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“I can’t believe you let Planet talk us into exploring the woods,” Bacon grumped as he zipped up his backpack.
“Says the boyscout. Aren’t you supposed to love the woods?” Jaron countered, never one to pass up the opportunity to poke fun at his friend. “Besides, we’re not exploring the woods, we’re going through the woods to explore the old mansion.”
“That’s worse! You’ve heard the stories Planet’s dad tells about working there. They’re practically horror stories!” Bacon exclaimed.
“So you’re chickening out?” Jaron taunted as he shoved a camera in his backpack.
“Of course not,” Bacon denied, “I just don’t want to be eaten by the monster.”
“What are you, five? Everybody knows the monster was just a story the big kids made up to scare us, my dad said so,” Jaron said confidently.
Bacon didn’t look convinced, which confused Jaron. He of all people should know that what Jaron said was true, his dad was the detective that solved the Hemlocke Murder Case.
Was it a gruesome thing to tell a child? Yes, but Jaron was twelve, he wasn’t afraid of someone that was locked away. He determined that he would have to look after his friends since he was the only one who knew the truth. Besides, it was his duty to look after his friends since he was the older of the group.
—
Jaron shivered as he and Bacon waited for Planet at the edge of the forest. Despite being the one to suggest the adventure, he was taking the longest. To be fair, Bacon was spending the night at Jaron’s, so they snuck out together.
He checked the time, fishing his pocket watch out of his bag and holding it close to the lantern. It was nine fifteen, Planet was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago. He hoped Planet hadn’t been caught, it would take forever to plan another night to sneak out. Thankfully, the two only had to wait a few more minutes before they heard Planet approach.
“Planet!” Bacon and Jaron exclaimed as they excitedly greeted their friend.
“I was worried you got caught,” Jaron told him after they finished hugging.
“Yeah,” Bacon huffed, “You’re almost twenty minutes late!”
“I’m sorry,” Planet whined, “but my dads got out the bottle and I just had to know what was inside.”
“We already told you it was alcohol, dummy,” Bacon complained.
“I know, but I had to see for myself to be absolutely sure,” Planet explained. Jaron huffed out a laugh as Bacon argued back. Planet was somehow the most trusting and untrusting person at the same time. He would get in the car with a complete stranger but insisted he see something for himself before he would believe it was true.
Hence their current adventure. Planet had heard that the Hemlocke Mansion was haunted and wanted to check it out himself, much to Bacon’s dismay. Jaron didn’t see the issue, ghosts are just made up beings that adults tell little kids about to scare them on All Hallow’s Eve, his dad said so.
“But it looked like apple juice!” Planet cried, his raised voice bringing him back to the present.
Jaron knew he had to butt in quickly, or else they’d be here all night. “Shhh,” he hushed, despite there being no chance anyone would hear them. “You’re being loud. Besides, we need to get going before someone sees the light at the edge of the forest.” Another lie, he and Bacon had been careful to make sure that they hid behind a tree so that only someone coming out of the forest would be able to see them.
The two quieted, looking around with wide eyes to make sure they were alone.
“Let’s go,” Planet whispered once he was sure they were alone. They started to go deeper into the forest, staying close to the edge of the forest as they followed the road.
Fifteen minutes in, Bacon stopped and demanded Jaron check the time, almost thrusting the lantern in his face so he could see. It happened three more times before Jaron put his pocket watch back in his bag and refused to check the time until they reached the mansion.
Finally, they saw the gates of the mansion. The three climbed in the window of the gatekeeper’s booth before Jaron fished his pocket watch abc out and checked the time. It was ten thirty-seven, so they had about five hours to explore the mansion before they needed to head back.
The path leading up to the house was overgrown and the fountain had run dry. Bacon had to hold the lamp up high so they could watch their steps. The trio stopped in awe as they stared up at the mansion. It was taller than all of the houses in town. Heck, it could probably house the entire town and then some Jaron figured.
After a moment, the three began ascending the steps before suddenly stopping as they reached the top. The door was partially open, someone must have been there after the Hemlocke’s left. Planet slowly approached the door and pushed it open farther, freezing as the door made a loud creek.
When it became apparent Planet wasn’t going to enter, Jaron took the lantern from Bacon and cautiously approached the door. Several rats fled from the light and caught Jaron’s eye as he stepped through the doorway, Planet followed close behind him.
His eyes were drawn to the staircase. That was where the body was found. He was standing maybe twenty feet from where somebody had died.
“Whoah,” Planet breathed, taking a few steps forward, his previous fears forgotten. “It’s so cool!”
“Yeah,” Jaron agreed, suddenly eager to explore a new place. He turned to Bacon, who looked incredibly pale, “Are you coming?”
Bacon swallowed, hesitating, before slowly entering the mansion and looking around.
“Let’s go already,” Planet complained impatiently, looking ready to sprint through the halls.
“Alright, lead the way,” Jaron encouraged Planet, knowing that he was about five seconds away from sprinting away from them regardless if he had a light. Planet cheered and hurried towards the hallway to the right of the stairs. Bacon and Jaron quickly followed, Bacon staying close to Jaron’s side.
They quickly caught up to Planet once he remembered that he needed the lantern to see in the mansion. Together, they explored the rooms lining the hallways, even finding the servants’ shortcut to the kitchen. Everywhere was mostly bare and covered in cobwebs. The only things left were pretty basic and often broken.
Once they had explored the entire first floor, Planet eagerly led them upstairs to the second floor. The first door they opened was a bedroom, still mostly furnished but without any personal belongings.
Jaron helped Planet search through all the drawers while Bacon held the lantern, hesitant to touch anything. Like the first floor, most of them were empty, and the ones that held anything had nothing of value.
After the fifth room with nothing good in it Jaron was getting pretty bored and Bacon kept yawning. Even Planet was losing interest in searching the rooms until they stumbled upon an office.
Like the rest of the house, it was completely covered in dust, but unlike the other offices the shelves were still full. Most of the items that held value were long gone, but books like Wuthering Heights and A History of Hemlocke Manor were still there.
However, the real treasure was in the bottom drawer of the desk. Even Bacon, who had remained hesitant throughout the exploration, looked on with interest. The drawer contained several newspapers and three unlabeled books.The three gathered around the desk and Jaron wiped off the desk with his sleeve before putting the contents of the drawer on the desk. The newspapers were brushed aside in favor of the unlabeled books.
Jaron carefully picked up one of the books, a well-used red leather journal with a few stains on the cover. The first page read ‘Muu’s Journal’ at the top and had ‘MKH’ in fancy lettering in the center of the page. He slowly flipped through the journal, careful not to rip any pages. The journal entries dated from June of 1930 to May of 1932, stopping a few months before the Hemlock Case began.
The second book was a blue leather bound journal filled with pictures of the Hemlockes, the same woman included in a majority of them. Bacon pointed out that several of the pages were wrinkled with wet splotches, like someone had cried while looking at the pictures.
The third book was the thickest. It was a black journal with cardboard backing and thicker pages, unlike the other two. Upon opening the book, Jaron was stunned at the contents. It was a hand-written and illustrated copy of The Glass Menagerie. The right pages held a neat cursive that was consistent throughout the book, while the left pages contained scenes that this ‘Muu’ imagined while reading.
Jaron was amazed by the talent displayed in the book. It was nothing like the sharp, dark lines that filled the art in his house. At the start of the book, the art was drawn with light pencil strokes and carefully shaded. As he kept turning pages, the lines got slightly darker and the slightest bit more angular, until it was clear that the artist had quit working on the book for a period of time about half-way through. When the artist had begun illustrating agin, the light strokes had returned, but the pictures were clearer.
Once they were done flipping through the books, Jaron carefully put them in his backpack to examine better later. They continued searching the rooms, offices, and closets, finding nothing. When they stumbled upon the stairs to the attic, Bacon refused to climb them, insisting they find something better to do than search the empty rooms. Equally, if not more frustrated with the lack of interesting things, Planet agreed, and the trio exited the mansion through the servants’ door.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to leave,” Bacon announced, yawning immediately after.
“Me too,” agreed Jaron, feeling just as tired as Bacon looked.
“Aww, but I still wanna explore the outside,” Planed frowned, somehow still having energy after looking around the mansion for hours.
“No, I want to leave,” Bacon snapped, “We’ve been here for hours and all we found were three books. And you haven’t even been trying to see if the mansion is haunted, which was why we came here in the first place.”
Oh. Jaron had completely forgotten that they had come because Planet had heard it was haunted.
“It’s not haunted silly,” Planet laughed, “I just needed a reason for you to come.”
Bacon’s jaw dropped open, in shock of rage, Jaron didn’t know, probably a mixture of both.
“Planet,” Bacon started, handing the lantern and his backpack to Jaron.
“Yes,” Planet replied, dragging out the ‘e’.
“I’m going to kill you,” he said, before sprinting at Planet, who shrieked and ran as fast as he could.
Jaron stood still as Planet and Bacon ran circles around him until Bacon wan out of breath and Planet took advantage of the break to hide behind Jaron.
“Alright, time to go,” Jaron decided, “Let’s start heading back.” He turned and started walking towards the side of the house.
“Ha, this is why Jaron’s my favorite,” Bacon taunted, following him.
“Meanie,” Planet pouted, but moved to follow them without protest.
They were quiet on their way out, all tired from spending most of the night awake and running around the mansion. As they made their way around the building, they passed a statue surrounded by overgrown rose bushes. The statute depicted an angel sitting next to a cat. Something about it made Jaron pause. The angel's posture was sad, but the face held a small smile.
As Jaron lifted the lantern to get a better look, something on the base caught his eye. There was a word clumsily scratched into the stone.
‘Ivory’
Not a word, a name.