The Fairest of them all || ZNN Halloween Oneshot

The Fairest of them all

Zee Pruk had moved to Fair Harbor three months ago, his dream to live in a small town in the State of Washington coming true, together with the attempt to open a little antiquity shop.

He soon realized, little towns needed some creativity and multitasking, so to say.

That's why, along with his "Panich's Antiquities", that was little by little gaining good customers thanks to the good position of the town near the bigger city of Bellingham, he soon became also the person to call for any need of a professional photography, which was maybe the best way to express his creativity and gain some extra income.

It was October 30th, a Friday early afternoon, the day that Zee had closed his shop earlier than usual.

The little town was buzzing, from days now, with Halloween atmosphere: houses, porches and gardens were full decorated with carved pumpkins, fake cobwebs, skulls, plastic graves, in some kind of competition that Zee wasn't going to be part of, his little flat being right over the shop, which it only required a few basics pumpkins decorations and candles. He wasn't really going for the glory of best decoration in town.

While turning the key to close his shop, a gush of cold wind made him wrap his thick scarf around his neck and put on his beanie. And so, he headed to his moss green pick-up and got ready to head to Bellingham, checking one last time the flyer that he got from his antiquity's supplier.

It wasn't the first time he had attended local auctions in search of interesting pieces for his shop, since there were often old houses in sale that were vacated of their original content; something that made him both sad and sentiment. He had always felt a very reverent feeling towards ancient objects, something that bordered to a carefulness that wasn't necessarily related to the factual frailty of the object in itself, but it was more about some form of respect to something that had inhabited this world maybe for longer than himself.

It deserved respect because it survived time and use, maybe more than one owner, and it had come maybe a long way before landing into his hands: the least he could do was to tread it with due respect.

Contrary to usual auctions, this one was an in-house sale.

Which was his first, in this area. He had seen many old mansions, some better kept than others, some a bare shadow of their past grandeur, some other in the hands of a trust that were turned into place of historical relevance, eventually rented for events or cultural occasions.

This one house that he was going to visit, known by the name of "Green Manor", was located in the outskirt of Bellingham, so it wasn't really that far from Fair Harbor, either.

After 20 minutes of panoramic route along the coast, just ascending a bit to a little hill, it came soon in sight a wrought iron gate, trees and a slightly unkept grass lawn.

Green Manor was a three-stories tall house built in Late-Victorian style, with an observation tower decorative exterior woodwork. It was, honestly, one of the most interesting houses he had seen for a long time.

There were already a couple of simple sedans and another pick-up parked the yard in front of the wraparound porch. He checked his wrist watch and hoped that his slight late had not costed him to lose the best pieces the house could offer.

Once inside, he was faced with an extraordinary well-kept hand-carved, three-story solid oak staircase and stained-glass windows. He could see that the house had been inhabited through the years until now but it had been kept in a very good state, with most of its original features and objects.

He could hear, and see, people in the rooms on ground floor, talking about this or that object that might have caught their interest, while he had his eyes glued on the wooden railing, touching it reverently.