Inveigle Ch. 1

Jane ran through the nearest door and slammed it behind her and slid to the floor panting heavily. It got Jake, there was no way she could get to him now, and Roxy and Dirk had been split up from Jane and Jake for a while. She didn’t know what to do, she didn’t want to die. Why hadn’t they just listened to the warnings and stayed away from this creepy mansion? This all started when they found an old book about the house in the town’s library yesterday…

--

“Hey, chums! Look what I found!” Jake exclaimed, jogging up with a worn looking book in his hand.

“Jake, shoosh, were in a library!” Jane scolded.

“Right, sorry.” Jake smiled sheepishly. “But take a gander at what I found; it’s about the abandoned mansion past the edge of town.”

Dirk raised a brow. “Where’d you find this dude?”

“It was way in back behind another book, I almost didn’t see it, but I noticed the front book was sticking out more than the rest.” He stated.

“Let me see that!” Roxy took the book from Jake and started flipping through it. She grinned, scanning bits of information from page to page. “Oh my god you guys, we totally gotta’ check this place out!”
Jane frowned. “If it’s abandoned, it might not be safe. We could get hurt.”

“Come on Janey, it’ll be fun!” Roxy slung her arm around her best friend.
Jane furrowed her brows and crossed her arms. “I still don’t think we should do it but since you insist, I say we only stay a bit.”

“That’s the spirit, my dear Jane!” The boy adventurer exclaimed.

“Well let’s check this bad boy out and get out of here.” Dirk motioned to the book.
The rest agreed and headed to the checkout counter at the front of the library. Once they had the book as theirs they left and headed to Jane’s house to look more into the book and have some cake she had made the previous day.

“Alright it says here the place used to be owned by this lady, long time ago. It had the name here but it’s like faded out.” Dirk skimmed through a couple other pages. “In fact, there is a bunch of info missing from here, we better let them know before we return it, that we found it like this. Anyways, back to what is was saying, it says here that the lady died and no heirs were found to take over this place and eventually it was left to the city. It was going to be turned into a heritage site, but it didn’t catch on, so it was left alone for years after that.”

The blonde girl clapped her hands together. “Jane! We could totally turn this into one of your detective things and investigate the place!”

“But what would we investigate? We already have the book to tell us stuff about the house.” Jane questioned.

“I got it!” Jake blurted. “We can find out what kind of lives were lead in that house, the book doesn’t give us that information!” He grinned.

She was still a bit unsure but agreed to the plan nonetheless. So plans were made for the next day to meet back at Jane’s house tomorrow afternoon, with Dirk bringing some things for their supplies.

--

Jane and Roxy were sitting on the curb chatting when the two boys walked up.

“Good afternoon, ladies.” Jake said with a smile on his face. Dirk in turn just nodded to them.

“You guys got the stuff?” The teen baker questioned as both girls got up.

Dirk rustled though his backpack. “Flashlights, camera, and a few snacks in case we get hungry or something.”

“Here put this in there too, just in case.” She handed him a small first-aid kit. “We don’t know how bad the flooring or others things will be, and I’d rather have that to be on the safe side.”

“You got it Crocker.” He placed it in his pack, putting her more at ease knowing they had it.

A cold breeze blew through the air, sending a chill down their spines. Jane zipped up her jacket and pulled on her hood,

“Brrr, it’s a good thing we all brought jackets, it won’t be so cold.”
Now with all items accounted for, and everyone dressed accordingly, the four kids set out on their way to the edge of town and past it.

--

The gravel crunched beneath their feet as they walked up to the large black iron gates.

“Holy moly, it really is big!” Jake stared in awe at the huge mansion.

Dirk grabbed the gate and pulled. “No good. It’s locked.”

“How do we get in, then?” inquired Jane.

Roxy looked further down the wall that was connected to the gate and noticed a tree next it. “Hey, what about over there? We could use the tree to get over.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Jake said, then took off in a dash towards the tree. Roxy jogged after him while Jane and Dirk calmly walked over. She was already helping Jake up the tree when the other two rejoined the group. Then she climbed up as well and jumped over the wall.

“Come on guys, it’s your turn!” she called.

The pair on the outside nodded to each other and made their way up the tree and over the wall.

“We’re in! We did it!” Roxy shouted.

They walked back to the main path that lead to the house, and then tromped up the steps.

“Gosh, we’re really doing this. Okay everyone, be careful, I’m serious.” Jane warned.

Roxy pushed open the old oak doors. “Relax Janey, we’ll be fine.”

Upon entering the mansion the kids were left awestruck. It was obviously a very beautiful building at one time. The architecture of the place seemed to have a Victorian feel to it. Everything was covered with white sheets and had a thick layer of dust over it.

“Golly, look at this place. It’s incredible...” Jake said as he took everything in.

“Well we’re here now, which way should we go first?” Dirk asked.

“Let’s go this way.” Roxy said as she headed up the steps to the second floor.

Once upstairs the kids started to explore the rooms. Jane had wandered into what was probably a guest bedroom at some point. She crossed the room to the closet and opened it up. To her surprise there were a few gowns still inside.

“Maybe someone forgot these when the mansion got closed off.” She said to herself. She took one of the gowns out and put it against her body. “Gosh, this is really pretty. I kinda’ want to try it on.” Jane thought about it for a moment, then decided against it and put the gown away. She shut the closet, and then left the room to explore another.

--

Roxy had decided to go further than the rest and turned down another corridor, leaving her friends in the previous one. She would open a couple of doors and peer inside, then shut the door again. It wasn’t till the very last door at the end of the hall that Roxy chose to enter it. The room she had gone into turned out to be a sitting room. It was full of many bookshelves, and plenty of chairs and couches. Roxy looked at the wall, noticing a lot of pictures that seemed to be of fancy people at parties and such. “I wouldn’t mind partying with those cool cats.” Roxy grinned. She strolled to the side of the room with the fireplace and mantle. On the mantle were a few more pictures, but on the wall above it was the one that made her gasp.

“Oh my god, guys!” She shouted, calling for her friends.
They came rushing into the room to see what Roxy had found. The girl pointed at the portrait, and they were just as shocked by the picture. Jane’s eyes widened, not believing what she was seeing. In the portrait was a middle-aged woman who very much resembled Jane.