A Room Full of Strangers

Prologue

It's the first night of November. Children will be out the streets doing trick or treat while the elders do the traditional pangangaluluwa. Instead for candies and chocolates, they knock door to door for rice cakes. As a child, Austin never experienced doing trick or treat, not even one Halloween night. He had always envied those kids knocking on their door during Halloween. He had always wished to dress like a bat, go around the neighborhood and earn as many candies as he can but his mom never let him to. He's already 15, but he still has the regret missing that part of his childhood.
'Trick or treat.....trick or treat!' the children yelled from outside of the house. He's in the living room, seated on the couch while watching his favorite football team on TV when the noise came. He still managed to rise up just to grab a handful of chocolate bars from the fridge in the middle of a close fight between his own country's national team and a foreign football team challenger, rooting for the former. He can't miss the team's winning goal but he can't also ignore the kids outside.
Austin opened the gate and saw those kids dressed like vampires and witches. He handed the chocolate bars to one of them and the other kids almost wrestled him just to get a piece of it.
'Kids, don't be greedy. Share with one another.' He said.
He stood at the gate, waiting for the children to leave their street. He can still hear them quarreling about the chocolates he gave as they walk by. He remembered about the game but something hindered him from closing the gate and getting back on the couch. The gate remained open as he stared at the mansion from the nearby subdivision. It looks old and abandoned. It's not only the darkness that surrounds the place but also the mystery for no one knows whom it belonged to or who were the families who have lived in there, not even the other residents living around the subdivision. Folklore has it that the mansion was the oldest building ever built on their town. Austin suddenly felt a hand on his left shoulder. It startled him. He felt himself shiver. The hand grabbed his shoulder that made him turn around.
'Why glue your eyes over that mansion when you can actually get in?' it's Timothy, his brother. He sighed in relief. He was about to close the gate but Timothy blocked it with his hand. Austin threw a sharp glare.
'That would be trespassing and it's illegal.'
'Oh come on! Tell me you're just scared.' he didn't bother to respond and just turned his back. Timothy grabbed his arm, pulling Austin towards him. He drew his mouth close to his ear and whispered,
'Coward.'
'No, I'm not!' he burst out.
'Go ahead, prove it!' then Timothy pointed the old abandoned mansion.

Holding flashlights with their hands, Timothy led Austin to their village's concrete fence.
'Why here?' Austin asked with confusion.
'It's the shortest way to the subdivision. We'll climb this up and once we have landed to the adjacent lot, walk a few distances, then poof! We're there!' Timothy explained. Austin seemed to be unconvinced with the plan. They might get caught by the cops who are doing rounds within the area. This might be another trouble Timothy is going to engage in, trying to involve him again. He remembered those times both of them had gotten into trouble. First was during their middle school, when Timothy planned to escape and cut classes. Austin, being the innocent schoolboy back then, helped his brother to climb the school's concrete fence up. He knew it was wrong but he was afraid to be beaten up if he refused to. A teacher caught them and they ended up in the principal's office. Now here they are doing it again and this time, they might end up being detained in the police station.
'What else are you waiting for? Go ahead, climb up.' Timothy said in a command. Again, he followed like an innocent schoolboy.
While Austin was climbing up the wall, Timothy kept his eyes roaming to see if someone is watching over them. When Austin reached the other ground, he followed next. Everything went smooth and so far, well.
Austin waited for him to land. He can now see the mansion in a closer view. It's more terrifying now than before. He tried laying his eyes on the other houses in the subdivision. They have guards standing by their respective gate except for the mansion. "It can't have a guard standing by its gate because it doesn't have a gate in the first place," he said in his thoughts. He felt Timothy's weight on the ground when he jumped off the wall.
'As I said, poof! We're here!' Timothy said as he started walking towards the mansion. Austin remained firm on his ground.
'Hey!' Timothy called.
'Coming.' He shortly replied.