Epic Mansion Crawl

Manny hated this, he'd been unable to forget that horrible serries of events. "Can you keep a secret?" Manny asked his uncle Vinny. Uncle Vincent 'Vinny' Cordova was his favorite uncle; he was on his mother's side of the family and only fifteen years older than Manny himself. This meant that the two of them were more like friends than normal nephew-uncle pairs.

"That depends on what the secret is;" Vinny said. "Would you be in trouble or hurt if I dont?" Manny's brow knit together. "I don't think so;" he said. Vinny drew his finger across his own chest in a x-shape. "I promise I won't tell;" he said. "May I eat a bag of flaming dog poo and smell like farts if I blab to anyone." Manny pulled a face and groaned. "I'm not five anymore!" He said. "Anyways, I'll tell you...it's a bit of a long story though."

It had been back in October, Manny and his two friends, Eric and Dean, had been really bored. It was close enough to Halloween that a little mischief seemed appropriate. "Guys;" Eric said. "We're freshmen in highschool and we haven't had one epic adventure!" Dean, the most saftey conscious of their group spoke next. "So?" He asked. "At least that means none of us has broken our necks or put an eye out. Why do we need to do anything?" This was met by his other two friends jeering. "Yeah but do we really want to be that boring?" Manny asked. "Wouldn't it be super lame if when we're all adults and we looked at eachother and said 'Remember that time we could've done something cool and we ate pixiesticks instead?' Come on! Nobody wants to be those guys!"

Dean crossed his arms defensively. "Fine" he said. "What's something awesome we'll remember when we're old?" Eric, always the opportunist, immediately told his friends his idea. "We go urban exploring!" He insisted. "Someplace creepy and abandoned!"

Dean: "Whoa! Hold on! That's too dangerous!"

Manny: "Dean it's ok! I know a place! It's an old house a couple of blocks from here! It's not like a mineshaft or a slaughterhouse; not much could go wrong."

Eric: "What's this? There's an abandoned house in New Bethel?"

Manny: "Yeah Montgomery Manor. It's on the outskirts of town."

Their town, named by puritans who had settled in their particular corner of New England, had been around since at least 1650 C.E. That meant New Bethel had seen a lot happen. Manny was a bit of a history buff so he knew that durring the 1920s, a wealthy steel magnate from Pittsburgh had settled in New Bethel and built his family a mansion. It had been called Montgomery Manor and it had been inhabited until 1949.

Why had it been abandoned? Nobody really knew. People speculated at least three different versions. Some said that after steel magnate had died during the great depression, his widow and son had become shut-ins. Never really leaving the house and dying a couple of years later. Others said that after the man of the house had died, the mother and child quietly moved away. The worst theory was that the grief stricken wife had poisoned her son and herself with strychnine, killing them both.

However it happened, after the family had dissapeared, several attempts had been made by subsequent owners to inhabit the manor. The last, an oil barron from Texas, had left in the middle of the night. He had called the real estate agent and thoroughly reamed him out for selling him a cursed "devil" house. Since then, Montgomery Manor had sat an empty shadow on the edge of New Bethel.

Dean, Manny and Eric thought a big mansion would provide plenty of interesting rooms to explore. "Why don't we meet at Steel Drive around sunset?" Manny asked. There were various murmurs of consensus. "Make sure to bring flashlights and phones;" Eric told them. "That way if we find anything cool or something happens, we'll be ready! You're not going to chicken out, right Dean?" Dean tried to seem confident but he didn't feel it. "N-N-no way!" He said. "I'll be there!"

Three bikes arrived at the intersection of Old Main street and Steel Drive. In the gloaming twilight, the three boys greeted eachother. "Right;" Eric said. "Lets do a checklist: flashlight." The group silently produced their chosen sources of illumination. "Nice;" Eric said. "Good choice with the headlamp, Manny, now your hands are free and you can blind someone. Next item: phone." They all pulled out their cellphones. Eric grinned; "Final item;" he said. "Your balls!" Manny laughed at the crude humor. Dean just rolled his eyes and remounted his bike. "Let's go before somone gets nosy;" Dean said.

They pedaled the short distance up Steel Drive to Montgomery Manor. It was only a two story building but it felt like it dwarfed all three teens. Eric, Dean and Manny leaned their bikes up against the stone wall that surrounded the property. Grass and foxtails tickled their legs as they walked up the cracked path leading to weathered stone steps. The door had been chained shut. "Hang on;" Eric said. "I brought my dad's bolt cutters with me." He fumbled with the backpack he'd brought along. It took a couple of tries but the chains eventually fell to the porch with a metalic crash.

Inside none of them could see through the dust clogged darkness, they had to turn on their flashlights. The foyer was a decadent example of 1920s architecture even if it was breaking to pieces. "Whoa;" Dean said. "I am so glad I wasn't a total pansy. This place is legit. Anybody got an idea of how to do this thing?"

Overhead, there was a creaking groaning noise. "What the heck is that?!" Manny commented. "It's probably just the house settling;" Eric said. "Let's see what's in these other rooms. You guys want to split up and meet here when we're done or stay together?"

"Split up!"

"Stay together!"

Eric accidentally slapped himself in the head with his flashlight. He rubbed away the resulting pain. "Whatever;" he sighed. "Manny and Dean, take the second floor. I'm going to see what's down here. Then we can do the basement together."

Dean stayed close to Manny as they climbed the huge marble staircase. "Manny:" Dean said. "I got a bad feeling. Something makes me feel like we shouldn't be here." Manny looked at Dean, making him cover his eyes as the headlamp shone right into his pupils. "Sorry;" Manny said while removing the band from his head and using the light in his hand instead. "What, are you worried we're going to get caught and end up in Juvie?" Dean shook his head. "That too;" he said. "I dunno, it just feels like there's something in this house that doesn't want us here." Manny didn't know what to say, so he just shrugged.

They turned right at the top of the stairs and pushed open the first door on the right. It was a bathroom, the toilet seat was on the ground, the clawed tub was missing a foot and the subway tile was coming off the walls. Manny picked up the toilet seat. "Check it out;" he said sliding it the porcelain around his neck. "I got me some bling!" Dean laughed a little and turned to the sink. "Think these taps still work?"

Dean twisted the cold water knob all the way to the left. The fixture shuddered and banged. Utilites to Montgomery Manor had been shut off over six decades ago, nothing should've come out. A chill went down both boys' spines as a dark red sludge oozed out of the tap. Dean turned the sink off, staring disgustedly while the fluid drained. "There's no way that's blood right?" He asked Manny. "I hope not;" Manny said. "C'mon let's go find another room."

This time there was a bedroom on the other side of the door. Dean looked at the bed. "Weird;" he said. "The sheets pillows and blankets are still on top. It's like somone expected to sleep in here or something." There were thin, tinkling notes playing from somewhere in the room. Manny traced the sound to a tiny music box sitting on top of an old vanity across from the bed. He picked up the object from its resting place. "Maybe we're not alone;" he said. Something in the mirror caught Manny's eye.

In the reflection, standing behind both of them, was a woman in a white flapper dress. She was looking down but something was wrong. Her head slowly lifted, showing blood running from the corners of her eyes, mouth and nose. The dead woman--she couldn't be living--stared sightlessly ahead, a sobbing gurgling noise coming from a non existent throat. The boys didn't look back as they ran out of the bedroom.

Not minutes after they slammed the door shut, they heard a giant crashing noise followed by a scream from Eric. Dean and Manny shared a look and rushed downstairs. "ERIC! ERIC!" They shouted. There was silence then "I'm in the kitchen you guys!" Eric said. "Come quick!"

The flashlight Eric had been using was now on the floor, reflecting off dozens of knives and shards of broken plates. Eric was leaning on a counter, trying to keep himself away from the dangerous wreckage. His two friends carefully made their way over to him. "What happened?" Dean asked. Eric looked at him and Manny. "I was just walking in here;" Eric told them. "As soon as I was in the middle of the room, all the cupboards and drawers flew open and all this crap comes flying out!" Manny was beginning to think Dean was right, there was something hostile here. "Maybe we should cut this expidition short;" Manny said. "Me and Dean saw some freaky things upstairs too."

"Yeah, okay;" Eric said. "But let's at least explore the basement together." Once they had agreed, the boys found a rickety, wooden stairway leading downwards. "It smells funny in here;" Manny said. "Kind of like mushrooms or something."

A crunch noise resulted from Dean's foot going through a rotten step. Dean had been the behind the other two; as he lost ballance, he managed to take everyone tumbling down with him. They landed in a heap on the basement floor. Finally having untangled their bodies, they took inventory and found themselves intact. "I guess we won't be going back that way;" Eric said. Dean brought his finger to his lips. "Listen;" he said. "Do you hear that?" They held still, listening hard enough to hear dust particles.

A child's singsong voice rose up. "The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout;" it sang. "Down came the rain and washed the spider out." Underneath the nursery rhyme, a soft skittering noise rustled. The boys flashlights turned towards the sound.

In their lights, a grotesque apparition was revealed. It looked like a spider made up of human bones. On the end closest to them was a little boy's face covering the front portion of a skull. The face's eyes, not used to light, winced and a sharp wailing scream filled the basement.

Manny looked around the room for any possible way to escape. On the wall, mercifully close to them was the door to the old coal chute. "Hurry;" Manny begged. "We have to climb up through that chute over there!" His friends didn't need telling twice.

It was a hard slippery climb, somehow the surface door was still open and the boys scrabled through it. Regaining their feet quickly the boys ran to their waiting bikes and pedaled back home as fast as they could.

Sensing an end to his nephew's narrative, Vinny chose his words carefully. "Manny;" he said. "Promise me something?" Manny stared wide eyed at his uncle. "Sure;" he agreed. "Anything." Vinny looked directly into Manny's eyes, as if he was trying to laser drill a hole in his nephew's soul. "Never go breaking into anywhere ever again;" Vinny said. "Or I'll have to call your parents."