Beware [COMPLETED]

3. The first encounter

That night, the whole group slept in the living room. They took out their sleeping bags from Autumn's car, pushed all the couches and sofa seats away in one corner, and huddled up in front of the crackling fire.

When they had initially planned the trip, it had been decided that they would sleep in separate rooms in the mansion. To them it was just a sort of challenge and also a purpose to see if something really happened. However, now they didn't want to go up and sleep separately when they hadn't even inspected the mansion.

A crack of thunder made Autumn snap out of her thoughts. She had been thinking deeply about what had happened before, that she didn't even notice her friends talking among themselves.

"Maybe we could set a number and leave this place when that number has been reached," Talia suggested.

"Are you serious?" Adam sat up straighter. "You want us to set a number?"

"A number for what?" Autumn interjected.

"Raymond suggested that since something has already happened and we're still here, then we should set a scale to see what would be considered 'disturbing'." 

"And I said that we should set a number. That way, say, if three things would have happened, we would leave," Talia continued.

Autumn frowned as she relaxed back more. "I don't agree with any of you," she stated, "I think we should leave whenever something alarming happens. Something that would result in our lives being in danger."

The room fell silent and the sound of rain filled the room with the harsh cracking of thunder over the soft crackling of fire.

"You really think things would go that far?" Adam whispered.

Autumn shrugged. "Not really. But they could."

No one said anything after that and soon, they all fell asleep.

When Autumn opened her eyes the next morning, she noticed the lack of any sunlight. Groaning, she sat up and got out of her sleeping bag while stretching. Her eyes fell over the sleeping figures of everyone in the room and she tiptoed around them to the window.

A thick blanket of clouds was all over the sky- hiding the sun. The soil was dark and damp along with the trees- their leaves littering the area. The fog had left due to the rain and there was no wind. Autumn looked back at her friends when she heard shuffling and saw Kaylee waking up.

"Morning." Kaylee smiled and Autumn returned the greeting. 

As both young women freshened up, others woke up one by one. Once everyone was ready for the day, they ate breakfast and picked up the map to continue their survey of the place.

"Should we start from here, or here?" Raymond asked while pointing at two opposite sections on the map on either side of the staircase.

"Let's begin with the first floor. There are mostly only bedrooms up there with the library, right?"

The friends agreed with Adam, picked their bags and started climbing the stairs. Autumn had the map in her hands as they walked up. The group walked in the direction of the right hallway first, seeing the multiple bedrooms which were all locked. In the left wing, the same number of bedrooms was present. The only difference was that some rooms at the end were unlocked. Autumn took a room beside a locked one, and everyone else settled in rooms beside her- the engaged couple together in one.

After successfully placing their belongings in their designated rooms, they continued their exploration of the floor. The sliding door of the library opened as the group entered. They all watched in awe and admired the spaciousness of the two storey room with wall mounted book shelves. There were two brown leather couches with a small round table in between- all covered with white sheets. In a minute, the sheets found their new resting place on the dusty wooden floor.