No Way To Escape | Novel

CHAPTER 2: A VISIT TO THE WARWICK'S

While we had just walked some meters, cold breeze started flowing which slowly turned into wind.

'I must tell you I believe it's gonna rain now', I told Larry.

'Oh! The Rain God speaks here! Just walk. Nothing's gonna happen.'

And to my worst fears it started raining with thunderbolts jolting the midnight sky while we had walked down for just a few seconds since I had warned him of the shower.

'Over there!' Larry squealed and pointed towards an old, abandoned mansion across the other side of the road. We ran with panic towards the secluded house for shelter with as much speed as we could. The Warwick's read the metal plate nailed on the pillar beside the huge entrance gate. Pushing the gate open aside, we ran through the front yard and got to the porch for shelter with its wide roof giving us more than enough space for respite from raindrops. Both of us had been drenched enough to have spoiled our attire.

'I had told you, right? Didn't I ?!', I screeched at Larry with frustration.

'Yeah yeah, got it sire. Thank you for making me recall that you had really presumed that', Larry said with a dejected look on his face giving a soft blow to the post of the porch. He had understood that walking back home ultimately turned out to be a backfire. While saying so, he turned around facing the mansion and started running his eyes across the giant structure which was standing tall in front of him.

'Hey look!'. His tone changed to surprise.

'What?'

Now I was also facing the mansion.

'Look at the cottage. My God so large it is! I bet it must have been wearing a beautiful look during its best days. I wonder who left this Goliath like this.'

'Must be a fool'. We looked at each other and shared a smirk while I winked at Larry.

In the desperation for shelter I had actually ignored the surroundings. While Larry was busy examining the woodwork of the porch floor, I faced the front yard with both my hands on my waist at the respective sides. The scene made me give out a sigh.

'What the hell is this!' I murmured to myself.

The yard was both full and empty at the same time. It looked both glutted and deserted. It was glutted with all kinds of weeds and grasses it could possibly grow. No one had touched the grass for years, or probably decades. They stood long enough to reach Fred's height which is around one hundred and sixty-five metres. At the same time, it was deserted too. It had lost all its beauty all through the years it had existed there, untouched and uncared.

It was when I suddenly had a strange feeling. It was raining heavily but still I could feel a strange, eerie ambience around the house. At that very moment, I don't know why, but my mind said to me ---

Run away from here as fast as you can and do not look back whatever the situation may call. It doesn't matter if you even get drenched enough to get pneumonic by tomorrow morning. Just Run Away!

'See this!' Larry exclaimed looking at the porch floor. This got my mind to shut up.

'This is pure Cedar. Pure. Oh, why couldn't I ever meet the landlord?!', he added.

'Bad luck for ya'

I turned towards the left fence of the porch and leaned myself against the cap rail to have a look at the mountainous wall of the mansion. Dirt had become its ally as the wall had become black and gave a sooty appearance because of the dust gathered over them for not being cleaned for centuries.

'Hey! What's that?' Larry pointed towards a silvery structure which gave us a glimmer from under a gap between the floor boards, whenever the levin appeared in the sky in the otherwise dark no-moon night. He removed the floor boards with his hands and tried to reach out to the silver form with his left arm. Removing the boards was not a daunting task as the joints had weakened by aging but getting out the miniature shining beast strangely appeared to be difficult for a man like Larry who is a tough guy with a muscular physique. But finally mustering up almost all the strength in his arms he managed to detach the form out, which had been stuck there, almost falling down on his back.

'I got all robust just for you!'

'What is it?'

'A coin, yeah, a mere silver coin, for which I had to utilise so much of my precious muscle power. What in the world held it too tight!'

'Mud, perhaps'

'Hmm. Maybe. But it's probably worth it. Look! -'

I peered at it closely.

'The quality of the silver here is amazing. It hasn't tarnished a little... And...'. He flipped the coin. '.... Just look at the shine dude! I am going to keep it with myself. No owner, remember'. Larry snickered at me and put the coin in his back pocket.

I returned him back a sneer and once again started to examine the walls. I tried to take my eyes more upward.

While probing the attic wall, I suddenly saw someone, a girl perhaps, merely three-four year old, standing beside the window and looking at me with her horrifying big, bulging eyes. Her eyes were all black as the darkest matter on the universe. She wore a white night robe with her hair spread as if they had never been tied. The look of hers gave me a terrifying sense. I backed hastily with agitation.

'Hey Larry! Come here fast!', I shouted at Larry with panic.

'Oh jeez! What the hell happened?!'

'Look. Look there! There's a girl out there!'. I pointed out at the window in terror.

Larry leaped at the fence and looked upwards only to find no one was up there.

'Nobody's there, dude'

'See closely. I saw a girl for sure'

'I can't see anyone, Liam', he replied in disgust and turned towards me.

'What's the time now by the way?', he asked.

'It's 2 o'clock now', I replied looking at my watch.

'And how much food had you eaten? - Like a monster'

'So what? Is it relevant here anyway?!'

'Look, what I am trying to say is that it's already late night and we have eaten a lot because of which you must be feeling dizzy and having such petty illusions'

'Yeah. That can be'. His words sounded wise to me. I usually felt drowsy after eating a lot of food so I believed what he said.

'Hey look! The rain's gone. Let's get outta here. I need to sleep badly'

'Let's go then'

We started walking out of the porch and while passing through the passage through the yard, all of a sudden I sensed a strange, creepy and faint manly voice calling me from behind saying, 'Here we go, chap'.

I turned around swiftly with surprise but found no one but the gigantic, appalling structure standing in front of me standing as still as it had been since the time we had passed through its gate to reach for its porch.

Oh, I need a sleep badly.

'You coming or not!'

'Yeah, right behind you'

While walking across the main gateway, I looked back again and it felt to me as if I had just walked out of a graveyard.