First chapter from my book " Mystergonia "

CHAPTER I

Carlos’ house

“I can’t tell if it was a nightmare or really happened. Looking at
my flame-engulfed home burning to the ground, my eyes filled
with tears. I had dedicated my whole life to this house that was
now being devoured by enraged flames. My earnings were in the
house and all the precious things I’d had were gone. For two
nights, my family and I slept outdoor in the streets of London. I
felt miserably. That period of my life was like a hell so it occurred
to me that we could go to my brother-in-law’s,” Jack narrated excitedly.
The person saying this was called Jack Milson. He was a good
man who always tried to make the best for his family. Although
they had lived as wretches in a hut for a few years, they soon
forgot that. His life altered, too. He lived well, or averagely, as
one in two persons. He had neither luxurious nor miserable life.
“Ahem, you certainly can, I am your children’s uncle. Let’s go
inside now,” the man Jack was talking to said. The man’s name
was Carlos. He was a good, reticent man but he had a lot of secrets.
Black-haired and not very tall, he had some wrinkles and
was always smiling. He was well-off and lived in a mansion with
a maid. Everybody in town knew and revered him because Carlos
was a man of high standing. The house he lived in was very large
and had a lot of rooms and spacious corridors decorated with various statues and figures and precious things he had brought from
his adventurous life when he was young.
“Good afternoon and welcome,” a strident voice said. It belonged
to Peppa, the maid. Peppa was a tall, slim lady. She was
also double-faced; once she would be on one side, and other time
on another. She always wanted things to be done her own way
and at times, when she was out of control, she could be very
mean even though it happened rarely. The maid called everybody
different ugly names, and still you could not tell she was evil. She
was an old-aged lady that was easily made nervous. Nobody knew
anything about her childhood and something from her past
might have been the reason for her bad behaviour when she
would get upset.
“We’ll sit here and have a cup of hot tea, and then I’ll show
you where you are going to sleep,” Carlos said with a broad smile.
The maid brought a voluminous tea pot and poured tea to everybody
in porcelain cups. Time was passing slowly. Having drunk
the tea, they talked for a while and Carlos said:
“Let me show you your rooms now.” They stood up and went
upstairs. At the top of a huge wooden staircase they turned into
a long and wide corridor with four room doors. “Let’s see. Your
parents Jack and Lisa will take the first room,” Carlos told the
children. “The three boys, Michael, Joe and Ben will be in the
second room and the girls, Addie and Cindy will sleep in the third
room.”
The five children had their individual characters. They fought
a lot but easily settled their differences. They were nice and
helpful kids. And they were excellent students with each having
interests in different subjects.
“And as for the fourth room, nobody is sleeping there. Do
not even try to get in there. Certainly, you cannot get in because
you don’t have the key. Let’s say that the key does not exist any
more. Well, I do not want to bother you with such silly things.
You can first refresh yourself and come downstairs for dinner
around 8:00 p.m. See you later,” Carlos said with strident voice.
Nobody uttered a word in the following ten seconds after
which Carlos left the room and disappeared in the corridor. There
were two beds in the first room, three in the second and two in the third one, and all were covered with elegant and clean bed
linen and soft pillows. A closet stood prominently in each room.
Coffee tables were beautiful and had four chairs each. Paintings
on the walls and the smell of home-grown flowers made the atmosphere
enjoyable to sit and relax. They unpacked their luggage
in their respective rooms and were happy because they were
going to sleep in a soft and warm bed after such a long time.
“Addie, let me ask you something. What do you think there
is in the fourth room?” Cindy asked inquisitively.
“I don’t know, and I wouldn’t bother with that. There is probably
nothing, and he only said that to keep us in suspense. Let’s
try to get in,” Addie said.
“No chance, you heard him speaking to us with such a
shrieking voice, so there must be something. I am positive about
that,” Cindy said convincingly.
“Okay, I am not interested in this and stop talking about such
silly things. I am not interested in your childish things any more.
You are telling me one thing and then another, and you fulfill
nothing. It was the same back home, you were always slendering
me and I was always the one that was blamed instead of you. I
wanted to be a good sister and help, and in the end, look what
was happening! I was always wrong and never right. I’ve said I
will never help you any more in aimless things. When you wanted
to find out what daddy was hiding in the library, you got away
with it and I was caught and punished!” Addie shouted so much
that her throat started souring.
Poor Cindy, she seemed as if being offended by all this. She
was depressed and a little mad at her older sister Addie. She put
a sad face and a teardrop fell down her little pink cheek. She
wiped it with her hand and went to the door.
“Okay, let’s say there is something. I’m only telling you this so
that you don’t go to mum and dad and grouse. Until I see with
my own eyes what there is in that fourth room, guesses are sheer
stupidity for me. Now, come with me and let’s talk about something
else. Do you want me to tell you how it was with that boy
I liked? It’s interesting, come on!”
“No, thanks. I’m not interested in your love affairs. And I did
not mean to complain but I wanted to go to our brothers and
see what they think about this room.”
“Well, that’s okay. Let’s go then and see if they are doing the
monkey business as you are. Carlos may keep some private things
or something else there. You cannot know.” The two girls got out
of their room and saw Michael, Joe and Ben in the corridor struggling
to open the mysterious door with a small, black bobby pin.
“Hey, what are you doing? You fools, somebody may see
you,” Addie whispered.
“She is right,” Michael said. “We’d better go back to our
rooms. All of you go in front of me, we can really be seen and can
later be put in the pot.”
The five children went to the boys’ room. It was very messy.
Pillows lied on one side, bedsheets were thrown on another,
chairs were turned over on the floor and the closet doors were
wide open showing disarrayed clothes. Real disorder!
“Are you normal?” Addie shouted loudly.
“Shut up, we were just fooling around and having fun. You
want to nuzzle everywhere. If you are older than me it does not
mean that you can command us in everything,” Ben opposed to
Addie.
“I have never commanded you nor will I. I don’t want to
squander my precious time on your childish things. It’s out of
question! This is your first and last time that you are yelling at
me, do you hear me?”
“We’ll see. I will do and speak whatever I want. And if I want,
I can slap you so you’ll see who Ben is.”
“Oh, you are scaring me so much! You haven’t come to your
mind, kid! Let’s tidy the room now. Mum will come and she
scold and punish us. Cindy and I have nothing to be afraid of.
You are the ones who will go to the pot. Hah… Hah… Hah…”
The boys started neatening the large room. Soon, the messy
room looked like a brand new. Everything from pillows to clothes
to chairs had been put in order. Having finished the job, they
started a conversation that was interesting to everybody except
Addie who did not want to go and look for what had been hidden
in the fourth room. They started telling aloud their thoughts beginning with Michael, who was the oldest one. Addie followed
though with only one sentence, and Joe, Cindy and Ben, the
youngest one, told a lot of things that kept them busy for a while.
At times, Cindy and Ben fought about something but generally
the discussion went on well. It was difficult to convince their big
sister but finally, she gave in somehow and started believing in
some of their made-ups. Suddenly, a sound of the door opening
was heard and they looked at that direction. Their mother Lisa,
a very nice woman, came in. She felt for everybody and always
forgave them and wanted to help. She was very beautiful with
long, dark hair and beautiful blue eyes and soft lips. She was tall
and mindful of fashionable clothes. Scent of an expensive perfume
always spread around her.
“What are you two doing here?” Lisa asked the two girls in a
low voice.
“Oh, mummy, we are bored alone in that room. We came to
our brothers to have some chat,” Addie said gently. “Okay, let’s go
downstairs and have dinner. Your father went downstairs a while
ago. He told me he had something important to talk about with
Carlos. Something about our burnt home. Let’s go now,” the
mother told her children. They dressed nicely and went downstairs.
Entering the large dining room they saw it was a nice room
with a large carved table and twelve large noble chairs. A lot of
paintings and a wooden clock hang on the walls. The table was
covered with a colourful tablecloth embroidered with particoloured
flowers. Nor were the courses less varied. There were
different kinds of meat and sauces and large sweet cakes. Some
were made with sour cherries and others with walnuts or chocolate.
When they sat at the table, Carlos stood up and said:
“I am very happy to have you here. I can’t remember when we
last gathered together like this. Tomorrow, Jack and I are going
out for a while. It is something that concerns your burnt home.
I will personally do whatever I can to help. Lisa, you can come
with us if you want.”
“Well, I don’t know. I could, but I have to look after the children.
Well, all right, I’ll come, too,” Lisa said.
“Okay. We’ll discuss the details later,” Carlos said smiling.
“I also have to say something. Kids, I expect you to behave tomorrow.
If I learn that you have been naughty, you will be severely
punished. Michael and Addie, you are responsible for
everybody, agreed? Your punishment will be more severe if you
make something stupid. And now, let’s eat! I can feel my stomach
rumbling,” Jack said.
“Wait, why us? If the little ones make some stupidity, why
shuld we be punished? I’ll have to keep my eyes on them all the
time. Isn’t that so? I won’t be allowed to take a walk by myself in
the courtyard,” Addie said angrily.
“My daughter, it’s not what I really said. It’s something like
that, but we’d better stop arguing and start eating.”
“Okay. As you say, daddy.”
They stopped talking and started relishing hot dishes and
juices and wines. They laughed and told jokes. The atmosphere
was pleasant until Joe interrupted it saying that he was sleepy.
“Mum, I am going upstairs. I want to go to bed. I am tired
and can’t take any more. My head also starts aching.” “All right.
As you like it. Your bed is made so you can go now,” Lisa replied.
“Good night, kid,” Carlos told him.
He kissed everyone good night and ran up the huge staircase.
But he had another plan. He was not sleepy at all, and he wanted
to try to get into the fourth room somehow.
Joe came to the door, took the knob in his hand and pulled it
strongly. Nothing happened. The door did not open. He was disappointed.
“I have to get into that room even if I get punished. There certainly
is something. I’ll prove it to Addie.”
At that moment, it occurred to him that he could get out
through the window and, walking on the outside wall edges, go
and peep through the window of the fourth room. That was a
piece of cake and did not pose any problem to him. Since his earliest
age he had climbed up trees, different pipes and had swayed
on hanging ropes. He was also a good fighter. He was a very
naughty boy and was notorious in his school although he was
also an excellent student. He opened the window. The wind
swayed his quite long brown hair. He could see a small lake in the
distance and a forest on a hill farther away. The moon was full and the sky was covered with thick dark clouds and rare stars. No
sooner had he put his leg over the window edge than he heard
someone coming. He was petrified. For a moment, he thought
everything was lost and he seemed as if there was no blood running
through his veins.
“What are you doing?” Cindy cried out.
“Oh! You made my blood run cold. I thought it’s mum or
dad or that woman, Peppa.
“So they are not. What are you doing, someone may see
you?”
“Don’t worry, I know what I am doing. I’ll get out through
the window and crawling along the edge of the house, I can reach
and peep into the fourth room from its window.” “And what if
you fell down? It’s dark, you could slip off and fall. It’s not
enough that they could find out what you were doing there but
you could hurt yourself because it’s very high. Don’t risk!”
“I’m going, you cannot persuade me. Admit that you also
want to know what’s in there. If we work as a team, we can find
out. Believe me.”
“Well, yes.”
“You will keep guard, and I will go. And if someone comes,
alert me immediately. Agreed?”
“Yes. I’ll give my best that nobody discovers us.”
Joe got out and Cindy remained in the corridor. He started
crawling along the edge very carefully, and to his surprise, it was
not so difficult. When he came to the window he stopped to peep
in but he could see nothing. It was very dark or the room was
completely empty. Then he remembered to get back and take a
flashlight so that he can see in. On returning, he stepped on a
cracked edge that broke off producing loud noise. Fortunately,
his sister Cindy held him from falling. Joe climbed over the
window and got inside and they quickly closed the window to a
half. They rushed to their respective rooms and pretended to be
sleeping while everybody else immediately came upstairs to see
what was wrong. They didn’t see anybody.
“This must be Cindy and Joe’s monkey job!” Carlos cried out
as loudly as he could.
“No. No chance, had they done anything, they would have
been here, I’m sure,” Lisa told Carlos.
“I don’t believe it. I know what they want. They want to see
what’s in the fourth room. But they will not find out because it
could be very dangerous for them if they came into contact with
that.”
“What are you talking about anyway,” Jack said.
“Please, change the subject, I don’t’ want to discuss this.
Forget it all of you. There is something from my private life in
that room and I don’t want them to mill around near that room.
Do you understand? And tell Joe and Cindy as well, agreed?
Now, let’s see if they are really in their rooms and sleep.”
They entered Cindy’s room and she was sleeping. Then they
went to Joe’s room. He was sleeping, too but he was sweaty.
While pretending to be sleeping, they felt fear from being uncovered.
After a while the other children went to bed quietly, and
their parents and Carlos had some coffee and chatted sitting on
the sofa in the parlour.
“What time are we getting up tomorrow?” Jack asked.“Oh!
Well, we should kick off somewhere at 6:40. You could get up
about 6:00 so that you can have enough time to get ready,”
Carlos told them.
“And how long are we staying there,” Lisa uttered.
“Three or four hours or maybe more,” Carlos replied. “Why
are you asking?”
“Because we have to warn the children to behave. They
should be good.”
They kept talking for a while and after some time the lights
died out all over the house. It was very quiet and dark. The
morning came and time was passing slowly. Carlos, Jack and Lisa
had gone around 7:00 because they had overslept. The five children
were alone with the maid Peppa. They were going to try to
get into the room. They might get in or might not. What was
that room hiding? Was it something ordinary, something magical
or….?