Chapter 12
Sandra
Sandra was talking to Kelly who was selling the movie tickets at Dillard’s. Kelly needed someone to swap shifts with her so that she could visit her aunt next weekend. Sandra was willing to help out, but the longer she talked to Kelly about it, the more she got the impression that Kelly just wanted her to take the shift instead of swapping it.
Not only that, but Kelly seemed to think that Sandra would take the shift and Kelly would still be the one to get paid for it. This was Kelly’s first job and she still had a lot to learn about how the real world worked. However, this conversation and explanation of why Kelly wouldn’t get paid for the work Sandra was going to do was going on far too long for Sandra and there was an ongoing deliberate ignorance in Kelly. It was almost as if Kelly thought that if she played dumb for long enough, Sandra would just give in, work the shift, and let Kelly have the cash for it. That wasn’t going to happen though.
Sandra didn’t really know Kelly very well and this conversation was making her realize that Kelly might not be the kind of person Sandra wanted to spend time with. The girl seemed entitled and needy and unreasonably upset with Sandra for not just doing what she wanted her to. Since Sandra was meeting the others here, she couldn’t just leave. She tried moving away from the ticket window, but Kelly had simply come outside and followed her since there weren’t any costumers around. Finally, the opportunity to get away from Kelly presented itself when Sandra saw Frank jogging up to the theater.
“Kelly, stop being a bunny about this,” Sandra finally said. “I just don’t think I can do it.”
Mister Dillard had come to the ticket window to see why it was vacant and Sandra made sure that she said it loud enough for him to hear. She didn’t want Kelly sneaking off to him later and telling him that Sandra had taken the shift. Sandra had nothing against Kelly until now. She didn’t really know the other girl despite being in the same school their entire lives, but they were a year a part and never really spent any time together. However, based on the few conversations the two of them had, Sandra had the suspicion that Kelly might be a little bit sneaky.
Sandra’s loud statement seemed to work. Mister Dillard nodded a friendly hello, before going back to his business after waving at Kelly to come back inside. He was looking at the schedules and finding new rolls of tickets for Kelly to give to costumers when they paid admission. Kelly sighed when she realized she couldn’t hand her shift off to someone else just now and Sandra walked over to a more private spot so that she could talk to Frank about his experience with the police without her coworker listening in.
Nadia started walking up to them as well. It was a relief to see that she had made it to the theater tonight. Sandra still had no way of contacting her new friend outside of seeing her in person. So having things work out tonight was great. Sandra make an effort to get at least a phone number from Nadia tonight if she had one, so that she didn’t feel like seeing her new friend was such a gamble.
Sandra, Nadia, and Frank were the first to meet up. They stood in awkward silence for a while after saying hello. Frank seemed anxious and Nadia seemed excited. When Sandra asked about what happened, Franks said he wanted to wait for the others since he didn’t want to tell the story more than once.
Sandra wasn’t sure anyone else was going to show, however a few minutes later everyone who came to the Craine Mansion was standing there. Not only that, but it seemed like everyone who had been there earlier today brought reinforcements. Sandra knew that rumors and stories spread like wildfire between the high schoolers and she was almost happy to see Carl amongst the bunch. Clearly, everyone needed to know what the police had to say. This need brought with it an intensity to the hushed silence when Frank began to speak.
Frank told them how he went to the police station and informed the officers what happened. How the police rallied several officers to search the building. How Frank sat outside the mansion in a police car for hours while the officers searched. How he had gotten a stern lecture from the police when nothing was found and how they dropped him off at home and told his parents that he’d played an irresponsible prank on them all. Luckily, Frank’s parents believed Frank when he told them what happened. They knew, like everyone standing there, that Frank was never a liar or a prankster. He wouldn’t have gone to the police if he hadn’t seen a body.
“They couldn’t find him,” Frank said. “I want to go back. I want to set up the ropes so that the cops can find him. It’s not right to just leave him there.”
There were murmurs of agreement. They had all been there. They had all seen the poor dead man laying in the garden beneath the roses. They all wanted to do right by him. Going to the mansion earlier and finding him there like that seemed almost like an invasion. Like they had broken the peace of his afterlife. Like they had stumbled across something that was never meant to be seen.
“I want to go tonight,” Frank said. He turned to Nadia. “I would need your help. You know the Craine place better than anyone.”
Nadia smiled and nodded. “I’ll take you back inside.”
Sandra thought that Nadia seemed a little overly enthusiastic. She wrote it off as Nadia not having much experience with other people. This was an opportunity for Nadia to show that she could be a valuable member of their group. A way for her to secure some friends and have a less lonely life. It would have been better though if she hadn’t smiled while saying that. It made her seem strange and a little bit off to smile at a time like this.
“I’m coming, too,” Sandra said. The rest of the group soon followed suit. One by one giving reasons as to why they should go as well. Safety in numbers, Sandra thought. She was grateful everyone decided to go. It made the old Craine Mansion less scary.
As soon as they decided to go, everyone rushed home to get the supplies Frank suggested. Flashlights and rope. The group then met up at the beginning of the lane and made their way to the mansion. They walked in silence as the evening air started feeling cooler by the minute.
When they arrived, they found the gates open. The police must have forgotten to close them. As Sandra looked at the gates she found them to be almost ominously welcoming. Like the mansion wanted them to come back inside. Like it was waiting to swallow them whole.
Sandra shook of the feeling as best she could. The mansion always looked worse at night and it had always been spooky. There was nothing here that Sandra hadn’t seen a dozen times before. It was the knowing there was a dead man beyond the doors that made this familiar place seem more eerie than it had been before. So Sandra stopped looking at the open gates and turned to see what Frank was doing.
This time Frank tied the rope to a tree across from the open gate and laid down the law that everyone was to hold on tight to it. The high schoolers started their new journey into the Craine Mansion with less enthusiasm this time. There was still some daylight and they wanted to make the most of it. The sun was just starting to set, so they had some time, but not a lot before darkness.
Nadia led the way. Frank made sure she held onto the rope this time. He was second in line. Sandra was close behind him. The rest were behind her. There were whispers between the group, but not much was said other than “Watch your step” or “Look out for that.”
The journey to the garden was slower this time. They would stop and wait for Frank to tie on a new section of rope or carefully check all of the rooms they passed just to make sure the dead man hadn’t been moved.
It was an option none of them had really considered until Carl asked if they thought maybe a killer had seen them enter the Craine place earlier and moved the evidence before the police arrived. It was scary to think that they hadn’t been in the mansion alone. That some evil person watched them make their discovery and hid the body better afterwards. That this person could still be within the mansion walls.
It was a scary thought, but one that Sandra didn’t really believe. The mansion was a maze. It was more likely that the police hadn’t really believed Frank to begin with. That they didn’t really look as hard as they said they did. That they hadn’t come across the garden. And that homeless man had died there of natural causes and simply hadn’t been found by officers who weren’t looking all too hard for him.
That was why it was important for them to find him now. It wasn’t going to be as easy as they had hoped. The further they got into the mansion, the darker it was. With only small streaks of sunlight making it through the window, Frank insisted they turn on their flashlights before the darkness hit. There was no reason to risk an injury in dim light when they had the ability to light their own way.
Nadia didn’t have a flashlight, but she didn’t seem to mind. There was enough light coming from their group that she could see ahead.
They were walking down a long hallway when suddenly Dillan screamed behind them. Everyone spun around.
“It’s okay,” Dillan called out a second later.
Sandra breathed a sigh of relief and turned back around and saw Nadia looking at Frank in bright glow of all of the flashlights now facing them. Frank looked over at Sandra and then turned to Nadia. Something was wrong. There was a look of horror on Frank’s face before he turned to face Nadia with a calm smile.
“Nadia,” he said. “I need you to keep the rope up. I will be right back. I’m going to check on Dillan.”
With that, Frank handed Nadia the length of rope they were using to mark the way and made his way through the group until he reached Dillan who was bringing up the rear.
Sandra could hear them arguing as the rest of them slowly moved on, following Nadia.
“I just brushed my leg against something,” Dillan said. “Turns out it was just a table, but it scared me good.”
“It’s dark and I want to make sure you’re not hurt worse than you think,” Frank said. “We can’t have you realizing too late that you’re hurt bad.”
Frank then leaned down and shone his flashlight along Dillan’s body.
“You’re pretty cut up,” Frank said. “It’s only bleeding a little now, but if you keep moving around, it might get worse. Carl, why don’t you go with Dillan and make sure he gets home to take care of that.”
Sandra was so focused on the conversation that Frank was having, she nearly jumped out of her skin when Nadia shouted, “Come on!”
“We’re coming,” Frank shouted back. “There’s enough rope. You can keep leading the way again. I’ll catch up in a minute.”
Nadia started moving further down the hall, but looking behind her until Sandra realized she was probably hesitant to lead the way on her own without any light. So she walked slowly after Nadia, hoping Dillan was all right.
After several minutes and a right turn down the hall, Sandra was startled by Frank touching her hand on the rope. She flinched but kept following Nadia who was still wandering into the darkness towards the garden.
Frank then snatched the flashlight out of Sandra’s hand and Sandra turned and looked at Frank, about to say something when she saw him put his finger to his lips. He then handed Sandra her flashlight again before following Nadia down the hall and around the corner to a long seemingly unending hallway. When they turned the corner, Frank handed Sandra his flashlight.
“Hold up,” he said to Nadia. “We’re almost out of rope.”
Frank then tied the rope he was carrying over his shoulder to the almost depleted end of rope Nadia was already holding before handing the new loops of rope to her.
“We can keep going,” Frank said.
Nadia was looking down at the light coming from the others who hadn’t made the turn yet. She nodded.
“Come on,” she said.
While Nadia started walking down the hall again, Frank followed her, quietly pulling two things from his pocket. One was another flashlight and the other was a roll of tape.
Sandra watched curiously as after a couple of silent steps, Frank turned the flashlight on. A step later, he quickly and gently attached the flashlight with tape to the rope, spun around, grabbed Sandra to follow him, looking back to make sure Nadia hadn’t noticed.
The two of them ran quietly, back around the corner. Along the way, Sandra handed Frank’s original flashlight back to him and took note that the others weren’t there. The light was just another flashlight taped to the rope. Frank kept looking over his shoulder to make sure that Nadia wasn’t behind them. They made it around two or three corners following the rope, before slowing down.
“What’s going on,” Sandra asked as she and Frank hurried on, holding tightly to the rope in the darkness.
“There’s something not right about Nadia,” Frank said.
“What?”
“Every time she turned around, the light didn’t seem to bother her,” Frank whispered. “Then, when Dillan screamed I made sure that when she turned around, my light would hit her directly in the eyes. She didn’t even blink. It’s like she doesn’t even know how to blink. It’s not right. So I sent the others back. Even if she’s human, we can’t stay in here with her. We’ll get the police. They’ll find her if she doesn’t come out on her own and sort this whole thing out.”
There was a loud exasperated sigh behind them. They both turned around to see Nadia standing there. Frank was right. When the sudden burst of light hit her face, she didn’t even blink.
“Come on,” Nadia said.
Sandra felt Frank grab her hand and pull her off into the darkness at a pace she had a hard time keeping up with. She didn’t bother to light her way. Sandra simply kept a firm grasp on her flashlight with one hand and a firm grasp on Frank with the other. She trusted him to keep to the rope and get them out of there.
They ran for what seem like forever. Frank’s flashlight bouncing off the walls in the distance until it hit a door. The rope went through the middle of the door, with no hole, no obvious explanation of how that was possible. Sandra put her flashlight under her chin and pulled and pushed at the door. It was no use. The door was locked. When Sandra turned to Frank to express her disbelief, she saw Nadia standing in front of her.
Nadia held her finger to her lips and quietly walked away from the rope. Sandra followed her with her flashlight as Nadia walked to one of the bathtubs in a row that lined the side of the mysterious room they now found themselves in. Nadia climbed onto the head of the bathtub. She then slowly lowered herself into the black waters below.
The light of Nadia’s flashlight, a flashlight Sandra was sure the other girl had stolen from Frank when she separated the running pair, flickered below the black water, but stayed on as a dim gray glow. With Nadia fully submerged, Sandra spun around to run back the way she came from only to have another door slammed in her face when she got close to it.
The rope Sandra and the others had followed still stayed magically suspended in the air. It now ran through both doors without explanation. Attached to this door and with the rope magically running through it, Sandra found a sign that said, “Quiet please. Visiting hours from 7:00 until 7:05.”
Sandra looked at her watch without really knowing why. It was four in the morning. Despite knowing no one ever came inside the Craine Mansion without a good reason, part of Sandra hoped someone would be here for visiting hours. She didn’t know who they would be visiting here or why an abandoned mansion would have visiting hours at all, but there was a dim glimmer of hope that someone would come to this awful room. The realist part of Sandra’s mind knew that that wasn’t true. Her best chance was Frank and the others. If they made it out, they would come back to look for her. They could still follow the magically suspended rope and at least make it to the door.
Knowing that her best chance would be coming from the other side of this door, Sandra slowly slid to the ground and sat next to it. It was also the furthest place from Nadia. Quietly, Sandra shone her light down the row of bathtubs that Nadia had disappeared into.
Nothing to see other than the seven black water filled tubs. One of which harbored a mean spirited ghost or what ever Nadia was. On the other side of the room, there was the same thing. A row of seven black water filled tubes.
Leaning against the door, Sandra held back her tears and hoped that the others were safe. She then wondered about Nadia and everything she knew about her. Sandra felt like a fool for thinking that this strange girl was her friend. Sandra also wondered if she was the reason the homeless man had died. Nadia had shown no interest in bringing outside people here until Sandra and Frank talked to her about it.
The room of baths was a dark and lonely place and Sandra fell into quiet sniffling sobs as she waited for someone to come or something to happen. For a while, she held her light facing down the line of tubs to make sure she knew if Nadia moved, then fear told Sandra to check the rest of the room.
In the corner to her right, she saw a familiar figure. He was as quiet and unmoving as Sandra was and probably as terrified.
“Dillan,” Sandra whispered. “She’s here.”
Sandra shone her light onto the tub that Nadia was in only to find Nadia’s head peeking out from the water. Her face was lifted just enough for only her eyes to be seen, the rest of her still submerged in the unnatural dark water. Sandra froze before backing up against the door again. Nadia’s eyes were now black and unforgiving. Staring at Sandra with intense curiosity as Sandra shook with fear.
It took all she had in her to turn her head to Dillan again to try and get her friend to come stand with her. When she did, she saw that Dillan was slowly making his way past the bathtubs. That was good. Maybe together the two of them could break down this door.
Sandra then returned her gaze to Nadia. She was standing unmoving, halfway down the lane between the tubs. There were now heads that appeared in the other bathtubs. Boys and girls of various ages. Only their eyes breaking through the water.
Sandra thought she recognized some of them, but it was hard to tell. She was as far from the tubs as she could be and only the eyes of these other ghosts had surfaced above the black water.
As long as Sandra kept her light on Nadia, she remained unmoving. Sandra could hear Dillan moving to the right of her, beyond that row of bathtubs. Slowly making his way past the dangerous creatures that had appeared in the black waters.
Sandra wanted to tell him that as long as she kept her light where it was, Nadia and the other children wouldn’t move. With her hands shaking, Sandra did her best to hold the light steady. To keep as many of the bathtubs and Nadia lit up and under observation.
As she slowly took inventory of the horror in front of her so that she could come up with a plan when Dillan arrived at her side, Sandra noticed something she hadn’t seen before.
The bathtub at the very end on the right. The one that was across from where Nadia had gone into the water was empty. A second one of those creatures was on the loose.
Sandra then decided to risk it for just a second to find where the other creature was. They didn’t move when Sandra held them in the light. If it was out of the water, it was either coming for her or for Dillan. Dillan was getting closer now. She could see him moving slowly out of the corner of her eye. Maybe he had his flashlight on him. If Sandra found the other creature, one of them could keep their light on it and the other could keep their light on Nadia and the tubs.
As Sandra quickly scanned the room with her light, she found nothing. She wasn’t going to risk scanning the room a second time. Nadia was moving quickly and in the three seconds it took for Sandra to scan the room and focus her light back on Nadia, Nadia had made it three quarters of the way to where Sandra was sitting.
The other creatures, ghosts, children, whatever they were, were now standing in their tubs, bodies facing the lane in the middle, but their heads turned smiling towards where Sandra was sitting.
Sandra froze. Her flashlight unsteady in her shaking hands. The light flickered once. The batteries must be dying. After all, Sandra had been wandering through the darkness for hours before she was sat here with her light. When the light flickered, Nadia managed another step and the others were now also in the lane between the tubs.
The only good in this terrifying situation was that Dillan had made it across the room unharmed. He was slowly following the wall Sandra was sat against. She could hear him taking one careful step after another. Sandra couldn’t wait for him to reach her, to not be alone in facing this horror, to have a friend nearby.
The light flickered again and this time Nadia seemed to vanish completely when it came back on again. Sandra couldn’t risk searching for her with the light. The other creatures were too close for comfort. They were making their way towards Sandra much faster than Nadia had.
Sandra flinch when she heard a foot land right next to her. She had forgotten how close Dillan was to reaching her. The beat her heart skip when his footsteps startled her was soon replaced by a rush of relief and hope. If the two of them worked together, they would be able to find some way out of this awful place.
Sandra turned to Dillan for help. He was next to her now. Dripping wet and smiling.
Approaching the gate, Frank screamed for the others to run. They'd agreed to meet up on the lane, but he couldn’t see them there. The rope was still in tact. It was still tied to the tree across from the gate. There was no reason for them not to be there.
As Frank pulled Sandra behind him, he hoped that the others heard him. Maybe the others were standing behind the wall or in the trees to keep Nadia from seeing them through a window, but when Frank turned the corner onto the lane and saw what was on the other side of the wall, he had a terrible sinking feeling when no one was there. Frank turned to Sandra and froze. It was Nadia standing there behind him, holding a flashlight with a piece of frayed rope and tape attached to it. He tried to look past her to the Craine Mansion for any moving lights, any signs that the others were still there. Nothing.
Frank looked at Nadia and watched her eyes slowly turn from blue to completely black. She then held the flashlight to her face, flinched and blinked three times, before smiling at Frank.
Frank didn’t know what to say or do. Whatever she was, he didn’t have a chance against her. He simply watched Nadia run her thumb across the still taut rope, slicing it straight through, walk beyond the wall, and close the gate behind her. When Nadia reached the door of the house, Frank flinched as she waved. The rope that remained magically suspended in the air beside him despite being severed, suddenly dropped to the ground, while the part of it that was beyond the wall was slowly pulled into the house by an unseen force.