Three Days at Allerdale Hall

Welcome to Allerdale

The nerves I had before opening the car door had me shaking, especially with Lucien's stern eye watching me from the grand doorway where he was leaning, arms crossed and one ankle resting over the other.

Heisen leaned over to peer out of my window as if that would give him a better vantage point, leading him to merely laughing as he patted my knee as he righted himself in his seat and took my camera off my lap.

"Good luck, buddy, I'll be filming."

"Thanks," I drawled, giving him a dead look before I unbuckled myself and opened up the car door to climb out.

A chill in their air hit me as soon as I left the warmth of the car and a shiver ran over me, the need to wrap my arms around my self only deepening at the stare down Lucien was giving me from the top step of the small porch.

While still holding myself against the breeze and intimidation, I found it in me to perk up with my best winning smile and take the first step up onto the porch.

"Hello, I hope I'm not too early."

"No," he replied bluntly in a voice so deep and an accent so proper and crisp that it took me by surprise, "if anything you're a little earlier than we anticipated."

"Oh, if you're not ready for us then I can do some filming around the grounds, if that's okay with you."

"Not to worry, you and your," he paused as he looked past me towards the car, his eyebrow twitching upwards before he met my eye again, "friend are fine to come in."

I twisted to look towards the car as well and then quickly swivelled my torso back towards him, keeping my friendly smile.

"Ah, that's Heisen, he's my co-ghost visitor slash sometimes editor slash terrible idea creator and now chauffeur."

"And he will be rooming here as well?"

"Only if it's okay with you, if not then we can book a hotel room for him."

Lucien looked past me again, his gaze lingering for an uncomfortably long moment before he shrugged and met my eyes again.

"He can stay."

"Really? Thank you so much! I promise he'll be as respectful as I will be."

"If either of you break anything, you're paying for it."

My polite smile faltered and I found myself rapidly blinking in surprise while I nodded in agreement, more out of immediate reaction than agreement, even if I ultimately did.

"O-oh...yeah...yeah totally, of course, we don't plan to touch anything special or put up secret contraptions in hidden locations, you can even watch us set everything up."

His eyes slowly scanned my face, his expression unreadable and spine-tingling.

"I'll leave that to Thomas."

He half-turned away then stopped and looked at me over his shoulder.

"Grab what you plan to bring in and meet me in the main foyer, your friend can pull around to the left of the building and park there, there's plenty of open space."

"Excellent, thank you, I'll let him know."

He gave a curt nod and then continued on his way inside while I turned back to the car, giving Heisen an exaggerated look of 'did you see that?', the kind that retail workers share many times among themselves after dealing with a particular kind of customer.

Opening the door, I climbed back into my seat and pulled the door closed, glancing towards the front door as Lucien pushed it ajar, likely to keep out some of the cold that was starting to seep in.