Holthum Manor

The Search

"Where did they go?!" Martin shouted as they ran through the open doorway into the conservatory. Footsteps could be heard getting further down the hallway. "Shit, which way did they go?" Martin asked as he ran out of the conservatory, looking down both ends of the hallway. "I don't know." Madelaine said. A vague light could be seen at the end of the hallway glowing around the corner. "There." D said pointing in the lights direction. He led the group down the hall and peaked around the corner. He slowly pushed the large brown door revealing an empty office. A Large black desk faced a fireplace that was burning low and a small bar area sat adjacent from the door. Tall bookshelves surrounded the room. "Great, we lost them!" Martin said with irritation. "Come on, let's search the room. There has to be something here if this is where they went." Sasha said as she looked around.

"Wow, he has a lot of books." Henry said while admiring the large bookshelves. "He had a lot of books." Sadie corrected in a sad tone. "This is a bust. There's nothing here, whoever we saw was a ghost. That's the conclusions i've come to." Sasha said with discouragement. "This place is so big it's going to take forever." Sadie said in a whiny voice mocking her. Sasha looked at her with her eyebrows flared down and took a step in her direction. "Hey, it's not worth it." Henry said while stepping in front of her and rested his hand on her arm. "Your right." Sasha said before taking a deep breathe. "All she's saying is whoever we saw clearly isn't here and if he was, he's not now." Henry said turning to Sadie. "Of course." Martin said pulling the chair out from the desk, taking a seat in it. His eyes meeting a button resting on the inner side of the desk's bottom. He reached out and pressed the button. "What the?!" Sadie clamored as the fireplace cracked before sliding back sending dust and dirt into the air while divulging a stone staircase leading down a floor.

"Maybe they were in here after all." Fern said with a shrug. Sadie looked at Sasha with leer before starting to creep down the steps. "Interesting." Martin said as he stood up from the chair and started looking through the desk's drawers. "Perfect!" He said with enthusiasm as he pulled a flashlight out from the desk. "Where do you think it leads?" Madelaine said eagerly. "Not sure but, everything seems to point in this direction." Martin said as he pressed the flashlights on button causing it to flicker. "Come on you piece of shit." He said disgruntled as he banged it against his other hand causing the beam of light to spark alive from the flashlights end. "There we go." He said starting his descent down the stairs. "Sure, random staircase opens into a stone cellar. lets follow it." Fern said uncomfortably to himself as he followed the group down the cold steps. Their breath leaving as a misty hue from their mouths as they reached the bottom

Small wall sconces lit the cellar. Hundreds of wine lay angled on a rack along the rooms edge. "Looks like our friend liked to have a drink every now and then." D said satirically, sliding a bottle off the rack and looking at it. "This is over 100 years old!" Sade said with awe as she looked along side him pointing to a bottle. "I assume this is where he kept his expensive drinks?" Madelaine said hesitantly. Henry took a seat on the stone steps running his hands through his medium auburn hair. He looked around, taking in the room and examining for anything out of place. Racks of wine filled one side of the room as kegs covered the other. A large thick wooden table sat in the center of the room with a copper colored chandelier hanging above it. 8 lights glowed off the edges of the cold metal. "This looks so familiar." Madelaine whispered to herself as she looked at a symbol that had been burnt into the tables center. She pulled the note from her pant waist and opened it, setting it onto the table. Her eyes scanning the note then the table. "I think were missing something." Madelaine said as she looked at everyone around the room.

"The note we found in the kitchen isn't just random shapes and lines. Its half of whatever this symbol is." She said as she lifted the note up then pointing to the table. Henry rose and walked over taking a glance at it. "I feel like I've seen this somewhere." He said befuddled, rubbing his fingertips along the symbols charcoal colored edge. "I can't place it though." He said with a faint voice. "We never did get to search the conservatory. Maybe we should head back there and take a look around." Sasha said lacking assurance. "I agree, plus I'd really like to get out of this cellar." Fern said walking back up the steps. "Are you alright?" Madelaine asked Henry, resting her hand on top of his which was still on the table. "Yea, i'm fine. Just trying to remember where I saw this logo before." He said moving his hand and climbing back up the staircase. Madelaine tucked the note back into her waist and followed them out.