I felt a chill at the back of my neck. I didn’t like Carter making jokes about this. I could see he wasn’t going to take it seriously.
“Let’s take a walk all around the mansion. We need to find the best escape route,” I said, thinking about the shadow that had turned into the black cat.
Carter laughed again. I wanted to push my hand over his grinning mouth. “Riley is already planning to run away,” he said.
Scarlet and Danitia thought that was funny. Cheng slapped me on the back. “You lead the way, boss,” he said. He calls everyone boss. I don’t really know what he means by it.
I started to walk along the back wall of the house. The dark shingles were cracked and broken. I tripped over a small rock hidden by the tall weeds that filled the yard.
We passed some low windows at the side of the house. They were so caked with dust, I couldn’t see inside.
What is in there? I wondered. What is in there waiting for us?
I stopped to gaze up at the attic windows high above, and the others got ahead of me.
“Hey, wait up,” I called.
Danitia and Scarlet were yakking away, the way they always do, and didn’t hear me.
Moving away from the dark wall, I began to walk toward the front of the giant mansion. I stepped into a bright pool of sunlight. I raised a hand to shield my eyes from the glare.
I stopped and glanced down at my long shadow spreading across the weeds.
Whoa. Wait.
I’d stopped walking—but my shadow hadn’t!
My mouth dropped open and I gasped for air. I watched my shadow stretch across the weeds. It grew longer … longer … even though I was frozen in place.
My shadow was moving without me!
“Hey—” I tried to call to the others. But they had turned the corner. “Hey!” My voice came out in a choked whisper.
The sun beamed down hot on the top of my head. I shielded my eyes with both hands—and watched my shadow stretch and roll in front of me. And as I stared at it, it changed shape.
It formed a fat, ugly lizard. A lizard with an enormous head. I saw the shadow of a flickering tongue. The monstrous head darted from side to side.
It wasn’t my shadow anymore!
“Hey, everyone—stop!” I finally found my voice. “Stop!” I screamed. “Hey—look! My shadow! Hurry! Come back! My shadow!”
As I motioned frantically, they came running around the side of the house. “Riley—what’s wrong?” Scarlet called.
“My … my shadow!” I stammered, pointing at the ground.
Scarlet and Danitia were wide-eyed as they ran. Carter and Cheng trotted behind them. The sky darkened suddenly. The sun faded behind a broad, gray cloud—and my shadow disappeared with it.
“What’s the problem?” Cheng asked. “Are you okay?”
“I—I—” I sputtered. “My shadow—it moved. It was a lizard monster!”
Carter grinned. “Hey. I can do shadow animals, too. Do you know how to make a duck?” He put his hands together and went, “Quack quack.”
The cloud passed and the sunlight washed over us again. Carter’s shadow duck slid over the weeds. My shadow was back to normal. I stared hard at it, waiting for it to move … to stretch again. But no. It was just my shadow, rippling a little as the weeds shifted in the breeze.
“Riley, what’s up with you?” Danitia asked. “If you want to scare us, you’ll have to come up with something better than that.”
“I … I’m not trying to scare you,” I stammered. “My shadow moved without me, and—and—”
Scarlet was squinting hard at me. “Riley, how come all the rest of us didn’t have a shadow problem? Why does something weird happen to you every time we walk near the mansion? But nothing happens to me or to anyone else? Why are you the only one who sees these things?”
“Maybe because he’s crazy?” Carter suggested. He put his hands together to make another duck shadow and shoved his hands right up to my face. “Quaaaack quaaaack.” His fingers pinched my nose.
Everyone thought that was a riot.
I didn’t have an answer to my sister’s questions. Why was I the only one to see these things? Maybe because I was the only one who played the Shudder Mansion game? Maybe that had something to do with it.
“Let’s see if we can go inside,” Danitia said, tugging Scarlet’s arm. “Come on. Maybe the door isn’t locked. Come on, guys. Let’s check it out.”
That’s so like Danitia. Never likes to wait for anything.
I took a deep breath and followed them around the side of the house to the front. “Why would the door be locked?” Cheng said. “No one has lived here for a hundred years, right?”
“We’ll soon find out,” Danitia said.
Scarlet glanced back at me. She knew I wasn’t ready to go into the mansion. As we approached the front stairs, I was the only one who was truly scared.
I kept checking my shadow as we walked. Would it start to change shape again?
The sun kept going in and out of the clouds. It made shadows play over the wide concrete steps that led up to the front doors. The double doors were tall and wide, the paint peeling and faded. The round, metal doorknobs were covered in a thick layer of rust.
I wished the doors had windows so I could look inside. But they were solid.
Danitia ran up the steps first. She raised her fist and pounded hard on a door.
“Are you crazy? Why did you knock?” Cheng demanded, hanging back on the top step.
Danitia grinned. “Just being polite.”
I screamed as someone on the other side of the door knocked back.
“I knew it was haunted!” I cried.
Scarlet grabbed my arm. “Riley, what is your problem?”
“S-someone knocked—” I stammered.
She pointed to a tree hanging over the front of the house. A long branch tapped against the stone wall, swaying in the wind. Knock knock knock.
“Watch out! That tree is going to attack!” Carter cried.
Everyone laughed.
“It wasn’t a tree branch,” I insisted. “It came from the other side of the door.” But I wasn’t so sure. Maybe they were right about the branch. I looked up and watched it tap the wall.
Danitia wrapped her hand around a doorknob. I moved back. Toward the steps. I glanced to the street, ready to run.
This is a big mistake.
She twisted the knob. “Ouch. It’s all rusty.” She wiped her hand on the leg of her jeans. Then she grabbed the door again. And pushed.
The door didn’t budge.
“It’s stuck shut,” Danitia said.
“Let’s go,” I said. “We’re not supposed to be here.”
Scarlet stepped up beside Danitia and tried the other door. They both groaned as they pushed as hard as they could.
“I don’t think they’re locked,” Scarlet said. “I think they’re just jammed.”
“Maybe we should listen to Riley,” Cheng said softly. “Maybe we should leave. It’s getting late.”
He was right. The afternoon sun was dipping low behind the trees. A blanket of shadows stretched across the front yard.
Carter turned to me. “You play the Shudder Mansion game all the time?”
I nodded.
“Well, when you play the game, how do you get through the front doors?”
“It’s easy,” I said. “You just slide right through them.”
“Well, we can’t slide through these,” Carter said. “What’s on the other side of the door, anyway?”
I pictured the opening scene of the game. “It’s a wide, round, empty entryway,” I said. “Very bare. Very high ceilings. It’s like a big circle, and there are a lot of doors all around.”
“And the doors lead to the rooms?” Carter asked.
I nodded. “The doors are all shut. They all have dangerous things behind them. All kinds of evil spirits and monsters and frightening creatures. You have to choose a door. Then you have to battle whatever is behind it
.”
Danitia was still twisting the doorknob. “That’s no help,” she said.
“Yeah, that’s only a game,” my sister agreed. “It’s not going to help us at all.”
“Let me try,” Carter said. He shoved Danitia out of the way. “Boys are stronger than girls.”
Danitia and Scarlet rolled their eyes. Carter lowered himself to one of the doorknobs. He wrapped both hands around it, took a deep breath, let out the breath with a groan—and heaved himself forward, pushing with all his strength.
Nothing moved. He tried to jerk the door back and forth, but his hands slid off the knob and he stumbled backward. I caught him before he toppled down the concrete steps.
“Thanks, Riley.” He rubbed the rust off his hands on the front of my shirt. “We need to talk to Mrs. Blume,” he said. “We need someone to come here and—”
Before Carter could finish his sentence, a loud, angry shout rang out. “Hey, what are you kids doing up there?” Someone stood at the street, half hidden in the shadow of the trees.
Was it a police officer?
Scarlet and Danitia leaped off the steps and took off running. Carter and Cheng followed, scrambling to the ground, then zigzagging through the trees.
No one said a word or made a sound. They just ran off silently, in all directions, heads lowered, backpacks bouncing on their backs.
Why did I linger in a corner of the front stoop? I had an idea. I hunched against the wall and stood perfectly still until the man in the street moved on.
I waited awhile to make sure he was gone. Then I slid my phone out of my jeans pocket.
My idea was to take some photos of the front and back of the mansion. I knew that if we survived our night in Shudder Mansion, we would have to make a report to Mrs. Blume. So I thought it would be a good idea to start out with photos of the house before we entered it.
I’ll start a blog, I decided. I’ll add some photos to it every day.
I’ll try to tell the whole story of our Shudder Mansion adventure with photos.
I know what you’re thinking. I was the one who wanted to get away from the old house as fast as I could. But now that I knew we weren’t going inside … Now that I knew we couldn’t get inside, I felt much braver.
It’s a good idea, I thought. I’ll stay and take some early photos to use for our report. After all, I’m the expert on Shudder Mansion. I’m the one who plays the game and knows the stories. I’ll probably be the one in our group in charge of the report to Mrs. Blume.
I climbed off the stoop, backed up a bit, and took a few shots of the front windows. I bent down low and took a dramatic shot of the front steps, looking up to the double doors.
I turned and snapped a photo of the tall stone tower at the left side of the mansion. Then I backed up, took a few more photos of the front, looking through the trees.
Later, I’ll shoot some videos for the blog, I decided. But for now, photos would do.
I was concentrating hard on my phone. I had it raised up to my face, studying the angles that I wanted to show of the front of the house … then …
“Aaaaaiiii!” I uttered a scream as a stabbing pain rocked my head and shot down my whole body.
Someone hit me.
Attacked! I’ve been attacked!
Someone smashed my head.
I sank to my knees. The pain forced me to shut my eyes.
I waited for it to fade, but my head felt as if it might explode.
When I finally opened my eyes, I saw the thick tree branch above me. I realized I had walked right into it.
Not an attack. Not someone. Just a stupid tree branch.
I waited a while longer, taking long, deep breaths. Slowly, the pain stopped throbbing. The dizziness faded. I climbed back up to my feet.
I was gripping my phone so hard, my hand ached. I took a few more breaths and, still feeling shaky, gazed at the house.
One more shot. I wanted to do a close-up of the door and the two doorknobs.
The afternoon sun was low behind the tangle of trees now. Gray evening light washed over the house. The wind turned cooler, and my forehead still throbbed as I climbed back onto the stoop.
I stepped up to the front doors, my phone raised in front of me.
I was so focused on the shot, it took me a long while to see that the doors were open!
“Huh?” I cried out, and the phone nearly slipped from my hand. I jammed it into my jeans pocket and stared at the opening between the doors.
They were both just open a crack. I could see only a curtain of darkness behind them. I stared hard, my heart suddenly pounding in my chest.
When did the doors open?
Should I take a look inside?
A cold wind swirled around me, holding me in place. But it wasn’t the wind that sent chills down my back. It was the sight of those open doors.
Had Scarlet and Danitia pulled them open without realizing it? Did Carter’s big heave force them open?
Or were they opened by someone—or something—inside the creepy old mansion?
A cold feeling swept down my whole body.
I had no choice. After all the games I’d played, I had to slip through the doors and enter the old house. I had to look inside.
Was I scared? Three guesses. I told myself I’d just take a quick peek.
I reached out and grabbed the door on the right. Solid wood. Solid. This wasn’t a game. This was the real Shudder Mansion, and here I was, pulling the heavy door, listening to it squeak and groan as I tugged it open.
I slipped inside—and uttered a startled gasp.
I blinked several times in disbelief. The entryway was exactly the same as in the video game.
I stood on the edge of a tall, round room. Gray walls all around. Black tile floor. A crystal chandelier hanging from the high ceiling.
And, just as in the game, narrow doorways were cut into the round gray walls. Closed doorways. I counted eight of them.
I was still blinking. I guess I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I’d never been in this house, but it didn’t feel that way. The real Shudder Mansion appeared just as it did in the game.
What was behind the doors? The same evil monsters as in the game?
I punched my fist against the cold stone wall. Solid. It was real. This definitely wasn’t a game.
We can’t spend a night in this place, I thought.
It’s just too dangerous.
Maybe Mrs. Blume will let us spend a night at the zoo instead.
My eyes gazed at the circle of doors. Now that I was in the mansion, I couldn’t decide what to do. One part of me wanted to turn and run back outside as fast as I could.
The other part of me wanted to do just a tiny bit of exploring.
I’ll just look behind one door, I decided.
I picked one that was closest to me and turned the rusted doorknob. The door creaked but slid open easily.
I peered into a large, empty room. It might have been a living room at some time. Strange. I didn’t remember seeing this room in the game. I took a careful step inside.
Tall windows across the room were caked with thick dust. But dull orange afternoon sunlight managed to push through. It formed a puddle of soft light on the bare wooden floor.
The air smelled musty and sour. The sunlight washed over a tangle of cobwebs on the wall to my right. They were like a thick curtain, stretching from floor to ceiling.
I took a step closer and saw hundreds of dead flies trapped in the ancient wall of webs. I squinted in disbelief—and saw a tiny skeleton caught in the thick gray strands. The skeleton of a mouse. It must have caught itself in the web and died there.
A shiver ran down my back. I turned away from the ugly cobweb curtain.
I found myself gazing at a large square mirror on the wall. The mirror rose over a stone fireplace that was heaped with ashes. The ashes were nearly as tall as me. Chunks of wood were broken off the mantel above the fireplace.
I moved toward the mirro
r. Like the windows, it was caked with dust. I squinted, trying to see myself—and gasped when I saw something move.
Something in the mirror. Someone moving behind me.
Holding my breath, I inched closer. And stared at the figure reflected in the mirror.
“Hey—!” I choked out. “Mia? What are you doing here?”
She didn’t answer.
Her blond hair fluttered around her pale face, as if she were standing in a soft breeze. She wore the same white top and pale blue skirt as the day before.
I stared at her reflection. “Mia?”
I spun around to face her.
“Huh?”
She wasn’t there.
“Mia?”
I started to breathe hard. My chest suddenly felt tight. I turned back to the mirror.
And there she was. Her dark eyes gazed out at me. She raised a hand to smooth down one side of her straight blond hair.
A tense laugh escaped my throat. “Are you playing a trick on me? How are you doing this?”
She smiled.
I spun around again to face her.
The room was empty. She wasn’t there.
“Mia?” My voice came out in a hoarse croak.
I spun to the mirror. There was her reflection in the glass. I turned back to the room. No sign of her.
It had to be some kind of a trick. A simple trick. So why was my whole body tight with fright? Why was I gasping for breath?
I peered into the mirror. I gasped again as Mia gave me a smile and a wave. Then she turned and walked out of view.
“Mia? Mia? Are you here?” I managed to choke out.
But the room was empty. And now the mirror reflected only my bewildered face and the empty room and the darkening sunlight.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” I said out loud. “I have to tell the others we can’t stay here. We have to find another adventure. This place will give us nightmares for the rest of our lives.”
I slipped through the open doorway, pulled the door shut behind me—and stopped. Hey! What’s going on?
I expected to find myself back in the round front entryway with the circle of doors.
But I peered down a dark, narrow hallway. I took a few steps. My shoes slid on the dust, as thick as a carpet, that covered the floor. The hall stretched for a mile, with dark rooms on both sides all the way down.