Chapter 10

The children had been walking for about ten minutes and still hadn't been able to find an exit. They had found one door a little while back but it only lead to another part of the secret passage. It has very hard on the nerves. The bugs were intolerable, the dust was everywhere and almost every three seconds Joanne was squealing at some bug that had either swung in front of her or dropped on her arm or was crawling up the wall and every time she had grabbed on to someone's arm but was quickly pushed off. At the moment she was hugging Chantel's big green bag so that she couldn't grab anyone.

"Isn't there (cough) some way (sniff sniff ) out?" Isaac complained.

"Not yet!" Zac snapped, mad at a bug that had fallen in his hair a little while earlier and wouldn't reveal it's self.

"Hey!" Taylor yelled excitedly. "I think I see something up there! Maybe it's a door!"

"Where?" Chantel asked but it was too late. Taylor, who had tried to start running slipped on the filthy floor and came hurtling to the ground, casing and huge cloud of dust. Isaac held his breath and started running, the others followed, with their eyes shut so the dust wouldn't get in their eyes.

Crash!

"What was that?!" Chantel asked coming to a complete stop.

"I think I hit something!" Joanne yelled through the dust. When the dust finally cleared it was exposed.

"AAAaaaggggghhhhhhhh!" All six screamed in unison and scrambled to get out of the passage way, which only resulted in more dust being flung in the air as they slipped and slid everywhere.

Isaac braced himself against the wall. "We (cough) have to get out of (sniff)(cough) here." He managed to wheeze out.

The other five were still lying paralyzed to their spots staring at the fallen skeleton before them.

"Who do you think it is?" Zac asked gasping for air.

"Probably one of the people Mason killed." Chantel answered beginning to feel sick.

"Eeewww!" Zac and Taylor said, almost happily moving in for a closer look.

"Hey look!" Sandy pointed walking over to the skeleton and picking up a small brown book. At least it was brown, once Sandy cleaned it off.

"What is it?" Chantel asked getting up to look at it.

"It's a diary!" Sandy exclaimed.

"Wow!" Zac and Taylor bounced up, speaking in unison, again. "What's in it?!"

"(cough) (choke) Can we look at it (cough) once we're out of here?" Isaac begged gasping for air.

Taylor had been right before, what he saw was a door and after a lot of shoving and pushing they got it open. It lead to a banquette hall which had a sitting room beside it. They went in so Isaac could sit down.

Sandy opened the book to the last entry and began to read

"Some day in March

Dear Diary,

It's been a long day. I don't know how long it's been. The last few entries, I know, have been horrible but I can't help it."

"The writing sure is sloppy." Zac pointed out. Sandy continued.

"I feel so weak. I know this will be the last time I will have the strength to write to you. I'm positive it's been many months since I got stuck in this horrible house. I do wish Henry could have explained this place to me more, before he died."

"Henry Brooks! He knew Henry Brooks?" Isaac piped up, although he was still a little weak from the dust. "Wow that skeleton's been in there for a long time."

Sandy went on.

"He was such a good man I don't understand why people hated him so. I've been talking so much about myself I don't believe I've told you much about Henry.

I didn't have much time to talk to him, the poor man. I met him once and we talked forever but he was ever so sick. Darren, Henry's grandson, talked to me as well."

"How could Henry have a grandson?" Zac asked almost to himself. "He was only a boy!"

"Mason may have kept Henry and other people he kidnaped somewhere locked up in the house we don't know how long that skeleton and Henry were here." Joanne answered.

"Don't you get it?!" Chantel explained. "Mason was Henry!"

"No!" Joanne disagreed. "Henry went missing when Mason kidnaped him."

"Ok, then how come no one seems to remember a Mason before Henry?"

"Can I go on?" Sandy interrupted. The girls let him.

"Darren was so nice, I'd say he was about 16 and his father Jacob was just the same. Jacob came every Sunday and dropped off groceries and other things his father needed. I'd say he was about 44. Both Henry's wife and Jacob's wife died after childbirth. The graves are out in the backyard. I hope some day someone will find my body and bury it there.

Henry was very young when he got a disease, no one knew what it was but it made the skin of his face start to peal and the circulation in his hands was very poor and worst of all, sun light made him very sick, so he could only go out at night. His parents were so ashamed to have such an abnormal son that they took him out of town and deserted him there. He found his way back to Tulsa but knew he wasn't welcome in his home. So he took up residence in the empty Mason Mansion in the woods. He met a family who lived near the mansion and they began to bring him up as their own son. Which was good for them when they needed a place to live after a horrible fire destroyed all the surrounding homes. Henry fell in love with the family's only child Rachael. She later became his wife."

"I guess Mason was Henry." Joanne interrupted. Sandy went on.

"The other members of the family, Rachael's mother and father, aunt and uncle, later died for they were quite old. It was then that Henry started going out for walks at night. He felt more comfortable on new moons, less light you know, so he began to come out then, but Rachael did all the shopping in the morning. When Jacob was born Rachael died and Henry was then left with a son to raise by himself. He began to borrow things from other people's gardens and stores, he had no other choice. But every time he borrowed something he payed them back by leaving money. When Jacob was old enough he was put in a boarding school so he could live a more normal life and then soon he went off to college. One day, when Jacob was about 25, he came back with a wife. She died immediately after having Darren. The family again had no way of supporting themselves so Jacob worked most of the rest of his life away, while Henry helped raise Darren.

Darren went on to go to school like normal children and lived with his father afterwards, who now lived on his own at the end of the town. Every new moon Henry would go down and visit them. That was the way life was for them.

When I came on Tuesday, I met them all. I'm so ashamed of what I had thought of them before. "

"This must be Kalien's diary!" Isaac declared. Sandy continued.

"Darren and Jacob hardly ever came to the house to visit but that night they were there because Henry was dying. I talked about everything with them that night and then in early morning crawled back into my room and went to sleep. I told people some of what happened that night, but not very much. I told them that Henry was nice, but I called him Mason so they would know who I was talking about. I didn't really mention very much more. I told them what he looked like, I think I might have scared them though. Well, the next night I lay in bed wondering how dear old Henry was, when in crawled Darren though my window. He had come to tell me that his grandfather had died. I said I would come to the funeral which was that night and followed him out the window and into the woods. We buried him and said a few words and that was about it. Jacob and Darren said they were leaving and didn't want to come back, too many bad memories. I helped them pack and get ready to go. Jacob said I could keep the ornaments in the bedroom upstairs that Henry had made. He loved to make things and so Rachael told him what the town looked like from outside. Henry had already made one map of Tulsa before he had the disease. That's why the colours were so much lighter on that one then the others. The ornaments show the different people in the town and what the town looked like. Henry made one with the help of Rachael it's a bit darker than the first because Rachael couldn't quite describe the colours very well. The third was made with help from Jacob. Henry was able to see things for himself at that time because he was going out on his night time walks but Jacob tried to help get the colours a bit lighter like the way they were in real life, but it was still ended up pretty dark. The last one Henry made mostly by himself but Darren helped a little.

I promised I would take the figures and get them put in a museum and tell the world what kind of person Henry Brooks really was but I guess I won't be doing that now will I?"

"That's it?" Zac asked disappointed.

"Kind of, " Sandy answered, "it goes on a bit further but I can't read it, she must have been starving to death. She signed her name at the end though, 'Kalien Corbic'."

"How horrible!" Chantel exclaimed feeling very melancholy.

Sandy flipped through the book a little more.

"It says she waved goodbye to Jacob and Darren then went back in the house to get the ornaments and found the secret passage way and couldn't get back out."

"Let's get out of here." Taylor had heard enough, it was too sad, he got up and started to leave. They followed him.

Taylor opened the door to the sitting room. Light! So much light they had to cover their eyes. It was morning. A loud noise could be heard off in the distance, it was coming to the house!

"The wreaking crew!" Isaac yelled running to the door. "We can't let them tear the place down now!"

Chantel and Taylor ran out to stop the crew while the other four ran up the stairs to save the four displays of Tulsa that Mason, that is to say Henry, made. They each grabbed one and ran back down the stairs, carefully.

Chapter 11