Ashdown Island

Chapter One

Ace McRoy and Cicely Carter-Blake waved goodbye to their ship's captain as he left the island. The two of them looked up at the manor, dark and foreboding as the sun lowered behind the horizon. They had been sent for a very specific reason.

Ashdown island had been privately owned and considered it's own 'country' for hundreds of years. But it was a small island now, and only owned by a young woman called Victoria. There was a serious push to simply claim the island for the mainland, therefor creating more homes and opportunities, not to mention the modernization of the island would help the people living there greatly.

Needless to say, Victoria was not having any of it. Claiming her family had lived there for generations, and the island dwellers were perfectly happy without the interference of other countries that it had escaped for so long.

Again, needless to say, the mainland was not happy.

At last, after months of arguments, angry letters, and even threats, Victoria had agreed to a very... unusual proposal.

Two people from another country, with no personal preferences, would come to Ashdown and stay for a week. And it would be up to them weather or not Ashdown should be taken as part of the mainland, or if it should stay independent and on its own, as it always had been.

"Whaddya think, Cicely?" Ace asked, looking up. "There she is, the famous Ashdown manor."

Cicely hummed in response, noticing a silhouette dancing behind one of the curtains on an upper floor. She clutched her suitcase, suddenly feeling a chill run down her spine at the sight of the doors. Doors carved to look like lions were ready to pounce out of them.

Ace wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders, sensing the girl's unease.

"Let's... let's just go in..." he said softly. "It'll get cold out here soon."

Cicely nodded, almost huddling against her cousin as he walked up the long and twisty cobblestone path to the doors. Ace reached out to knock on the polished wood, but was unable to as the doors swung open before he could touch them.

"Ace...?" Cicily whispered, voice small. "I... I'm not sure I like this..."

Ace nodded, hesitant on taking a step inside. "This is like the beginning of every horror movie ever." He whispered back. "I'm half expecting a vampire to come out and nab us."

"A vampire? Don't tell me my guests entertain such... ridiculous beliefs."

Ace and Cicely looked up sharply, only to be met by something that ironically looked very, very, very much like a vampire. Her skin, pale as death, her rose pink lips, bright pink cheeks, and hair the color of a starless night.

Her black dress and short brown jacket accenting her pale complexion, which almost seemed to shine in the candlelight at the bottom of the staircase she stood upon.

"Victoria Ashdown..?" Ace ventured a guess.

The lady bowed her head briefly, her crystal voice replying. "The very same. Sir McRoy? Lady Carter-Blake?"

"I... I don't know where you got 'Sir' or 'Lady' from, but yeah... that's us." Cicely laughed nervously.

A single dark eyebrow arched, almost in question. "I see." Was all she said.

You could almost taste the tension in the room as they stood there in silence for a long minute that seemed to stretch for eternity.

"I'll show you to your rooms." Victoria said abruptly. "This way."

The pair followed her silently. Suitcases close to their sides as they glanced around curiously at all the closed doors. The house felt like it had been empty for years, but the highly polished wood and metal begged to differ.

"Is it just you..?" Cicely ventured to ask. "Do you have servants? Maids to keep up the housework?"

Victoria turned to them, brown eyes boring into blue. "It is just me. The other inhabitants of this island never cared much for the manor. I have never made them come behind the doors should they not wish to." She turned back up the stairs.

"Do they ever wish to?" Ace asked.

Again, Victoria turned to them.

"No."