Secret of McKinley Mansion by K.F. Breene

Author:K.F. Breene [Breene, K.F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

Braiden and I both reacted, though very differently—I took a few quick steps in Odis’s direction, and Braiden tugged me back.

“Ella,” he said in warning.

Scarlet stalled ten feet away and hunched, clearly guilty that she’d been about to sprint off with the others—and excited and scared and, most of all, desperate to sate her curiosity after hearing stories about this place all her life. I knew exactly how she felt. The house had a strange sort of draw. It pulled in a way that was hard to communicate. I often wondered if people in the town honestly didn’t believe in the paranormal, or if they just couldn’t seem to escape the pull of the house, and therefore ignored the strange happenings to keep some sort of sanity. When you were trapped, you tended to make the best of it.

Here, right beside it, that pull intensified until it was almost a suction, dragging us closer.

“Right,” I said, stilling. “We should take a moment and think this through.”

“Are you guys coming?” Odis called.

Braiden glanced at the sky. “Nothing has changed since we’ve been standing here. If we leave now, maybe nothing else will change. Maybe they’ll just check out a haunted old house and head back to school on Monday with stories of what they found.”

“And how cowardly you were,” Scarlet said. She put up her hands. “That should be mentioned. Otherwise it’ll be a surprise when everyone laughs at you, and you’ll vehemently blame Ella. I’ve seen it before.”

“That’s probably true,” I muttered. “There have been a few examples.”

“Let’s go,” Odis called. “They aren’t going to wait forever.”

“A man is never cowardly for leaving his friends to go spend time with a woman. Especially a woman as beautiful as you.” Braiden squeezed my hand.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Scarlet said. “Her black cloud of weird eclipses her appearance, trust me. Now, if you went away with Buffy—”

“Scarlet, don’t help,” I cut in.

“Right. Sorry. I’m hungry.” She rubbed her stomach. “It affects my communication filter.”

“I think Braiden knows that by now,” I said dryly.

“So what do we do?” Braiden asked.

I shifted from side to side, thinking. Feeling the pull of the house. The electricity in the air.

“We really should go home,” I said.

“We should.” Scarlet bit her lip.

“The push and pull in the air is getting more extreme,” I said.

“The push and pull is getting more extreme, yes,” Scarlet agreed. “I feel it, too.”

“It is only a matter of time before something bad happens,” I said. “Or we see something we really wish we hadn’t.”

“Or the Old Woman steps out of her house and sees you right at her doorstep, easy for the taking.” Scarlet crossed her arms.

“On the other hand, we don’t actually have to go in.”

“We could take a look without actually crossing the threshold.” Scarlet nodded.

Braiden shifted, and I could just make out a smile at our antics.

“It’s still relatively early as far as the Old Woman is concerned,” I said. “And there isn’t that much electricity in the air…”

“We still have a while,” Scarlet confirmed.

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