Union Of Choice

Shadows

I was wondering if teaming up with Bartholomew had been a huge mistake when I heard a commotion down the hallway that Carlton and Edgar had earlier disappeared. A shadow passed over the wall, the shape distorted by the sway of the candles' flames.

It was only slightly unsettling.

I quickly glanced around the room to see if anyone else had witnessed what I had, but both Vernon and Genevieve were preoccupied with other things. Bartholomew hadn't been paying attention either. Instead, he had been preoccupied in disinfecting his hands with a travel sized bottle of Purell.

"Bartholomew, did you see that?" I asked, a quiver in my voice.

"See what?" he asked, only paying half a mind to what I had said.

"A shadow. It went down the hallway over there." I said, pointing to where the apparition had appeared not thirty seconds ago.

"Well, let us do the sensible thing like all the investigators and go find out what it was." he said, starting off towards the hallway.

I followed close behind. We paused at the entrance to the hallway.

Standing there, the corridor appeared much larger than it had when briefly glanced at. It was large, roughly twelve feet wide, and candles had been sparsely placed down the entire length of the corridor inside of sconces.
There was the occasional door that led to other unknown rooms and hallways.

Despite candles having been lit, the corridor was still incredibly dark and foreboding. I believed to have heard the sound of a bat or two and the temperature had dropped quite a bit as well.

But it wasn't all that bad.

"Let us continue!" I ever do bravely announced and began making my way down the hall when I realized that Bartholomew had not been following me.

I spun around and saw that he still stood at the beginning of the hallway.

"What in the name of cufflinks are you doing? Come on!" I ushered.

"Uh... I think it would be a better idea if I stay back here and make sure no one else gets the same idea to go looking down there! We wouldn't want that now, would we?" he said, clearly using that as a pathetic excuse.

The idea that he was afraid to set foot down the hall sprung to mind. Why? I did not know.

It was a rather nice, dark corridor. What, with its large cobwebs, floating orbs and the portraits who's eyes seemed to follow you.

But everyone has differing opinions.

"Well, alright." I replied, and began my trek down the hall once more.

So much for teaming up.

The flames from the candles cast tall, ominous, dancing shadows. I could have sworn the one at the end of the hall was a person standing and staring at me, but that was absurd.

It was only a figment of my imagination, and I had QUITE the colorful mind. I once imagined that a billionaire with an obscene Twitter account won the presidency.

Crazy, right?

I peered at a door roughly halfway down the hall to the left and spied that it had been left partially open. It peaked my interest and I felt this insatiable urge to enter the room.

I knew it might be a terrible idea, that maybe it was far from safe...

But at the same time it was a great idea.
I pushed the door open the rest of the way.

The old oak creaked ominously open, unnecessarily so but at the same time it was completely necessary.

The room appeared to be an office. The walls were a dark wood. A large brick fire place occupied the back wall, a fire roaring in the hearth.

The office had artwork dispersed on the walls and an old desk pushed off to the left of the room, many curious little trinkets splayed on the surface. It seemed inviting enough.

A few steps inside and the door slammed shut behind me.

Typical.

I tried the knob but discovered that it was stuck.

So very typical.