The Estate

Alyssa Dextrose loved her uncle. So one can imagine how devistated she was to learn that he had died. She didn't know the details or even the cause of death. All she knew was that he was alive one minute, dead the next.

When the family gathered for the reading of his will, Alyssa, as well as the rest of the Dextrose family, was shocked to discover that her uncle had left her everything. His fortune, his estate, everything was left to her. She remembered that she visited him many times as a child and listened to his stories, but she never thought he was that fond of her.

After all the arrangements were settled, Alyssa moved into her uncle's estate. Standing at the door was a man, her uncle's butler. She remembered playing all sorts of games with him when she was younger.

The butler, whose name is Edward, welcomed her and showed Alyssa through the house. Well, some of it. He showed her the parlor, the dining room, the bathroom, and the master bedroom. While he was showing her to the different rooms, she saw several long hallways with various doors. Whenever she asked about them, he simply said, "You will learn when it is time."

After the tour had concluded, Alyssa and Edward moved her things into her bedroom. After she was left alone, she decided that she simply couldn't wait to explore the mysterious doors. She found the first hallway she could and opened the first door she saw.

The room looked to be an old, dusty attic. She made her way over to a pile of boxes that contained paperwork. Family trees, death certificates, land deeds; it was like everything her family did was documented. The one that caught her eyes was a note from her uncle. There was a key attached on the bottom. It read:

My family has turned against me, they have discovered that I have it, and they want to take it from me. There is only one I can trust.
Alyssa, if I am presumed dead, go into my study and retrieve the item I showed you on your last visit here. It is locked in a chest, the key is below.
DESTROY IT!

Alyssa remembered her last visit vividly. She was sixteen, and her uncle was telling her the story behind "his most prized possession." It was a crystal sphere, which her uncle said contained magical properties. She thought he was delusional. Her parents always said her uncle was, but that was the first time she actually believed it. She was disappointed.

Alyssa pocketed the key and walked out of the room, only to find that it wasn't in the same place as before. Before, it was at the beginning of the hallway. Now, it was at the end. She ran to the next door and flung it open.

Alyssa was met with a grassy field, a breeze blowing the grass. This door couldn't have led outside like this; she was on the second floor. Plus, there wasn't any property like this around the estate. She closed the door and headed for the next one.

This room was dark and cold. Alyssa walked further into the room and saw a faint glow.  It was an old fashioned torch, and right beside it was a door, the kind that people would keep prisoners in back in midevil times. From the other side of the door she heard something whimper.

Alyssa crept toward the door and peeked through the bars of the small window in the door. There was a shadowy figure hunch up in the far corner of the cell. Suddenly, it looked up at her. It had big, glowing yellow eyes, and they were angry. The figure growled and lunged toward the door, causing Alyssa to fall backwards. She leapt to her feet and ran out of the room, all the while hearing that creature shaking the door.

Alyssa eventually found her way back to her room. She closed the door and started pacing. "Maybe Uncle wasn't crazy" she thought. "Maybe he was right. Or maybe I'm crazy too." After an hour of debating with herself, she decided to go to her uncle's study.

Alyssa walked out of her room and straight into Edward. She apologized and asked if she could visit her uncle's study. He looked at her for a moment, then said, "You read the note, didn't you?" She nodded. He gave her a reassuring look and lead her to the study.

"Do you want me to go in there with you" Edward asked. Alyssa said thought about it for a minute. Then she said, "Thanks but no thanks. I feel like this is something he would want me to do on my own." Edward looked a little disappointed, but she could tell he understood.

She opened the door and stepped into the room. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust; it was as if no one had been in there for years. That is, except for a small chest on her uncle's desk. She took the key out of her pocket and unlocked the chest. She took the small sphere out of the chest and held it gingerly in her hands. She looked at it fondly, then threw it onto the hardwood floor.

The sphere shattered into a million pieces. After a few seconds, blue smoke started to rise up from the crystal shards. In just a few minutes the smoke filled the room. Alyssa started to cough uncontrollably.

As soon as the smoke cleared, Alyssa almost fainted. There, standing amongst the broken crystal, was her uncle. He looked at her and said, "Hurry, we don't have much time. I'll explain everything later, but right now, we have to let the girl out of her cell!"