a light," he said, but she could barely hear him. A light? Like a flashlight, or just a cigarette? Or something else entirely? Probably a cig, knowing Em -
She had to struggle not to scream when her earpiece went wild. She tore it out of her ear. "Shit!" she hissed, listening to the shrieks it emitted. It wasn't Em, which was good - it was good old electronics acting up.
It took a moment for Jenna to realize that she'd dropped her penlight and was standing in total darkness. She slowly crouched down and ran her hands over the cold, dusty floor. She found it quickly and pushed it on, half expecting to find some new horror staring at her, but nothing had changed, except that it was suddenly quiet.
She raised the microphone to her mouth. "Emory!" she snapped.
Nothing.
"Alicia?"
Silence.
"Caitlin?"
This time, she knew perfectly well what she was expecting - her sister to scare her half to death. But it didn't happen. She took a step forward, feeling hot tears build up in her eyes, and felt something crunch under her foot.
A beer can. Alicia had been here. And there were the footprints.
Jenna followed them.
* * *
Kristen hadn't been able to get a straight answer out of the teen, who had the hiccups and kept begging for a beer. Of at least one thing Kristen was sure - this kid was not of legal drinking age.
"What happened?" she asked again.
The girl shivered and remained huddled in the bush. "I...don't know," she managed.
"What's your name?" Maybe it was a simple case of amnesia...
"Alicia Young."
"Age?"
"Fifteen. Sixteen, I mean. Twenty-one."
Fifteen. Right. "Who else is in there?"
"Emory. Jenna. The new kid. I dunno where the others are. There's people upstairs and Jen's sister. It's all dark. We broke a window. It's dark."
Kristen pulled the girl to her feet. "Let's go inside and get you warmed up."
"Cold and dark! I won't go back in!"
"You'll be fine, Alicia. Come on."
* * *
When Amy opened the door and recognized Kristen with a teenager in tow, she was profoundly glad that Kit had vanished into thin air. Had she been there, her reaction might have been quite predictable - another swear, another stupid line about what had transpired ten years ago.
"Amy?" Kristen asked.
"Yes."
"Huh. That's weird." Kristen pulled the teenager in. "This is Alicia."
Josh hopped off the table and ran into the main hall. "Alicia! Where's Emory and all the others?"
Alicia jerked her thumb at a coat closet. "Hiding. We just wanted t' scare you. It wasn't supposed to be like this..."
Their cover blown, the kids hidden in the closet opened the door, which caused them to spill out. There were three of them; a tall, awkward boy, a short, leather-wearing Happy Days wannabe, and a girl who was older than the others and clutching a can of spray paint. Amy devoutly hoped the paint was for painting, not sniffing.
"Jeez, Alicia, why'd ya hafta go and tell 'em?" the short boy whined.
The girl glared at them. "Guys, we're in way over our heads. There's something weird about this place. Let's just find Em and Jenna and get outta here, okay?"
Josh looked around, bewildered. "Where is Jenna? She was just here."
"Who cares?" Mari asked, leaning languidly against the doorframe. "We won't be escaping. Do you think it's coincidence that everyone involved is here now?"
"Not Mary," Shannon noted, kicking Mari. The dark-skinned woman got out of the way so that the rest of the group could enter the hall. "Mary isn't here."
"She goes by Liza, now," Hannah said. "She must've tried harder than anyone else to forget."
"Would someone like to enlighten us?" Mike asked.
"Later," Alan said shortly. "We have to find Kit, Jenna, and this Emory guy. Then we're outta here."
"I haven't appraised the property yet!"
"I haven't even started my investigation!"
"Wouldn't you rather do that in broad daylight?" Hayley pointed out. "I want Mom back, and then I want to go home."
The group exchanged several glances. Finally, Amy took over. "Okay, here's what we do. Mike, you take the kids - not the twins - downstairs to look for Kit and whoever else may be down there. Alan, you know the girls better than the rest of us, so you should put them to bed. And we...we need to have a talk."
Anna rubbed her eyes. "Not sleepy. Wanna watch TV."
"No. Go to bed. It's past ten."
"Still not sleepy." She yawned. "Alan, will you tell us a story? Not the one about the Armenians. A happy story."
Alicia and Josh hung back as Mike and the other three teens went to get flashlights from the kitchen. "I'm not going down there," Alicia informed Kristen.
"Yeah. The rats prob'ly want more," Josh said.
"Go watch TV, then," Shannon snapped. "Just leave us alone."
The two obeyed cheerfully - as cheerfully as possible in two young adults scared out of their wits, that is. Amy led the women into the kitchen.
"Who wants wine?" Mari asked, noting the open bottle on the counter.
"Me," Shannon said immediately. Amy and Hannah raised their hands.
"Doesn't feel right to start without Kit and Ma - Liza," Kristen said.
"They can catch up later. We've got more important stuff to worry about now."