The House By The River

Chapter Two

"The others. The two girls. They said people would come. He didn't think it was true. But it is. You came. You have to go! It's not safe!" the boy yelled, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Who didn't think it was true?" Aoife asked.

"Him. The master of the house. The one who shows his true self only when the moon is full." the boy replied, and Zoe edged towards him slowly, hands out in front of her so he could see they were empty.

"Zoe, don't! He's probably tricking us. He's the one who took them. There's no sound coming from anywhere else in the house." Nessa said, grabbing Zoe and pulling her back.

"At least tell us who you are." Zoe demanded of the boy.

"I cannot tell you. Only my kind, his kind, can know." he told her. The two locked eyes. Sea green met bright amber. "I'm sorry." Zoe looked away.

"Come on, Zoe. Get a grip." she muttered to herself, before turning to the girls. "Come on, let's look around a bit." She picked up the bows, and gave Aoife her's back.

"Thanks for all the amazing help." Kat muttered sarcastically.

"Goodbye." Zoe said, turning back to the boy. He smiled slightly, and a contented beam found it's way on to Zoe's face. Nessa wolf whistled.

"Someone's got a crush!" she sang teasingly.

"I didn't tease you when you liked that boy from the butchers. What was his name again? Kobe?" Zoe retorted, and Kat laughed.

"Doesn't Kobe mean beef?" she asked, and Zoe nodded, grinning.

"And he's the butcher's son?" Aoife added, smiling. Zoe nodded again. Her grin became wider.

"Beef the Butcher's Son? Nessa likes Beef the Butcher's Son?" Alex asked incredulously, and the four burst out laughing while Nessa glared at them.

"Can we please focus on what's going on here?" Nessa asked them, and Aoife, Kat and Alex stopped laughing. Zoe pulled a face that looked like she was constipated, then began to laugh again.

"Let's...  go... up... stairs." Zoe managed between manic fits of laughter. Kat sighed and rolled her eyes as the five made their way up the stairs. Zoe stopped laughing as they saw the corridor.

"It's certainly... different." Nessa commented. Aoife wiped her index finger across the wall and inspected it.

"It's absolutely filthy. Even Zoe's bedroom's cleaner than this!" Aoife exclaimed, and Zoe stuck her tongue out at her.

"There are so many doors..." Alex said, sounding nervous.

"Which one shall we search first?" Kat asked. Zoe closed her eyes and started spinning. She stretched out her arm and pointed with one finger. She stopped spinning and opened her eyes.

"That one!" she said, walking towards the door she had ended up pointing at. She loaded her bow. "Weapons out, girls!" Nessa twisted the handle.

"It's locked." she stated. Zoe rolled her eyes.

"Then we've got to break in!" she exclaimed, and kicked it. It snapped off its hinges and fell to the floor with a crash. "Oops... I may have kicked harder than I meant to." she smiled sheepishly.

"You don't know your own strength." Kat said, shaking her head. Zoe turned to look at her.

"You sound like my mum. That is most certainly not a good thing." she said petulantly as she stepped into the room. She gasped. The other girls entered the room behind her, and Aoife had the same reaction as Zoe. The room had floor to ceiling bookcases on each wall, and the centre of the room had an antique desk (which, the girls noticed, was made of walnut wood) with a tall vase of lilies resting on it.

"Why would something as nice as this," Aoife said, gesturing to the room they were in, "be in a building as horrible as this?" Nessa shrugged.

"Maybe it's a clue." Zoe said, and the other girls gave her strange looks, which she ignored. "Alba and Evie had gone out to gather lilies when they were seen approaching the house. It all makes sense."

"Pattern matching." Kat said, shaking her head. "There's no reason for you to think that those lilies have anything to do with Evie and Alba."

"They would have walked along by the river to get here. Evie always walks along the sandy bank, and there's sand over there." Zoe commented, pointing to a small pile of sand by one of the bookcases.

"Zoe, it's not even the same colour as the sand by the river." Nessa pointed out, and Zoe pouted.

"I'm still going to investigate it." Zoe replied as she walked over to the sand and crouched down next to it. She started sifting through it, and gasped. She began to furiously brush it away from where it had been, and the other girls crowded round to see what had shocked her. The five were so transfixed by the strange pattern carved into the floorboard that they didn't notice the creek of a loose floorboard behind them.