The House Of Perplexity

The Unknown Caller

Lucy's POV

We spent the next hour decorating the house. The iron fence outside was decorated with christmas lights, we traded the normal thinking cloth for a red one, and we had just started to pin up stockings in the living room.

"Notice how George's stocking is larger than all the rest" I said. Lockwood laughed, tilting his head back and making his santa hat fall off.

A loud thumping noise came from the stairs. "Do you two have to be so loud?" George rubbed his glasses on his shirt and shot us a reproachful look.

"George! We had thought you were at the library." Lockwood stuffed his hat back on and shot him a gleeful smile. "Now you can help us decorate."

"No thank you. Unlike you people, I actually like to relax on my days off." He ambled over to the couch and flopped down, pulling out a notebook and pen.

"Ah, come on George. The quicker you start helping us the quicker we'll be able to pop down to the coffee shop for donuts." I gave him a fake pout. "You wouldn't want us to get busy and accidentally forget, would you?"

George glared at me. "You are one evil little girl. Alright, fine. I'll help."

George was in the middle of tacking up the last stocking (me watching amused from the side, of course) when we heard a knock on the door.

"Lucy, could you get that" Lockwood called from the kitchen.

"Sure." I marched over and opened the door, revealing a red-faced Holly in a red flannel parka. She waved a mittened hand.

"May I come in? It's really quite cold out here."

I stepped out of the way to let her in, and shut the door behind her retreating figure.

"You guys started decorating without me? You could at least let me help you finish."

Great. Now we have commander Holly to boss us around. Don't get me wrong, Holly and I are cool now, but when it comes to matters like cleaning and decorating... Let's just say we don't quite see eye to eye.

We set back to work finishing up with the decrations; setting up the tree, hanging up wreaths, and putting decorative iron ornaments around the house.

"Well, I think that does it." Lockwood smiled at me. "See Luce, that didn't take so long."

"It'll only take a few minutes, c'mon Luce. It'll be fun." I walked around waving my hands and doing a bad impression of Lockwood.

George and Holly doubled over laughing (I guess in Holly's case giggling), while Lockwood just grinned even more.

"Well, it was fun, wasn't it?" He questioned. "I didn't hear you complain the entire time."

"Wow, it must be a new record" George added from the side.

"Oh shut up. I guess it was pretty fun."

Loud bangs suddenly started up from the front door, and everyone's heads turned to look at it. Two people in one day? That never happens.

I could tell everyone was also thinking the same, because Lockwood suddenly spoke up, "George, did we have any clients coming in today?"

George shook his head. "Not that I know of. Could be someone coming to get our services."

Lockwood shrugged and strode over to the door, meanwhile grabbing the extra rapier from the umbrella bin.

He opened the door and stepped back, just in case something came through the door. We looked at him expectantly.

Lockwood's POV

"Lockwood?" They questioned from behind me.

"Huh. It seems we have gotten a package." I looked around outside before leaning down and picking up the parcel, shutting the door behind me as I walked over to the kitchen table.

I set it down and everyone filed in after me. "Don't see packages like this often" George said as he pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"Agreed." The package was wrapped with old brown paper, and was tied with twine to keep it shut.

"Is it marked?" Lucy gestured. "Maybe it has a tag of some sort that will tell who it's from.

I picked it up and examined it, but could find no markings. "Well, let's open it up, shall we?"

When we opened it a letter and a piece of fabric fell from the paper. George picked up the letter and broke the wax seal.

"Dear Lockwood & Co.,
Something strange has been happening, and I... I don't know what's going on. The manor is turning, and turning me with it. I need you to come and fix it. Come to the place of confusion in two days time.
-P"

George looked up. "What is the place of confusion?" He looked me. "And do you know someone named P?"

I shrugged. "George, do you think you could do some research and find out where this place is?"

"Lockwood, there's something else here too." Holly picked up the piece of cloth. She shook it, and a coin fell into her palm.

We all gathered around to see the coin, and I took a sharp breath when I saw it. Instead of the normal print on a coin, it had a house on it, and the words, "illic turbata" printed around it.

"George, I also think that while you're researching the place of confusion, also look into the words illic turbata."

"Intriguing, I've never seen anything like this. I know where I'll be tomorrow."

I glanced up at Lucy and saw her watching me. I tried to shoot her my normal grin, but it must not have come out right because she shot me a worried glance.

Something tells me this is not going to be a normal case.
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Hey guys! So, that was the first few parts of my story. I wanted to get something interesting on the page before I posted, so hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly.

Sorry that this last chapter was so long, the words just kept coming and they were pretty imprtant ones. I hope you are enjoying it so far, but make sure to keep reading because I've got some pretty crazy stuff up my sleeve.

On to the next chapter, back in a bit, swordfish.