A strong, whistling cold wind blew through the complete darkness. High in the blackness a lady appeared in a white misty form flying through the air. She screamed out, the chilling sound echoing throughout. She faded, then grew brighter, then faded away again, flying fast. Blake and Drew got down low, struggling to see. Sharp whistling from high up slowly fell in a slow bouncing rhythm. An old man groaned nearby. Another man shouted out frantically.
“Should we light up?” Drew whispered.
“I don’t think so.”
“Cade’s not going to try to climb down in the dark is he?”
“I’d be surprised if he didn’t.” Fast, high-pitched piano chords pounded out, playing a slow rising song with a sound of exreme urgency. Another lady began crying close by. Her cries shook the darkness as she yelled out:
“Silence falls there, silence falls there, silence falls there. They will never be heard again. They will never move again. They are dead, they are still, they are silent…” The sour piano song played faster and faster. The floor started vibrating. The walls began booming around them. Faint dark orange lights in the form of cracks at the top. Then the face of the grandfather appeared in a ghostly reflection across the wall. He stared out with a burning, intense angry gaze. Sharp whistling continued to fall in the heavy chilling dark. The two kids began to make out the murky outlines of the high trees. Then the grandfather yelled out:
“IT WAS YOU! IT WAS YOU! YOU DID THIS, AND I’LL FIND YOU CADE MAYSON!”
“What we do now?” Blake whispered.
“We need to get out of here,” said Drew, “but Cade’s still up there.” The grandfather’s angry face slowly turned toward the far left wall, looking up toward the high balcony hidden in the dark. Intense, dark orange lights in the shapes of fancy candle clusters lit up throughout the trees. They appeared to float around while the sharp black trees remained completely still. “He’s going to find him,” Drew said nervously. Blake gazed up anxiously at the murky balcony. With a heavy boom the entire balcony lit up in a bright gold light. It was empty. Blake and Drew turned to each other and smiled.
“Now it’s time to light up,” said Blake. He took out a small candle and lit it up in dark blue. The two kids jogged toward the entrance. The grandfather slowly turned his gaze in their direction. “Take left, I’ll take right. NOW.” The two kids dove down. Drew crawled to the left of the doorway. Blake rolled over to the right. Then he gazed up at the dark orange lit evergreens. The dark orange light clusters blended with the neon green triangular leaves. Breaking moonlight streamed in through the massive high grand windows.
“Where is he?” Drew whispered.
“Right here.” Drew turned to see Cade laying flat on the floor next to him. The high whistling piano chords played faster and stronger, pounding through the walls.
“How do you always do that?” asked Drew.
“Answer questions?”
“No, you always just show up right when we’re looking for you.”
“I’ve been sitting here for five minutes.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“I was trying to be quiet.”
“You guys want to get out of here or keep going with your tea party?” asked Blake. Cade looked up as the grandfather’s angry gaze turned down to them.
“Where’s he at?” whispered Drew. Blake looked around with a sharp gaze. The grandfather appeared just past the trees, gliding fast toward them.
Cade calmly waved the other two in. “Blake, take the light, go fast down. Then double back, we’ll hang back on the steps let him go past.” Blake shot through the opening. Cade and Drew followed past the entryway. They slid to a stop, then crawled fast back behind the doorway. Blake’s light went out. The grandfather entered and glided fast down the steps. Then he disappeared around the corner. The lady kept crying in the distance. The flying lady cried out in a shrill voice somewhere above them. Cade waved them forward. The kids quietly worked their way down the steps.
Just then Blake popped up and joined them. Dark orange candle lights flickered to the slow, booming rhythm throughout the house.
“We weren’t having a tea party,” Cade mumbled. The high-pitched piano notes played in a slow, flowing rhythm.
“It was a joke.”
“I’ve never had a tea party in my life.”
“Where’s the kid?” Drew whispered.
“The boy or the girl?” asked Cade.
“I haven’t seen the boy at all.” The kids got down low at the second floor hallway.
“Where’d he go?” asked Drew.
“Check the first room,” Blake whispered. The kids got down low. Cade peered into the massive-half oval shaped bedroom.
The grandfather looked under the bright, colourful bed. The father carved furiously into the black frames and headboard adding to the elaborate designs.
“What are you looking for,” the father asked in a deadpan voice.
“The kid. He’s the one, I know it. He’s the one who let in the cold darkness that took him.”
“The boy’s the one who died,” Drew whispered.
“Watch him,” Blake whispered, “see if he shows up in the mirror.” Cade watched intently as the grandfather moved toward the rocking chair barely lit by a few dead orange lights. He passed the small oval shaped mirror with a shimmering glowing green border. The mirror reflected only the still rocking chair. Cade shook his head.
“Back up, back up,” Cade whispered. The kids laid low as the grandfather entered the hallway, then walked into the next bedroom.
“We’ve seen the maid and the grandfather, neither appeared in the mirror,” said Blake.
“I saw the young girl and the father already too,” said Drew. “Neither of them appeared.”
“So it’s either the son or the mother?” asked Cade.
“Why are they going to appear in a mirror?” asked Blake. The eerie, whistling piano notes crawled through the dim quiet hallway barely lit by small, flickering dark orange lights. They heard the grandfather groan as he entered the hall again. He pounded the wall with his fist. The lights faded. Then he entered the girl’s room.
“Why aren’t the others appearing in the mirrors?” asked Drew.
“Yeah, why aren’t they?” asked Blake.
“The one who is going to appear,” said Cade, talking fast, “must have done something to the mirrors so none of the others would appear so only they would show up, but not the others, you know?”
“Did you get any of that?” asked Drew.
“I think he’s saying the one who we’re looking for made it so none of the others would show up in the mirrors, but why?”
“He doesn’t want them to look in the mirrors maybe?” said Drew, throwing his hands up. The grandfather came back out of the boy’s room. He knocked the shelf off the wall. The two plants and shimmering carved black horse crashed down. The grandfather left down the steps. As the kids watched, the carved shiny black horse rose from the floor and floated into the boy’s room.
“Let’s go,” said Cade, “I think he’s the one.” The kids entered a small, dark room dimly lit by a single dusty dark orange candle on a shelf holding a few shiny carved animals. A small bed sat in the close, left corner. A small, shimmering black cabinet sat in the close, right corner. A dead plant stood in the far left corner while a small circular mirror hung in the far right corner. Breaking moonlight spilled into the room through a small, rectangular window.
“He’s in here,” Drew whispered.
“Watch the mirror,” said Blake. Cade walked over to the window and looked out at the lit up neon green forest. The grandfather walked out, then held up his hands high into the passing moonlight.
“He’s outside, the grandfather,” said Cade. The grandfather stood under a dead tree with broad, large twisted branches rising up in close together stacks showing stark black twisted shadows in the flickering moonlight.
“How are we going to see him in the mirror if we don’t know where he is?” asked Drew.
“Block the door so he can’t leave,” said Blake.
“He’s a ghost,” said Drew.
“So?”
“So you can’t block ghosts. They can just walk through.”
“No they can’t.” As Cade watched, half curious, half amused at the conversation behind him, dark ghosts emerged from the forest.
“He’s calling dark spirits,” said Cade, spinning around. “We’re out of time. They’re coming after us and we can’t escape.”
“Unless we solve the mystery,” said Drew.
“Why a mirror?” asked Blake.
“Why does anyone look in a mirror?” said Cade, “to look at themselves.”
“But he doesn’t want them to see themselves in the mirrors anymore,” said Drew.
“Maybe they didn’t pay attention to him,” said Cade in a low voice. A heavy bang came from the front door. A sharp chill entered the room. Drew glanced nervously at the window where flickering blue moonlight passed through stark black twisted shadowsstacked closely together.
“They’re here,” said Blake.
“So we need to pay attention to him. That will lead us to the answer,” said Drew. Chilling whistling wind rushed into the house. All the lights went out. Cade quickly struck a small blue candle. He held it close to the shelf.
“Look at these,” he whispered. “I think he made these.”
“They’re really good,” Drew whispered. Blake walked over to the cabinet.
“I think he made this,” he said, “it looks just as good as the other things.”
“Why won’t he show up?” asked Drew, watching the mirror.
“Maybe he wants us to see everything he’s made,” said Cade. The room grew colder.
“They’re going to find us any minute now,” said Blake.
“Open that,” said Cade. “I’ll bet there are more in there.” Blake pulled the door open and the wall slid open revealing a set of shelves holding numerous shiny, colourful wagons, carriages, horses, trees, and model homes. They looked up to the top where a shimmering dark blue mirror showed a young boy appearing to be their age.
“We did it,” said Blake with a smile.
“Thanks for finding me,” said the kid.
“Why did you do this?” asked Drew.
“They never noticed me,” said the kid. “They never cared about what I made. They only cared about themselves, how they looked. They ignored me.”
“That’s why you blocked out the mirrors,” said Drew. The kid shook his head.
“I know they’ll keep looking for a mirror they will see themselves in. They’ll find this one and finally see what I made. I appear in this mirror because that’s the only way they’ll see me.” Ghostly whistles echoed throughout the house.
“How we getting out of here?” asked Blake. Cade gazed around the room, then stopped at the window. He turned to the other two, slowly breaking a smile. “I don’t want to know.”
“You think we can fly?” asked Drew.
“No, but we can climb,” said Cade pointing to the dark, twisted branches outside the window. The three kids did the ghost striker handshake, bumping fists, then quickly pulling their hands back flat making the sound, “Shhhhh.” Cade pulled the window open, and the three kids slipped out and scrambled down the closely stacked branches. The family entered the kid’s room just as Cade, Blake, and Drew disappeared into the forest. The family looked out the window. They couldn’t see the three kids, but they turned around, and finally saw the ghost in the mirror…
