☂︎︎ HOUSE OF SHADOWS ☂︎︎ - five hargreeves

* 𝙰 𝚂𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙽𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 *

[024]
- ☾ '☂︎︎' ☽ -

October 22, 1999

"When's it gonna stop, Five?"

"I don't know."

"What is it?" hissed Ben through the darkness.

"I don't know."

"I hope it doesn't come up here."

"It's nothing, Klaus. Just one of Dad's experiments, we'll be fine, stop whining."

They were crouched at Ben's closed door. Ears pressed to any available crack in the wood to listen to the sounds echoing down the hall coming from somewhere they couldn't find. There were screeches like metal on metal, and terrible wails that seemed to be coming from the walls themselves. Ben, Klaus, and Five were waiting till they stopped, though not without a unanimous tingling of nervousness in their toes and fear in their heads.

"Demons, ghosts, Cropsey, whatever it is, is not going to stop us from going to that carnival," said Five as he peered under the doorway, green eye flashing in the moonlight. "I think we're good to go."

The halls were quiet again as they slowly tip-toed through the darkness. Dead silence felt thick and heavy upon them, and the floorboards creaked slightly under their feet. Shadows dripped and pooled from dark patches around the mansion, like crevices of midnight left to rot in the cracks and crannies of the dark paneled corners. Thick maroon wallpaper, so rich and elegant, seemed to stare down with unseen eyes at the boys creeping past it.
Slipping past their siblings' rooms and shushing each other at every creak of a board, they snuck down the long trek of the hallway, feeling like they were doing something incredibly wrong and troublesome. Which, in their father's standards, they were.

Five adjusted the edge of his collar which was inside out. Their ever growing popularity as the world's most renowned superkids made it difficult for the children to go anywhere in public. Not that Reginald granted free-range to his children to begin in. So they'd unanimously decided to wear their uniforms inside out. Sporting the underside of red rather than the checkered patches of maroon and navy.

They crept through the midnight, towards the soft splotchy spheres of golden light that cast sunny streams of light through the windows. They slipped through the kitchen window, across the crunching lawn and managed to scrape their way over the gate as they began quickly walking down the sidewalk towards the carnival down a few blocks.

Talking of nothing but fried foods and mountains of spun sugar, the three boys tugged their clothing tighter against the chilly October air.

"We have about fifty dollars. So . . . we can get a whole bunch of food, tickets–"

"Sneaking onto the rides is easy, you don't need tickets. Plus you can get into the fun houses easy, just run right past the metal bars–"

"And smack into a mirror like you did last time, Klaus. I'm not telling Mom you tripped walking in her heels again because you split your nose open on some glass," snapped Five, thumbing gingerly through a thick stack of worn bills. Ben was listing the multiple ways they could evenly split the cash but no one was paying attention.