Tales of Terror Ch. 1

Tales of Terror Ch. 1

The house was a lot larger than Daphne has imagined. She double checked the address she had written. There had been an ad in the newspaper for a part time cleaner at a mansion posted by a Fleura Markenson. Daphne called the number listed, looking for an interview. Now she had arrived. It was 4:00 PM. The date: October 10th, 2018. It was a Victorian age mansion, made of large, reddish-brown bricks. Parts of the bricks were chipped away. This was the main thing Daphne noticed, along with the 30, long, stone steps up to the front doors. The doors were large, a deep brown wood. Daphne cautiously walked up the steps, only stopping once to re-tie her boots. Once she arrived at the front doors, she saw a doorbell surrounded by intricate gold carvings. She clicked the bell once with her left pointer finger, as she had to hold her notebook in the other. She believed that she would have to take notes of where everything was, and what all to know.

The door opened to an elderly woman, possibly in her mid 80s. 

“Are you Daphne? I’m Fleura, pleased to meet you,” She reached her hand out for a handshake, which Daphne didn’t notice. 

“Ye-yes. Um, how-how did you know my name? Did no one else want to work here or something?” 

“Well, this home doesn’t have the sweetest reputation, but that’s besides the point now isn’t it. We can make it better.”

“W-we? I-I thought I was just here to clean up and keep the place looking nice.”

“That-my dear, is exactly how you are going to make this place feel sweeter to the outside world. Now, please, please, come in.” 

Daphne stepped into the house as Fleura began to show her around, she found all of it quite, well, dusty. Yet, once they walked down a hall covered in stained glass and into a room with an organ, Daphne’s entire opinion changed. As she looked in awe, Daphne asked, 

“Can you guess how many pipes there are?”

“No, how many?” Daphne replied as she looked around with a look of wonder in her deep jade coloured eyes. 

“1,006. You’re not going to have to do anything in this room except sweep the floors and dust the organ. Don’t go up by the pipes.”

“How come?”

“Like I told you earlier, this home doesn’t have the sweetest reputation.”

“Sho-should I be worried?”

“No, you’ll find as you begin to become a part of the place.”

“Now, explore yourself, I’ve shown you the rooms you’ll need to know. Then, meet me in the parlour for some tea.”

“A-alright.” With that Daphne let Fleura walk out of the room. Then she went over to the organ. Although she had always been a worrier, she never really listened to what she was told too much. This wasn’t just Casper’s influence, of course, he played into it, but she had always been a curious girl. When she approached the organ, she saw a door, that just so happened to be locked. Great. The one day she didn’t bring her lock pick she just so happened to come across a mysterious locked door. Of course, she knew it had to lead up to the pipes, but what was up there that Fleura wanted her to steer clear of. 

With that, she walked back into the hall and realized that there was a trap door of some sort on the wall right outside of the organ room. Well, it was really a ball room, but that was besides the point. She pressed on the door as hard as she could and discovered a gigantic library. There were tons and tons of books. All looking extremely old. Yet, she was still a slight rule follower, and would prefer to ask first before grabbing a book. If Fleura responded suspiciously, she wouldn’t listen, if she said no for any other reason, Daphne would listen. She decided not to worry about the library for now, and left the room, carefully pulling the door shut. She then went back to the parlour for tea with Fleura. She sat down across from Fleura and ate cookies that were quite sweet and tea that was fairly sweet as well. Daphne then said,

“I discovered the library. I mean, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to go into there, but am I allowed to read any of the books?”

“Yes to both darling, just be careful.”

Daphne didn’t ask why to be careful at this point, she knew she’d get the same response as before. Then, she left, since it was late now, she would check out a book next time, and then tell Casper about her experience.