Brookfield Manor

Prologue: A Beginning Untold

In Massachusetts, somewhere near the coast, but far away from the coast at the same time, in a place that was not quite North, or South, nor East, nor West, there existed a town that was strange in its own rights.

The name of this town was said to have been handed down through generations of ritualistic storytelling that, as the town grew in population (though not very significantly), they started to hold semiannual town story festivals, in which the same story about how the town got its name would be read from a book that was bound in the finest leather, written in the finest ink, and locked in the most complicated safe. 

One could almost say that this town favored its name and reputation more than its people, for as more and more of them were taught the special secret of this town's name, the more prideful they became. Soon, all any of the townsfolk cared about was the reputation of the town and its purity. Fights even began to break out amongst the populace as they defined purity in their own ways.

These harmless arguments soon turned violent, and in some terrifying and bloody months, the population of the town shot down as people left, or they were killed in maniacal ways and left for the birds. The only ones standing at the end of the feuds were three men: the town mayor, the town sheriff, and one crazed man that had been in prison just two days previous. 

Being only men and, therefore, unable to repopulate the town, the three survivors quickly died, and it was said that some years later, their skeletons were found holding whiskey bottles over an ancient game in which no one could decipher the words that were on the cards. And so the town was lost in between the lines of history books for good, for the strangeness in this town not only encompassed the occurrences that led to its desolation, but the events directly afterwards as well.

Because of this newly ghosted town's odd location, the bodies and names of any of its members were never discovered. In fact, the few families that had decided to leave the town ended up getting lost on the way out, eventually dying or becoming weird woodspeople that lived in huts made out of sticks and moss. 

However, unbeknownst to the town and its previous inhabitants, there was one family that successfully survived the massacre in the small hidden room of a speakeasy they owned. In fact, the three men thought to have been the last people alive happened to die two floors above where this family was staying. This speakeasy, called "Brookfield Booze", was well-known by the town, and was only considered a speakeasy because the customers needed to have a password at the ready to enter through the front door. 

The family that owned the Speakeasy was small and contained only four members: Mr. John Brookfield, Mrs. Morena Brookfield, Leonardo Brookfield, and Stacy Brookfield. They had been quiet people- very introverted and not known for their gatherings or participation in public events. This, coupled with the fact that Morena was of African descent, lead the townspeople to start horrible rumors of witchcraft and sorcery surrounding Morena and her children. Of course, through small town politics, these rumors never attached to the father, John, as he was white and male. 

The time period of these events was not around the witch trials- though sometimes young Leonardo and Stacy feared for their lives in school and out in public-  but rumors spread like wildfire, and soon Morena and John were socially barred from any public outing, ensuring that the Brookfield family spent more time at home than not, even though they still received a good amount of customers at their speakeasy. (Apparently, the people that came were more interested in a speakeasy run by a witch, and anyways, surely a witch could not make potions out of anything alcoholic, could she?)

It was said that John could sometimes be seen from the sidewalk in front of his house glaring out the window at passersby. However, this did not make the townsfolk as uncomfortable as when Morena would be seen outside tending to her garden. People began to say she was growing plants using dark magic, and one eventful week, there was a small child that accused her of making him fall off his bicycle as he was riding past the home (this accusation was taken very seriously by the family of the small boy, but was dismissed quickly by law enforcement, as they were not yet prone to being that imbecilic).

Needless to say, the fact that the town had lost all of its inhabitants was neither a huge relief, nor a burden to the Brookfield family. In fact, knowing somehow that they would never be able to leave, the Brookfields began building a home over parts of the town. This home steadily and surely grew into a gargantuan mansion- one that was so large, it overtook the entirety of where the town's main roads sat- built over almost every building that existed in the town and its main square- after which, only upon invitation from the Brookfield family by mail, a small number of people began moving into the town mansion to become caretakers, chefs, butlers, et cetera. The funds for these employees, of course, came from the town's bank, which the Brookfields were quick to commandeer before building a ballroom in its place as part of the ever-growing manor.

So the Brookfield family gained the status they never could have achieved had the town not fallen under the boot of spiteful, pride-filled members of the town's community. The precious book that had seemed to start it all was somehow lost in the ruckus of the town's destruction, but the Brookfields had no use for it anyhow, as the entire town became their home, and years later, any other part of the town that might have been standing became overgrown with foliage and vegetation or turned to dust with age.

Generations came and went, and this mansion- rightfully dubbed Brookfield Manor- grew and aged beautifully, complete with angelic gardens and landscaping, and becoming a legend in parts of Massachusetts where only whispers could describe its glory, since it could not be found by anyone that tried to look for it.

Brookfield Manor, as I am sure you have thought by now, was almost certainly magical.