12:05 || 1D

3. Bookshelves & Frames

After settling down in their rooms, the eight friends decided to explore the house. Ashley sat on the bed playing with the hem of her shirt. She just wanted to be with Louis and never leave their room. But she knew how hard it would be to persuade him to stay. Ashley prayed the sun would never set because once it would, the place would look darker.

“Babe, you coming?” Louis came out of their washroom.

“No. But I have to. I don’t have the guts to stay here all by myself.”

“Just keep holding my hand.” he put his hand forward, displaying his beautiful smile on his face.

Ashley smiled and grabbed his hand.

The couple walked out of their room and found the rest of the gang waiting for them in the hallway. They all stood in the dark conversing about different things. The hallway seemed really dark compared to the bedroom they had just come out of.  They could all see each other’s faces from the dim chandelier but it wasn’t much of a help.

“Finally you’re out. Ugh you can’t just be locked up in your room! You’ll miss out on the fun.” Stephanie groaned.

Ashley rolled her eyes in annoyance. She was glad Stephanie wasn’t able to see her. If she wanted fun, she could go explore all by herself, Ashley thought to herself.

“Stop being hard on her Steph.” Zayn said. “She came with us and that’s a lot to ask from her.”

Ashley looked over to Zayn and smiled informing she was grateful for his support. Zayn returned one back.

“Damn it! There’s no reception in here.” Niall complained. Simultaneously, everyone checked their phones if they were experiencing the same issue.

“Shit.” Carrie grumbled.

“Ok whatever. Let’s head downstairs.” Stephanie took the lead.

As they walked down the stairs, the only sound that was audible was the creaking of the wooden steps. The manor was quiet. Too quiet. Ashley’s stomach churned in worry wondering what unpleasant thing she would witness. What bothered her more was, when it was going to happen?

Stephanie led them to the room on the right. The room seemed to appear as a living room. Two sofas and a bookshelf were draped in large white sheets. Couple of paintings on the walls were hung crooked. The wallpaper was decorated with tiny floral designs that spread across the whole room. It seemed to be crème in colour but now with the dust and cobwebs covering it, it seemed a faded gray. Everyone walked around studying the details of the room. Stephanie pulled the sheet that covered the bookshelf down making an immense amount of dust float around. Everyone coughed trying to cough out the old dust.

“What the hell Steph?!” Carrie said waving her hand around in an attempt to wave the dust away.

Ashley stopped coughing and looked up to the bookshelf. It was large and contained many books. Her gaze moved to the side of the bookshelf where she noticed a dark figure stood. Blinking a few times, thinking it was only the dust particles floating around she stared harder at the corner squinting her eyes. Once she focused her vision, Ashley’s mouth and eyes opened in terror. She realized it was a girl, probably a teenager, dressed in a white nightgown with her dark hair veiling her face. From the position she stood, her head hung low.

“Louis!” Ashley turned around hissing.

“What?”

“Over there, look! It’s a girl!”

“Where?” he looked where Ashley was pointing. “I don’t see anything.”

“But I-”

“What happened?” Harry asked.