Chapter 09

The minute I got off the bus, I ran and chased Lincoln. Upon my arrival, he vanished. He was not there and I was not able to find him or any trace of his existence. He just magically disappeared out of thin air like a bubble.

Did he just teleport himself out to escape?

Not only was it just to think about as a blink of an eye, but I'm certain it was Lincoln!

First, he took Ricky's key that he found in the woods; second, he jumped into the well from the garden; and now this?

Jeez, I no longer know what to think!

I don't know what Lincoln was planning to do, or was it just a coincidence that my classmates were really telling the truth?

The truth of that whole damn crazy thing about the Manor.

Lincoln for sure, is mysterious. Day after day, my suspicions about him grew even greater than on previous days of life with him.

From the day we moved here to Meverly, I had a bad omen of things ahead, and I almost didn't want to trust my instincts.

Lincoln is the only housekeeper who has lived in the manor for more than a decade. Therefore, he certainly knows the whole story.

And he is the only one who can answer all my questions and about his inexplicability. My gut tells me to find him, but I have no single idea how.

From the time I was little, I realized I was different. Something was eating me away. I felt that I was disconnected from reality, although my life seemed quite normal - other than knowing that I was an adopted child, ironically speaking.

I was all wet in the rain and did not manage to fulfill my expectations. Even though the rain hit me, I decided to walk home because it wasn't that far away for a walk.

When I arrived at the house, I saw Mom coming out of the laundry with a basket full of clean clothes.

The water was running all over my body as I was about to enter the house, but Mother saw me. And she drew near unto me from afar, and laid her hand before me.

Mother looked at me from head to toe with total confusion as I bathed in the rain.

I was standing on a thick dark violet carpet. I could feel the soft threads of the fabric, tickling my two bare feet after taking off my class shoes.

"What were you thinking, Carter?" Mother scolded me, of course for the stupidity I had made.

"I told you always to carry an umbrella in case it rains! Do you want to fall ill?"

She threw me a clean towel and took some of the clothes from the basket for me to wear.

"Here. Wipe your body and get dressed at once."

"Sorry." I smiled terribly with a bit of guilt, made an inept attempt to apologize.

I wrapped my wet uniform like a ball, shot them in the laundry basket separated from dirty clothes, and I coiled myself up with the towel that mom gave me.

I went up to my room to change, but Sandra and Ricky wouldn't let me through.

"What?" I asked, lifting up an eyebrow.

"Ah, Hello!? You left me and Ricky back on the bus." Sandra put both her hands on her waist as Ricky crossed her arms and they glared at me.

You should never have left us in the bus. Don't just keep your issues to yourself and keep them hidden," she said.

"What? I already told you that I saw Lincoln behind those trees. How is this supposed to be a secret?"

"I mean, if anything bugs you, you can just tell me or Ricky about it?" Sandra genuinely offered her suggestion.

"I know you well, Carter," Sandra approached me and hit my two cheeks with her warm hands. My eyes widened as she did this, and she put my face over hers, intensely staring into each other's eyes.

She didn't even care about the mixture of sweat and rainwater flowing from my hair on the sides of my face till it was on her hands.

"Even if you are not a relative of ours, you are still our brother. Remember that." Sandra ruined my curly orange hair and then crushed my face like clay paste.

Awww! My heart was moved by her closing remarks. Even though my sister often thinks like a child, some of her words still mean something!

I don't know why, but I felt my cheeks red while Ricky was watching us with malice.

It took us a few minutes, then I averted my gaze and pushed back her hands that were still attached to my cheek.

I pushed the two apart to pass through them and turned the doorknob to enter my room.

"Okay, Alright. I'm sorry I've been sloppy without taking your feelings into consideration. I was just..."

"Just what?" Ricky went on to say.

I took a breath, plopped on my bed and began to explain.

"Lincoln seemed so weird after he had the key and then disappeared all of a sudden." I clarified my inner thoughts.

"Other than that, some of my classmates seem to know that we live in this Manor. Oddly strange, like stalkers!" I explained as soon as I got dressed.

I got up, turned my body and leaned over the window and looked over the sky, trying to recall the conversations I had in class.

"And these rumors about Mom's great-great-grandmother and the kids who disappeared from this house, what if they were all true?"

"You're not the only one who's bothered, you know?" said Sandra.

"I wonder what's in the frightful old pit? It's really giving me the chills." As Ricky implied.

"You mean the wellhouse?" I asked.

"Yeah, and the loud sound of the bell, It was truly unsettling." Sandra nodded and agreed.

"I wonder why mom didn't wake up with the sound?" asked Ricky oddly.

"The same question I have in mind," I said I faced them backwards.

"We saw this blue light, didn't we?" Sandra said.

"Yes, but whatever is in that well is not safe," as I pointed out the garden through the window.

"That's why it is locked in the first place." I asserted my demands.

"How can you be so sure it's dangerous?" Ricky doubted.

"I'm not. We shouldn't be screwing around." I got up.

"Ugh, Forget it! Let's stay out of this and let Lincoln do his thing." I responded with arrogance by going out and separating them.

"Aww, that wouldn't be fun." Ricky pouted.

"I agree. But you know, we're not going to be satisfied if we're only here thinking and presupposing infinite possibilities." Sandra thought for a moment.

I stopped walking, then turned my body again to face them.

"So what are you trying to suggest?" I said.

"The unknown waits for us and calls us, so let us dive into the depths of the mystery, revealing the secrets that lie beyond our eyes, I reckon." she answered in a sinister and poetic tone.

"Now that's what I call fun! We're on a mission! Yipee!" said Ricky with a cheerful voice. He leaped hysterically, and his enthusiasm soared higher than I expected.