"Well here we are!" Damien presented the aforementioned chunk that was missing from the manor wall. His voice was full of pride as he flashed his signature smirk.
"Yeah, you really meant it when you said it was a tight fit." May chuckled.
"Yeah, it's closer to a crack than a chunk." Jiahao added in with her own little snicker.
Damien rolled his eyes, "Well, it's either this shitty crack in the wall or the front gate, take you pick Miss Jiahao, the all mighty." Damien did a dramatic bow. He was less than impressed with the girls' initial reactions.
"You're so funny Damien, now get your skinny ass through that crack." Jiahao said bluntly, before pushing Damien towards the crack.
He slipped through with relative ease, and Max followed. Jiahao gestured for May to go ahead of her. "I swear if my hair gets dirty, I just washed it last night." May mumbled under her breath, before also sliding through the crack. Immediately brushing off any dirt or debris the second she made it to the other side.
The twins were stuck wearing their old tattered secondary school uniforms, they had no other clothes. The day they turned eighteen the orphanage kicked them out with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Yet May still attempted to take pride in her appearance. In a way, she was lucky, the uniform sweater was a dark brown. Max often called it 'poop brown,' so dirt didn't show up all too easily. But it was much harder to hide rips and loose threads.
Jiahao slipped through the crack with no complaints, and turned to Damien for further direction on how to actually enter the manor. "Front door?" He raised an eyebrow, and watched as Jiahao almost burst a blood vessel in her forehead.
"And this is why we don't listen to Damien, not only is he a bad influence, he's a bad burglar." Jiahao spoke as though she was a teacher educating the youth, the youth being the twins who were just barely two years younger than her.
"C'mon, I'm just as experienced in this as you are!" Damien exclaimed, but Jiahao just walked away, expecting the rest of the group to follow, and they did with no complaints.
After a bit of circling around the manor, Jiahao spotted a window that she was pretty sure could be shimmed open, "And you're absolutely positive, swear to God, that this place is empty?"
"One, you know as well as I do that neither of us believe in God, and yes, I'm sure this place is empty." Damien scoffed, he thought that she was being extremely cautious for no good reason. Him, and Max had been watching the place for almost a month now, there's no way it wasn't empty. Not a soul had gone in, and not a soul had come out.
Still a bit apprehensive, Jiahao grabbed a nearby stick and began to shimmy the window open. It wasn't exactly a difficult task, which made Jiahao raise an eyebrow. Even if this place had been abandoned, there's no way this window should be so easy to open. May glanced at Jiahao, sharing the same thought.
Before either of them could voice this concern, Damien had already made his way through the window and was stretching out his hand to help the next person in.
Max tried to follow but Jiahao stopped him, "Damien, is it all clear?" He took a quick glance around, and of course, there was nobody. Not a single sign of life to be found.
"Yes, Jia, it's clear, it's abandoned." Jiahao let her guard down a bit, and let the twins in before her. Out of everyone, the twins were definitely the worst in a fight, so she thought it important to keep them between her, and Damien at all times.
If it just happened that they ran into someone who was looking for a fight, the twins were covered from the front, and the back.
Jiahao wasted little time before climbing through herself. The window led to a short hallway, there was some furniture scattered around, but it was all covered with white, dusty cloths, and more than a few spiders.
"See! looks pretty abandoned to me!" Damien seemed more than proud of himself.
They began wandering around, pocketing every silver candelabra they passed, every small mahogany clock, even ones that didn't tick. Max could probably fix them up with enough work. He was good with stuff like that, and anything he couldn't fix could still be pawned for a pretty price. And of course, May had to grab a few obscure books here and there. They had almost filled all four rucksacks to the brim until they stumbled upon a dining room.
It looked weirdly lived in. "Creepyyy~" May dragged the word out in a sing-song way.
She wasn't wrong though, it was eerie to say the least. "Damien, I don't think this place is as abandoned as you thought it was." Jiahao whispered.
"So what? It's a room that isn't dusty as all hell, calm down." He shoved another silver candelabra into his rucksack, still very confident that this place had been abandoned for years.
In the corner of the dining room was a tall, wooden cabinet filled with crystal glasses, each with its own intricate design. Jiahao decided to grab a handful and stuff them into her rucksack. "My bag is basically full, we should probably leave now." She lied, feeling extremely uneasy.
"Nah, the twins still have room in theirs, we'll keep going for a bit, who knows might find a bar of gold?" Damien chuckled before opening another door, it was another hallway, almost identical to the first time. Except, no white cloth on the furniture, no dust and only a few spiders.
"But do we need to?" Jiahao asked but continued to follow. 'What happened to them listening to me?' She thought to herself, but didn't voice this.
The next door Damien opened, he'd regret opening for a long time to come.
It led into what could only be described as the master bedroom, in perfect condition. A huge bed, with white lace curtains surrounding it. Beautiful artwork, amazing furniture, name it, this room had it.
The four of them stood at the door in awe, it was like something out of a book, something they had never seen in real life. May, against her instincts, excitedly ran into the room. "Think about what we could do with those lace curtains we have to take them with us!" She exclaimed before grabbing Jiahao's hand and dragging her into the room. It wasn't often that May was this excited about anything.
Jiahao knew some basic sewing and with the right material she could probably make May a lacy dress with those curtains, but she remained firm. "Those won't fit in our bags, let's not take more than we need."
May's expression dropped, Jiahao initially thought it was just her pouting, but May looked at Max and he looked back at her, both of them looking confused, and petrified.
May held Jiahao's hand tighter. "We need to leave, now." Despite the situation Jiahao was relieved that May wasn't extremely let down about not being able to bring the curtains home.
But before Jiahao could respond, one of the curtains shifted. "No, why don't you stay?" A voice from behind the curtains asked.
It was difficult to tell if this voice belonged to a man or a woman, but either way, Damien and Jiahao got ready to fight. They pushed the twins towards the door, and stood in front of them.
After what felt like a tense eternity, the curtains opened fully and behind them sat a pale girl, in black lacy bloomers and a matching lacy camisole.
Her hair platinum blonde, and her eyes blood red, not only was she beautiful, she was terrifying. When she stood up, it became clear that she was roughly the same height as Damien, if only a little bit shorter.
Damien didn't hesitate, man, woman, animal otherwise, he didn't care, he would fight it. He tried to throw a punch but the girl quickly dodged. She chuckled, "If you want a fight we can fight, but I don't think you'll win."
It was clear that she didn't view any of the four people in front of her as a threat even if she was outnumbered.
Jiahao thought that since the girl seemed to be distracted laughing away to herself it would be the perfect time to strike. She tried to throw a punch, but it was dodged once again.
This pattern continued for what felt forever, Max even tried to get involved but May stopped him by simply saying. "You'll die, you know as well as I do, it's not human."
This caught Jiahao off guard "Not human?" She mumbled to herself, and faltered in her movement, that one mistake cost her everything, the girl grabbed her by the neck. Smiling as she pinned Jiahao against the wall. "Told you, you wouldn't win." She chuckled once more, sharp teeth glimmering in the moonlight for only a second.
But Jiahao couldn't linger on this, she was being suffocated, with her last breath she shouted. "IF YOU'RE EVER GOING TO LISTEN TO ME, LISTEN NOW, RUN!"
Damien tried to land a blow on the girl one last time, but Max grabbed him and began trying to drag him out. "Damien, you'll die. You'll die. I mean it. Please don't do this." Tears began to build in Max's eyes, May was visibly distressed but not to the same extent as Max.
Jiahao's vision went dark after this, unsure of if her siblings ever actually made it out of that cursed manor.
×Chapter 1 End×