D.S. Newman
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Isekai Mansion Arc 2 Part 3-3
🕑 Added 2023-08-31 13:28:22 +0000 UTCThe next day, the air conditioner was replaced, and we could finally enjoy a cool house again. Emily had started reading my father’s journal herself so she could more accurately help me plan against the Seven Devils. I checked from time to time just in case, but the stones hadn’t changed. There were the three green ones that my dad had taken care of. My green one from defeating Washington in Bristol. The two slow flashing red ones from Murk and Callist. And the seventh slow flashing one that Higgins told me was the least of my concern for the time being.
Other than some idle chatter occasionally about which Devil I’d go after next, we spent our days just enjoying each other's company. Anabel started taking driving lessons with Higgins and Stephanie. Arduwan participated in sports with me. We played badminton, horseshoes, darts, and Olympic style wrestling. Emily mostly just read and played the occasional board game.
One night, a huge thunderstorm hit. We were all just hanging out in the drawing room. Anabel and Stephanie were playing a game of checkers while Emily read and the rest of us were watching TV, when suddenly the power went out.
“Dammit, just days after fixing the AC and this happens,” I said.
Anabel lit some candles while Emily got some flashlights.
“Not to worry, Master Noble. I believe the entire street is out,” Higgins noted.
“So, what do we do now?” Arduwan asked, having started to become accustomed to modern conveniences.
“Well, me and my mom always told stories when the power went out,” I suggested.
“Good idea, Eric,” Emily said, “I’ve got the perfect story to tell.”
Anabel sat down on the couch next to Arduwan after lighting the candles.
Lightning crashed and lit the room momentarily. Emily held the flashlight up to her face and said, “it happened, in a house just like this one. It was a dark and stormy night.”
“If it happened in Murk, that’s every night,” I joked as I turned to Stephanie and laughed with her.
Emily continued, “the owner of the house was a young lord. He spent his days isolated from the outside world. But at times he felt like he wasn’t alone in the house. Occasionally, he would hear what sounded like a voice calling, ‘put them back in, put them back in’. He of course knew the tale of the previous owner. A man who, just like him, also lived alone. The man was so lonely living there in that big house all by himself, that one day, he took a gun, and shot himself. His brains oozed all over the wall.”
Anabel and Arduwan started looking visibly uncomfortable. The wind outside howled, and thunder kept blasting, followed by flashes of lightning.
“The young lord was having trouble sleeping this particular night and was wandering the empty halls of his lonely house. When he came into the kitchen, he saw something on the wall he had never noticed before. It was a gelatin-like substance and appeared to be wet. When he went to investigate it, he heard a noise behind him. Do you know what it was?” Emily asked while still clutching the flashlight.
“N-no…what was it?” Anabel asked in return.
“Well, the young lord turned, and he saw the ghost of the previous owner! He was pointing with one hand to his damaged scalp and the other at the wall and said, ‘put them back in!’ It was his brains!”
Arduwan and Anabel were now clutching each other on the couch, and each let out a little shriek.
“Arlight, that’s enough of that, Emily,” I said as, I stood up to diffuse their fear, “say Arduwan, I get why Anabel is scared, but why are you so freaked out?”
“Be-because, it’s a ghost. I’m a fighter, Eric. I can take on just about any enemy, but what can I do about a ghost? My sword would just go right through them!”
She had a really good point.
“I’ve got another idea,” I suggested, “how about we play a game?!” “What kind of game?” Stephanie asked.
“Let’s play hide and seek!”
“Hide and seek? Really, Eric? Did you have to pick such a childish game?” Emily scoffed.
“Say’s the girl of indeterminate age,” Stephanie jabbed.
“Err, nevermind that!” Emily lashed back.
“What a novel experience, Master Noble,” Higgins chimed in, uncharacteristically of him.
I was really glad to see him letting loose so much lately.
“Okay, not it!” I said, quickly.
“Not it,” Stephanie followed.
““Not it,”” Emily and Higgins said simultaneously.
Not to be left out, Arduwan said, “not it,” even if she wasn’t sure why.
That just left Anabel as the seeker.
“W-wait. I don’t want to walk around this dark house all by myself and have one of you scare me,” she cried. Damn her innocence.
“It’s okay, Anabel. Just this once I’ll partner up with you, so you don’t have to go it alone,” I offered.
That seemed to comfort her. So, the others took off throughout the house and hid while Anabel and I counted to one hundred in the drawing room, by ourselves. We would play until the lights came back on or we all got tired. The last one found won a shoulder massage from the first one found.
““98, 99, 100,”” we counted together.
“Ready or not, here we come!” I shouted out.
I had a flashlight in one hand and held Anabel’s hand in my other. We figured we’d knock out the whole downstairs first, then we’d go to the basement. I thought for sure I heard someone knocking around down there while we counted.
We searched meticulously, room by room, starting with the study, then the fitness room, and the dining room. When we went into the laundry room, we found Stephanie just standing there in the dark, not even really hiding.
“Stephanie? Why are you just standing there?” I questioned as I turned on the light.
“Well, I knew this was a room that only Anabel ever goes into, so I figured since you were the one leading her around, it’d be the last place you’d look.”
“Very funny,” I said, “go wait in the drawing room for us to find the rest.”
She walked off snickering as we continued our search of the kitchen and the rest of the first floor. We found no one else, so we went down into the cellar. No one was in Higgins room or the storage area with the stones. I had a wild hunch, so I walked over to the well and looked down with the flashlight. Sure enough, there was Arduwan, standing in water down in the well.
“Found you,” I said, “cool hiding spot!” “What do I do now?” she asked.
“You just go wait in the drawing room with Stephanie until we find everyone else.” She climbed out and went upstairs without even bothering to dry off.
We then made our way upstairs and looked around all the bedrooms, starting with mine. No sign of anyone there. No one in Emily’s room, Anabel’s room, Arduwan’s room, or Stephanie’s. So, we went to the third floor. In the attic space, there were only so many places to hide, so we easily found Higgins just standing in a closet.
After sending him downstairs with the others, we were stumped where Emily could have been. We doubled back and checked everywhere on the second floor again. Then we went back downstairs and got the others in the drawing room.
“We can’t find Emily anywhere?” Anabel expressed.
“Well, let’s all look together then,” Higgins suggested.
The whole group of us searched high and low. It got to the point of ridiculousness.
Finally, I called out to Emily, “Alright, Emily! We give up. We can’t find you anywhere.”
There was no response. I called out again. Nothing. Everyone started calling out. I yelled, “Emily, this isn’t funny. You’re the goddess of hide and seek, now come on out!”
“Let’s check under all the beds again,” Anabel said.
We went back upstairs and checked under everyone’s bed. When we got to Emily’s room and looked under the bed, we suddenly started hearing a snicker coming from the bed. She wasn’t underneath it. She was between the mattress and the box spring! Somehow, she had crawled under the mattress and pulled the made bed over top of herself.
She climbed out laughing and said, “Hahaha! Now I can get a massage by Arduwan’s
intense barbarian grip!”
“Umm, what makes you think it’s Arduwan who lost first?” I asked.
“Well, my logical deduction was that Arduwan’s lack of experience with the game, her large stature, and her…umm, deficient intellect, would cause her to be found first. I knew that I could outlast everyone else in the middle, so I waited until I was sure it was over.”
“But Arduwan was found second,” Anabel informed her.
“Oh,” Emily said, in disappointment, “well then who lost first?”
Stephanie raised her hand. Emily’s eyes got big and said, “that’s okay. I wanted a back rub from Arduwan because of her superior strength.”
“But Lady Emily, all you had to do was ask for one and I would have obliged,” Arduwan declared.
“Now now, Emily,” I teased, “it was your idea to make that the prize.”
“Very well, let us return to the drawing room and I will accept,” she said timidly.
As we made our way back downstairs, the lights came back on. Emily went over to the chaise lounge and sat at the end. Stephanie sat behind her while the rest of us got comfortable again. For about thirty seconds she gave Emily a halfhearted shoulder blade massage. That’s when Emily said, “alright. That’s quite enough, Miss Stephanie…thank you,” before moving to another seat.
The following day, Stephanie approached me.
“Eric. I’ve made a decision about something. I thought about what you asked me the other day, and I think…I’m going to stay,” she said hesitantly.
“Really? That’s great!” I said enthusiastically.
“Yeah, but don’t get the wrong idea. My boundaries are still the same, okay?”
“Oh, for sure! Not to worry. I’m just really glad to have you around,” the two of us hugged, then I asked her, “what made you decide?”
“Well…I’m just, really happy here. I may not have as much to offer as everyone else, but I’ll try my best.”
“Your companionship is enough. I know everyone else enjoys your company as well. Even Emily seems to be coming around more,” I noted.
“Yeah,” she chuckled, “alright, I guess I need to make a phone call to Craig.”
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