Episode 3 - THE FIRST OF OUR EXPERIENCE

The tricycle was a little wobbly, but we were excited. As the rider pedaled, the surrounding trees seemed to grow taller and darker. The bushes rustled,, and we could almost hear whispers in the wind. "Do you hear that?" Cole asked, his eyes wide with excitement and fear. We all shook our heads sideways in objection, though a shiver ran down our spines. The forest was thick with tall trees, their branches twisting like fingers reaching for us. The bushes were dark and tangled, hiding who-knows-what inside. We could see shadows moving, and it made our hearts race as we continued our climb. Finally, we reached the top of the hill, and there it stood; the huge grand old mansion. In the distance, it looked old and spooky, with its stone walls covered in moss. The windows were dark, like empty eyes staring back at us. We parked or tricycle next to the rusty gate, which crooked sharply as we pushed it open. As we stepped inside the compound, the air felt colder. As we rode up the hill, we then noticed a large mansion curtained by the bushes. This house was not just a house. According to the rider man, it had nine hundred rooms and four hundred alleys! As we approached the house, the wind howled, and the trees swayed like they were warning us to stay away. The house was really so huge, with broken windows. The walls were covered in dark vines, and the paint was peeling off like old skin. It looked like a place inhabited by ghosts.

We finally arrived at its compound. I could see that it used to be a stately home, as high as six hundred floors. This left all the three of us gaping, save for the rider who was not new here. The walls f the house were made of thick strong rock and the iron doors were thick and sturdy. They looked like they had not been opened in years. Each door and window seemed to have a story to tell, whispering secrets of the past. Vines crawled along the wall in a twisty manner giving one a feeling of agony. The rider moved up a stone staircase and tried pushing at the barred gate behind which was the iron door, a large rusted door made of thick metal. The rider heaved himself onto the door, but it hardly moved. We had to finally join in and soon realized our folly. For the door used a lock whose key was suspended in a dark concealment above the door. This was about twenty feet up. The rider adeptly climbed the iron frames of the gate, moving himself ever just so elegantly. In no time he was back down with the large rusty key. He then inserted it and after some cussing and swearing, had it turned. We again tried our luck pushing with all the utmost strength we could summon. The gigantic door then swing wide open with a loud screeching sound from both its hinges and the floor on which it had rested for all those years. The devilish sound triggered eerie imaginations in me. For I felt as though it always served to notify the insiders about some careless intruders who needed to be welcomed into the den.

We then decided to enter the Unknown. With our hearts pounding, we took a deep breath and decided to enter the house. The door creaked open and we stepped inside. Immediately, the darkness swallowed us , and we could barely see anything. The air was filled with a musty smell, like old books and dust. We knew we were in for a scary adventure, but we were brave together. As we groped our way further in, we could hear the floorboards groan under our feet; as though they would soon give way to our weight.

"Will someone strike a match please," said the rider. "We should not get messed up here." He added.

"Just a second," said a voice behind me.

It was Janai.

Soon he had pulled out his electric lamp , and we finally had a chance to see what we had got ourselves into. The room we were in was a large hallway that could swallow as much as a -thousand people. Cobwebs crossed off from several points. They even blinded us and seemed to be curtains. We could hardly see what was at the other end of the room. However, I could see that there was a large door at each side of the hall and also at the end. These gigantic doors probably led to hundreds of other secret rooms. They could allow about one hundred or more people to go through at once. Perhaps they had been designed to allow numerous troops to easily come out so quickly, or maybe their heavy war machinery.

We struggled our way through to the center of the room, for it was strewn with heavy equipment and this greatly slowed us down in addition to the blinding cobwebs. Rats peered out of their hide-outs to check in on the new visitors. I finally could see the walls clearly. They were thick and strong, just like the outside walls. The paint was dry and wearing off. The walls looked like they had something concealed within them; perhaps a magical gem or some costly ounce of gold. Strange writings had been scribbled all over the crude surface. Some parts were evidently cracked, but with such a house such as this - which was built to last, I could not expect a breakthrough past those cracked walls. The air felt clod and shivers ran down my spine. I didn't know if I was the only who felt that something was off about this place. However, I determined to keep my feelings to myself. For I would not like the other men to think of me as a coward, looking at my past heroic status in the Vance Royal Guard Army. Also, this was not my first encounter with such scenarios. For I had spent most of my life in such awful arenas and had always come through safely. This partly explains why the Board chose me to help in reconnaissance of this unclear case. So we pushed on with our discovery. Looking back at the walls, they seemed to whisper secrets from the past. You could see faded colors, like once bright paint that had been forgotten.

But what made these walls truly eerie were the mysterious writings. Strange symbols and letters were scrawled all over, some looking like they were written in a hurry. Others were neat but still hard to read. You could think that they were messages from someone who lived here long ago, or perhaps from a ghost trying to tell a story. Each mark felt freshly created and alive, as if the walls were trying to speak to me. The writings could make your imagination run wild. Some looked like warnings, some like directions written by earnestly experienced people trying to guide any visitor away from danger to safety. Still, others seemed like poems or spells. Some were drawings of objects we could not interpret. Not even Janai with all his powerful interpretation powers could comprehend this. In fact, he himself looked very startled.

"What did they mean?" asked the rider.

We all looked at him stupefied by his question. For just a few minutes ago he had been giving us a large amount of information about the place and had even gone ahead to tell us to confide in him as he had always been here.

"I cannot really make anything of this?" replied Janai after recovering from the lapse that the questioner had just thrown us into. He bent over trying his best to scrutinize the walls.

"Were these the gates leading to hell?" I thought to myself. "What did they really mean?" I pondered. "We're they warning us to leave, or were they inviting us to learn more?"

It was hard to make up meaning of the writings in the dim light of the house. As we explored, we could feel a chill in the air; you could probably hear the faint sound of scratching as if something was trying to escape from the walls. In the silence in here, every whisper felt like a good yell.

I felt something running its fingers down my neck. I almost screamed but on touching, I found out it was a stream of sweat flowing from my head and down to my back. It was cold inside, but I was sweating - for sure something felt off about this place. In all my career as an investigator and soldier, I had never been so horrified as I now felt.

The deeper we went in, the more the walls seemed to close in around us, wrapping us in their mystery.

Cobwebs blindfolded us now and then, causing us to maximize the use of hands.in strewing them off our face and hair. Personally, I soon learned that my head was wrapped up in a dusty blanket of cobwebs just as fine as any hood could do.

Something I cannot really make up for in explanation caused me to turn my head in the direction of the wall we had just passed. Amidst the darkness, I could see a faint figure on the wall. I halted and soon all the rest turned their attention in the direction I pointed at. We all stared in astonishment. It was a painting. One that made my hair stand. It was unlike the rest of the drawings and looked more alive than dead. It was a haunting portrayal of a woman. Her expression was twisted into a menacing smile, as if guarding some secrets. She stood alone in an abandoned room, her eyes looked like they riveted and followed wherever we went. I finally gathered the courage and strength closer to look upon this strange piece of art. All the others followed suit behind me.

The woman in the painting had very scary eyes. They were big and dark, making her look like she was either hiding a secret or trying to tell us something seemingly funny. It was impossible to tell which was which. Her face was pale, which added to the eerie feeling of the paint. She wore old-fashioned clothes that looked worn-out and tattered, making it seem like she had been trapped in the house for a long time. Talking of the object in her right hand, it looked strange and mysterious, and it made one wonder what I could be. Was it a tool for something scary, or was it a treasure? This object added to the mystery of the painting and made everyone feel curious and frightened at the same time. The painting of the woman in such an abandoned house was both scary and fascinating. Her fearful eyes were to let go by in one's mind. It reminded us of the mysteries and dangers found in such old mansions, and this gave us different emotions.

Suddenly, Janai motioned with his arm above the frightened woman's painting. In the dim light of the abandoned mansion, an ornate necklace hung framed on the wall, drawing the eye despite the shadows. Its intricate design glimmered faintly, but the true focus was the chilling at its center - an unsettling, all-seeing gaze that seemed to follow anyone who dared to approach. The atmosphere suddenly became thick with tension, amplifying the curious connection between the two artworks.

In the background, a vague silhouette of a large ominous bird hovered. Its sharp beak and piercing eyes evoked a sense of dread, suggesting sinister intelligence. The bird appeared almost sentient, watching and waiting, as if plotting against those who wandered too close to the necklace's dark allure.

...##########...

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***