Mansion of Madness

CHAPTER TWO

We come down to Lillian, Chris, Gracie, and Logan hovering over the kitchen table. Greyson isn't down yet. I glare at Logan, annoyed about his immature note, but something seems wrong.

Usually when Logan pulls pranks he'll be laughing about it or smiling, but he just keeps looking back and forth from the kitchen table and me, like he doesn't know why I'm glaring at him.

Scarlett and I walk over to the counter where everybody is standing, to see what all the fuss is about.

"What's up?" Greyson says as he walks in from behind.

"The ceiling." replies Logan who has changed from his jeans and hoodie into pink My Little Pony pajama pants and a baggy grey shirt.

"Shut up." says Lillian, irritated. "This is serious"

"It's fine," Greyson says, laughing at Logan's outfit.

"Actually, it's not." says Chris looking up from the counter perplexed.

"Somebody please tell us what's going on." Scarlett insists.

"Just come here." Says Chris, gesturing to Scarlett, Greyson, and I.

We crowd around the table. My face turns pale as I read the poem scrawled on the torn piece of paper which rests on the table:

One of you tomorrow will be,

dead if you do not meet me.

Only one of you knows what to do.

Only one has been chosen to:

Meet me at midnight, find out who

Greyson, Scarlett, and I all look skeptically at Logan and he shoots us back a look with a shake of his head that makes me shudder. Not because it's scary or weird, but because it makes me sure he didn't write the note on the counter. Or the one in my bag. His face is full of fear. Then he says,

"C'mon, everyone knows I couldn't write a poem that good."

But the worst part isn't that it's not written by Logan, but that it's about me. I'm the one who knows what to do and I'm the one who was chosen to meet someone mysterious, someone dangerous who's willing to take a life to get what they want. This is no trick of Logan, or fun little prank. This is a full on threat to meet this mysterious psycho on the beach at midnight tonight and I'm the one who has to do it. And if I don't? One of us will end up dead.

But then I realize that only Scarlett knows I'm the one that the poem is talking about. I glance at her and find that her blue eyes are also full of fear and worry. She knows, but will she tell? I signal her with my eyes and give her a shake of my head, making sure she won't tell. She nods her head in comprehension, her black curls bouncing up and down with her head. Thank goodness she understands.

"So," Logan says, "Anybody recently been chosen to meet a deadly maniac?"

"This isn't a joke Logan." Lillian snaps, "You need to take this seriously."

"Okay, geeze," Replies Logan, backing off, "Just trying to lighten the mood with a little humor."

"What should we do?" I say nervously, trying to deflect any suspicion that I might be the one chosen. "We have to decide sooner or later."

"We should figure out which one of us was chosen," Greyson says, taking on an air of leadership, glancing from person to person. He pauses when he makes eye contact with me. I blush and look down at the ground.

I glance hopelessly at Scarlett, and she shoots me back a pitiful look. I tell her with my eyes and a gesture of my head that we need to talk alone. She nods.

"Well what if we all go to meet this person?" Scarlett asks "I mean we don't necessarily have to find out who was chosen."

"That seems sorta suspicious" Chris replies skeptically "Like you don't want us to find out you're the one who was mysteriously chosen."

"Okay so?" Scarlett shoots back "We still don't even know if this is real, I mean this could just be some prank pulled by some stupid highschool boys around here."

"Uh, excuse you" Logan says, offended by Scarlett's comment. "I'm around here."

"Exactly." Scarlett replies. "Thanks for proving my point."

"I don't think this is a prank." observes Lillian "And if I'm right, we definitely shouldn't meet this psycho at midnight. And the poem specifically says to 'find out who.' And it also says "only one" two times. He might kill us if we all come."

"Woah, let's not jump to conclusions." Gracie replies, "I mean this guy could just be bluffing to get what he wants. Maybe he knows that Greyson has a lot of money and he wants it. But I guess that would mean Greyson was the one chosen." She says turning suspiciously toward him.

"What?!" Greyson shouts defensively "The poem says only one of us knows what to do and personally, I have absolutely no idea what to do."

"Yeah, but what else would this guy want other than money?" Gracie says.

"I don't know, but shouldn't we call the police?" Lillian asks.

"We can't," Greyson replies, looking at his phone, "There's no cell service, and the nearest police station is an hour drive."

"It's not that far. We can take the car." I say.

Then we hear a crash coming from the second floor. A window breaking, and glass scattering across the marble floor.

The room falls silent. We all look at each other, horrified by what might be upstairs.

"Oh my gosh," Lillian whispers, sheer terror coming across her face, "He's gonna kill us isn't he?"

"We're gonna be fine." Chris says, trying to comfort his sister.

"Everyone get to the beach." Greyson whispers, not wanting whatever's upstairs to hear.

"But what if he's out there waiting?" Gracie protests, "And even then, only one of us is supposed to go."

"Yeah but it's not midnight yet, and we're assuming that he's upstairs not outside." Greyson responds.

"I would love it if you used a more reassuring word than 'assuming'. Logan says.

"Well then you're out of luck, because I don't have one." Greyson snaps back. "It's not like you have any better ideas."

"Actually I do. We could go upstairs and see what caused that noise." Logan suggests, "I mean we're assuming that there is only one person up there, and there's seven of us, so we outnumber him. We could all grab knives and sneak up there."

"Are you crazy!" Lillian replies to Logan's plan. "I mean he could have a gun. He could shoot us all dead before we even reach him."

"Not if we sneak up on him." Scarlett adds on, "And we don't even know if he's up there. We haven't heard any footsteps and he would probably be down here by now. He may have just thrown something through the window to scare us so we don't leave because he definitely doesn't want us leaving. He might just want to communicate. I mean he can't exactly get what he wants from us—whatever the heck it is— if we're dead."

Greyson considers this for a second and decides it has reason.

"Good point. I say we do it. Everyone grab a knife and get behind me." We all manage to find kitchen knives suitable for stabbing and get behind Greyson.