The Snowflake Mansion

Day 1. Arrival. (Part I)

Part- I

Sixteen again 

"Rura! Wake up..... Rura!"  Rura Havelon groaned as her eyes snapped open. Infront of her was a beautiful blond girl drowsily rubbing her eyes, "Charles just came to invite both of us for breakfast......" she said yawning lazily. 

Rura seemed a bit stunned looking at the blond girl. 'Am I dreaming?'

"What are you looking at little nugget?" the blond girl teased flicking her forehead. It snapped her out of the daze.

"Get up fast or we are going to miss the breakfast! I'm taking the bathroom first." she mentioned picking up a towel and pulling the door close. 

Sharp gaze examined every inch of the room they were staying at. 

'Is it a virtual stimulation? How am I back again?'  

She remembered trying to make a 3-D stimulation of the incident using her colleagues  computer and repeating the words and memories over and over again trying to gain any little information she could from her notes..........

She examined her hands confirming it was without any marks or callous on finger. She was back to the age sixteen. That winter vacation which had been the turning point of her life. 

Her head had a slight ache from the midnight travel in the winter storm last night, now warm body felt a little weak, muscles soft and lazy. Her skin was clear and scarless, just like they had been before she started her career as detective. 

She remembered everything as clear as day. They had planned a vacation in Charles's villa but before they could reach their destination one of their car's tire busted, their only spar tire had been used before they started their journey from the airport. After an hour of walking they suddenly got an announcement on the radio about  snow storm happening in the area. Mark who was  the eldest in the group decided to stay in the closest house they could find. Unfortunately in the desolated area there were only few houses they could look for . After a hour of walking when all their feet were numb from cold, they finally found a private mansion. 

The owner seemed to be a kind old couple and their blind granddaughter, some servants for cooking, cleaning and taking care of the elder couple. There were two more groups, a few couples and lone individuals staying , but Rura at that time paid no attention to them initially.  But later people began to get murdered one by one. There was panic and distress, many people were brought to suspicion, even their group of six youngsters. Fortunately a off-duty police officer was there who managed to calm the situation. They were still fine till the fifth day, until the officer himself was killed in cold blood.  She couldn't remember many details because she wasn't very observative  or keen to details in her teenage years, but later she still choose the path of a detective. One of the major turning points was the trip because it completely crumpled her belief system, she lost many of her friends and till the end the reason was not found, the man who was suppose to be caught disappeared and government authorities suppressed the matter saying it was a gas leak which caught fire burning everything to the ground. 

But that was a lie.......... she saw a man with the axe murdering people. Other than that too many deaths which happened were unjustified, without cause or reason and the inspector on the premises before his death deducted that there were more than one parties involved.......  

"Hey! I'm done. Why haven't you gone gotten up yet? You lazy bumps!" Martha scolded pulling off her blanket, leaving her warm body exposed to colder air in room. 

"Hey!" protested Rura, on instinct trying to grab the warm blanket from Martha's clutches but instead fell off the bed. It was then that she realized that her body felt much different from before, less agile and softer. She sighed internally, it would take her some time to get used too this.