Chapter 9
The five children sat in a circle talking all about the things that had happened to them throughout the day. It turned out that all the noise Zac and Isaac heard outside was only Chantel, Joanne and Taylor trying to get in the house from a side window. Most of the things Sandy thought he saw, like the house swaying from side to side was simply his imagination. He did have a very large and active one. Joanne and Chantel had heard a lot of noises that turned out to be the Zac and Isaac. But they couldn't explain everything. How Sandy got in the house nobody knew. They had thought that it was Mason, but why hadn't he killed Sandy on the spot and how come he didn't come back.
"Maybe he meant to, but then got preoccupied with getting us out of the house." Zac suggested. "I mean, there is no other logical explanation."
"What do you know about logic." Isaac asked half joking. "Maybe Sandy just came in by himself after getting hit with something outside but then fell unconscious up stairs on the bed and forgot about it."
"No," Sandy objected, "I was in the bed all tucked in and the fire place was going."
Everyone sighed "Then how did you get inside!" Joanne complained getting tired of the subject. "Surely Mason isn't still alive so he couldn't have done it!"
"What are you talking about?" Isaac declared. "Mason could very well still be alive and probably is."
"I don't think so!" Joanne protested. "The last person who saw him was Kalien and she said he was ancient, plus, he was around, like, when my mother was a child. That guy's long dead."
"What if he wasn't human? Like an immortal or something like that. There are lots of things that Mason could have been and he definitely wasn't normal. Another thing, nobody ever reported one grey hair on his head ever! Do you know any guy who was that old who never had grey hair?!" Isaac shot back.
"Maybe he dyed it." Sandy put in timidly, not knowing whether to get involved or not. "We don't know what he got in that white truck that came on Sunday. Maybe there was hair dye."
Isaac and Joanne gave Sandy a look of pity, you know the kind of look that means poor kid, he has such a simple brain.
The library was large and long and had many fake plants around it, to make it seem more homey.
There was a creek from the door. Everyone froze. Although nobody said anything, the expressions of their faces, which much resembled the look of a frog's face if you squeeze it really hard, showed exactly what they were thinking. There was a flash of lightening so the room was visible for a split second.
"Did that mini tree thing over there move?" Zac leaned over and whispered to Chantel.
"I don't know!" She replied. "No, it couldn't have." Chantel leaned over to Isaac.
"Did that tree over there move?" It took Isaac a few seconds to be able to choke out the words.
"I think so! No it didn't! It couldn't have." Isaac leaned over to Sandy who was once again struggling to get Joanne off of his arm. "Did that tree move?" Isaac asked.
Sandy stopped and looked at the tree through the darkness. "How am I supposed to know? I can't see a thing!"
"Well ask Joanne." Isaac whispered in a low voice.
"Yeah I'll just do that." Sandy said sarcastically. "Tell her yourself. I'll switch you places." So they did. Joanne didn't know either.
Zac turned on the flashlight and shone it on the door to the library. It was open. Every jaw in the room hit the floor. Zac quickly turned off the light and motioned for everyone to move near the window. Once they had all crept to the window Zac picked up a fallen curtain which he had noticed there before. Chantel picked up on the plan, and pulled a long, thick, rope out of the dark green bag she had been carrying with her. They all bunched up into a tight huddle. Zac began,
"Ok, we find out where Mason is then surrounded him with one of us holding the curtain." Everyone nodded. Zac continued. "Then someone will yell now and we all charge and cover Mason with the curtain, then Chantel comes over with the rope."
"Are you crazy?!" Joanne protested. "What happens if we miss?!"
"Then we're as good as dead." Isaac replied calmly.
The five children waited for what seemed like an hour, but really was only ten minutes, for Mason to make his next move. Finally he did, he was near a chair about eight metres away. They took their places. Mason seemed completely clueless of the plan. Zac waited for five seconds then shouted "NOW!" and they all charged.
The plan went perfectly. They had finally caught the famous Mason of Mason Mansion.
"Success and capture!" Zac exclaimed joyfully. "Now you'll pay for all the evil you've done."
"Oh I will, will I ?!" Came the voice from the curtain.
Isaac started kicking the curtain violently.
"Stop! Stop!" Chantel yelled in between suppressed giggles. "That's Taylor! I recognize the voice!"
"I know! So do I!" Isaac gave one last kick before letting Zac and Sandy untie the curtain from the boy. It was a hard task since they had already tied it up for a crazy murderer but once they did out rolled the blond haired, blue eyed, giggling boy.
Chantel helped him up. "Where did you go?" She asked now picking up the rope and putting it back in her bag.
"Just around." Taylor replied casually. "I fell down a hole near the wall and the next thing I knew I was outside again getting more soaked by the second. Oh!" Taylor remembered. "Have you guys seen... oh there you are Sandy."
"What?" Sandy asked confused.
"Well, when I was outside, I found you under a tree." Taylor replied.
"A tree!" Sandy exclaimed, who hadn't known, up 'till then, what had hit him. "I got hit by a tree!"
"Yeah," Taylor said, just as casually as before, "it was a big one too, but you were only hit with a branch. It seemed like you had been there a while but you were still alive so I dragged you back to the house. When I got in here, I found this place, hidden in the wall, so I went in there to see where it would take me."
"That must have been the secret passage way." Isaac thought out loud.
"Yeah that was what it was!" Taylor agreed. "Anyway, I picked you up off the ground because I didn't know if you were allergic to dust or not, by the way you're not a lightest person to carry around you know, then I found the library. When I got out of the library I found myself right where I had started, at the front door so I decided to take the long way, up the stairs. The stairs didn't stop until the top floor but once I finally got there, I found the bedroom stuck you in the bed and started a fire, it was pretty cold. I waited for a long time for you to wake up but you didn't so I started looking for things to do. I searched everywhere and only found a candle and a cigarette lighter. I picked them both up and stuck them in the side pocket of my coat just incase I wanted them later." Taylor stopped to catch his breath, he hadn't really stopped to breath up 'till then.
"I looked at a few of the things around the room, but they were boring, so I thought I'd check the wardrobe for something to do. I hadn't checked it before because I don't really like wardrobes, they give me the creeps. I saw this movie when I was little about these kids who went through a wardrobe and got attacked by witches and talked to this big lion guy and...."
"That was a book." Sandy interrupted.
"Oh like I'd really read the book!" Taylor laughed.
"So what happened after that?" Joanne asked.
"Well when I looked in the wardrobe, I thought I saw something at the back so I got in and all of a sudden I was falling down and down and down and I couldn't stop! I fell out of the wall and into a really dark room so I lighted the candle and put it down on one of the tables to look around. I did everything in that room I could, I played pool and I even tried reading for a while but I was soon bored of that, so I stepped out of the room for a second in search of other things to do. It was really, one second, and the door closed on me. I tried to get back in but the door was jammed and my candle was in there. After that it was kind of boring I just kind of wandered the basement looking for things to do. It took me forever to get out of there. Anyway when I finally got out, I heard a lot of noise coming from the library so I figured it was Chantel and Joanne and I thought I'd scare them so I snuck in. It really freaked me out when I heard Zac yell 'now' 'cause I had thought it was just the girls."
"Weren't you afraid that it was Mason in the library?" Zac asked.
"Mason?" Taylor gave Zac a questioning look. "Who's Mason?"
"You know the murderer who lived or lives in this house. The guy who kidnaped and murdered a girl named Kalien 15 years ago and killed a little boy named Henry Brookes a very long time ago. And has probably killed many others. The guy that makes this whole place so spooky."
Taylor's eyes practically popped out of his head. "You mean I've been wandering around this house all night with a crazed murderer!" Taylor turned to Chantel. "You didn't think it was important to tell me this when you invited me on this little treasure hunt." Chantel shrugged her shoulders.
"You mean you didn't know!" Isaac laughed.
"If I had known, I wouldn't be here!" Taylor yelled now frantically looking around the room.
"Let's get out of here!" Taylor yelled hopping up from where he was sitting and heading for the door. "The doors locked!" Taylor shrieked horrified.
"Calm down!" Isaac said getting to his feet and walking over to the door. "I shut it when we untied you from the curtain. If you just pull it hard, it will....it'll...it . . . will.." Isaac was now yanking at the nob with all his might trying to open the door. He turned around gloomily. "It's stuck."
"I guess we'll just have to use the secret passage way again." Sandy said turning for the hidden door.
"I'm not going in there again!" Isaac protested.
"Why what happened the first time." Taylor asked.
"I nearly died!" Isaac informed dramatically. "You can't make me go in there again!"
"Well we have no choice." Chantel pointed out heading for the door. "Let's go!" So they did, with Isaac whining all the way.