Page 7 of Twisted Fates
I was in my element now. I’d loved watching property restoration shows, and all their historic renovations since I was a kid. After my father left, my mom and I would watch the shows to console ourselves. “Ah, as I suspected, here’s the dining room. Oh wow, this is spectacular, don’t you think? And that chandelier? I bet that’s Tiffany glass too. Jeez, this is an amazing place,” I said, intrigued by the over-the-top beautiful mansion, and forgetting I was actually with a client.
We walked into a butler’s pantry, and I oohed and aahed over all the storage. Then, even though I was expecting it, I cringed when we entered the tiny kitchen. “Yeah, this is typical for older homes. When this was built, only the servants used the kitchens. You could probably have this redone. Now, if I’m not mistaken, this—” I said, leading the way through a small exterior hallway that wound around the back and pointing out a dark room with ugly 1970s paneling, “—is the servant’s quarters. Most of the time, servants lived in the basement or top floor, but I’m guessing this one has a ballroom up there instead. Shall we go see?” I turned and saw a very green-looking client who’d followed me through the house. “Oh, wow, sorry. Are you okay?”
He shook his head. “No, no, I’m not. I don’t understand any of this. Why would a stranger give this to me? And just because of a ring. Something isn’t making sense,” he said.
“Hey, come here,” I led him back into the kitchen, and we sat at the bar. “Listen, I don’t know. I just know this is a real home, and no one lives here, at least not that I can see. Did you notice there are no family photos and no personal items lying around? It’s almost as if it was staged for a TV show. Come here,” I said, pulling open the drawers on either side of the stove. “There’s nothing personal in here either. Follow me.” I led him into the dining room and pulled open drawers there as well. “All of it—empty. Someone prepared this for its new owner. I’m guessing it was for you.”
“Yeah, but why? Why me?”
“I don’t know, but,” I said, shrugging, “there’s nothing wrong with this house. It’s not creepy or haunted, or if it is, no more than any house this age. Come on, let’s explore the rest, then you can lock it up until you speak with my bosses tomorrow. I’m sure they’ll be able to shed more light on the situation.”
Chapter five
Damian
Ifollowed Owen upthe stairs, and we explored the rooms. They were all decorated in what he called Victorian style. It wasn’t ugly, but it was too fussy for me. I was a simple guy who liked simple things, and this was just too much.
Finally, after touring the second floor and seeing Owen, grinning from ear to ear, I realized it really should’ve been someone like him who inherited the place. We were just about to walk downstairs when a door creaked open on the next landing. “Okay,” Owen said, “now, that was creepy.”
I nodded. “Shall we go up?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Your house, so you go first!” he said, and I laughed since that’s what I’d said to him when we first arrived.
I walked up the narrow stairs, definitely not as ornate as the staircase that led here. When we got to the top, Owen gasped. “My God, this is… It’s like a novel.”
He wasn’t wrong. Each corner of the roof had huge windows. Stained glass surrounded ovals, which let in naturallight. I walked to one of the windows and looked out over the Puget Sound. Mt. Rainier stood off to the side. It was as beautiful as that sight ever was. When I looked closer, I noticed the stained glass depicted the scene through the oval window.
I glanced around the room and saw that each window had similar stained-glass scenes, and I assumed each of them depicted the sight through the clear glass. Lake Washington, the Cascade Mountains, and the Olympic Mountain Range. “Wow, this is truly amazing.” I said and scanned the room for Owen.
He was staring at the books on a shelf, his hands tucked behind his back, a look of amazement on his face. When I walked toward him, he sighed. “These…these look like they’re centuries old. I don’t even dare touch them,” he said as he gestured toward the ancient-looking books. There were no titles on the spines, and I had to agree they looked pretty old. “It looks like this was originally a ballroom, as I said earlier, but someone turned it into…into this wonderland.”
“It’s pretty amazing. Hey, I want to take some pictures to send to my friend. Hold on,” I said. I pulled my phone out and tried to get a selfie in front of the massive window with Mt. Rainier in it. When I backed up, I accidentally knocked over a vase, which fell to the ground and shattered. I quickly knelt to pick up the shards and cut myself. “Oh, crap, damn.”
“Come over here, and let’s get it under the water,” Owen said, pulling me into the ancient bathroom. The plumbing worked though, and the cool water washed away the blood.Owen pulled off some toilet paper and wrapped my finger while trying to find a bandage. “Come on, let’s go downstairs and see if there are any down there.”
He turned off the faucet and was pulling me toward the stairs, when I suddenly froze. “What?” Owen asked, and I pointed at where the vase had fallen.
Somehow, the shards had been swept up. Nothing was out of place. I looked at my finger just to be sure it was still cut, and sure enough, it was still bleeding.
“Um, I-I think I might be ready to go,” I said.
“Yeah, yeah, me too,” Owen replied, and we both rushed down the stairs and out the front door.
Chapter six
Owen
“Damn,” Damian said, andthat’s all it took for me to crack up.
“Oh my God, that was creepy,” I replied, and Damian began laughing as well. “Come on,professionaldriver, I’ll take you out for a drink. After that experience, I think we deserve it.”
Damian chuckled as we rushed out the front gate.
“You need to lock that up, even if it is haunted as fuck,” I said as we got to the car.
He nodded, then unlocked the passenger door to let me in. I watched as he locked the gate but didn’t go back to the house. Not that I blamed him.
We went to a bar Damian said he liked, which was nice since I hadn’t been here long enough to find anywhere special.
