Witches in Training (#2 in the Witches Trilogy) [rewrites ongoing]

Chapter Thirty: Glamorous Danger

VINNI

"Is this a mansion? For real?" I question, because it seems way too unbelievable. "Not a glamour or anything."

The fairy actually looks offended. "Would I put a glamour on my party?"

"Yes," Louis tells him.

"Well, fine, but no, it's not a glamour. The place is abandoned and the humans stay far away from it." He points downwards at a town and I realise we're on a hill. This magnificent mansion is set on a hill, dominating over everyone.

"Why abandoned?"

"Last owners were killed in their sleep eight years ago." Keane answers.

"Killed in their sleep?"

"Stabbed," he specifies, "husband and wife."

"Who killed them?"

"Their daughter."

I stare at him, eyes wide. "You're not serious. And you want to hold a party in such a fun place. Makes perfect sense."

"Where's the fun in life without a bit of spookiness? It's not like she'll come back to haunt us, anyway."

"Says you. After meeting an Animator, I'm kind of maxed out on my paranoid levels."

Keane grins. "Come on, then."

I look at Louis for assistance. "You're not serious."

"It'll be fine. Come on."

To tell the truth, I was regretting it the second I went twenty metres nearer to the place. I've never exactly been to a party, because, you know, being a witch and all kind of gave me other priorities than boosting my social status, but I'm guessing they're usually loud. 

That's a normal, human party. Take that, multiply the house by about fifty, and the noise by about ten, and judging from what I could see from the windows, the people about a hundred, and the extravagance a billion, you'd have a rough idea of what this one-a magical fairy party-was like.

I'm the only one astounded because Keane and Louis are perfectly happy and even excited. Boys.

Louis whistles as we get nearer. "Even for you, Keane..." he says loudly. “this is way over the top." But his tone implies it's a good over the top.

I'm lagging behind the two guys, who've half forgotten about me. As I step onto the expansive patio, I suddenly get a dark, foreboding feeling. Something's not right about this place. "Everything okay, Vin?" Louis asks me, at the open doorway. Seeing the blurry crowds of people and the music throbbing in my head does not help my sudden nausea.

"No... I think... I don't think I should go in."

"Vinni?" Louis says again, looking genuinely concerned. 

"Go... just go ahead without me. I'll be fine." I give him a weak smile. He looks worried but does, and I wait until he disappears in the crowd before collapsing against the side of the house, head swimming, wishing I could go one day without having some kind of weird feeling or voice in my head or something like that. 

Coming here seems like an incredibly bad idea, in hindsight. Yet at the same time... something is urging me to explore the house, past its shallow depths as a party hold, and find something.... what?

Work with me here... I try telling the feeling. What is it?

I close my eyes and lean my head back. An image flashes into my head: a long, deserted, definitely spooky hallway, lined with dusty rooms. The vision draws back to show me a staircase landing, then travels down the staircase before stopping at the bottom, another landing, another floor, in which tapestries line the walls in a forgotten corridor. Then I move back once more, down the staircase, and stop briefly at a closed door marked with the symbol I've started to know and love (kidding). Then it makes one last journey, zooming out to show me the door in the very back of a large room. A girl with pale yellow wings stands there with her friends, her back to me.