The Neverland Inn

We Have To Make it Look Good for Michael

We definitely were on a different wavelength now. The mansion stood with walls faded and leaves that blown in from broken windows. Infront of us was a tall grandfather clock that stood in the foyer area. White and black tile lie below our feet. We crept inside and started up the grand staircase behind the clock. According to the blueprint to our right was the bedrooms and library. To the left was the den and kitchen. We all looked around, admiring every forlorn knick knack, picture and piece of artwork Michael seemed to have left behind. Faith pointed me down a hallway towards the luxury library Michael had owned but I see faith stop in her tracks. She kept her eyes forward and everyone was fixated on her breathlessness. She pointed forward and all of us looked up. There against plastered onto a wall was a mural of street art, it was graffiti. We all walked up to the surface close and let our breath grow cold. It wasn't hate graffiti, it was nothing cruel. It was all love. The picture showed Michael in a ball with beautiful luminous angel wings in his back. Below the picture was a beautiful line that looked hand painted and it wrote, "I'll miss you my Angel."
I go into my bag and pull out a piece of duct tape and I tore off two pieces to make an 'x' onto the floor. Out of everything in the mansion, this wasn't to be touched or remastered. It would stay put right there on the wall.
"This isn't going anywhere girls."
The wall stood infront of the library and we made our way down another corridor. I moved some cob webs that covered the bannisters to either side of us and got a flashlight from my bag. Dust covered the decorative oil lamps on the walls as we walked and I shined the flashlight forward to lead our way. The ceiling had gold plating and beheld chandeliers like the Sistine chapel. Shania speaks up saying,
"Were getting close to where he slept."
I felt the jitters set in right there. Inching close we came to a doors side by side with beautiful, golden handles. The already cold house seemed to drop down to freezing now, strangely. I swallowed hard and asked with a shakey voice,
"Well girls...who's opening the door?"
I could how see my breath but also I see Shania and Faith look towards one another, unwilling to comply. Shania steps forward saying soft, "Together maybe?"
Faith nodded then so did I and together we placed one hand on the chilling golden handle to Michael's bed chamber. I closed my eyes and said, "On three.."
"One.." Faith counted
"Two.." counted Shania.
"Three..." we all said in sync and gently we pushed the door open. The glow of the flashlight crept in first, making the haunted room inside shine for the first time in what seemed like ages. All three of us nervously trudge inside, arm in arm like scared school kids going through a scary maze. I shined the light all around and what confounded me the most was how normal everything seemed. Walls with gold trim and marble top. A California king size bed in the corner and a vintage, modern Victorian style love seat on the opposite side of the room with assorted other forlorn pieces of furniture. Michael's room bore a grand fireplace across from the bed, one with beautiful granite rock around it. Ontop was the mantle which sat pretty vases and pictures frames now devoid of photos. I walked close and noticed the wide, yet narrow mirror that leaned against the mantle and saw my reflection under a blanket of dust. I smudged away just a streak with my thumb, and felt how smooth and beautiful the glass was. It made me sigh in almost a hurtful way and I turned to the girls,
"Let's set some ground rules for this room shall we?"
They both nodded and Shan strodes over to the tall, almost to the ceiling window the room had beside Michael's bed and pulled aside the thin, white linen curtain. Outside, the property could be seen almost in its abandoned entirety. Every ridge and hill, every stone path and carnival ride that once was fit for a king. Shania smiles seeing it and almost as if she read my mind I hear her say,
"It sure is view worthy of a king."
Faith looks over her shoulder and mutters, "What's rule number one? I think it should be, after this room is cleaned, it's off limits to everyone, including us."
I nodded strongly agreeing and spoke, "Good. And if we enter the room. We must first knock, and only enter for cleaning purposes. Michael still owns this place. This is still his room."
Shan spins around and says, "We gotta do a real number on this room imparticular. We have to make it look good for Michael."
"Agreed." Faith and I said.
We all began to make our way from the room and we closed the door behind us quietly.
"We should probably see the library next. I think that might be a good place to start."
Faith says as we begin our way down the long corridor, attempting to find the next door to somewhere.
"You may be right. Besides the parlors on both wings, it's the biggest room in the house. Are we close faith?"
I asked looking over to her as she hid her face into the folds of the blueprint. "It should be these double doors coming right up here.."
Shan and I kept our attention forward and eventually saw the two adjacent wooden doors. Opening them careful they swung open to reveal Michael's grand two story library. Being on the top floor, we stood ontop of a widows walk type rafter that had two side by side curving staircases that lead you down to the ground level. It was beautiful, all of it, dusty, forlorn or not. Everything couldn't be matched in grandeur. We go down to the lower level, completely silent as we all examine around the spacious four walls. The room almost resembled a ball room from how immense it spans. "You could run laps in here.."
Faith says quietly, stifling a giggle.
"This room is bigger than my current apartment..." Shania chuckled
I gave in and laughed,
"Shit, it's bigger than the entire apartment complex."
We all began to laugh but the echo just sounded too creepy with the room being so wide open. We felt chills to the sound and looked at each other, "I guess we could get started." Shan said shrugging. I nodded and Faith agreed.
"Shan and I could run back out to the SUV and grab the brooms and cleaning things if you're okay with staying here alone Dee."
I swallowed hard again at the thought. In Neverland mansion? Alone? Even for just a few minutes seemed terrifying.
I got ahold of myself and took a breath in,
"Yeah that's fine. Here take a flash light. I'm sure I'll find candles or something around here. Take our walkie talkies incase something happens"
They both nodded and grabbed the travel flashlight and exited back up the stairway into the corridor with the walkie talkies in hand. I heard their voices echo from down the way but afterwards I could have heard my veins clotting from anxiety.
I sat in a small arm chair that rested on a persian rug to the center of the ground floor. I bit my nails in angst but quickly stopped having to pep talk myself, "Dee....its okay. It's only a library. A library in a dark mansion. A dark abandoned mansion. A dark abandoned mansion that once was inhabited by your idol. Your late idol.." I held my face beginning to shake from true fear and continued, "Your late idol who is rumored to still roam the dark abandoned mansion with the dark abandoned library....nothing to worry about." I stood up trying to shake off the jitters and found a lucky candelabra to my left on a side table. Finding the lighter in my bag I lit the candles one by one. As I carefully make the cold wicks come to life, something begins to ring in my ears. I looked over my shoulder to a strange light that began to illuminate the room besides the candelabra. I felt my breath become frigid, artic tundra cold and I slowly turned my head. Outside the tall, cathedral like window that came to the ceiling in the library was an ominous glow. We were miles from any sort of residency or commercial lot, it couldn't have been another house. I stepped closer, getting more goosebumps with every step and I look outside. In my horror, I saw Michael's carousel. Alive, it spun around playing the tiresome carnival music which was the strange noise I heard, trying to contain myself from screaming I race over to the walkie talkie to phone in the Faith and Shania. "Hey....hey guys....can you here me?.." I said berserk like into the walkie. Seconds later, signal comes through with static noise blaring from the talkie and I hear,
"Yeah were here. You okay Dee?"
I shook my head still in disbelief to what I'm about to say and I blurt, "You won't believe what I'm seeing, its the carousel! Michael's carousel is running." I hear more than a few seconds of silence and then a reply from Shania, "What'd you say? You're breaking up pretty bad Dee?"
I gritted my teeth frustrated and started to spit, "The carousel! It's running! Its like someone's turned it on! You guys need to see this! Get down here quick!"
I kept looking frantically out to the lawn to still see the working carousel spinning around and trying to see if I blink however many times it'll stop. But it didn't, on and on it spun with its ceramic animals bobbing up and down to the languid music.
"We're hurrying Dee, were coming!"
I hear Faith say over the walkie and I sigh in a sort of relief. What was going on? We had no electricity until we could get a public pardon of utilities. That meant no water, no lights until we got the entire mansion up and running into our business. I hear footsteps coming hurriedly up the hall and I race to the library door letting them both in. They panted from sprinting inside and I grabbed their things quickly, "Come on, go to the window! It's crazy! You have to see it!" They bolt down the steps and I followed behind them buzzing about everything I had saw. I see their expression change as they face the window pane and faith mutters, "Um. Dee what are we looking at exactly?"
I look over both their shoudlers and i could have died on the spot. There sat the carousel, dead as a rock. Not budging when seconds earlier it was vibrant and full of life. I was at a loss for words as both my friends looked at me dumbfounded. I try to look for some crazy reason as to why I looked like a complete loon but I had none. I held my head and said,
"Maybe I'm just tired you guys, forgive me. I suppose."
They shrugged seeming to laugh it off and I put it away out of my mind so we could get to work. With only the light from the candles, all we could really do was dusting and polishing. We did it for almost four hours. The bannisters and furniture looked almost decent when we decided to call it a night. We decided to stake a make shift camp right there in the library and use a battery pump to blow up an air mattress. It wasn't a very comfortable night for any of us. We woke up freezing and with kinks in our necks. That next day we worked on the dens to each floor.
Polishing and dusting out the rugs. Michael sure did love his area rugs and tapestry. Everything was going well, we were whistling while we worked until in the middle of a three person floor scrubbing job, from the upstairs bedroom we hear, heavy footsteps. We all stopped what we were doing and looked up to the ceiling. The footsteps echoing through the halls.
"I'm not the only-.." Faith began until being cut off by Shan.
"Ssshh!"
We all studied the footsteps as they seemed to grow increasingly loud. Almost like they were getting closer.