Sacrifices of Fire: Escaping Murder Manor

Chapter 1

Thomas' phone starts to ring. He picks it up and says, "Hey, Kara. What can I do for you?" What? How many?" Twelve?" Where was it?" Well, shit. I'll talk to Ellie about it. Maybe she knows something about it." Probably. Oi, Ellie!"

Ellie waddles into the room. "What?" she asks.

"Kara's got a case for us. Twelve people have been murdered. They all visited the same place before they died. Ring any bells?"

"Um...hold on. I'm going to grab something. I'll be right back." She wobbles out of the room and returns with a big book. Thuck! She places the book on the coffee table. "Hm..." She starts flipping through its pages. She stops at a page that displays a large manor, in the woods, just out of town..

"What's that?" Thomas asks.

"It's a manor outside of town. People call it Murder Manor because people go in there and never come out. No one has been able to figure out what happens there."

"Alright, wanna go check it out?"

"Sure, why not? We need to report to Kara first."

Thomas nods and follows Ellie out to the car. He drives to the station. When they enter the building, they yell, "Kara! We're here!"

Inside her office, Kara hears Thomas and Ellie yelling for her. "Excuse me," she says, "I'll be right back." She walks out into the lobby and scolds Thomas and Ellie. "Thomas! Ellie! Stop yelling! Follow me." She leads them to her office. "This is Krystal."

"Hello," Ellie says as she sits down, "so your friends were the last victims of the Murder Manor?"

"Yes, I wasn't there when it happened. I left before they...they..."

"Died?"

"Yeah, I went back in the morning and they were all dead."

"Nothing attacked you?"

"No."

"Hmm, whatever murdered your friends must only be active at night."

"I guess so."

"Well, Thomas?"

"Yes?" he replies.

"Ready to spend the night at a haunted manor?"

"Sure, why not?"
"What?" Krystal exclaims, "No! You can't stay there! You'll die!"

"Krystal," Kara says softly, "don't worry, Thomas and Ellie are experts on this kind of thing."

"But..."

"Don't worry," Ellie says, "we've already been stuck in a haunted house. We lived through that obviously, so we should be fine this time around."

"But you're pregnant!"

"Yes, I'm aware of that. It'll be fine. I promise." She turns to Thomas and asks, "Ready to go?"

"Yep," he says, "let's do this."

"Thomas, Ellie..." Kara says.

They look up at her. "Yes?" they answer.

"You have the correct materials already?"

"Yeah," Thomas answers, "they're in the car."

"Alright, whatever you say."

They leave the station and drive to the manor. They walk up the pathway, Ellie pauses to look at the large manor. "Jesus," she says, "this is a lot bigger than I thought it would be."

"Yeah," Thomas answers, "we should probably stick together."

"Agreed," Ellie whispers.