Inside These Walls

Chapter 1: Bache Manor

Deb laughed. "No, that's been like that. Dave has tried to fix it, but it looks like the door is going to have to be replaced."

Jenn gave James a questioning look, to which he just shrugged, too occupied by what he saw to care about the door. "Look at all this stuff," he said.

They were standing in the kitchen, which was a filthy mess. Aside from the fact that it was cluttered with all sorts of cooking utensils, there were still dirty dishes in the sink.

"Oh, man," Shannon said with disgust as she closed the door of the fully stocked refrigerator, fanning the smell away from her face.

"What are these?" Chad asked as he unwrapped a newspaper from around a rock that had been sitting on the counter.

"We don't know," Traci, Deb's daughter, replied, speaking for the first time. "They're all over the house, though. There are bricks, too, all wrapped in either newspaper or just plain white paper."

"That's weird," Jenn admitted as Chad took pictures of them. "I'll have to try to look that up, see if it has some sort of significance or meaning."

"There's also a lot of these lying around," Deb added, pointing to a box of shotgun shells that sat on one of the counters.

"Oh, that's nice," Jenn murmured, her hesitancy growing.

"Come look at this," Deb said as she led them up a tiny set of stairs at the back of the kitchen, which was hidden by what looked to be just a cabinet door.

"This is like some secret passageway," James said as they squeezed up the stairs and into a small room above the kitchen.

Once they were all inside, Deb sat down on the foot of the bed that was in the center of the room. "We assume this was once servant's quarters, but now it's the owner's bedroom, or at least where he slept." She pointed to a TV that was sitting on a small table behind Chad. "It appears he monitored the manor from up here."

"Monitored? There are security cameras here?" Chad asked.

"There were, but only one remains, that we've noticed, and that is the one in the attic," Deb replied. "And if you'll look here," she added, getting up and pointing out yet another string that was tied to the doorknob, "this was used to alert him of someone entering."

The team followed the string with their eyes, which was looped through a hook on the adjacent wall and tied to a brick that sat on a small ledge by the door. There were bells tied all along the end of the string, which Chad couldn't resist jingling.

"So, if someone came in, it would pull the brick down and wake him up," Chad noted, taking more pictures. "That, right there, is proof that Mr. Bache was paranoid, but of what?"

Deb shrugged. "I don't know, but he was prepared to take action if need be, it seems." She pointed to two more boxes of shotgun shells that sat on the nightstand by the bed.

"That's crazy," Jenn said with a slight shiver.

"You're not kidding," Shannon agreed as they headed back downstairs.

"Come check this room out," Deb said. "I think you'll find it very interesting."

The team followed her back through the kitchen, out another door, and down a short hallway. When the team entered the large room, three times the size of the kitchen, they were silent, amazed at what they were seeing.

Along each wall were beautifully painted tapestries, some torn down with holes in the walls where they once hung. Each scene depicted what appeared to be Victorian socialites, some lounging in gardens, while others were being fed grapes.