"I'm sorry, I thought I told you." Will chuckled as he held his hand out as if presenting a gift to a new winner. "This was once used as the County Library. Well that was until they build the newer one nearer to town, that is. From what I read about it, a old man built it on his property to help cut down his taxes." The three looked at Will with an odd look, expecting more, Josh started to say something, but was cut off by Will. "But others say that the real reason he did it was so that he could hide the treasures that he stole from his travels. Before anyone was able to find out if the treasure theory was true, he'd disappeared without a trace, leaving his land and the surrounding buildings to the city."
Seeing that Emily seemed to be shook up about the story, Josh spoke up. "There's no way that could be true." Thinking about it for a moment, he looked at where they'd come from. "I mean, for the town to go to the library, they would have to travel several miles."
Shrugging his shoulders, Will just smiled. "It's just what I heard, so you don't have to believe if you don't want to. So how about we head inside to see if we can find something, hmm?" The others nodded their heads and pulled out their phones to get ready to start their video. "Let's stay together for now and later on we might be able to form teams to explore the rest." He started to hand out the head lamps to his friends. "But remember." Will stated with a serious tone. "Never go alone. We don't want anyone falling through a floor, do we?" They all shook their heads as they fidgeted with the head lamps to get them set properly on their heads.
The four new adventurers started to make their way up the stairs leading to the front door. Each step that they took seemed to cause the wooden steps to creak with their weight. Testing the door to see if it was open, Josh found that it was locked. "It won't budge." He told the group. Looking back at them, Jenn seemed to have an exasperated look on her face as she pointed towards the top of the door. "What?" He asked following her instruction to see a chain bolting the door shut. "Who chains the door at the top?" Josh asked as he took a step back to examine the situation. "Hmm... If it's chained up top, can't we just push the bottom part of the door to get in?"
Thinking about if for a moment, the three others looked at the door. "It might work." Jenn surmised and looked back over at Will. Since you were on your High School Wrestling team, do you think you can help up out?" Feeling useful, Will nodded his head. Using his body weight, Will pressed on the door causing it to open, but the chain at the top seemed to be keeping it in place. However, the door seemed to open enough for Will to put his foot on the frame and use it as a point of contact and allow him to put more pressure. With the pressure that Will was putting on the door, it started to creak and moan until a loud crack thundered around them causing the group to scurry back away from the door.
"Well, I guess we can get in now." Will chuckled as he gestured over towards broken doorway. They looked at where the obstacle once stood and found it to be barely hanging on the frame by the chain at the top. The bottom of the door was now able to swing freely by using the chain as the pivot point. "Lets go inside."
The group followed Will's lead and made their way inside the building. As they entered, the smell of mildew and old books soon found its way into their noses. Looking around, they noticed that the shelves of the library were still there, but only a few tattered books remained. The center sky light seemed to have given way years before causing the floor boards to bulge with moisture and green moss to grow. "Wow, this place looks relatively untouched." Josh said to the group as he turned on his camera to start filming their adventure.
"Yeah." Jenn agreed as she followed his example and started to film too. Over the next several minutes the group of four looked around the vacant building to see if they could find anything important. Looking through the main librarian's desk didn't seem to yield any results and the back area was pillaged by a group from long ago with all the pieces of paper thrown about onto the floor, leaving all the shelves barren of paperwork or books. Looking back at where they were able to make entry, Jenn looked above the door to see a portrait of a stern, balding older man with salt and pepper hair. "Mr. Whitmore." Jenn read as they saw the plaque with the name etched at the bottom of the portrait.
"Do you think that he's the man that Will was talking about?" Emily asked as she continued to pan her phone around to get a better look at building.
Shrugging his shoulders, Josh continued to look around. As he got close to where the water had started to distort the wood floor, Josh noticed something odd. As he got closer, he took great care not to step onto the damaged floor itself. Looking into the cracks, Josh could see a small amount of light coming through causing the specks of dust in the air to look like they've obtained etheral forms dancing within the light. Turning back to the group, who were continuing to look at the portrait, Josh called out to them. "Hey, you guys. I think there's something..." Before he was able to complete his sentence, the floor gave out because of his weight causing him to slide into the basement.
"Josh!" Both Jenn and Emily called out to him, horrified what may have happened to him. Hurriedly, they got close to where he slid down.
"Are you alright?" Emily cried out. "If you're hurt let me know."
Standing up, Josh checked his body for any cuts and abrasions. "Phew." He said as he looked back up at where he'd fallen through. "I'm fine, just a little banged up, but I'm fine." Continuing to look around, Josh noticed what seemed to be emanating the light he'd seen coming through the cracks. "Hey, I think I found something." He called out to the group above him. "It looks like some kind of ______."
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author