Dangerous Collaboration

Investigating

The group wandered up to the attic after breakfast the next morning. Well, most of them. Out of the twenty-seven of them, ten of them decided to investigate. They didn't want to crowd an already-cramped space, so they figured they should have a team, but not everyone.

Mark led, flashlight in hand, as he was the one who was technically in charge of the whole video thing. Amy followed right behind him. Ethan, Tyler, Felix, and Marzia entered behind them. Also with them, was Jack, Signe, Rhett, and Link. Rhett had to duck his head due to the lower ceiling.

"So, what did you hear?" Jack asked.

"Some type of thumping," Tyler answered. "It was pretty loud."

"Yeah, and these guys thought it was a squirrel," Ethan added.

"You think a squirrel could wake you up like that?" Rhett questioned.

"That's what I said!" Ethan said.

"It was pretty loud," Marzia agreed.

"So, what do you think it was?" Link asked.

"No idea," Felix answered. "But that's why we're here."

The group spread out and shone their flashlights around, hoping to find something. They were surprised to see lots of old clothes and decorations up here. It looked like this attic had been taken right out of the 1920s.

"Wow, this stuff is--ancient," Link commented.

"I wonder if we could use some of this stuff in the video," Felix said.

"No, we don't want to disrupt anything," Amy said.

"Especially if there's a ghost up here," Jack teased.

"Oh, stop." Signe rolled her eyes. "You know there's nothing up here."

"Well, then what were they hearing last night?" Jack shot back.

"Can we focus?" Mark interjected. He didn't want the two of them to be bickering too much. It didn't help that everyone was a bit tense after the strange goings on.

A sudden thump alerted Mark and the others  to look behind him. A hat stand had been knocked over. A few of the old fashioned hats fell off, but that was it.

"So who knocked that over?" Rhett asked.

His question was met with silence. The others glanced around at each other, waiting for one of them to answer.

"Well, someone had to knock it over," Link said.

"I blame Felix," Jack teased.

"Hey, why me?" Felix retorted.

Jack shrugged.

"Maybe being on the floorboards up here knocked it over," Marzia suggested.

"Was anyone near it though?" Mark asked.

"Starting to doubt now?" Amy asked him.

"No," Mark said, though she doubted him. "I just didn't think anyone was actually around it. Which is why I asked."

Even as they spoke, another something crashed from across the room. They all looked over as an uneasiness settled throughout the room. Mark, having established himself as the leader, took it upon himself to go check it out.

A box, that had been sitting on top of to other boxes, had toppled to the floor. The lid had popped off, revealing the ornaments inside. But how had it fallen?

"Looks like an old box of Christmas decorations," Mark said. "But how it fell off, I have absolutely no idea."

He picked it up and placed the lid back on, then stacked it on top of the others again. He turned back to the others. Amy and Signe were hanging onto each other, obviously getting nervous.

"Maybe we heard stuff falling over last night," Tyler offered.

"But everything was fine when we got up here," Ethan argued. "Nothing was knocked over the way this stuff just did."

"Ethan's right, but that doesn't make sense," Mark said. "Other than the stuff falling over, nothing seems out of the ordinary."

"Can we go back down now?" Amy asked. "I'm getting a little freaked out at the random things falling."

"Yeah, maybe we should go," Rhett agreed. "I need to stretch out my neck a little."

They all agreed and went back downstairs to meet with the others. Pam, Thomas, and Kirsten would think this added to what they had seen. Mat would want to theorize a bit. Wade would probably freak out.

"Did you find anything?" Liza asked. Of course, Pam was right there.

"We weren't really able to find out what actually caused the noises last night," Tyler started.

"But there were some other things we found out," Ethan said.

"Like what?" Mat asked, entering the room.

"Things seemed to fall over, despite is not being anywhere near them," Mark stated.

"What?" Pam said.

"We're not sure what this means," Mark started to say, but Amy cut him off.

"But obviously something weird is going on."

"It could have just been because we were up there, kind of disturbing things," Jack added, "but that doesn't explain the noises these guys were woken up by last night."

"You guys heard that too?" Liza was suddenly really paying attention.

"Wait, you heard it?" Signe asked.

"Yeah, I was just thinking maybe someone was messing around or something," Liza said.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Pam screeched. It was almost like she was getting excited.

"Because I knew you would freak out!" Liza said, voice starting to get a bit louder. "Kind of like we are now..."

"We're not sure what it means," Mark continued. "But Jack does have a point. What were we hearing?"

There was a thinking silence. Nobody really knew what they had heard. And frankly, they were more afraid of finding out. Suddenly, Wade and Bob burst into the room, out of breath and obviously freaking out.

"There's--there's something--" Wade panted.

"What?" Mark asked, quickly standing. As much as he hated to admit it, he was starting to get suspicious and a little jumpy.

"You guys--have to see the front door," Bob wheezed.

"What did you do?" Felix asked.

"We didn't do anything!" Bob yelled. "The doorknob--it's--"

"The doorknob's gone!" Wade finished

After a stunned silence, everyone in the sitting room started talking at once.

"WHAT?!"

"What do you mean gone?!"

"How can a doorknob be gone?"

Everyone rushed to the front foyer. The entire group was there now. Everyone was focused on the big front doors to the mansion. It turned out that Bob and Wade were right. The doorknob was indeed, missing. Which left the group with no way out.