Everyone knew about the Cross Mansion. How it was said it was haunted. It did resemble Disney’s haunted mansion, but it was cleaner. The water was a pretty blue, the house freshly painted. But no one knew who did it. No one was ever seen coming or going. Except for an anonymous van that would stay for ten minutes every other day just an hour before dark. Kristen looked at the mansion from her spot behind a tree. She was crazy! She shouldn’t be doing this, but here she was. She looked behind her at the group of people who were waiting for her to go inside. They urged her to go and she rolled her eyes. She then stealthily took off for the mansion. She only had a few minutes to go in and grab what she needed: Proof. That she’d been inside.
Kristen was starting to regret sticking up for the new kid and landing herself in this spot. Bullies were overrated. Kristen watched from behind a bush as the van pulled up to the mansion. As the delivery person and a butler-he looked like-talked Kirsten took her chance and into the house she ran when they weren’t looking. She was amazed at the architecture of the foyer and almost forgot why she was here. She wondered what she could grab to show she was inside. Maybe take a few pictures with her phone?

Kristen knew she didn’t have much time so dashed to the right, through oak doors and into a massive library. What she wouldn’t give to spend time reading every book. There was an upper level with more books that one could access if they climbed a spiral staircase at the beginning middle of end of the wall full of books. At the end of the room was an area that housed a piano and had three glass walls and ceiling. A desk was to Kristen’s right was old looking papers on it. A small statue that stopped at the shoulders sat on a corner. Greek and roman style statues were placed around the room along with portraits and a few taxidermy pieces. A book would do, Kristen decided. She moved to grab a book from a random spot but then something possessed her to go up the staircase to the upper level and grab the book that had a faded yellow spine. It was like she was hypnotized. It seemed she couldn’t control her own body, yet she did. The black spiral staircase she climbed was silent under her feet. She was up on the second level in no time at all and she could distantly hear the voices of the delivery man and the butler outside in the foyer. Just beyond the large pair of French doors she had hid behind. She only had a few more minutes before the van would leave and she would be even more at risk to be caught sneaking into the mansion in place of a bullied new kid in town.

Finally Kristen stood in front of the faded yellow spine. She reached out to grab it but the library door opened and she whipped her head around to see who it was and accidentally grabbed the wrong book. Suddenly she was spun around and that was when Kristen realized she was in a secret corridor. It was pitch black and she moved to get her phone but when she patted her pocket she realized it wasn’t there. Great! First she was almost caught, then she accidentally found a secret corridor and now her phone was missing. And it wasn’t on silent. Someone could hear it, find it and find out who she was because her picture was the wallpaper. Kristen reached out her hand and cautiously slid her foot out in front of her. After on step her hands came in contact with a stone wall. She felt around some more and realized her choices: Go left…or right….right…

She touched her hands to the wall and kept sliding her feet forward trying to keep her pounding heart from bursting out of her chest. She didn’t do well in dark places. Her mind tended to overreact.

Come…Kristen stopped as she heard the voice. It was so appealing. It sounded so safe. It sounded like a way out of the dark corridor. After another moment she began to walk again. Come to me…Kristen now could see dark shapes as the corridor lightened to the next level above pitch black. She was at a fork with more choices: Corridor One…Corridor Two…or Corridor Three? Two…Come to me little flower.

Kristen followed the voice into the middle corridor and could now hear it even more. Come…Come to me…let me guide you…let me bite you…Did she hear that last part correctly? Had it said to let it bite her? Kristen stopped when her hands came into contact with wood. A door? Yes, a light came through a skeleton key hole. She bent down to put her eye to it and saw a way out of the corridor. She moved to open the door but it opened for her and she was blasted with warm air that surrounded her like a caress. She saw things through a haze when she opened her eyes and felt as if she was as light as air. She glided forward into a luscious bedroom in shades of gold and red that flickered in the candle light. There was a dark figure standing in front of the bed in black clothes. The unbuttoned shirt showed a sculpted chest and the figure’s face was so handsome. It was a He. His face was so handsome. He smiled slowly and his voice surrounded her. Come to me…you are safe…yes, Kristen thought as she moved closer to him. She was safe with him.




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Victor stood in the library wondering where the girl had gone. He had seen her come in as he had turned to walk down the staircase in the foyer and after a minute of being stunned had followed her. Now she was gone but she had left her scent behind. He followed it up the middle spiral stairs and as his head came to floor level he noticed something pink that stood out against the Persian carpet. He approached it and saw it was a phone. Something that humans used in this day and age to talk to others over long distances instead of using stationary. He looked up and noticed how the brown spine next to the yellowed one of a first edition Shakespeare play was moved. She had disappeared into the corridor to his siblings’ rooms. Come to me…you are safe…No Bastien! Victor knew his brother couldn’t control his hunger and was now luring this girl to his room to be breakfast.
He had to get to her.




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Kristen let him wrap his arms around her. He was so warm and comforting. He turned her around so her back was to his chest. He swept the braid off her neck and soon her red hair tumbled loose around her shoulders.

“What is your name?” He asked as his hands came to rest on her upper arms and his head nestled her neck.

“Kristen.” Kristen sighed and titled her head to the side.

“Mm…Such a beautiful name for such a beautiful girl.” He said smoothly. “I am Bastien.” After a moment Kristen opened her eyes when Bastien’s gentle touch on her arm turned to his nails digging into her tender flesh. She would’ve told him he was hurting her but she saw herself in a large mirror. Her eyes widened as she saw his red glowing eyes. She gasped when she saw long fangs extend form his mouth and scrape against her neck.

“No!” Her scream was echoed when someone burst through the doors she had entered through and tackled Bastien to the ground. Bastien hissed and flashed fang at the other boy who looked about Kristen’s age. Without the foggy haze in her head Kristen saw things clearly. Bastien looked about eighteen and so much larger than the boy holding him down who was also hissing and flashing a pair of lethal fangs at him. The boy turned to her.

“Run!” He shouted. “Never come back!” Kristen took a step back. “Go! I can’t hold him for long!” Kristen turned and ran into a well-lit corridor…at least until she reached the three tunnels she had passed earlier. Now everything was dark again. From memory Kirsten knew she had gone straight so took the same tunnel blindly making her way down the path. There was a roar behind her and a loud crash. Her heart jumped into her throat as she tried to run but something grabbed her. She screamed again. “It’s okay. I’m getting you out of here.” It was the boy. He had lifted her into his arms and she clung to his neck for dear life. He ran so fast the air whipped past them and before Kristen knew it she was in the library again. The boy at her side took her hand and handed her her phone. “I trust you know your way out?” Kristen nodded shocked.

“Thank you.” He nodded.

“Now go!” Something bashed against the bookcase strong enough to make the books shudder. “Never come back! Go!” Kristen ran for the nearest set of stairs and ran out of the library. Into the foyer and out the front doors. She ran into the woods and past the kids who had made sure she had gone in. When they saw her run they shouted after her. But she didn’t stop. She had to get away from that place and the…that lived in it. Kristen stopped. What was she running from? For? Why? The other kids caught up to her bending over trying to catch their breath.

“Dang!” The leader said. “You run fast. Did you get proof?” Kristen looked at her hands and realized she had a book. A first edition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. She looked back in the direction of the mansion puzzled. How had she gotten the book?





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“You do realize this is for the best Victor?” Frena said beside him at the window as they watched the girl disappear.

“Yes, but…” Victor held the girl’s hair tie in his hand near his face. It smelled so nice and rich. Of her.

“I know. But if she remembered we’d be in trouble.” Victor sighed as his sister began to walk away. Her black hair like his own flowing down her back in small waves.

“I know.” Victor sighed. “What will happen to Bastien?”

“Mother and Father will decide that…they say he almost killed her.”

“Almost. I got to her in time.”

“Let her go, Victor. She can’t know about us. It’s for your own good.” Frena left the room and left Victor to stare out the window and the darkening world outside.

“For my good or yours?” He asked the silent room. How was he going to forget her? Simple: He wouldn’t.