Moonlight Magic

Chapter 7

I was in my room when my parents came home. I made up the excuse of having a lot of homework and locked myself up here. Works every time.
Residing on my bed, I pulled my laptop onto my lap. I googled 'Lord Preston 1800s' and a bunch of crap came up. I scrolled through the search results and clicked on a few links that seemed a little more promising.
The first few links led to sites about the different Lords during the nineteenth century but no Lord Preston. It wasn't until the fifth website that had an outline about him. The site was about various cruel men, especially the rich ones, throughout the Victorian century. And voila! A Lord Alexander Preston was a minor but one of them.
The page said that Alexander Preston was born on the 21st of August in 1813 and died in 1838, exact date unknown. It said that he inherited a large sum money after his parents died when he was seventeen. Apparently not long after, he built the Preston Manor and married the beautiful daughter of a merchant widower named Drisella. But soon after the marriage, Drisella's father disppeared. Nobody knew what had become of the merchant.
That was rather strange. It said disappeared, not died. Either the guy was taken or murdered and buried someplace. For some reason I thought it was the latter.

Further mention of Lady Preston said that she was only ever seen by other townspeople occasionally. And because the Lord and Lady had no children, when Alexander died, Drisella remained alone in the manor and the servants were the ones who entered town for errands.
However, when one of the residents in town didn't see his friend -who was one of the servants- for a week, he decided to investigate. He had arrived at the mansion and entered when no one answered the door to which he had found unlocked. Inside the manor he had found the bodies of the maids and servants. Blood was everywhere. It dripped down the staircases and was splattered on the walls. The stench of rot was unbearable and the entire scene was plain surreal. Among the bodies was the butler, who was closest to the doors, where there was a bloody handprint on one of the knobs. Upon searching for survivors, the man stumbled into Lady Preston's bed chamber. She was laid carefully on her bed with closed eyes and a serene look on her face.
The incident was ruled as mass murder. It was speculated that a group of people, probably enemies of the late Lord had broken in and killed everyone. There were no apparent survivors. Whoever was responsible was never found.

Goosebumps bloomed across the skin on my arms. A lot of people had died a gruesome death here and now we're living here. I don't believe in ghosts but I can't deny that knowing what happened here, even if it was centuries ago, doesn't make it less unsettling. However, a couple of things didn't make sense. According to what was written, the man never saw any footprints. If the floor was covered in blood, the people that supposedly committed the crime or the fleeing servants would have left bloody footprints everywhere.
Secondly, all the servants were dead and covered in blood whereas the Lady herself was also dead but placed respectfully on her bed with no wounds and the room undisturbed. Surely the people that killed the entire household would have killed Drisella the same way?
Last of all, the servants would've tried to flee as evident with the handprint on the doorknob that belonged to the butler. This explained the unlocked door but there were no signs of struggle. Wouldn't they have at least fought back in someway?

I was confused. A lot of things didn't add up. There's something missing and I don't have all the pieces to the puzzle yet. But curiosity's got me and I'll probably only stop when I know exactly what happened 200 years ago.